St. George Marathon 2013

26.2 miles.  Yeah baby!

 

Saturday October 5th marked a most memorable day for Carter and I!  We had a

great run together.  Cooler weather, previous training runs, feeling good, lots of prayers,

support, icy hot rub, delicious bananas and oranges, water, and cheering were blessings

that helped us along the way!  It was our best run together ever!  Our goal

was to come in just under 5 hours.  We did it in 4 hours 39 minutes.  Woo hoo! 

I am so proud of Carter!  At 14 years of age, this is an incredible accomplishment,

a life event he will always be proud of and happy to know he did.

 

A marathon teaches so many life lessons.  You can do hard things.  Endurance. 

Mind over matter.  You are strong.  You can accomplish goals.  Hard work

brings rewards.  Confidence.  Believe in yourself.  Preparation pays off.

 

Leading up to the race, how many times did I say, "come on Carter",

"you can do it Carter"?  Too many to count. I almost gave up

 on him when he was dragging his feet or complaining to get up early to train. 

For me, helping train Carter was more difficult than training myself.  Carter had

wanted to sign up for the marathon and I made sure it was his decision, not mine.

I let him know how much commitment and time this would take.

To give him credit, how could you really know until you experience it. 

Carter soon found out how difficult the training was, as he was living it,

especially our long mile runs.  He wanted to quit.  I was so close to letting him quit.  It would

have been easier for me, but I knew I wanted to teach him that he could do hard

things.  I kept reminding him how much this would pay off in his life. 

 I wanted him to build confidence in knowing he could do it.  Carter had never run a

race in his life.  It was pretty extreme to let him go from no miles to 26.2. 

 I knew he could do it though.  It was a great lesson for me as a parent, to not give

 up on my child.  I am SO glad that I didn't.  I prayed that the race would be a 

good experience. We were blessed to have that!  The training was our trial of faith

 and crossing the finish line brought great rewards!

 

I love the St. George Marathon.  The scenery is beautiful, the racers are encouraging, and

the volunteers are motivating and kind.  Carter and I got so many

positive remarks and encouraging words along the way!  It was still hard, but

we pushed through!  People were way impressed that a 14 year old was running! 

 I was feeling so blessed to be his mom and proud of him for not giving up!  It was all worth it!

 

This is the night before.  We had to load up on carbs and calories with our running friends!

 Jesse Callahan was a great motivator and trainer for Carter and I and so many

others.  He helped us train for hills by running the college stadium stairs.  He

also organized the long Saturday morning runs.  We had fun driving up with him, dropping

water and snacks along the way.  Jesse Callahan will forever be a role model to us.  We all

want to be a little more like him.  Happy, positive, selfless, service oriented, and generous. 

His wife, Laura is a gem too!  She's been so kind to our family!

 Race day was ffffrrrrreeeezing!  It took us quite a few miles to thaw out our toes.

What a blessing it was to have cooler weather though.  It is a lot easier to run in the cool

than the heat.  I ran a previous marathon in 90 degree weather and it was brutal!

 These are some running friends!  We had had a few training runs with the

 cute ladies on each end,  Ricki Chambers, and Bri Anna Eaton. 
The other girl by me is a cousin to Bri Anna.  We were huddling together to stay warm.  Brrrr.

 What a good feeling it was to be running this sweet event with my buddy!  A nice

runner offered to take our picture!  Bless her!

 Popsicles never tasted so good!  I am always grateful to the residents for sharing their

treats with the runners!

It was so awesome to see our family and friends near the finish line.  Kimberly Poulton and Shelly King were joining in on the cheering!

SO happy to be done,

 and SO happy to have yummy treats and snacks to feast on!

 Our marathon shirts said, "Proud mommy to my 14 year old marathon runner.  Go, Carter, Go".

Carter's said, "I am the 14 year old. Go, mom, go".

 The fam was so cute to make us a sign!

Our real time was a minute less than this but I had to document my garmin.

What a day!