On September 27th my ever adventure seeking husband said "do you want to run a marathon with me?" How could I resist?! When we married 20 years ago if I said "do you want to go on a run?" Benjamin would say I only run if there is a ball involved, basketball, baseball or soccer ball. Running for pleasure was never on his to do list. But the in the last 5 years Benjamin discovered the joy of running and caught the running bug, but a marathon was still never on his bucket list. Then Benjamin heard about the Mount Lemon Marathon and the adventurer in him couldn't resist. They shut down the mountain and the course runs from Summerhaven all the way down to the base of the mountain to Tanque Verde High School. We looked up how to run a marathon in 30 days and just went for it!! Josh Clark and his friend were crazy enough to sign up for the race too, we signed up as a team called "Day old Bread." Training for the race actually got me out of bed in the morning. We ran 143 miles in the month leading up to the marathon. I was excited for the race for about a week. Then we went on a 10 mile trail run and my quads were killing for over a week, I was so ridiculously sore... and questioning all my life choices. From then on I realized what a big deal 26.2 miles is. My constant prayer was "help us not to get injured training or during the race." There are so many miracles leading up to the ability to run and finish a race. November 3rd was a looming deadline that I was terrified to do. The last time I ran a marathon was 21 years ago when I was 19, 21 years later and 30 pounds heavier :) The great thing about a marathon is the variety of people that run them, skinny people, old people, large people. There really isn't just one type of person that is crazy enough to do this. There was even a woman in pants, a dress and a hijab. The actual race was fantastic!! I think I worried so much leading up to the race that the actual race was worry free! My biggest blessing was a great head space. My prayer was to enjoy the race and not to worry about the road ahead and that prayer was answered!! Benjamin and I stuck together, at times it was just the two of us and it felt like we were running on Sabino Canyon road. We ended up seeing a couple of friends who were working the aid stations, a couple from our ward in Benson and a young woman, Brooke Larson, from camp. Hearing them cheer us on was awesome! I loved that I could help encourage Benjamin to finish strong, and we did!
The bus ride up to the mountain
Our race numbers, "free" T-shirts, and hat. Benjamin labled my bib "Hotness Everdeen" thats his running nickname for me, haha! He calls himself fat boy, silly man.
1 comment:
So impressive. Run, fatboy, run!
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