Marathon...Check!!

The Ogden Marathon has come and gone and it now seems like a distant memory that I was running in it. Fortuantely I do have some documentation of the event so I know that it was real!! All I can say is YES!! I am done!! Sadly I have been talked into another marathon in September by some amazing ladies that we met at oh yes 5 am waiting for the buses to load us up and take us up the canyon! Before we get to that though there are some more interesting events that occurred the day before.

Friday night Kim and I ate our carb loaded dinner of whole wheat pasta with homemade summer squash spaghetti sauce. Yes I can vouch it was delicious!!! Packed and thinking we were all prepared we headed up to the runners expo to pick up our packets in Ogden where we picked up a wide variety of gadets and accessories for our run the next day, oh and we were informed we were rubbing anifreeze all over our bodies and were killing ourselves but what else is new?! I still love BioFreeze!!! Maybe that is how they got the name from AntiFreeze, could be I will never know! Next we head off to locate our hotel so we can get settled for the short sleep we would get before having to get up at 4:30 to get ready and on the bus. Side note: Kim is a germ-a-phobe and as most of you all know I am nowhere near one and I picked the hotel soooo I was a bit nervous if she was going to last in my selection. I picked the Ben Lomond Hotel becuase that was where the busses were picking us up at and I figured it would be less of a hassle. So we pulled in and it was a bit run down. As we enter the lobby it reeked of something not sure what still and there were two cops in the lobby and nobody at the front desk. Kim was seriously doubting my choice and I was begining to as well. So we get to the front desk ring the bell and wait, and wait and wait. So I ring it again and this lady peeks around the pole and asks, "You aren't here to check in are you?" Well actually yes we are and why in the world do you sound apprehensive?? The lady informed us that not only did they not have our reservation due to thier computer crashing 2 weeks ago but they did not set aside any rooms for those lost reservations and so there were no rooms available unless we wanted the room without a bed in it? Yeah we sure did want to sleep on a hotel floor, uh huh exactly. So she wrote out a few other hotel phone numbers in the area and said that they are probably full but she couldn't do anything about that becuase it wasn't her fault!! Kim is a bit more forward and blunt than I so she gave the lady several choice words and I got to work calling hotels. Eventually we found one about 20 minutes away in Layton that was lovely and the front desk girls were nice enough to take off about $50 of the room rate becuase we were the 3 group that came from Ben Lomond!!

As we were leaving the ghetto that is called Ogden Kim turns and says, "Hey that guy has a gun!" I thought she was joking till I turned and the kid was shoving the gun under his shirt as he noticed us looking!! Then I was glad we were heading out of Ogden and over to Layton!!!

Saturday we rose at 4 am, showered, got our matching outfits on, taped our thighs and knees, watches synched, shuffles in place and numbers pinned we headed out to run our little legs off. WEll from the last run I didn't remember how chilly it was while waiting for the start of the marathon but luckily we bumped into this mother daughter marathon racers on the bus who gave us thier garbage bag to share. So Kim and I wandered around from the porta potties to the bon fires front to back with our heads stuck out of a garbage back. Let's just say we became a lot closer in those 45 minutes we were stuck to each other!!



The race started and we were off to win the race!! This time around I was not as happy of a camper, my hip was bothering me from the get go and therefore other parts of me were achy shortly after. Kim pulled ahead at mile 15 and I was alone with some very funny people. I also ran into a girl from my old singles ward who recognized me while we were running, what a small world!! I finished in 4 hours and 18 minutes about 18 minutes slower than my goal but I am done and the pain is mostly a memory until I think of running again!!!





Those lovely ladies that we rode the bus with invited us to run in the Top of Utah marathon in September and they would love it if we would stay at their house! Free lodging, who wouldn't run another marathon for that!!! Haa haa haa haa!!!!

To Be Continued.....