Fabulous Marathon!

Here we all are in our "Team Thomas" shirts designed by McKay. The back has a Braveheart quote that says, "Fight and you die; Run and you live." We loved them!!! Notice that even Jack has one. :)

Here's a few finish shots where I ran across with McKay. I had come in about a half hour earlier, but I took everyone by surprise and so I don't have any shots of my original cross of the line.

Here are signs the fam made to cheer us on. Fun!

The marathon was fantastic! Not one single thing could have gone better. The weather was absolutely perfect. My running was smooth and virtually pain-free. I ran on the nose 10 minute miles--just like my practice runs! I started feeling pain at about mile 20 and realized it was time for more ibuprophen, so I popped some and 2 miles later felt better. I slowed down for the last few miles, but had made up a bit of time earlier on so I still averaged 10 minute miles. I felt great crossing the finish line. Not exhausted or anything! I surprised the fam because somehow they didn't get my 20-mile text--so no pics. I'll have to buy official ones. My final time was 4:21:23 and my net time was 4:20:36. I'm in love! I'm doing it again! If I can pick up 16 minutes I can qualify for the Boston. Woo Hoo!

Deseret Industries and my Marathon

Alicia (Smith) told me that waiting for the marathon to start could be really, really cold. It will be practically the middle of the night (4:30 or 5:00 am) and 10 miles up a canyon. She said that I will need to have warm clothes for the top, and then I will probably start the race wearing more than running shorts and shirt. I can shed as I go, but there's a good chance that what I shed will be stolen. So she recommended I buy my "shedding" clothes at DI!!! She also suggested a robe rather than a coat for up top--warm and much more fun than a coat! So this weekend I did my DI shopping. Here I am in my "shedding" clothes. I got this great, fluffy, thick, purple, Victoria Secret robe for $6.00. That was my most expensive purchase.

Now the race has started and I've shed the robe, but am wearing my ear warmer head band, gloves, jacket and pants. The ear warmer and gloves I already owned, but they're totally expendable. In fact I'd love to lose that ugly head band! The jacket was $3.00 at DI. Definitely 1980s era! It's lined with a mesh fabric.

OK. Now I've shed that jacket, as well as the gloves and headband. I'm now wearing my actually pretty nice Nike warm-up pants. $4.00 at DI. Slits on the sides so I don't have to take my shoes off to shed them. But they don't come off as easy as I'd like--not that I'll actually be racing for time in this marathon!

Finally here I am in my plain (and rather expensive) running clothes after having shed all my DI gear. Thanks for the heads' up, Alicia! My race is in less than 2 weeks. I'm psyched! By the way, McKay is designing a team logo for us (he's running this marathon, too!). We will put it on new running shirts. I'll show you when it's done.