Excellent run. Excellent roadtrip. Excellent friends.
Emily, Michelle, Jaime, and I went down to Logan for the Top of Utah Marathon to support and cheer on Natalie and Brooke, who were running in the race. We parked about mile 14 and Michelle and I ran to find Natalie and Brooke. (The runners seemed to enjoy pointing out that we were running the wrong way.) We found the girls about mile 12. Michelle stayed back and ran with Brooke, while I ran the rest of the course with Natalie. Despite the constant rain, the two vicious bouts of hail, and the frighteningly close lighting, I had blast running with and cheering for Natalie, interacting and thanking the cheering fans, and cheering for and talking with the other runners.
I met a man from Oklahoma City, who travels the country running marathons. He has two more this year. Unfortunately he tore his quad, so he was walking the Top of Utah. But his injury wasn't a bother to him, his attitude was very upbeat.
I met a couple in their seventies that had run the race together every year for the past ten years. They said this year was the worst weather they'd every seen for the race. Although, they did mention one year, it snowed.
I met a lady from Kansas City, who chose Top of Utah to be her first marathon. She said she picked it because it was relatively flat. She said that every time she said, "It's stopped raining!" it would start raining again.
Another lady was running in her 70th marathon. For another lady, this was her 36th.
I felt great the entire run. I was often asked if the race was my first marathon. I'd reply, "No. I'm not in the race. I'm running with Natalie. It's her first marathon." Sometimes I felt like I wasn't helping Natalie by running with her. It was frustrating that I couldn't give her my energy or my blister-free feet. She gritted through it and got it done. I hope her recovery goes well. She didn't drink much on the coarse and refused gu. Her body was shaking when we were saying our good-byes.
Brooke finished just three minutes behind Natalie with a big smile. I'm so glad Brooke had a good race. I was worried about her. Her motivation to run the last month has not been there. In fact, it seemed like running was no longer fun for Brooke. But, she did awesome. Brooke was smiling and raising her arms in triumph the last 200 meters.
Will I run a marathon one day? Not in the forseeable future. But making a career out of running with other in their marathon sounds very interesting.
And the Aggie Ice Cream was amazing. Raspberry cream and Aggie tracks. De-lick-ious! | 