4th Marathon

This entry is just to get it down for posterity.  Warning: There will be whining.  It's nice to have 4 done.  I have already signed up for #5 (Ogden again with a few friends), but I'm very glad there are many months between now and then.  #4 really beat me up. 
Matt picked Jen up from the airport while I tried to finish up school with the kids after the Christmas Play practice.  I have never had such a hectic week coming up to a race.  There really was no time to stress about the run, which was kind of a nice change.  We drove up to Mesquite, got our numbers, checked into the hotel and drove around to try and find some food.  We should have gone for the safe choice of Quiznos, but wanted something a little more indulgent.  Sadly Jen's dinner disagreed with her and she was up from 2:45 am on.  I followed suit an hour and a half later.  We got up, ate, packed and checked out of the room by 5.  They wouldn't let us do late check out and we couldn't guarantee being back in time.  So we checked our bags at the desk and locked our wallets and phones in the glove box of the car.  Ride the bus up, wait for the start.  We had been watching the weather carefully.  The day was supposed to get nasty, but not until noonish.  We took off pants and sweatshirts and sent them back to the finish line on the bus.  We basically had shorts, tank tops and the nifty arm warmers made from men's socks. 
This is all the good stuff.  The weather was gorgeous.  We were feeling great.  The first 3-4 miles were in Utah.  They were downhill and we couldn't help starting fast, knowing it wasn't smart, but enjoying the moment.  Our first few miles were all well under an 8 minute pace.  (Paid for that later.)  Then the road leveled out and it started sprinkling.  That was the first warning sign.  The rain didn't ever really set in, but the wind came, took its place with a vengeance and didn't let up--for 3 days. 
It was the wind that did me in more than anything else.  I have run in wind before.  I have even had one run in worse wind, but it was only for 5 miles.  This was 4 hours.  ug.  Once Jen and I separated--I lagged behind--I tried to listen to my ipod, but it was hard to hear.  The wind knocked my visor off so I had to tighten it to headache tightness.  Whenever there was loose dirt or sand nearby, you felt like you were getting sandblasted with the grit stinging and digging into your skin.  Lovely.  And then there were hills. The elevation map just didn't do it justice.  Hard hills, plenty of hills.  And you finally enter Mesquite, not to run straight down the main street to the finish, but to to take all these stupid detours through random neighborhoods to add the last 6 miles.  Blah.  There were no spectators. All normal, sane people were staying indoors.  The poor sweet volunteers at the aid tables, dressed in parkas, hats and gloves, would call out "water or gaterade?" so they could quickly pour you a cup. Couldn't do it early or it would get blown away.  And I didn't realize until WAY too late (mile 21) that my marvelous arm socks were chaffing me something horrible.  I never left them on so long before.  I have the hugest nastiest patches under my arms that are still so raw and painful 4 days later. 

This race became an exercise in enduring to the end.  I have never wanted to quit something so badly.  You can never plan on the weather.  I know there have been plenty of worse races for others, this is just mine.  I hope not to top it.  I hope Ogden is gorgeous again this May.  I did finish in 4:4something, so it wasn't my slowest, but nowhere near fastest.  The medal is pretty cool.  I'm so glad Jen came and did it with me.  If I only had myself to drive back, I would have been even more tempted to climb into the back of a squad car and beg to be taken back.

Funny note of interest: on the race instructions for directing people driving themselves to the race it said, "On Highway 91, 3-4 miles into the Utah border.  Look for the painted rebar about 15 feet from the side of the road."  We literally started in the middle of nowhere.

Glad to be done.  My necklace that reminds me that I can do hard things has a new layer of meaning now.