Conference weekend (Better known as Marthon weekend for my family)

October 4, 2008 St. George Marathon. The St. George almost always falls on Conference weekend, and it has become a family tradition of ours to watch at the finish line. This was the 9th St. George Marathon my dad has run in. His time was 3:03. He did such a great job. His fastest time is 2:56 which he ran last year. This year he expected he would be slower because he didn't run any speed work, there was a south wind, and it rained the entire race. For those of you that don't know, a marathon is 26.2 miles long. The St. George marathon starts at Central on highway 18 and finishes at the Worthen park on 300 S. 500 E. St. George. We wake up each year around 4:30 am and leave around 5:30 so we can get through Central before 6:00 when they close the road. Then we go down to St.George and burn time until we go to the finish line around 8:30. This year we went shopping at Walmart. That is the best time to shop at Walmart because there are no lines. Around 8:30 we went to the finish line to wait for the finishers to start coming in. The race starts at 6:45, so the first place runners usually come in around 9:00. It rained on us the entire time. Good thing we went to walmart so we could get us all some ponchos. The first place runner came in at 2:22:22. He was 25 years old, and it was his first marathon ever. Amazing to me!!! Reece didn't come because he was Elk hunting with his dad, but we all had fun. It is so emotional to watch the runners come across the finish line trying to beat their personal bests. It is basically a race against their previous best times. We cheer for all the runners as they come in, some look like they could run another, and some look like they aren't going to make it 10 more feet to cross the finish line. They are the ones that always get me crying. My dad is 47 years old and has type 1 diabetes, and still finished in the top 3% of the racers. He is such an inspiration to me. I think if he would have been running 20 years ago he could have been one of the very first finishers if not the first. Running a marathon is one of my goals to do someday. I always get so pumped to run, but when it comes time to start training I'm too lazy. One day I will run the St.George marathon. I'm waiting for my dad to get old enough that he will run slow enough to run with me, but I don't think that day will ever come. He'll probably still be running sub 3 hour marathons at 75. Thanks dad for being such an inspiration to us all!!