Sunday, October 11, 2009

Marathon Madness

The first thing that crossed my mind when I crossed the finish line was "where's David!!" I just wanted to give him the biggest hug and collapse in his arms! Last year I could see my whole little family cheering for me and it was great. So I was expecting the same thing this year. However, I am not surprised. Dave did a good job keeping the children entertained. It is not easy distracting 4 children and trying to spot your wife amongst the thousands of competitors, not to mention the spectators. They were also in a different spot than last time, so I completely missed them.

On the Friday we headed down to St George, 4 hour drive (you know, just as long as the length of time it took me to finish the marathon). I had been invited to an international lunch for all the international runners participating. I sat next to the only other aussie. She has ran in 90 marathons and wants to be the first Australian women to do 100! I didn't take any photos and so at the end I thought I would take one of the mayor of St George. It was a very yummy lunch.

This is the conference centre where the racers pick up there bib and timing chip for the race. There is a whole lot of things going on at the conference for the runners. Freebies, information about other marathons, tons of sporting merchandise and goodies. The children enjoyed getting all the free stuff. Isaac was having a game with dad and trying to cover his eyes and we were just glad he was entertained for the moment and not running around.

One of the booths was for KT Tape, a company set up last year by a BYU MBA Student (the girl standing next to Esther) as part of a Business Plan competition. They came in 2nd place, but the business is booming for them. The tape worked wonders on my knee and achilles during the race.

4:30 Friday we headed off to get me some pasta and whereever we went was crazy with huge lines. Whilst we waited, Beth decided she should stretch and get me stretching. You can't see properly, but at the conference centre she got some free KT tape and wanted to be taped up, just like mum.


Isaac was also getting up to alot of mischief while we waited for dinner. Lucky we didn't go any later!

This is about 500m before the finish line where everyone is waiting. You can see why Dave had a hard time finding me. There were 7,200 contestants and I came around 2,800th. I remember last year when I did the marathon the children were confused because I hadn't won and all these other people came before me. I'm just happy I finished! On the last 2 miles I swore to myself I would not do this again, now I am determined to get a better time!

Whilst I was running you keep thinkng about that finish line. Well, I couldn't wait to get that BIG hug from Dave. He was my inspiration! I could not have done it without his support!

THE FINISH LINE BABY!!!! The wheelchair race starts first and our race started at 6:45am. I was up at 4:15am and the bus took me up to the canyon at 4:45. They need all the contestants up early, so they can start the wheelchair race before our race. It is pitch black when we arrive, they have music blasting, fire pits to keep warm, the most porta pottys (or as the aussies say it, loos) hot chocolate etc while you wait.


In the background you can see the St George temple.

The children made some cute posters. My biggest fans, but we are going to have to help them learn how to spell Australian again.


Emily's husband did the marathon too but on mile 13 he started vomitting. Bad luck!

Team Liddicoats.

I finished the race around 10:55am but had no desire to eat until 3:00pm. This is our early early dinner and it suddenly hit. I was rather hungry! I was hungrier the next day though and the day after that. What better meal than In-n-Out Burgers.

St George temple.

We thought it would be fun and silly to have the 'umpeeling of the marathon sticker' ceremony. Guest speaker came all the way from Australia.


The next day we had a peek at Zions national park. We only got out of the car for lunch and then headed home. Savannah had accidently popped my fresh runnng blister which absoultely killed and thus...my intersting foot wear for the hike.


Zions National Park was beautiful. As we were driving into the Park, we had General Conference playing on the radio and the Choir were singing: "Zion, Zion, Lovely Zion, Beautiful Zion". We though it was very appropriate.