I did it!

I am so behind in my blogging it is quite pathetic! But I thought that I had better at least put my marathon pictures on here!
What an amazing experience!
All through my training I had problems off and on with my hip flexor. About a week and a half before the race I was hurting pretty bad. I could barely walk at one point. But luckily I have a brother in law who is an athletic trainer who stretched me out and on a few different occasions pulled on my leg and popped something that made the pain dye down. I didn't run the entire week before the race so that there wouldn't be a chance of injuring myself.
The night before the marathon I was going to go to sleep really early to prepare to wake up at 2:00 in the morning, but I could not go to sleep! I was so nervous and excited I was laying in bed but could not get myself to go to sleep. So at 2:00 I got up without having had a wink of sleep and we headed to Rice Eccles Stadium where I got on the bus at 3:15 in the morning. On the bus ride up there were these two guys behind me talking about the steepness of the course and they were saying, "Ya . . . they say that when some people come out of the canyon they can't even walk . . ." I started to get a little nervous, because I had read and heard from a few people that Deseret Morning News was hard on the body because of the steep downhill. Anyway, I didn't really think too much about it until I hit about mile 10 and started cramping pretty bad in my hamstrings and quads. It was pretty brutal. My feet were on fire and the cramping hurt pretty bad. But it just made the whole experience that much more worthwhile. I had to run through pain, and it was pretty hard. I could never put into words what it was like to finish that race. It was the experience I hoped it would be. It didn't turn out like I "planned." I am someone who always wants a perfect "plan" or "recipe" with a guaranteed perfect outcome, and I am always grateful to God for ruining my "plan" sometimes and giving me what I really need. What I wanted? I wanted to finish it in close to 4 hours but knew that being my first marathon and with my hip flexor it might be closer to 4 and a half. What happened? I didn't have one ounce of pain from my hip flexor, but I had to run through the pain of cramps and charlie horses starting at mile 10. I finished the race in 4 hours and 34 minutes. I learned a lot about life and the atonement. I highly recommend it! I will probably do more in like 30 years when my kids are gone. After all . . . both me and Lamon agree that we need to redeem ourselves!