We did it!

We finished our first marathon!!! It was seriously the hardest thing I've ever done but it felt amazing to just finish. The course in St. George was gorgeous and we were so glad we were able to run this race for our 1st one!So we started our trip down there leaving Texas early friday morning and flying into Salt lake. Of course, things never go smoothly when you want them to. Our flight was late and then it took us like an hour to find all our bags. And then when we went to get our rental car, they didn't have our reservation on file for some reason but luckily they still had a car we could use. Finally we got on the road and we made it to Provo where we stopped at Guy's sister's house for a quick pasta lunch and then continued our drive to St. George. By the time we got there, we were SO tired! I don't think this much traveling the day before the race was a good idea but now we know better! Guy and I ran over to the expo and picked up our race packets and ate another quick pasta dinner and went back to the hotel. Brayden slept over with his Grandma and Grandpa Hill in their hotel room and we kept Ty since I'm still feeding him. We didn't really get much sleep cause Ty was up so much that night and I was just so nervous! But somehow, we managed to wake up at 4 AM and get ready to go!

Here I am getting ready to go in our hotel room

And here's Guy eating his bagel for breakfast! I was almost too nervous to eat!Every time I would look over at Tyler I would want to join him! I kept thinking about what I was about to do and sleeping in a warm bed sounded so much better!!

Our hotel had a shuttle service that took you to the buses to take to the starting line so we got up early to catch a ride on that.
Here's Guy and I at the starting line before the race. There were SO many people there that it was just crazy!
We were freezing our butts off! It was like 40 degrees at the start and we did not have enough warm clothes on. We saw people in garbage sacks which I thought was kinda funny at first, but then I realized they were the smart ones! Actually I thought the people in bath robes were smart. They just wore old ones and once it was time to line up they just just unwrapped and threw them down on the ground. Good idea!
They had bonfires set up everywhere that helped all the runners stay warm.
Here I am waiting in line to go to the bathrooms before the race. The lines were ridiculously long so it took forever! I was just anxious to get running so we could finally be warm!When the race started we just hung back by the fires for awhile since its all chip timed so we started to run about 10 minutes after the gun went off. It was so crazy how many people there were but we just shuffled along with all of them. Seriously the first few miles my toes were so numb so it felt weird to be running on them but they warmed up eventually.
Here's a pic of all the runners around mile 3. So many people ran this race so it seemed like you were always running with people next to you. I liked that because it kept me going! Also around mile 3 there was a nice freshly killed deer on the side of the road right on the side I was running on. It was nasty!
Guy's younger brother Mike took pictures of us the whole race which we owe him for because they turned out great. The weather was perfect once the sun came up. It was sunny and in the 70s for our run. We heard that last year it was really cold and rainy for the marathon so we were glad we didn't have to deal with that!
They had aid stations every 3 miles with water, gatorade, bananas, oranges, gu gels, and clif bars. They also had first aid stations at some of them and people that would rub your legs down with icy hot near the end. It was really nice and organzied so well. As you ran through the aid stations everyone would just take a cup and drink it and then throw it on the ground. The ground was so sticky from all the spilled gatorade!
We had heard about the big hill at mile 7 and so right before that we decided to do a bathroom stop since we both really had to go. All the lines had been so long up until that point so we just figured we would have to wait in one eventually so might as well get it overwith. So after mile 6 we stopped and waited in line for 15 minutes! It was awful. One of those things where after you've been waiting awhile you think maybe you should just forget about it and keep running but then you think about how long you've already wasted waiting in line so you might as well stay cause it can't be much longer. Anyways, after wasting so much time waiting we were on our way again and the next port-a-potty we passed only had 2 people in line! OF COURSE!
The course in St. George had a lot of downhill with just a few uphill parts. I thought this would be easy but it was really hard on my legs because Texas has no hills. We really did almost all of our training runs on flat and even ground. So my legs were really tight for the last 10 miles. It was awful!
Mile 23...We're almost there! For me the last 6 miles were totally all mental because my body was SO tired. I totally get that "hitting the wall" saying now. It totally happened! I'm glad I had Guy there to keep me going because I probably would have walked a lot more!

Guy's brother told us that Brayden was up ahead so we got all excited to see him and sped up a bit...my body hated me for that after we passed him!

Brayden gave us high fives and told us we were doing a good job running! He was having a great time with all his cousins cheering all the runners on! So cute!

Here we are running the last mile or so. It was seriously the hardest mile ever. The finish line wasn't in sight until the last 400m or so because we had to make so many turns so I didn't know how much further we had to go and it was killing me!

But we made it and finished the race which was our goal all along! It was an amazing feeling and it was hard for me to not get emotional about it because it really was so hard for me and I wasn't sure I could really do it. I don't have any pics of us crossing the finish line but I'm hoping Missy got some and will send them our way~! And the best news... I BEAT Guy by 1 second! It seriously makes me so happy because I never beat him in anything so I will remind him of this day for the rest of my life!

After we got our finishers medals I just laid there on the ground and couldn't move. Guy went around to all the food vendors and got me food and drinks...he's awesome! He stayed by my side the whole race even though he could have run it so much faster. We always said we would do this one together and it was really cool to do. I think he'll run another one though to see how fast he can do it. My goal was to just finish the race and I did that so I am satisfied for now! :)

We were excited to see these little munchkins after! Thank you SOO much Grandma and Grandpa Hill, Mandy, Mike, and Missy for watching them for us so we could do this together and for coming to cheer us on! It really meant so much to us!! We love you guys!

Family shot of us with our medals and our boys!

And a picture of us showing off what we worked so hard for! I seriously need to find a cool place to put these medals because a lot of sweat went into getting them!! I'm not sure if I will run another one anytime soon...it was really hard to train for with 2 small kids at home. But it was a great experience and I have learned to really enjoy running now...Just not that far!

So thats our marathon story and I plan to spend the whole month of October sitting on my couch and not running any further then 5 miles at a time! :)

I'm doing really good with that goal so far!!!