Marathon Weekend 2010

My foot surgery kinda wiped me out of the marathon-running game, so the next best thing would be to cheer on my kids and my running friends, right?! That's what I thought!!

However, I didn't get up with the kids at 3:00 a.m. since I had stayed up until 1:30 a.m. waiting for Kristy and Charles to get back from the Las Vegas airport...Charles had flown in from Kansas City at the last minute (to run under my bib# since I wouldn't be using it), but he was on the red-eye flight. They got home around 2:30 a.m., and with a brief "nap," Kristy, Dallin and Charles were ready to leave for the marathon bus loading a bit after 4:00 a.m.

Summer and Elizabeth (my training partners) were also running the marathon together, and I felt little pangs of envy as I thought of the excitement of the race and that I COULD have been running with them! (I actually considered calling my doctor for permission to run "just a part of the marathon" with my boot on, but then I thought he might not be too impressed with that.)

Julie Schram and I headed up through Snow Canyon State Park to view the runners at about mile 18. But nearly half-way there cars lined the sides of the road, and I knew this vantage point was NOT going to happen! I flipped the car around and headed to our second choice...Snow Canyon Parkway and Bluff...mile 23.

This was a great place! It wasn't congested, Julie and I enjoyed sitting in our lawn chairs, cheering on different people and even seeing some people we knew!! Julie and I walked up the race route, looking for all of our runners, covering one-half to three-fourths mile.

At one point Dallin called me on his phone wondering where I was...he was passing the north entrance where he was EXPECTING to see me. He was a bit disappointed that he'd need to run nearly 5 miles to get the extra encouragement he needed from his mom! When we met up he was VERY spent, and his feet were killing him. He draped his arms around me for a bit, and then we walked arm-in-arm while I talked to him, and gave him some medicine. By the time he and I were back to the chairs he was ready to finish the last three miles, and he did it in a total time of 4:57:44!

After seeing Dallin off, I headed back up the route where Julie was.

In the meantime I heard from Kristy. She was very disappointed that I wasn't at the north entrance! She was going to jump in the car with me since she was hurting so badly. I explained to her what had happened and simply told her, "Get on a shuttle...do NOT finish this race." She was a smart girl and listened to her mother! The shuttle dropped her off by us.

Summer didn't have a phone, so we weren't sure WHERE she was, but Elizabeth DID have a phone, so we were able to talk some. She sounded really good and like she was being very smart listening to her body. She said Summer was ahead of her. We had walked quite a bit, but then thought we might just head back to the chairs. So we did and moved them closer to the intersection.

Daniel Belmont and his wife were running the marathon, but she was REALLY struggling. I was able to give her some stuff to help her through the end of the race. Medicine and fruit snacks are a BIG help!

Shortly after that we saw Summer! She looked hammered!! We were on the opposite side of the barricade trying to talk to her, encourage her, give her some water, etc. Suddenly, I knew what I needed to do. I gave Kristy my purse and keys to the car and said, "Take care of things. Drive where you need to...I'm running Summer in." And I did!

I was SO grateful I could be there for her, and share in part of the marathon that we had trained together for. People looked at me very strangely and even made some comments about my running with my big black boot. It wasn't terribly comfortable, but I knew Summer needed my mental support to get her through the toughest 3.2 miles of the marathon. And she finished splendidly!! About 45 minutes later I watched as Elizabeth crossed the finish line, beaming at her great accomplishment!! It was a GREAT race!!




ADDENDUM:
I went to Dr. Burton this morning for my check up. He was NOT impressed when he found out I had covered 5 miles of the marathon route in my boot. After tersely ordering some x-rays, he went to see another patient. After getting the pictures taken of my foot, I was left in the room with one of the x-rays in plain sight...and I could see where the bone had been broken and come out of alignment. I was SICK!! How could it break and me not feel anything?!?! I haven't been on any pain meds for the past few weeks!

When Dr. Burton came in I knew he was going to be mad. He looked at the first picture, then the next and the next. After looking at all five he said, "Wow! You are healing remarkably well!!" I about cried! I asked him to show me what he was seeing because all I could see was the place where the bones didn't come together. He assured me saying, "What you were looking at is where we took the knuckle out of your toe. This place here is where I cut the joint and wanted it to fuse back together well. It is!"

Without much thought I said, "Oh good!! Will you please write my husband a note and tell him that I've been a good patient?!"

Dr. Burton somewhat sternly said, "No, I can't do that."

Not giving up, I asked, "Could you write a note that says I'm healing well in spite of my stupidity in running part of the marathon??"

He smiled and said, "THAT, I can do!" And he did!!

HOORAY!!