Archive for October, 2008
St. George Marathon – We Did It!
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | News | 1 Comment
This last weekend was the culmination of months of dreaming, planning, organizing and training. We not only completed the St. George Marthon in St. George, Utah, but also completed the last leg of the Utah Grand Slam. The Grand Slam is a circuit of four Utah marathons, each which must be completed before the title of “slammer” can be earned. Through the pain, through rain, and through the burn, we completed four marathons in ten weeks and have earned for ourselves the official title as “slammers”. What a ride it has been!
The early morning air was warm as we left our hotel around 5 A.M. on race day, but quickly cooled as we neared the start line. A light rain began to fall as we waited for the race to start. As we ran and the sun slowly came up, the rain came down a little harder. We had a good rain for at least 20 miles. It was fairly cold, but Brian still wanted me to pour water on his head at the aid stations to keep him cool. That is one of my favorite parts!
Around mile three we got a flat tire. For the next 23 miles Brian endured the beating of rough roads on a flat tire that wore him out pretty quickly and bruised his side against the lateral support on the chair…But he was so strong. A few times I had to stop to rub his side to ease the pain or readjust him in his chair. It was at these times that we had our most tender and bonding moments. We cried together, we planned, and we encouraged each other. About ten miles from the end Brian felt like he couldn’t go on. I told him that there were only two ways to end this race. Either I could put him on the van that picked up runners unable to complete the race, and he wouldn’t finish, wouldn’t recieve a medal, wouldn’t get the t-shirt, and wouldn’t finish the Grand Slam; or, we could run. With determination in his eyes that ran much deeper than his physical pain, Brian motioned for me to run on. So we did.
Through the rain and the pain we ran, passing more people than we ever have in any other marathon. People who had already passed us. I ran faster for longer than I ever have before, kept cool by the drenching rain and motivated by my dear friend. We both wanted to finish the race as quickly as possible. We completed the first half of the race in about 2:06:00 and the second half in about 1:56:00, finishing with a personal best of 4:02:16. We beat our previous PR by 16 minutes. Not bad for two rain-drenched, flat-tire runners that had to stop at least a dozen times along the way. It was an incredible experience.
We hope to do this same race in the future with a time of 3:42:00 or better. We can do it. Just watch us.
We want to give deep and heart-felt thanks to all of the staff and volunteers who were involved at every level with this year’s St. George Marathon for making this race one full of such great memories for us. From our sweet friend Kami Ellsworth, the race operations manager, to the volunteers at the aid stations, and from the police officers directing traffic to the little girls giving us popsicles out by mile 18. We thank you for giving us the chance to do what everyone else gets to do; just run our race. Thank you!
We look forward to what next year will bring.
Brian and Tyler