Park City

I ran my marathon, mission completed. I finally have some time to sit down and write about it because my kiddos are still asleep. I wasn't too happy because my worst fear came true, I got sick right before the race. It wasn't swine flu (just a cold) so I decided to run anyway- I wasn't going for the win. The race started at 6:30 and we were there with plenty of time to stew in my nervousness. When the gun went off I almost cried because I never thought I would be able to do it, I was told as a teenager not to run because I had tendinitis, Ha, I showed them! No really my legs just grew into their connective tissue. Well on with the story. For the first 8 or so miles I was kinda bored because I was all my myself, and four hours is a long time to run with no music and nobody to talk to for very long. I found some interesting people, but the program I was running alternated between running for four minutes and walking for one to help with leg muscle recovery (see Jeff Galloway's the Injury Free Marathon).

Then I found Hans and Doug, two people doing the same alternating pattern I was. I followed them for awhile and chatted, and they adopted me onto their team. We picked up a few more runners and had a blast. We cheered for everyone who passed us and everyone we passed, including the spectators and volunteers. They both had run several marathons and coached the rest of us to the finish line.

Adam rocked as my support system. I send him special thanks for helping me to fill our Saturday mornings for months with running. He never complained about the time my running took, and came with me when I needed encouragement. Thank you Love. He and the boys found me 6 times on the race course. Mom and Dad Lyman, Steven, and Chad all came to cheer me on two, and it was fun to stop and hug my children along the race course. Another cool experience was going into one water stop my Mom handed me a water. I knew she was coming and would be at one of the aid stations, but it was really neat to actually see her. It was a fun surprise. Thanks to my Mom because running that far hurts, and massage helps.

I finished in 4:32 and some odd seconds. The race course was beautiful, I couldn't have imagined a more beautiful course, it was a little tougher than the average course with the first 18 miles being generally uphill and the peak of the course being about 7200 feet, but the elevation didn't bother me too much. It was all worth it for the view. The marathon became one of my favorite experiences in life, it is hard to explain, just train and go see for yourself. I also got a cool medal that I wore the rest off the day because from now on it will hang on my wall.

The starting line

The breakfast of champions, well what we could find for a hungry boy that early. I thought it was kinda funny for him to be eating fast food at a marathon. We are developing healthy habits early.

Running through New park City I think


It was like playing Hide-and-go -seek to see when I would find them next.

Daddy with the kids. (Lucas got to play photographer)

Still running

Happy to be done.

Doug, me, Allyson, Shawn, and Franz-- my impromptu team.

My forever team, Back-Adam, Steven, Mom Lyman, Dad Lyman, Chad Lyman (he had been home from his mission a whole week) Front-Lucas, James, Me, Mom

Oh, another side effect of running so much, I lost all my baby weight!

Coming soon--Lucas's first climbing trip.