St. George Marathon

And also, sometime back in October and totally out of chronological order, Ryan ran the St. George Marathon. We all went up and my brother and his family were so nice to open up their house to us. Their boys are so good to Willa and June, my girls love going there.

The night before, they had a little festival and we signed the girls up for a little 100 yard fun run. It was so cute! They were very serious and Willa was such a responsible sister keeping track of June. In fact, at the end they didn't come up through the gates like the other kids and we were looking everywhere for them. After a few minutes, we heard someone on the PA system. Willa had been smart enough to find an adult for help. They got medals, which was very special for them, and cotton candy which was almost equally as special.

Thumbs up!

 Ryan got to hang out with the sub-elites and the elites the morning of the race. They have their own special corral right up at the front. He was worried that he hadn't put a fast enough time down and that they wouldn't let him up there and he wouldn't get to cross the starting line with the gun. Poor guy, it's hard to realize how the rest of us plebs live. Luckily, his fears were unfounded. He had a great start and was off and going until about mile 19. You know what they say about not running in new shoes? This was kind of one of those things. He'd done a long run in some new racing shoes, but not broken them in like his other shoes. There was considerable less drop in these shoes and adding all the downhills with the distance, he started to get bad calf cramps. In fact, he had to actually walk three or four times, which is anathema to Ryan. Still, he survived and got 19th place with a time of 2:35. Full of excuses as always. I think if the calves hadn't been a problem, he would've probably been in the top ten because he was smokin'. 

 One of the perks of finishing early is that it's not crowded. He was able to hobble around and get a massage without any wait time. Then he basically lay like a slug on the couch for the next day or two because he was so sore everywhere. He was surprised at the soreness. I was really sore when I did it 15 years ago, but I've always been in crummy shape. It was surprising to me that he would be so sore after all the mileage he had been putting in. I kind of hope he does it again and can race without the leg cramps, but also selfishly because another friend might be going next year so if Ryan races I can see her :). On the other hand, he was training A LOT. And was really nice to have him home a little more afterwards when his mileage went down a little.