Pain You Enjoy...

Utah Valley Half Marathon:

Rick (and imediate family) was invited to foin the Pleasant Grove Fire Department for the Utah Valley Half Marathon.  They were supporting cancer research so their shirts were pink--Rick's favorite color.

The PG Fire Chief, Marc Sanderson, challenged his staff (and family) to train and run in this years events.  Marc is a running stat freak...he tracks every mile he runs and lists every race he has ever completed, who he ran with, the shoes he wore, nutrition, etc.  This marathon was his 124th.  He has cone 15 ultras of 100 miles+.

The PG Fire Department had 31 of 48 firefighters running the marathon with 35 family members running either the full or the half.  

That is 72% of his department.

Marc jokes that the first question they ask applicants for the department is if they will ever consider running a marathon.  

So, we were proud to wear our PGFD pink at this 4th Annual Utah Valley Marathon.

 

 I rode the bus up with my friend, Audrey (her first/last 1/2 marathon).

We obediently arrived at the bus stop at the mall at 3:30 am, 

and arrived just above the Sundance turnoff at 4:00 am.

I immediately texted Brandi to see where she was.

She informed me that she was "On her way".

Whatever.

She was still in bed.

She and her neighbors cheated and had somebody drop them off at 5:45.

I hope they feel good about that.

(they do)

So, while we were huddled around the fire pit, we found two of our neighbors who were also running the half...

Lesli, who runs often (her husband ran the full and finished just a few minutes before Rick)

And Shilo, who is also a runner and was just using this as "a training run for another race".  (he finished 1 hour before I did.  wow)

 Oh, it's 5:45...look who just arrived.  

She still looks like she's sleeping...

 The Starting Line...it was pretty cool when we started running.  

It was on a downhill and all you could see for the first 1/2 mile was bodies running.  

It looked like a million people running down that canyon.

The first mile is always the worst for me.  Mile marker 1 was at the tunnel.

 I didn't run with anyone.  It took me 2 minutes to get my music figured out and by that time everyone was long gone.

 I probably lost a few seconds by stopping to take pictures but this was my favorite:

If it were easy, Everyone would do it!!

The other favorite sign said:

Tough times don't last, but tough people do

 It was hard.  I'm not gonna lie.

But, my favorite thing ever was running down University Ave. with the right hand lane blocked off.

The finish line was right in the middle of University and Center.

When he got about 2 blocks from the finish line, all of the lanes were blocked off and reserved only for runners.

People were lined up and down both sides cheering for every person who came running by.

I've heard that that is how it is for the whole 26 miles of the Boston Marathon.

If that is the case, then no wonder people try to hard to qualify for Boston.

It was unbelievable to me how motivating and emotional it was to run towards the finish line with so many people cheering for me.

This was my 3rd half marathon. 

And my best time so far: 2:35.

I was hoping to finish under 4:40.

I am doing another half in August and I hope to finish under 2:30.

Here we are at the end.

Summer, Sierra and Grandma Bette ran the 5K.

Summer was 5th in her age division.

Sierra was 6th in her age division.

They ran in the Dirty Dash the previous week as part of their training.

Sierra loved the dirty dash and can't wait to do that again.

Here is Grandma Bette running to the finish line.  

Her goal was to not come in last...

She finished 2nd in her age division.

WAY TO GO.

The person who finished before her only beat her by a couple of minutes.

She is ready to train for next year so she can finish 1st in her age division.