Garden City Half Marathon!

If you look really close there is orange spraypaint on the street in the middle of the picture. That is the starting line.

Bear Lake

Life has been so crazy! The Garden City Half Marathon was an amazing experience! I feel bad it has taken me so long to sit down and share my story. With kids and school and relationships I feel like I don't have time to breathe so I will stop beating myself up for it and just share my experience!

The Garden City Half Marathon took place on June 14th 2008. We started training for it after I recovered from my run in Moab. I say recovered because I was so sore I was Daniel's "Gimp" (yes it was used as a pet name for a little while) for a couple of weeks. We found a training plan that fit perfect for the 12 weeks we had before the race. It had us running five days a week. We rarely missed a day. Daniel was so good for me. He really kept things in perspective for me and really motivated me to run. We went through some tough time emotionally but we never backed down from the running. I was so proud of us!

About three weeks before the race we stopped running altogether. It was not a decision to just stop running. It just seemed like everyday there was a good reason. (isn't that the reason that anything gets put off? a good excuse? lol) I was really worried that we would not make it up to Bear Lake. I wanted to run with Daniel so bad, but I knew that it would be so easy to decide not to run it based on the three weeks before the race. But, we went up there. The night before the race I asked Daniel how he was doing because he did not seem very happy to be up there. He said that he was disappointed in the last three weeks and he wasn't sure how we were going to handle the run. He said he was glad to be up there with me and that he would be running with me, he just had wanted it to be different. Well, I agreed with all of that. I was still really excited. I always get so excited because I love the feeling you get at the beginning and at the end of the race, and I also knew that Daniel has not had that experience before so I understood why he was not excited.

We got to bed at a decent time and woke up with the sun on Saturday Morning. We still had plenty of time to get to the bus. This was the first year that they have had a half marathon up there so they were still working out all of the kinks. They had two bus times for the half marathon and urged us to be on the earlier bus. So we were there sitting on the bus when we found out that they cancelled the earlier buses and that we were all going up together. So we sat on the bus till 7:30. Not a big deal.

We met a guy that had been running for 22 years. He has run 155 races. He has run a marathon in every state and now is running a half marathon in every state. WOW. I want that life. lol.

The race started at approximately 8 AM and it was a gunshot start. We were right at the front of the pack. Right before it started we warmed up and stretched a little bit. It felt a lot different than any other race that I have run. There were less than 200 people at the starting line. Although there were less people the excitement was still there and I was really excited to have Daniel by my side.

We consistently ran 2 miles and walked just long enough to get a drink and catch our breath. Which was really important seeing as how we were 1500 feet higher in elevation than we trained at. My lungs were really fighting the lack of oxygen for the first two miles or so. Other than that I felt no discomfort for most of the race. Daniel did not feel any discomfort until we were into the 8th mile. I was really proud of him for pushing through the discomfort.

It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Everything was so green and the sky was SO blue. There was not a cloud in the sky. At one point we passed a pasture of horses, and we turned at the end of the pasture so we ended up running on two sides of it. The horses were getting as much running in as we were! They would start at one end of the field and follow the runners around and then come back and follow more runners around the corner. It was so much fun to watch!

Up until this race Daniel had never run farther than 10 miles. I was and am so proud of him for pushing through the last 3 miles. There was no one cheering us or any of the runners on at the end of the race so we just cheered each other on!

We crossed the finish line at 2 hours 25 min and 18 seconds.They handed us our metals and I took Daniel's and placed it around his neck. There were tears in his eyes. I could see how proud he was of himself, of us. What an amazing experience to share with my best friend, with my partner for life. I am so grateful that we were able to share this experience with each other.

We will be running the St. George Marathon together on October 4th. I am looking forward to sharing that race with Daniel as well. If we can run together, train and cross that finish line together, I know we can do anything!