2013 Ogden Marathon

3 marathons in 1 month and 2 of them have beenvery, very wet and cold.
I really thought that the SLC Marathon was wet,but Ogden managed to beat that one by a long shot.It full on poured for most of the race and was just plain raining for the rest of it.
When it comes down to it, I would definitely chooserain over heat as far as marathons are concerned.The rain is just a drag when you are sitting at a startingline for 2 hours AND after the race is over it gets cold FAST.

Since I didn’t want my phone all wet,
there are very few pictures once again :).

I actually got to do this race with some friends,
so that was very nice after doing the past 2 marathons alone.
The long bus ride and wait at the start line is so much
better when you are not sitting up there alone.

We went up to Ogden the evening before and
picked up our packets/bib numbers.
The expo is in an old train station and it was rather crowded!
It also didn’t smell very good in there.
This meant that we didn’t hang around there for long :).
We then went and got some dinner before heading to our hotel.

I was able to sleep very, very well considering.
I don’t know if it’s because this was my 3rd marathon in a month,
but I don’t seem to get very nervous before these races anymore.
(It could also be because I am trying not to put any pressure
on myself regarding finishing times- just aiming to finish the race.)
I was asleep by 9:30ish and didn’t wake up again
until the alarm went off at 3:20am.

We were on one of the first full marathon buses
and it was one of the NICE buses- not a school bus.
I saw that most of the buses later on were school buses, 
so that made me feel a little better about being at the start line SO early.
Our bus driver was a little bit crazy, but we made it up there alive :).

We used the port-a-potties and the found a spot to sit by a fire.
There I sat getting rained on for over an hour.
Luckily it wasn’t pouring, just raining.
Then we stood in the bathroom lines a few more times…

The lines were LONG.
I was super happy about it, apparently…

This is the face you get when someone says
“Here, let me get a picture of just you!”.

There’s always those moments right before the race starts when 
thing get all frantic and I wonder where the time went.
I wait until the last minute to get everything situated 
and to get my drop bag all stuffed and thrown in the truck.
The mud all over the place didn’t help things very much.

Still, it all worked out and the race started right on time.
As I already said, the rain stayed with us the whole race.
I have never seen to many people running in trash bags/ponchos.
I didn’t wear one, but maybe I should have!
I was absolutely soaked, but I wasn’t cold.

All of my soaking wet runner pictures can be seen HERE.
I was bib #11054 if the link doesn’t work right.

My right foot began to hurt within a few miles and 
continued to hurt the entire way.
I thought may have to walk towards the end,
but it turned out that it hurt more to walk than to run.
So I just kept going so I could get this wet race done!

Considering the conditions,
this marathon seemed to go by reasonably fast.
The first half is rolling hills and then there is a decent sized hill
at about mile 14 and then a few smaller hills until mile 17.
This was my first repeat marathon, so I knew that I 
just wanted to get past mile 17 and things would
literally be downhill from there.
The last 8 miles of a marathon always seem long-
there’s no way around that most of the time.
Dodging puddles helped pass the time ;).

I ran the whole race with my friend Kristin,
so that’s probably why it seemed to go by faster than other races.
She can be seen in almost all of my pictures :).
She ended up with a new marathon PR, even in the miserable conditions!

I finished in 3:50:11.
I am very happy with that.
I am glad I was able to keep a good, consistent pace for 
all 3 of the marathons I have done in the last month.
The recovery has gone very well…
Except I am a little worried about my foot… but I have THREE weeks
between Ogden and the next race (Utah Valley) instead of just 2 weeks.
Hopefully things will be feeling better.
Otherwise I may be utilizing a run/walk method for Utah Valley.
Ice and KT Tape have been my best friends.

So- the main point of all of this long, wordy blog post:

Marathon #3 out of 8 for 2013- DONE!

I really love marathons.
They make me happy.