4 Hours 45 Minutes 12.9 Seconds

My thirtieth birthday present to myself was training for and running the Utah Valley Marathon. It was my first marathon, and it went great! Perfectly, actually, given the circumstances going in. About a month before the race, I developed some knee problems that forced me to cut back on my training, and caused me quite a bit of pain and trouble finishing my runs. I was so worried that I wasn't going to be able to finish the marathon, and after all the work I had put in, and especially the sacrifices that my family had made with my absence during training. After a few doctors visits, some physical therapy, and lots of hope and prayer, the actual race went off without a hitch! I literally didn't sleep a wink the night before, I guess because I was so nervous, which is fine I guess, since I had to wake up at 4:00 am anyway to be there on time. (From talking to the other runners, apparently many of them don't sleep the night before a race. Weird.) There were threats of rain, but it never showed, which was a huge relief. The very best part was that my knee didn't hurt at all during the race. It was truly a miracle! I held back and kind of babied it for the first 20 miles or so, since I didn't know how long it would hold up, but by mile 20 I realized it was going to be fine, so I just let loose and sailed through to the finish. Having my family there cheering for me absolutely meant the world to me. They were there at the 14 mile mark, the 20, and then were there at the end to cheer me home. I never hit any "wall" as I have heard people describe happens around mile 20. Having my family there was all the boost I needed! I used to say that I would never want to run a marathon, and anyone who would want to run 26.2 miles must be crazy. I suppose the latter part is a bit true, but I am so glad I did it. I suppose the reason I decided to do it because I knew that if I could do this, I could do just about anything. Thanks to all of my family and friends for all your love and support, especially Marshall for being so positive and for believing in me and not making me feel like I am silly for having such a lofty goal. Thanks to Drew for your sweet little prayers to "help Mom's knee to get better"...those prayers were answered. Thanks to Def Leppard and Nickelback, among others, for your great running tunes that always helped me to plug along. A special thanks to my body, for being so patient and resilient, and for enduring much abuse to help me prove to myself that with hard work, anything is possible. I know this sounds hard to believe, but I actually had so much fun running! I would totally do it again. But not anytime soon- I am a bit sore today.