I'm not 20 anymore!

I did my first full marathon today of 26.2 miles.  Was I insane to do my first at the ripe young age of 39?  Why didn't I do this when I was 20 or 25?  This body is so sore right now that it's having a hard time posting this.  I knew I was going to be sore, but not like this.  The whole body is in shut down mode and literally feels like it is in shock.   As much as it hurts, if feels so good to say I finally did a marathon. 

Coming into the finish line, I had a hard time trying to raise the arms to waive to the family.  My shoulders were so tired and super sore.  I never thought my shoulders would hurt as bad as they did.  It was cute to see the kids show up with Nichole to cheer their daddy on.  Thanks for coming guys!

O, it feels so good coming in to the finish line!  So ready for this thing to be over!  Nichole was so cute, she said she almost teared up as soon as she saw me coming in to the finish line.  Asking why she would tear up, she simply said she was so proud of her lover.

I ran the whole race with this guy in the yellow pacer jersey.  This pacer's name was Zack.  At the start of the race, there were about 10 of us. A couple went faster while others tapered off.  But in the end, it was just he and I.  It was nice to have him pacing the whole time, otherwise I'm not sure what my time would have been.  

I did it!  I'm coming across the finish line.  Thanks to Jake who got this on camera.  It's always cool to have people cheering you on, even when they don't know you.  I finished with an overall time of 3 hours 25 minutes with a mile pace time of 7:50/mile.  My goal was anything under 3:30, and I made it.  I just had to beat Don's time, you know the brotherly competition mentality

Although the race did not start until 7 am, the day started off with Nichole getting up at 3:00 with me to make me some breakfast.  She's so cute.  She gets up all the time with Eli and then gets up to send me off with a good breakfast.  She's awesome.  The race started at South Fork Park in Vivian Park of Provo Canyon and finished at the Provo courthouse.

Thank goodness for the aid stations at the end of the race.  A runner right behind me had collapsed at the finish line and needed medical attention.  I had never witnessed anything like that before, so I helped massage her legs in the first aid station to help get blood flowing back to her head while others gave her fluids, blankets and nourishment.  It truly felt like a team effort to help her.  She soon recovered within a few minutes.  I gulped down about 20 oranges and 10 cups of gatorade literally within about 2 minutes.  Those oranges tasted so good!

Upon offering help to wrap my knees with the ice wrap, I simply told this poor soul, "I'm sorry for putting my buttcheeks right in your face, but I can't bend over right now to wrap these things around the knees."  She took it in stride.  Talk about embarassing! It got a laugh. Being a medical person, she said she was used to awkward positions

Right when I sat down, the whole body just cramped up.  I probably shouldn't have done that.  Nichole left baby Eli with Grandma Merrill and Ethan was supposed to have his basketball practice, not realizing it was going to be canceled.  But, the rest came.

I sure love these kids!  Aren't they just so cute?!

I finished 28th overall out of 247 marathoners, 22nd among men out of 152, and 4th in my age group.