All's Well that Ends...

I am happy to report that I am proud and legal owner of an official finisher's medal in the 2007 Deseret Morning News Marathon! The day started early - up at 3:00 a.m. to catch the bus from Rice-Eccles Stadium to the top of Big Mountain. As always, we were at the starting point at least an hour before race time, and, as usual, much of that time was spent standing in the port-a-potty line.

As the 5:30 a.m. start time approached, a lone piper began playing, silhouetted by starlight on the ridge above the road - a nice touch. A relatively small (about 600 runners) local race, they were short a starting gun and everyone just counted down with the clock until it reached "0" and we were off!

The first 4 miles were all downhill - fairly steep - and it was a matter of just letting go giving into gravity. At Little Dell Reseroir we then began a 1.5 mile uphill pull to Little Mountain, and then it was downhill all the way down Emigration Canyon to the top of the Zoo.

I was running for a while with Dick Carling who asked if I had known Tony Cannon (whose daughter was running in the race). When I mentioned that we had lived in the Bloomfield Hills Ward together, a runner just in front of us turned around and said, "I grew up in the Bloomfield Hills Ward!" He moved there just after we left, but knew many of the people we knew - he actually dated Patricia Eror for a while! I only ran with him for a mile or two - he had run a marathon last Saturday and running today as part of his regular training routine for the upcoming Wasatch 100!

At the Zoo, the route went up a short hill into the residential neighborhood and along Wasatch Drive by the Monument Park Stake Center. At the stake center, Stuart's (one of my City Creek Canyon friends) wife was waiting with an ice chest filled with bottles of Gatorade - a welcome treat at the 16 mile mark!

We stayed on Wasatch Drive until it meets Foothill just beyond 2100 South, then came back along Foothill. Stuart's wife was waiting at the Top Stop at 13th south with more Gatorade! As I approached 5th South and Guardsman Way, Mom, J&J and Ada were there to encourage and cheer me on. By this town, every little downhill stretch was causing my thighs to knot up, not a pleasant sensation. Coming down the hill on 13th East by First South I had to walk a stretch to keep my thighs from seizing up! From here on in - the last 5 or 6 miles, it was just a blind struggle: walking when my thighs got too tight, stopping to stretch calves and thighs as it felt like they were about to form massive charley horses, trying to remember to eat Gu.

My playlist opened with Crunchy Granola Suite, and included a variety of songs. Among other things, I heard most of the Gospel of Mark, Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, and the entire symphonic recording of Les Miserables (a title that seemed particularly appropriate). At
Fifth South the route turned west a block to allow us to run a block in the parade, which was still in full swing. The cheering helped! The last three blocks were away from the parade and the crowds, but my timing was good - I was in the finale of Le Mis. Mom ran the last stretch to the finish line with me as the final chorus swelled in my iPod! Yes, I cried when I crossed the finish line.

My goal - hope - had been to finish in 5 hours and I did it in 4:37 (thanks to the fast downhill miles at the beginning). And I did not collapse at the end, but was able to walk, eat some yogurt, enjoy a Fat Boy, and drink mo re water. My thighs and calves are stiff and sore and I am very tired, but I am alive.

Postscript: before taking my post-race nap, I did read the final chapters of Harry Potter. Anyone want to discuss Snape, wand theory, or Tom Marvolo Riddle? It was good day!