26.2 Miles of the Pain You Enjoy

I ran the Utah Valley Marathon yesterday. I actually ended up finishing nine minutes SLOWER than my last attempt, which kind of bites-but really what can I expect for barely training for it. The course was pretty good. The first ten miles were in Provo Canyon which was really nice, then about ten miles of this walking trail that went alongside the river. The last six miles were basically winding in and out of neighborhoods, and ended at Provo Towne Center mall. I have to say, runners always talk about "The Wall" at about mile eighteen and I never really felt like I have hit "the wall" before. I sure did yesterday. Before mile eighteen, I was on pace to finish about 20 minutes faster than my last marathon, and I felt pretty good. But after mile 18, I hit the wall, then I hit it again half a mile later, then again, and again and again-pretty much for the last 8 miles. Luckily, Josh, ran the last 2 and half miles with me again (I think only because I was in a pretty bad mood at that point, and he didn't want to have to drive 2 1/2 hours home with me in the condition I was in.) Josh's mom, and his brother Jake, also followed me in their car for the last couple miles, and they tried very hard to motivate me, but nope, it just couldn't be done! So, yep, there it is. I didn't do nearly as well as I wanted to, but I've learned that any day that I run a marathon will be better than I day that I sit on my couch watching TV.
I cropped my legs out of this picture very much on purpose. As if the top half doesn't look bad enough!
There is rarely a picture taken by the Anderson family that doesn't include a dog. So there's Josh, Marley (Josh's brother Jake's dog), and me.
My dad, mom, me, and Josh. I don't know why I'm telling you-I think most people who look at this blog could've figured that out.
And a lovely picture of my backside. Nice pose! But there's my sister, Bethany, who luckily works at the Provo Town Center, so she stepped out for a minute to see me finish. Thanks to everyone who came to see me, it really does mean a lot to me.
And what would a post from me be like if the pictures were actually in order, right? So here's me crossing the finish line. Yea! So now I'm pretty sore, and yesterday I decided that given the choice between running for 4+ hours to go 26 miles, or driving for less than half an hour to go 26 miles-I choose driving! Just kidding! I still don't know why I do it- but next week I'm running the Wasatch Back so everyone pray that I can move my legs by then.