MOM OF TWINS.... :)

SALT LAKE CITY MARATHON 2011

April 16, 2011

I ran my 8th marathon this last Saturday. I had no idea what was going to happen on this day. I started the race 15 min later because we got stuck on Trax and I had to go to the bathroom before. I hate starting late because you have to weave in and out of people. On foothill I had to just run on the median (like the curb) in the middle of the road because I was getting stuck behind everyone. The half marathoners and the marathoners all start together and don't totally split off until about mile 7. It was much better once we split off because it opened up a bit. From then on I just ran my heart out. My cute hubby and kiddos was at mile 11 in Holladay, mile 17 on 500 east, and at the end. It's amazing how great it is to see your loved ones. I thought I would see more people I knew a long the way because I lived close to the first half of the marathon. The weather was perfect. Not too hot or cold. It started to rain a little but it wasn't bad. My cute friend Marci met me at mile 23 and ran state street with me. That was the worst part! It's this straight uphill at the very end. It was so nice to have her run with me for a couple miles. Once I got up that hill it was the best feeling. I was able to pick up the pace knowing I was almost home free. I came in with the time saying 3:20 but I knew I had started way late and my watch said 3:09. I was tired but felt decently good after. It wasn't til I was talking to a few girls that I realized I might have had the best time. We waited around for over an hour until the posted the results and my cute friends Marci and Suzy ran over to the board and started screaming...."You won!". We were all dying! The 2 girls that had thought they had won were not happy. I genuinely felt really bad because that would have been so disappointing. It was the most surreal feeling. I just won a marathon (for the females). I never imagined that would EVER happen and I know it will never happen again.

My dad stayed down there with my friends Suzy and Matt and Marci. Tay took the kiddos home because they were done. We waited around for the awards ceremony. Oh my goodness it was the most anticlimactic awards ceremony ever!!! I received 2 medals. One for taking first in my division and one for taking first overall. The funny thing about it was it was the exact same medal you get when you finish. It didn't say first place on the medal and the ribbon didn't even say first place so I now have 3 of the exact same medals. In other marathons that are smaller than this one they give the winners cash or trips or prizes but we got NOTHING. It's almost humorous. There are 11,000 participants that pay $60-$100 to enter and they still give nothing. Its crazy. Oh well I honestly would've been happy with a plaque or SLC sweatshirt or something.

Once the "ceremony" was over we went home and reality hits. I am a mom to twins that need me because my wonderful husband needs to go train for his ironman. Later that night I got 2 facebook messages...one from Salt Lake Tribune and one from Channel 2 news....both wanting me to call them ASAP. The tribune guy had to rewrite the story 3 times because they kept getting the winner wrong. Here's the article:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/51639977-77/marathon-lake-salt-ndambuki.html.csp?page=2#disqus_thread

The Channel 2 news guy Brian Mullahy told me they were sending a camera crew to my house and wanted to get an interview for the 10:00pm news. They got here at 9 and by 10 they had put together the segment. It was so weird to watch because we thought it would be a 2 second blip but they made it the top story...what? So crazy! I guess they hardly ever have locals win the race so the fact it was a south jordan mother of twins was I guess kind of cool. If you missed the segment here it is:

http://connect2utah.com/search-fulltext?nxd_id=141667

I definitely was on Cloud 9 the entire day and on Sunday opening up the front page of the page and front page of the sports....but then again reality hits and I haven't slept since then because Mckaylee was up all night saturday throwing up, Taylor was throwing up all Sunday afternoon/ night, and Stockton was up all night last night throwing up. My poor sick family!

I do have to say THANK YOU to everyone out there for all your kind words and compliments! Honestly I have been overwhelmed by generosity from SO many different people. It's amazing what social networking/ media does. I am so grateful for all the amazing people in my life. I'm especially thankful for my kiddos and husband!!!! Here are a few pictures:

Before the race down at the trax station. Suzy, Jenny, Diane, Tibett, and Dawn did the half marathon. They all did great! I love my running buddies! 3 of our running buddies were in Boston getting ready for the marathon. We sure missed them!

Marci, Suzy, and Katie all stayed with me and were so supportive!!! Marci and Suzy I think were more excited than me. I couldn't ask for better friends! I truly consider these two girls some of my bestest friends! Thanks for being so dang awesome! Love you!

Family is the best! My adorable dad hung out with me the entire time. Such a good dad! Then there's my amazing husband and kids. They didn't stay til the ceremony because they were exhausted but they followed me along the way and there was nothing better than that! To see my cute little girl with chocolate milk all over and Stockton point at me kept me going!

I'm flipping off the Tribune guy :) ha ha jk If you look close you can see our tattoos on our legs with 26.2 Matt Smith did the marathon and cute suzy bought us all tat's.

I have never seen a good picture of my running but it's all about the memories so I figured I better post them. It was my PR marathon of 3:09:07!