Well I wanted to come in under 5 hours. Didn't happen, but I'm okay with that. The whole weekend was so much fun. We jumped in my suburban Friday morning at 6:00am, picked up Stacie, then my brother Cameron & his wife Erin {who I've been training with for this} and then headed up North to pick up JD. Then off to Salmon Idaho we went. Thayne & Wendy drove separate and left later so they met us up there. We were all feeling the Pre-marathon jitters, excited, nervous, anxious..all of it. We went to bed around 9:30 Fri. night. Saturday, we woke up at 4:30, wanted to leave enough time to eat & use toilet etc before the bus. We met in the lobby and ate some bagels etc and then jumped on the bus. There was no "top of the canyon" bc this was an in and out course. We drove 26 miles up the road and then got out & hung out in a cool little school house. Little house on the prairie style but updated. The kids had left the marathoners notes of good luck so I wrote a few of them back thanking them. I thought that was awesome. Then it was time to line up. I was nervous, but very ready to just get this show on the road. It's torture to just wait..and wait..and wait...for months..weeks..days..hours..for a marathon to finally START. JD & Thayne were gone after a minute. Stacie, Erin, Wendy and I stayed together for awhile. Then Wendy was in back of us. We could hear her singing for awhile and then no more. Stacie stayed with Erin & I for about 5 miles and then we saw her no more. The course was a dirt trail with little rocks, a bit of washboard and "gentle rolling hills." Around mile 6 there was a hill that lasted all the way through mile 7 & a little beyond. Of course hills always slow me way down but Erin and I just kept plugging along. My favorite part was right after this hill was over, there was a gentle down that ran across a ridge overlooking the valley. It was beautiful. OH! I forgot to talk about the cows. The first 5 miles there was a herd of cows off to the left hand side in a pasture that ran with us. They stayed in a straight line and just ran. It was super funny. I've never seen . cows run this much. You could hear them Mooing Erin said "It's like they are saying "Mooooooovvvee" "Goooooooooo"..and suddenly, that's all I could hear them saying. But they ran with us until their fence stopped them. When they got to the fence they just stopped dead and stared at the fence like..now what..almost felt bad for them that they couldn't keep going.
Back to miles 8, 9,.10, 11, 12, & 13. Scott {my husband} was running the half so I kept checking my watch to see if he had started yet. I thought about him a lot bc it was his first half. He didn't train much but is blessed with this natural athletic ability. So I wasn't concerned he couldn't do it, I was concerned that his IT band was going to give him trouble after just a few miles. It likes to do that. So my thoughts would go to him from time to time wondering how he was doing. Meanwhile Erin was talking my ear off which was awesome. She was running stronger and better than she had in any of our training runs. I kept thinking "where has this been!" Throughout our training, she has been calling me "her spinach" bc she said she couldn't do it without me. But this day, she was mine. I was so grateful to have her there, feeling good, chatting, and staying strong. I have a history of races freaking my mental game & then I don't perform well. I was feeling that. Not as bad as in the past but definitely in my head a bit. I was glad she was there to distract me. There were so little people in this race that we were alone most of the time. I kept thinking about Stacie, knowing that she was probably running alone and I felt bad for her. I knew JD and Thayne would maybe find each other & also didn't mind being alone so I wasn't worried about them. I knew Wendy would chat her way through with other people & if no one was around, she would just sing her way through. So I wasn't worried about her either. But I did feel bad for Stacie and was grateful for Erin.
At mile 13, another hill & push came along. We had to turn up a road at 14 and follow that for a mile & half to a turn around and then come back down. This is where we saw Stacie. She was coming back down while we were going up. This was a weird part of the course for me bc it didn't look steep but it felt really hard. Then once you turned around, it was smooth sailing. We saw Wendy when we had turned around and she was doing great. {of course} Wendy didn't train for this hardly at all and she wasn't far behind us. Erin and I both were motivated a bit by seeing her and knowing this. We both sped way up for awhile. I felt like we were doing great..but our time wasn't reflecting it. Kind of frustrating. But whatever. We did stop a few times to empty the pebbles out of our shoes. Erin had to go to the bathroom twice, which was no biggie for me. I tried to go also even though I was fine. I figured might as well. Then finally mile 20! I looked at the garmin and it was straight up 4 hours. I knew we wouldn't make our sub 5 time but we should be around 5:08 or so..In my mind I told myself, "forget anything up to this point..you are just on a 6 mile run." Erin said "10 minutes at a time..that's how we'll do it." so Every 10 minutes, I would let her know she had another 10 behind her. We didn't talk much at all during this section. Both cranked our music and just ran. Slowly but surly we plugged along.
