That's Not Sweat...It's Liquid Awesome!

I promise (hopefully) this will be my last running-related post for AWHILE. There is a possibility that I will randomly decide that I have had feelings in my toes for too long, and sign up for another race, but so far, this was as much as I planned to do. 

On the 24th, I ran the Deseret News Marathon. It's been 3 years since I've run a full marathon, and the longest total miles I was able to run in training was 16ish. With that being said, I feel like I did as well as I could have. Of course, I didn't quite reach my goal-because that's the way I roll, but I cut 17 minutes off my fastest marathon time so far. So there you have it!

I actually really enjoyed this race. For the most part, it was downhill (besides about a mile & a half around mile 7), it was really beautiful, and there was a big downhill in just the right place: we ran past Rice-Eccles Stadium-which is a pretty steep downhill between mile 21 and 22. Also, around mile 25, the race joined the Days of 47 Parade route for a couple blocks, and you can't walk when that many people are watching, so that helped the motivation a little.

Some of the downsides were...

     -The race started at 5:30 in the morning which meant, yes, I had to be on a bus between 3:15 and 3:45, which meant, yes, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, which meant, yes, I got about 3 hours of sleep. For me, it worked out fine, but people who need sleep before a race, may not want to sign up for this one.

     -There was ONE, count it, ONE, honey bucket (pardon my frankness) at each aid station. Anyone who has run a race, will you tell, this is not acceptable. So yes, my time could have been cut significantly had I not had to stand in line at mile 9.

     -The shirt I got is a men's size small, which means it's too big for me. I just think that they should have had women's options...that's all I'm saying 

This is around mile 25 1/2. Yep, I'm sick of running.

 Luckily, Josh brought Meili because that's the only way he would have gotten a smile out of me at that point.

 I turned the corner, saw the finish line, and, yes, started crying (tears of joy....and a little bit of pain). But I held it in enough to finish!

Lovely Kaleena (sarcasm). Yes, I look like death, but I finished, and that's what matters. My time was 4:28:29 which meant I had about a 10:15 minute pace. 

It took a few days for me to be able to walk up and down the stairs without cringing, and I'm not sure if my toe nails will ever be the same. Boy, I love running!


(P.S. The title is from a poster that I saw. FAVORITE POSTER EVER!)