A Humid Tent full of Over-Achievers.

We finished.
On Friday right after my physics class, Dana, Dustin, and I drove down to Logan, Utah. We went to the temple, then to the delicious spaghetti buffet, picked up our race packets, then went to bed. We woke up dark and early at 4:35AM, got on one of the buses around 5:30AM, and waited at the start line. Because we were up the canyon, and because it was still really dark and freezing cold, they had some ginormous tents set up with blasting heaters. There were no lights, and when I first walked in the tent housing about 3,000 runners all I could smell was sweat and bad breath mixed with a little bit of excitement (alright, that was cheesy). Left and right people were dousing themselves with Anti-Chaf and deodorant and sunscreen in the darkness. As soon as the sun barely rose, we hustled out of the tent and awaited the gun fire. Some guy wearing a kilt and a huge, long, wooden gun of sorts blasted his weapon and we were off. And, because there were thousands of runners, it was a bit anti-climatic as it took several minutes to actually cross the start line.

Just after the first mile marker, there was a huge poster that read,

"You're Almost There!"

Some of my other favorite posters were the following:

 

"Chuck Norris never ran a marathon."

"Do your feet hurt? Cause you're kicking so much butt."

"If you made it to the start line, you can make it to the finish."

"Hurry up, I'm getting tired from watching you."

"Toenails are overrated."

"Envision the Baconator at the finish line" (Barf.)

"I'm Proud of you, Complete Stranger."

"Pain is temporary, Pride lasts forever."

"Milk was a bad choice."

And to make a long story short, we crossed the finish line.

For me, The first 18 miles were awesome, I felt really strong and energetic. I was keeping up a pace of 8:53 up to that point (a 3:55 min. finish overall). However, because I'm no expert on pacing myself when running 26 miles, after that you could say that I hit a wall. I walked for about 2 minutes at mile marker 19, then I finished running a tad slower. My hardest miles were 18-19, and 23-25. Conquering those miles was the hardest physical task I've ever done. Every thought in my mind was telling me to stop and walk, slow down, run into some bushes and walk back to the car, or fake an injury. The great task of finishing a marathon isn't the physical fitness aspect, it's more so the endurance and power over adversity and internal criticism.
As I turned the last corner and saw the finish chute, it ended up being an emotional experience as I couldn't help but think about all the preparation spent preparing for this one moment. I was a runner in high school and college, but took a bit of a sebaticle after I became Mrs. Erika Miller. I ran my first 5k after that in June of 2009 (when I was pregnant with Jack) and have only made more and more goals from there. It took 3 years to get to this point. Combine those thoughts with thousands of cheering spectators, the announcer yelling out my name, seeing my time of 4:20 and receiving my medal--It made it all worth it.

Dustin had very similar feelings. He's been battling a knee injury in his left knee over the past 7 weeks, and wasn't even sure if his knee was going to allow him to finish. Miraculously, his knee performed perfectly. He said he felt strong through the majority of the run but had difficulty getting through those strenuous miles at the end. When he came around the corner, I couldn't believe how great he looked. Dana and I got all the spectators around us to cheer for him, so all around we could hear loud screams of, "Bring it on in, Dustin!" "Dustin is too legit to quit!" and "You did it, Dustin!" It was neat watching him finish, knowing how much he's trained over the last 15 months or so when he first started running again. Dustin has completed three 5k's, three half marathons, a Ragnar race, a century ride, and a full marathon in just 15 months.

After a nice meal at Ihop, we drove home and are still in the process of recovery. As soon as we can walk again (or get off of a toilet seat for that matter), we'll do it again. Go us!