St. George Marathon 2012

Moving out here, Trent was determined to try the St. George Marathon.  It's notorious for it's "down-hill" course but non-the-less a challenging race.  Luckily he was able to get into the lottery drawing and officially be a runner for this race.  He's been training and trying new things to prepare himself for this race and had great results because of it...but of course even after it was over and he shaved 18 minutes off of his previous marathon time he is already thinking he can do better.

At the expo, we thought we would try the spaghetti dinner.  Pasta Makes You Go Fasta.   Wasn't too bad, but I don't think I'd do that again...

After dinner, we headed out to Tuacahn Amphitheater.  A well known, must-do, hot spot playing Disney's Aladdin.  Wish our kids could have been there, they would have loved it!!  It was a great night and a warm night at that.  Perfect for me.

Next morning...if you want to call it that...about 3 hrs of sleep...he was up and ready to hit the buses at 4am that will bus him to the top of the race.  Even though it was only 70+ degrees outside, up the canyon, it was 35-45 degrees with windy conditions.  Bon Fires and sitting around was all he could do for about 2+ hours.  At 6:50am he crossed the starting line and was ready to tear up the course.

I got back to the hotel and went back to sleep...hey, someones got to drive the 4 hrs back home when this is over...  At 8am I made my way to mile 16 which is up Snow Canyon.  No problem, unless you are one of the families of over 7 thousand racers also trying to get to the same location!  Yep, sticky situation.  Took me over an hour to get there; parking on the side of the 2 lane road, running up hill for about 1 1/2 miles to catch a glimps as he runs by...

That is exactly what I caught...a glimps.  I was running up (out of breath) and was lucky enough to see him...go by.  Because I was late getting there, I was thinking I had missed him altogether...I was almost in tears huffing and puffing up the hill wondering if I'd even see him, or even know that we went by.  Good thing I pushed on.  Then it was the run back down...good thing it was down this time!  Whew, I didn't run a marathon, but it sure felt that way after adrenaline wore off.

I had to race back to town to make it in time to see him at the finish!  Driving out of the canyon was gorgeous!

I did make it back sooner then expected and cheered on all the amazing runners.  Wow, all kinds of ages and people, I was impressed!  Yes, I did have a picture taken of me, I had to have proof that I was really there...right?

Then...here he came!  Trying to snatch a picture and cheer him on with a sign, was a task, but was worth it. oops, eyes were closed...

I need to look up his exact time, but close enough... 3:51!  His goal was under 4 hrs. and he did it!  Very cool. yes I did doctor the time board...wish I was at the finish line as he crossed it...

He found me at the fence outside the runner area.  This is what his medallion looked like (red stone marbled in)

Together at the end.  Good job honey!!