The BIG day!

On Friday the 10th, I headed down to Provo to spend the night at the Marriott before the marathon. This is where the packet pickup and stuff was. My sister Sara and I met up there and checked out the expo stuff too. We went to dinner and toyed with the idea of the hot tub, but didn't do it. We just turned in super early (about 9:30ish) because the wakeup call was set for 3 AM. The buses left less than a block from our hotel and so we headed over there at about 3:30. We had the nerve wracking drive up the canyon and got there about 4:45. AM. The race didn't start until 6, so we had time to chat with some other racers as we got cozy around the fire. The fire wasn't cozy and if I hadn't been so cold I would not have put up with the smoke. I was ditching the hat, jacket, and pants and just keeping my visor and gloves. (The gloves were ditched at mile 5). This picture sucks a little because it was still a little dark at 5:30 AM and I think this guy had never taken a picture with a phone before. But that's okay.
The gun went off as we were coming out of the potties-can't believe they actually started on time! So we were a couple minutes back, but no big deal-we probably would have been anyway with all the people-there were a few thousand crazies running.
The weather started a little cold, but better that than hot, for sure. It turned into a great day for a run-could not have asked for better weather, truly.
Sara and I hadn't trained together but in comparing times we thought we could run together so we decided we would do that until it wasn't working. That worked out great, actually. We stayed together until mile 21. She was dealing with some cramping in the legs and I felt okay, so that's when we split. It was nice to run with someone-did all my training alone. I was surprised at how good I felt. In fact, I felt better running yesterday than I do sitting here writing this. My body is protesting now! My legs are so sore!! I think I should make up a new word that means more than sore, because I have been sore before, but this is a little beyond that. But it will go away....
I brought my phone and texted Darren at mile 20. Then I texted again at mile 25 because I just didn't want him to miss it and that gave him about 10 minutes notice. Well, he missed me come in. He was there, just didn't see me. Then took a couple of calls for him to finally pick up. So this first picture is of me talking to David, Sara's husband to give him a heads up because I knew she was only a few minutes back.

Me all sweaty with Rach and Trev

And then with my sweet Aubs

Post-race with Sara

I am really glad I did it. Big sense of accomplishment with this first marathon. I ran 26.2 miles yesterday; what can't I do?
And thanks for all the thoughtfulness/support and well wishes/congrats! I really invested a lot in this and it was nice to know others were thinking of me.
The results are posted here: https://www.raceit.com/results/default.aspx?event=5230&r=689
If you are interested. My bib # was 4366.
Apparently, my mental capacity was affected a little though: After the race, we contemplated taking the kids swimming at the hotel pool, but it was warming up so we decided to take them to Seven Peaks in Provo. (Super crowded!! But was really fun with plenty to do, in fact we stayed later than we were planning). We drove all the way home, and opened the garage, and I said, "Where's the Suzuki? Oh, crap!" Of course we drove separately to get there and I completely forgot and left the other car at the hotel in Provo. Well, we have a field trip today! (Darren isn't feeling great; Allergies turned into a cold, so he's not 100%). Duh!!