Oh yeah...btw...Marathon 12 - Check.

So it's May.  It's the end of the school year.  Life is crazy busy, right?  Time passes by way to quick.  And there's not enough hours in the day.  And it's Friday.  And I'm finally getting around to telling you....

I DID IT!!!!

MARATHON #12...COMPLETE.

12 MARATHONS IN 12 MONTHS!!!

I ran the Ogden Marathon last Saturday!!!  Building up to this race I had a few little set backs, (a bad ITB, a bad head cold and solid sheets of depressing rain for a week) which caused me to disappear for a bit from blogging.  So I went into this race a little quieter than I thought I would be.  I had pushed my hopes for a sub 4 behind me.  Kinda sad.  But, I was running my twelth marathon in twelve months.  Holy crap.  It was already here.  I couldn't even believe it, still can't....

It was an early start...I had to set my alarm for 3:15 am.  I woke up to some light rain showers but was praying they'd disappear.

Started the race with some friends...  Brooke, Trisha, and Natalie.

And then this guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I'd take a picture of him and his friend.  When I looked at him...it was my friend from last summer!!!  We were in the Deseret Newspaper together...  This was John Bozung's 315th marathon!!!  Amazing.  And over the 2000 runners at the marathon start, he tapped me on the should.

The marathon start could not have been more gorgeous.  Rain had passed and the mountains looked beautiful.

  

The first three miles are so quick that it seems everyone is running in a sideways blur... ;)

We ran along the river the majority of the race and with so much rain in the past week as well as the snow melt the river was crazy high and moving like rapids.  There were a couple sections came up to the outer line on the road!!

My goal this race was to finish feeling happy and strong.  I wanted to hold back in the early miles.  Stay around 9:00/miles and hope that my knee would hold out.  It held out til 13.  But I still stayed in the 10:00 family and was ok with that.  It's so hard to be realistic and optimistic. 

I picked this race as my #12 for a reason.  It is just gorgeous.  The canyon we run through was cool, green and had a wonderful downhill!!  And it's a local race for me so I was able to see friends through the course.  My cousin Melanie ran it as a relay with her friends and I saw her at mile 7.  I saw my friend Jan around mile 20, she was running her first marathon ever and looked awesome!  I saw the friends I started with back and forth throughout the race.  It's nice to be able to exchange energy with familiar faces. 

My Garmin died at mile 23.  Crazy.  So the last three miles were all on feel.  I wish it would have worked, it may have helped me to finish faster, stay on a better pace. But no big whoop.

At mile 25 I came out of a secluded trail and as I looked around I saw one of my friends jumping and screaming my name!  I was totally in shock.  I had no idea anyone would be coming.  I looked around and saw my friends Anna, Suzanne, Robynn and Jessica.  They brought signs and gave just the boost I needed to finish out the last mile.  And I had a few salty tears too.  I wish I had a picture of them.  So awesome.

I pushed through that final mile feeling pretty great.  Official finish time... 4:23!!!  I'll take it!  Fastest race since last fall!!!  Yay!!!

It was such a crazy Saturday that my cute mom was the only one able to be at the finish line.  She's been such a great support through this whole year.  Well, really, for always.  : )

 As you can imagine, I have so much to write and talk about.  But for now...I did it.  I have so much gratitude for this amazing experience and feel completely blessed to have been able to run all these races and to have had the experiences I've had.

So definitely more to come!!!