Last year Ryan said that he had run his last Marathon. Then his friend Blaine approached Ryan and asked if he would help train him to run the St George Marathon. Ryan was hesitant, but then gave into one more marathon (famous last words)! This was the first marathon that I have actually seen Ryan train for…I guess all he needed was someone to feel he needed to train to actually get on a training schedule. Ryan and Blaine were faithful to their 5:30 a.m. runs during the week and long runs on Saturday. The runs may have taken a toll, but the bond of friendship that they gained was worth it!
Since Ryan trained so well, he was on track to come in with a time around 3:40. His goal was to break 4 so he was really happy!
As things would have it…Ryan was out of town on a business trip the week of the Marathon. On his way out of town sat by a man on the airplane who had a terrible cold. Well guess what…that nice man shared :(. Ryan came home Thursday so sick. The night before the marathon he was up all night coughing, blowing his nose and just down right miserable. Needless to say he was very frustrated.
However Ryan did not give up! He got up early and took the bus to the start of the race. He was going to run anyway!
Here are some encouraging signs the kids made for the runners:
We were so happy to have friends to hang out with in St. George! Blaine and Ryan trained together and also serve together in their church calling. Blaine's wife Tamra and I are in the RS Presidency together. Plus out kids really like each other which is a huge bonus!
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| Ryan, Jon and Blaine |
The original plan was for Ryan and Blaine to run together until around the 18 mile mark then Ryan was going to take off so he can get his under 4 hour goal. However those plans changed when Ryan got sick. Infact at mile 16 he was so miserable he wanted to just give up, but HE KEPT GOING!! Instead Blaine was the one who took off and was able to finish the Marathon at 4:08…a record time for him since his last marathon was over 5 hours.
Ryan kept chugging along despite being miserable. He finished the marathon at 4:18. As soon as we saw him finish you could see the disappointment in his face. My heart just broke for him as he fought to hold back the tears of sadness. We were so proud of him for even finishing and with a decent time considering his obstacles!
After the marathon Ryan went back to the room to sleep and the kids and I did some hiking in the beautiful red mountains around St. George. We were going to go to Zion's National Park, but the government was on shutdown and so were the parks. Bummer!
The start of the race is about 30 degrees. The end of the race is in the high 70's/low 80's. So people shed their clothing while running. Usually there is an organized system in finding your clothing by the mile marker you dropped it. This time it was not so organized! We sifted through thousands of articles of clothing to find his favorite sweatshirt! Luckily just as we were going to give up he found it!
Later that night we had our first SWIG sugar cookie and dirty Dr. Pepper…so yummy! Then Cafe' Rio at the park with our friends! Eventhough the marathon did not go as planned for Ryan it was still a great weekend. This only means one thing……ONE MORE MARATHON IN MARCH!!!!
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