Yep, it's true. My sister, Marc, and I ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon and lived... It was pretty iffy there around mile ten, but after 2:58:22.5 hrs, extremely swollen ankles, few blisters, and buckets and buckets of sweat later we did it ;)
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It all started about a few months ago when the bank I work for offered to sponsor me to run this Top of Utah race. In my head I thought "oh yeah I'm a born distance runner, I can do that." but in reality I haven't done any hard core running since I ran cross country my sophomore year of high school which is about...oh 6 years ago and the farthest I ever ran in my whole life was 10 miles. This is also the same time they offered me some desperately needed overtime, in which I would be working about 10 to 11 hours a day. Again I thought to myself, "Well, if I run a couple times, I'll be fine."
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Well, before I knew it was 3 months later and I was awaken by a screeching alarm clock, laying flat on my back in a hotel room bed, at 4:15 in the morning. Time to get dressed for race day...boy was I in trouble.
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While Jacy, Marc, and I stood under the black starry sky at about 5:30 in the morning, waiting in line behind about one thousand people to get on the shuttle (yellow school buses) we all were shaking in our bones. None of us felt ready. But there were about 2,600 runners and in my mind i thought..."gee whiz there has to be somebody slower than me, I'll will be ok."
When we finally stepped on the toasty warm buses and reached the starting line a volunteer, in charge man, got on and told us where we could drop off our extra clothes, where the port a potties were, wished us good luck, told us to run fast and not to disgrace our families.
I had to mentally make that a goal in my head, who knows what i'm gonna be thinking two hours from now.
Waiting at the starting line I had three goals in mind *Do not walk, jog the entire thing*, *no disgrace*, and *finish*.
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!Bang!
The Gun shot starting the race and we were off!
Mile 1: Whoah nelly this is pretty darn fast for my pace, lets just slow this right down.
Mile 2: Oh baby mile two already, I feel great!
Mile 3: Aw crap is my shoe coming untied already...remember don't stop, that's your goal
Mile 4: Pretty sure an 80 year old man with an oxygen tank just passed me...maybe is should speed up..nah! This is my race I go at my own speed.
Mile 5: Woah, I think a 12 year old boy just passed me...what the heck! Some bare foot lady just ran passed me.
oh and my other shoe lace is untied. great
Mile 6: oh baby i'm almost half way, and I still feel great...maybe I won't die after all
Mile 7: whew I'm past half way...kinda feeling a little Leary, but I can do this! Pretty sure Marc just passed the finish line....Aww Rachel came to watch what a sweetheart...cheese ;)
Mile 8: Where the freak is the mile 8 marker?! This is the longest mile of my life!!!! *looks at clock* Oh my heck I have to run another hour!!
Mile 9: oh shoot, I already ran mile 8. That's a freaking relief...
Mile 10: (pretty sure I hit my wall at this point) After i thought "aww tear :') this is the longest I have ever ran in my whole life" I then thought.....Dear Lord up above, please run me over with a truck asap!!!! I wanna flippen die!!!! Pretty sure my feet are going to break off at the ankles any second now. My legs are barely moving! I can count 10 people walking in front of me and people who have finished already are jogging back home.(that's depressing), my shoes are still untied and if i stop now i might kill over...If those runners who finished and are jogging back were on the same side of this street and if i had the strength I would deck them in the face! oh what's this lovely song on my play list..."Carry on"...figures...
Mile 11: Caaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn onnnnn on!!!! I literally sang this out loud...If your lost and alone, and your sinking like a stone, Carrrrrrrrrryyyyy onnn. May the past be the sound of your feet upon the ground. Caaaarrrry ooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnn
Tied my shoes at this point...almost blacked out...See Marc running back like some of the other bone heads...He spots me...I mouth..."I hate you so much right now" haha
Marc starts jogging with me at this point and I think, I can't believe you just ran the entire thing and now are jogging the last mile and a half with me...Please don't leave me lol
Mile 12: Oh my heck I can see the finish line, Thank the good lord I am almost done!
Finish line: (announcer man)...Kelcey Jones...Logan Utah...
Wow, let me tell you that was one crazy experience! Even though I got about an hour slower time than I thought I would and I barely beat a 70 year old lady by 3 minutes, I'm proud to say that I did it. I completed all of my goals :) At about mile ten I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but by some miracle I did. And I can actually say I'm pretty proud of myself and jacy and marc for doing such a crazy thing. I now know what I'm getting myself into if I want to cross a marathon off on my bucket list.
Right now I can't even fathom or even imagine the possibility of running that entire thing twice. But if I actually train, and fix my form. It might be a possibility for me in the future lol. I don't know who came up with this crazy idea of running marathons and such and why we are crazy enough to do them. But there is some sort of satisfaction of saying, yeah i did that... and after all is said and done...it wasn't that bad haha
