Doing a LOT of Running on Pioneer Day!!!

This past January, Jon came up to me and said this:

"I want to run a marathon!!!"

We talked about it and decided it'd be fun to find a race wherein he could run the full marathon and I could run a half. So, a ridiculous amount of money later, we were signed up to run the Deseret News Classic on Pioneer Day--July 24th, 2015.

This past June, Jon came up to me and said this:

"Why'd I ever think this was a good idea to run a marathon? Running is stupid! Once I'm done with this race, I'm saying goodbye to running for forever!"

We talked about it, and what with him having hardly trained for the race because he'd been so busy finishing up classes to graduate, I suggested that he maybe just run the half marathon with me. His response was along the lines of: "But a half marathon isn't really any sort of accomplishment and that'd be dumb!" So, he went ahead and did the full marathon.

This past July 24th, Jon ran across the finish line after having ran all 26.2 miles down Emigration Canyon and through part of Salt Lake City and said this:

Well, actually, I can't quite recall what he said. Mostly, he was deathly white and barely walking and so tired that he didn't really want to talk. But he finished, and now the deed is done!

Both of us were pretty excited about our times! The best time I've ever gotten running a half is 2 hours 10 minutes, and that was with extensive training. This time, I didn't train nearly as well and was hoping to, at the very least, get the same time. So I ran with the 2:10 pacers for the first half of the race and was able to keep up just fine! Then, for the second part of the race, a girl named Tori that had also been running with the 2:10ers and I pulled ahead of the group and started running 9 minute miles instead of 10 minute miles! We finished the race together at 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 47 seconds, averaging with an overall 9:30 mile! I was really happy with how well I'd done, despite little training!

Jon ran the first 15 miles at about a 8:30 per mile no problem. Around mile 15, though, things got a bit harder, but her kept running diligently until about mile 20. Here, it was just too hard to keep running straight, and he finished up by alternating running and walking. He finished at 4 hours, 2 minutes, and 42 seconds, averaging a 9:16 mile! Holy cow!

One really cool part about the race was that, since it was on Pioneer Day, Jon and I wanted to run remembering our ancestor pioneers. So the day before the race we decorated shirts with the names of our ancestors on them and then race the race in them! When the running got rough, I just remembered the names of Louisa B. Rogers and Christina A. Larsen and ran a bit harder for them. It was cool, having something bigger than myself to run for.

My shirt:

The front of Jon's shirt:

The back of Jon's shirt (Jon's face included):

I doubt Jon will ever run a race again, and there's a good chance I may never run a race again too because I think my time to be better spent on other things besides training, but I really did love running in the race. There's something very powerful about doing hard physical things. Not only does it help you feel more in control of your body, it helps you feel powerful and strong in other areas of your life too. Like, "If I can run that really long and hard race, I can do other hard things in life too!" If you've ever felt like running a race is something you want to do, I'd encourage you to do it! It's more possible than you might think, and the feeling you get in the end is amazing!