Ogden Marathon

Well all this running had to start somewhere and I blame Chelsea Beauchamp. She was my running partner from the beginning (including sparatic runs sophmore and junior year when we were roommates) to the end finishing the Ogden Half Marathon. The race itself was really beautiful and relaxing I would have to say until the last three miles. We had to meet the bus at 5 AM. We were still pretty much asleep to realize how crazy we were about to be. We waited for two hours for the sun to come up in the canyon before we could start the race. During these two hours we warmed ourselves by the fire, talked to other runners, did a warm up dance, and used the port-o-potties while we still could. The race started at 7 and we were off down the canyon. Chelsea and I had a long conversation about how beautiful the canyon was as we ran by, since we were not actually going that fast we had time to look around, we would especially enjoy the cool breezes when they came off the lake or down the canyon walls. As for the refueling stations I think my favorite was the one that had gummy bears, we weren't stopping for water by then but I saw gummy bears and grabed at the plate without slowing down. I think more gummy bears ended up on the ground than in my hand that way. Many people were running by themselves and listening to their music, but I was glad for Chelsea to run with so that we could help keep our minds off the actual running part. We took the time to remenice about how awesome we are and good times we have had as roommates. We also would check out all the cool running outfits people had on that day. There were also a lot of people that came out to cheer us on, my favorite was the plumber that was showering water for us to run though (also advertising for himself). Once out of the canyon we had three miles to run on the river trail through the park and downtown to the finish. This was the hardest three miles of the race and the last 100 yards was especially the hardest 100 yards I have ever had to run. As the trail dumped out onto Grant Street you could see forever down the road but you weren't sure where the finish actually was. Every step from there was taking all the energy I had. As we finally saw the finish line Chelsea says to me I don't think I can go any faster than this, I was thinking the same thing. It wasn't until we were surrounded by the crowds that we pulled every bit of energy that we could find to sprint to the finish. Two hours and four minutes after the start we were done!!! And with that we somehow found more energy to walk around to get free food like Jamba Juice, Great Harvest, Powerade and all the fruit you could want. Now I can say that I have completed a life goal and wait another 24 years before I think about doing the full marathon. And I do have to say that Brad wanted to run also but waited too long so the half marathon was full, but he did an awseome job on his 5K!!!