26.2 {the second time around}

Wow. October 6th came SO fast!

try to get over how good i look, ok?

My sweetest sister in law Amy totally saved the day and took my girls for me over night and all day friday and saturday, so I didn't have to bring them to St. George! Ahh... I am forever in debted to her! Love you Amy!!

I headed down with just my Mom and Dad Friday afternoon. So weird to go on a trip just me, mom, and dad... when has that ever happened? haha. Never! But it was so nice and so much less stressful from last year! We stopped by the convention center to grab our numbers, and met up with my dads friend Bill before heading to the usual China Palace dinner!
At dinner we finally noticed my mom had her shirt on backwards.... that whole entire day. Awesome.

 We woke up bright and early at 4, and can I just tell you it was so much less rushed than last year, where I was trying to hurry and nurse Clara and then pump before we had to leave... Haha.

We met up with my dad's friends at 4:45 and I seriously love watching my dad at the marathon- it's hilarious. (In a good way dad! ;-)) He knows everyone, and you can tell he's been there a few times... Haha... Here we are before he enters the cool elite area. They have their own porta-pottys and everything. =)

 I started the run again this year with Deon- we ran together last year too. She's my dad's friend's little sister, and I was so glad she was there again! It was FREEZING in the morning and I was dreading taking off all of those layers I had on, but by mile 2 I was plenty warm, so no worries.

The race went well over all! My knee seriously started killing me at like mile 4... ya... that was cool. I hurt my IT band on the other leg from last year like 2 weeks ago, and it felt good running on it the week of the marathon, but I guess it didn't hold up! Miles 5-11 were seriously the hardest of the whole race, and that is usual like my enjoyable place! I seriously was dying thinking I still had 16 miles left to run... haha.. I think I finally got out of the funk though. I tightened my brace as tight as it could go, and had them rub the icy-hot creme all over my knee/leg at every stop they offered it. It was seriously killing all the way down my knee and into my foot. It finally felt a little better, and the rest of the race really went well. I lost Deon at mile 15 where she was feeling sick, and kept going. I ran with my water pack this time, and really liked having my own water and gatorade to have when I didn't want to stop- especially after like mile 20 where if I stop to drink water it pretty much hurts everything in my entire body to start running again and makes me want to die. =) My dad thought I was crazy for wanting to run with it for some reason, but I loved not stuffing my gels down my shirt too!

 This was my favorite guy-- he ran the whole marathon in a full length velour cape. I'm sweating just thinking about it.

 I kept getting asked if I had a goal time this year, and honestly I really didn't. When I sat down a few days before the race to think about it I figured that 4 hours would be seriously amazing, but I knew that I would need a couple good 2-3 minute stops to eat, so I said 4:10 would be awesome. After my knee killing the whole first half of the race I didn't really think I would get that, but tried to stick to my 4 hour mile times. I realized I would be able to hit that, so I ran the last couple miles as fast as I could and sprinted through the end to get...

4:10:31

yay! I was just so glad I was done running! and last year I got 4:34, so i definitely can't complain!

 Right after the race... Looking GOOD. That's after standing under the sprayers for a few minutes, but don't be fooled, I'm sure I was soaking wet before that too from sweat. Sexy.

Can I just say, I loved the ice packs they hand out the last few miles. I kept sticking them down the back of my shirt to get stuck in my bra, then they would drop huge things of ice down the back of my shirt and get stuck there. Awesome. It kept me a LOT cooler, because the end of the race was HOT!

was that TMI? sorry.

 So I think I felt better at the end of the race then I did last year, but still... there are people eating like full fledged meals-- Texas Roadhouse had a booth, and I seriously couldn't think about eating anything like that. Just popsicles.

Here's my dad with his 2 buddies Lance and Bill

My mom was pretty mad at us in these pictures because she thought we ditched her and forgot about her, when really there was no cell service... haha, love you mom, but she managed a smile anyway for me. Love you mom and dad! She seriously is a trooper. She does this trip every. single. year. and pretty much waits on my dad hand and foot. and drives there and back. etc... Thanks momma!

Overall: Half marathons are much more enjoyable. That being said- I really want to run the Boston Marathon! We'll see when that happens. For now over the last 2 weeks I have been doing a lot of sleeping in and it's been amazing. I feel like it took me a lot longer to recover this time because we drove straight back to Kaysville after the race, I could not sleep in the car, then picked up my kids, had a late night with my mom and co-co, and a long day and night the next day, and the next, then i drove home alone with my crazy kiddos for 16 hours... you get the idea. After pretty much hibernating for a week and a half I feel better now. I was just SO tired. To be expected right?

I still love running. We'll see what happens next year!