Amber's marathon journey comes to an end.

Saturday morning May 16th, 2009 , our alarms went off at 4:00 a.m. We already had everything laid out and were ready to go at 4:30. My dad dropped us off at that bus pickup and we were loaded and on our way up the canyon by 5:00. I loved listening to all of the stories around me from seasoned marathon runners, it helped to calm my nerves. Once at the top we gathered around the fire pits in the 28 degree weather, and made our visits to the porta potty's. 30 minutes to race time we stood in the potty lines one more time (which were very long) and then threw all of our unwanted clothing into the back of the u haul and headed to the starting line. Our toes were so frozen we couldn't feel them for the first two miles( we would be wishing for frozen toes again around mile 17). We stood at pace marker 10 and waited for 7:00 and the gun to sound. Off it went, and we didn't start moving for a few minutes. 5 minutes later we were finally at the start line and on our way. We knew we were in trouble when 1/2 a mile in we were already going up hill. The entire first half seemed to be mostly up. So by mile 13 we were already tired. The second half began with the biggest hill of the course (similar to Veyo). The heat, elevation and bad water (like swallowing plastic) made the hours drag on. But...We finally hit Ogden canyon and some blessed down hills (not as many as we would have liked, but relief none the less). We slowly made our way through the canyon, along the trails and into Ogden on to the final mile stretch. We some how pulled out some last minute muscle and ran our hardest the last 1/2 mile to the end. 5 hrs. 53 min. not the best time on record, but we did it, WE RAN A MARATHON! The best sight to see was a huge tub of ice cold bottled water sitting right there at the finish line, along with my family who got me through that last stretch. And although I can say this will probably not be my last (SuLynn may think differently :)) I am so happy I started this journey a year ago. When I think back I wonder why people pay $75 to get up at 3 in the morning for weeks, deal with blisters and sore muscles, worry about having to use the bathroom on the side of the road, gain weight, down so much Gu, beans and cliff bars that you can't stand to look at another, all to run 26.2 miles. It is because you can't beat the feeling of joy that comes with knowing you can do it! Thank you SuLynn for sticking with me through it all!

More pictures to come!