Once upon a time, three months ago, we ran a marathon

It’s weird now, it’s one of those things that seems like a dream….we ran a marathon…we did what??? This past summer, the Meek fam decided to sign up for the St. George marathon. I asked Jas if he wanted to sign up too, and he said “Sure, why not?” Since the St. George marathon is a lottery marathon, not everyone get’s in, and Jas and I were the only ones out of my whole family that got in. I was like, “wait….what?” I was terrified. We started training late June and began this journey. It was grueling and hard, but it felt amazing. We would get home from school/work 3 times a week, and run between 3-8 miles. Then, we’d get up extra early on Saturdays and run between 8 miles all the way to 20 miles (the longest run we did).

Jas and I felt crappy some of the time, but oh so good the other times. We saw ourselves being in better shape, getting tanner, having our hair lighten up in the sun, and see places we hadn’t before, because we were running all the time. It was amazing.

Myron and Myra (Jason’s parents) came down to St. George to watch us run, and we loved having them there. We got there in the afternoon, and went straight to the center where they gave us our running numbers and chips. It was so fun to see how many people were there, hanging out and talking. There were hundreds of vendors, giving away free stuff and prizes. I have to admit, I was intimidated by all the freakin huge calves people seemed to have. I remember telling Jason “How are we going to be able to compete with people who have calves like that?” We got our numbers, and our bag of goodies, and we headed to the Pasta Factory to carb load. It was delicious as always, but I felt so sick from just eating carbs the last few days. After that, we went back to the condo to just relax. Around 10:00 pm, we tried to go to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping since I was so nervous.

BEFORE THE RUN

We woke up at 4:00 am, and Myron took us to the bus stop. We all loaded in a bus and started up the canyon. The bus ride was so fun! Everyone was nervously talking; I was looking outside at the road I would be running, and just thinking. Jason kept asking me why I was so quiet…he knew I was nervous.

When we got to the top of the canyon, there were so many people around, and different stations everywhere you looked. There was an eating stations (bananas, apples, bagles, gels), a drinking station (Gatorade & water), there was a sunscreen station, and a Vaseline station (to prevent chaffage). Then there were like a bazillion outhouses, with huge long lines to go before we started running.

Then they told us there was 5 minutes till we started. I put on my running mix to get pumped, and to get the nerves out of my stomach. I gave Jas a spank on the butt for good luck (sorry if that’s an over share), and we started running.

There is something amazing running with hundreds, even thousands of people with the same goal. It’s a great feeling. Every three miles, there was an aid station with water, Gatorade, oranges, gels, etc… I would drink a water and a Gatorade every time.

I was doing well until the 7^th mile, when there was a NASTY hill….it seriously was up hill for 5 miles. It was like a mirage. I kept thinking I saw the top, and then it would disappear. I got to the point, where I wouldn’t let myself look at the top of the hill because I was dying to get to get there. I would look at Jason, and he looked like this was the easiest thing he’d ever done.

Then I was great until the 23^rd mile. That is when things started to get excruciating. Your legs start to shut down and cramp up. You have to distract yourself from every mile-mark. This is when Jason started to struggle. He kept me going the first half of the marathon, and I kept him going the last half. The worst worst hardest part is that last mile. You think you’re there, and you’re not, and you think you are there, but you still aren’t. And all these ambulences and going up and down the trail because people can’t make it.

One of the things that kept me going were all the people on the side cheering you on. There are these hilarious signs people are holding up, like “No pain, no gain”, or “if there isn’t chaffage, there is no victory.” I would just laugh my head off at those signs. And THANK HEAVENS for the people who brought those spraying machines. They would spray me in the face with water, and it felt like heaven.

Then we crossed the finish line..holding hands. Cheesy, but worth it. Seriously, I started crying. It was a combination of, “I can’t believe we did that, I’m proud of us, and I’m so glad that ‘hellish’ run is over.

Jason and my legs hurt worse than they’ve ever hurt, and we couldn’t walk normally for about a week, but it was so worth it. It was the hardest thing I’ve done so far, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We ended up getting the time of 4 hours and 30 minutes, 30 minutes more than we wanted, but I couldn’t be more proud.

AFTER THE MARATHON (DYING...We could barely stand up)

I totally want to run another one!