We turned the corner to mile 25..We saw the sign and Erin started to get emotional. I was feeling the emotions too & it was too early. I said to her "Don't you start Erin!" and she said she couldn't help it so I had to get mean. I said "Erin! shut the Hell up!" then she started laughing. Phew..we got a grip for a minute. When One mile to go..when suddenly my knee or IT band or something had this extreme pain that stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe it. The finish was so close and there I was limping..I told Erin to go but she wouldn't leave me. She said "we're in this together and I'm crossing that finish line with you." {emotions again} *%&^!! This time I was emotionally frustrated! What the crap!! You're going to give out on me NOW?! Stupid knee! {need to back up..} around mile 13 or so, I fell. Tripped on a rock and went down, my knee was bleeding and the palm of my had was scrapped. It hurt but I was just grateful that I hadn't pulled any muscles so I jumped back up and kept going. Thought the bloody knee would look cool crossing the finish line. Battle wounds. :) So ANYWAY..at this point I thought that maybe my knee pain was a result of the fall. I was a bit delusional, wasn't thinking clearly, so I really had no idea why it hurt. Erin said "what should I do?" all I could say was "pray." I tried to run but it was a full on limp run. I walked but it was a full on limp walk. I just kept telling myself to keep moving it will work itself out. After a few minutes {maybe 5.} it did. I was able to run again. So we plugged along to the finish line. We turned the corner off of the bridge and Erin said to me "I love you." I looked at her and saw the tears in her eyes and couldn't help get them in mine. I said "love you too" and grabbed her hand as we crossed the finish. What a freaking cool feeling. There is nothing like that in the world..that feeling you get when you cross a finish line at a marathon. It doesn't matter at that moment HOW you got there..it just matters that you got there. And it overwhelms you.
We were greeted by Cameron, Scott, JD, Stacie & Thayne. Celebrated in each others stories and then waited for Wendy to cross. Around 6 hours she turned the corner, walking and limping. Clearly something was wrong. So she passes me as I'm cheering her in and she says to me "What happened to your knee?!" I just shook my head at her and thought..You are trying to cross the finish line..you're clearly hurt and you're asking ME what happened to MY knee??! I just yelled "Go Cross the finish Wendy!!" She is a rockstar in more ways than one.
Scott ended up doing a 2:16 half marathon and came in first place in his age group by default. The two people ahead of him came in first and second overall so that put him in first in his age group. We all laughed when he won his bronze salmon statue. Pretty cool. He had a great experience & I'm proud of him. {also know that now he will be hooked.} Anyway..I know this is LOONNNNGG..so I apologize. But I just have a little bit more to say. sorry sorry sorry!! So anyway..I loved this race not bc I totally loved the course..which wasn't bad but its like Stacie said "we're used to running down a canyon and being on pavement." So it was challenging in its own way but I loved it bc it was unlike anything I would normally do and bc it was small. I loved the finish line with the live band, the kegs of beer {even though I don't drink} the massage tables, the food, and not to sound like a hippie but I loved the energy there. It was just chill. That night the restaurant next to our hotel room had the same live band down on the beach front of the river with an outside bar to celebrate the runners. I felt like I was in some tropical place not Idaho. It was so awesome & something just came over me. I was soo relaxed, proud, relieved, grateful, but mostly just so HAPPY. It couldn't have been more perfect. Good friends, great accomplishment, beautiful scenery, vacation, and a Celebration of LIFE. All I could do was dance. It was the perfect way to end an amazing journey. So in the end, I did get high..we all did. GET HIGH MY FRIENDS!! xo.
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