Jason had come to the 2012 St George Marathon to cheer everyone on and we were able to convince him to join the party in 2013! Jason has never been a runner, but after seeing my two previous experiences with the St George Marathon, he decided it was worth a try.
We loved training together. We would take off running on Saturday mornings and just see where we ended up! We found some awesome trails and some that lead to nowhere.
The only problem was, we found ourselves only squeezing in our long runs on Saturdays. Each week we said we were going to try to find time to run during the week, but every Saturday, we would wake up having not run since the Saturday before. I decided it was more training than I had done the year before and it would be fine!
We were excited to see our friends in St George marathon weekend! I was excited for Jason to have his first experience running a marathon! I found myself being a little nervous. This was the first marathon I had shown up to planning to run and finish a marathon!
We got some lunch
and found ourselves playing in a wig shop nearby!
We piled in the car and drove up to the starting line. It looks so different in the light of day. It made me excited for the cold, dark crowds of excited runners that would be there in the morning.
After just a few hours of sleep, it was finally time. We have never been morning people and it always amazes me how wide awake I am on the morning of a marathon. The excitement reminds me of being a kid on Christmas morning, except you are about to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, and have to run home!! You have to experience it to understand.
We met up with our friends, who each had their own "before running routine", but smiles that held the same anticipation of finding out how their months of training (or lack of) would pay off on the course.
We huddled in the cold, waited in the lines for the bathrooms, and talked about what our goals were for ourselves. We wished each other luck and made our way to our hopeful times, marked by balloons near the starting line.
The course was just as beautiful as I remembered. The people were just as interesting to watch as they had been in years past. More potta potties had been added to the course, so the number of bare butts relieving themselves on the side of the road was not quite as shocking as it was in previous years!
I felt great until about mile 15 when my knee really started to hurt. Darn knee! It is always a problem for me! By mile 17 I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish. I wanted to try, but I didn't want to hold Jason back. After protesting a few times, he finally agreed to go on with out me and finish what we started.
I ran until it hurt too much and then would walk. I wondered if I could finish 9 more miles in that condition. I felt so frustrated and totally defeated. Another runner came up behind me and asked what was going on with my knee. He slowed to a walk next to me and asked more questions about where it hurt and how important it was to me to finish. He had run what seemed like a million marathons, but I can't remember the number. He was running another marathon in a few weeks and was using St George as a long run. Who does that!? He was the nicest guy and gave me some great advice and a great big "finish the marathon" pain pill. He said, based on what I told him, that I wouldn't do any serious damage to my knee if I kept running and that the pill would help it to start feeling better in about 20 minutes, wished me luck and was on his way. I love runners!!
It wasn't long before the pain in my knee dulled and I could run. I tied to look for Jason off in the distance, but didn't think I would ever be able to catch up. I ran the next several miles wondering how he was doing. When I could see the town in the distance, I began to wonder if he had finished already and wished that I could have been there to cheer him on.
As I was turning one of the corners in town, I saw Jason up ahead walking! I found new energy and began running faster and calling his name. He turned around and got tears in his eyes. He gave me the biggest hug and started to cry. He said, "I don't want to do this without you! There is no point in getting to the end if you are not next to me! A marathon is like life and I just want you to be with me. It got really hard when I was by myself. My hamstring started hurting and it was miserable! It is just like life. I don't want to cross the finish line without you. "
I seriously think I am the luckiest girl in the world! We made our way through town until we saw the finish line. When our names were announced, Jason took off in a super cheesy sprint! He stopped just a few feet before the finish line to turn and wait for me so we could cross together. I love that he can always make me laugh and I love that we finished together.
Words cannot describe how much I love this guy!
We found our friends and listened to each others stories of trials and triumphs along the course.
1 comment:
Tara--I love this post. Love so many things about it. But love the end the most. Thanks so much for sharing that. You do have yourself a great man, and he's got himself one special woman. What a neat thing to get to do together!!
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