Ogden Marathon 2011

May brings around one of my favorite traditions....girl's weekend in Ogden! Too bad the only girl's weekends we have involve running:) For three years now a bunch of us have went to Ogden to run in one of their races. Wether it be the relay, the 5K, the 1/2 marathon, the marathon, or going as a pregnant spectator, we always have a great time. I talked myslef into the marathon this year...it really was a great experience, but one I'm not gonna try and repeat any time soon:)

One of the main reasons I go is for the food. We always stop at the Cheesecake Factory, yum yum! The food didn't disappoint us, but the service may have. Marci and I ended up with a free piece of cheesecake out of it so I guess it was ok:) I'm pretty sure the waiter loved when we handed him 9 cameras to take group pictures with.....he probably knew he had to do it if he wanted a tip:) We stayed at a way nice house in Eden that Amber found for us. It's so pretty up there and the house was perfect. Not too far from the shuttle to the start of the race so we didn't have to get up quite so early. 5 a.m. is early enough for me!

While we were training we thought it would be cool to run this race for my awesome Mom who is going through chemotherapy for colon cancer right now. She's a trooper and is being so strong about the whole thing, even though I know she doesn't always feel too great. So we decided to write something on our legs for her--Running for Jill. A few of us wrote it on our legs before we left Friday and went to her house to surprise her with it. She made us all cry:) It was great motivation while we were running to think of her and other people that are struggling with different things....running a marathon is easy compared to what some people have to go through! Here we are waiting for our shuttle to take us to the starting line. Thank goodness we made it there--they told us there were two spots to catch the shuttle and really there was only one so we were racing to get there and thankfully made it. If we would have went to all this work training and then missed the bus and couldn't run we would've been mad! Thanks so much to Michelle for being our driver and getting us there, even though she really wanted to be running with us. Out of all of us, Michelle is the one who really really wanted to run and couldn't cuz of some health issues. But she was still an awesome cheerleader and we couldn't have done it without her! Especially without the sign her and Kim made for us to motivate us halfway through the marathon;) It was a long 26.2 miles but we made it! Tiff and I had said we were gonna try and finish in 4:15. We were doing so awesome and were ahead of our time until about the last 6 miles, at which point we didn't really care what our time was cuz we were so tired! We ended up finishing at 4:23 which isn't breaking any records but I'm so proud of us! You definitely get to know people when you train that long together, and let's face it, running is more about socializing than anything! At about mile 25 Tiff had some bad cramps in her left cheek, and not the one on her face:) So we stopped a few times so I could rub it out for her....true friendship!:) We for sure got some good comments and looks for that!

We were soooo happy to see the finish line and all the people standing there cheering. When you see that it takes your mind to another place and you forgot how tired you are and how much you want to stop! People that you don't know are cheering you on and giving high-fives and it's great. The best part of the race by far is seeing your family at the end cheering you on....I think I cried the last 1/4 of a mile seeing my friends families and thinking of my own. They were right at the end cheering for me and it was so awesome. I definitely couldn't have done it without Kurtis helping out so much while we trained and never complaining.

(Don't know why Tate was so ornery, and don't know who the man in the tight plaid shorts is either:))

And here we all are, alive and well at the finish line!

Lindsey, Dana, Darla, Michelle, Tiff, Marci, Me, Dani, and Amber.

Thanks ladies for a great weekend, can't wait for next year!