Top of Utah Marathon

So this past weekend I did something crazy...I ran a marathon. It's been one of my lifelong goals to run a marathon. So this summer I started training for the Top of Utah. I didn't know how it was going to go because I started training pretty late and then when school started I didn't get to run as much as I wanted to. Then...I think my body was just hating me...I rolled my ankle three weeks before the marathon doing gymnastics on the lawn (hehehe). So I couldn't run for like a week. Then the next week I got a nasty head cold. So I was still planning on running the marathon, but I really didn't know how it would go. I just wanted to finish. The night before I was so nervous! I started thinking I was crazy for wanting to do this!

Last Saturday was the big day! When we got up to Hardware Ranch at 6am it was 26 degrees! There were 2200 runners from around the world! It was such an amazing, intimidating, and exciting feeling. There were runners of every age, shape, and size. After the race began I took a moment to turn around about a half mile into the race. It was an unbelievable sight! There were about a thousand runners in front of me in a steady stream up around the bend of the mountain, and there were about a thousand more behind us. Wow.

Running a marathon was one of the most physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual things I have ever done! I ran the race with Emily Noorda. One of the best feelings was running up the road and seeing my mom and friends waving their arms and cheering for me. It gave me energy to go on! About mile 20 I started getting shooting pains up my leg from my foot. All of the sudden I could hardly walk. I was hobbling and jogging. I was nearly in tears while I ran. It was so painful! But I thought, "I have made it 20 miles, I didn't want to walk the rest." So I told Emily to pray. She was running and I was hobbling and we were both praying so hard. I called my mom and said, "Pray for my left foot!" and hung up. I was at a point where I could hardly walk, let along run. But then, somehow, I was able to run again. I finished out the last six miles running. It was a miracle to me! Come to find out, my mom prayed for the rest of the race for me (It was almost an hour). It strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father is aware of our desires and our goals. He helped me accomplish something that I had set my heart on.