As Charles Dickens put it, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" That quote describes this race perfectly!
Dean, Braden, Julie, and Ashley, one of Julie's friends, were all doing the full marathon, I was running the half. Marathoners caught their bus at 5:30 am. Half marathoners were an hour later, at 6:30 am.
Everyone was excited about the race. Each of us having different goals. Dean wanted to beat his St. George marathon time. Julie wanted to try running it taking walk breaks. Braden wanted to finish, he was sick at the time. I wanted to see if I could run a half without training. I've had some health issues that made it so I couldn't run the last 4 weeks.
The marathoners said everything was fine until about mile 10. Then the winds started to pick up. That was about the time the half marathon was starting.
I have never run in such strong winds. The wind blew extremely hard right into our faces all morning. Add the hills to it, and it was miserable!
The second half of the marathon is the same route as the half marathon, so Braden, Dean, Julie and Ashley got to experience the same thing.
Knowing that the times were going to be terrible, everyone decided to just enjoy the run. Apparently the marathoners all had a great time, walking/running, joking with people along the way....it was the "best of times". Dean said at the end of the race, this was the most fun I have ever had in a race.
We all got the slowest times ever! Thus...it was the "worst of times". It still felt great to have finished this race, with it being a hard course, and having to run into the wind for 90% of the race, it was a great accomplishment.
Julie, in black, looks just a little excited to be at the finish line.
Dean, Braden, Julie, and Ashley, one of Julie's friends, were all doing the full marathon, I was running the half. Marathoners caught their bus at 5:30 am. Half marathoners were an hour later, at 6:30 am.
Everyone was excited about the race. Each of us having different goals. Dean wanted to beat his St. George marathon time. Julie wanted to try running it taking walk breaks. Braden wanted to finish, he was sick at the time. I wanted to see if I could run a half without training. I've had some health issues that made it so I couldn't run the last 4 weeks.
The marathoners said everything was fine until about mile 10. Then the winds started to pick up. That was about the time the half marathon was starting.
I have never run in such strong winds. The wind blew extremely hard right into our faces all morning. Add the hills to it, and it was miserable!
The second half of the marathon is the same route as the half marathon, so Braden, Dean, Julie and Ashley got to experience the same thing.
Knowing that the times were going to be terrible, everyone decided to just enjoy the run. Apparently the marathoners all had a great time, walking/running, joking with people along the way....it was the "best of times". Dean said at the end of the race, this was the most fun I have ever had in a race.
We all got the slowest times ever! Thus...it was the "worst of times". It still felt great to have finished this race, with it being a hard course, and having to run into the wind for 90% of the race, it was a great accomplishment.
Julie, in black, looks just a little excited to be at the finish line.
Braden and Dean approaching the finish line.
These guys all ran the full marathon!
Julie and her friend Ashley
Erika, Braden, Dean and Julie"we had the best of times, and got the worst of times"
2 comments:
It sounds like you missed the fun stuff Erika! At least you got to finish before the BIG storm arrived that the wind was bringing in.
Well put. Glad you guys decided to enjoy yourselves and had fun despite the wind, I probably would have just been mad! I HATE running in the wind (especially with the double stroller aka- the sail). I guess if you go back next year you call all beat your times pretty easily!
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