Welcome to Utah...home of the St. George Marathon! Ryan ran this marathon three years ago and while running injured his knees. It took him an hour longer to finish the race than expected. He was pretty dissappointed. So every year he has applied to get into the Marathon again for a "re-do". His number was finally picked and he was given the opportunity to run it again this year!
Since he was training alone this year his training was a lot less intense. Infact he really struggled on his long runs. For example, on the day he was suppose to run 22 miles he had to call and have us pick him up at mile 15. Needless to say I was extremely nervous about him running the 26.2 mile race. I was not sure he was going to be able to do it. In fact, I think he had a small voice in his head saying "just finish the race".
Our first stop after checking into the hotel was to the Convention Center to get his number and gear! The excitement was stirring in the air!
Great photo opportunity...haha!!
We got a kick out of this sweatshirt since we were all a bit nervous about Ryan finishing the race (alive)!
Infact we were so nervous about it we also made him this sign.....
After dinner that night we took the 26.2 mile drive to the start line. The kids could not believe how long the trek was!
Ryan's philosophy for the race:
Time for race day...here are the signs we held up to cheer Ryan on....
The Golden Finish line....
Before we knew it Ryan came running up! He looked great!! Not even sweating! He had a smile on his face because he knew he had a great pace going 9:50 minute mile.
He crossed the finish line at
4 hours 17 minutes
at 11:11 a.m.
We were so proud of him!!! What a stud!
He attributes his having a good time on the run to his friends Brad and Paul Cook who ran along side him until mile 20 (at that point Ryan sped up a bit).
They kept each other entertained!
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