Our first marathon - North Face Endurance Challenge

I have always told my running friends that I would never do a marathon because I thought it would make me hate running. So though it shocks most people that know me I had never done a marathon until Saturday. I have done TONS of half marathons, 25k, 30k's and lots of long runs with friends that have covered the same distance but I had never done an organized marathon.
In April some friends from the NERC's(Norther Exposure running club) invited me and challenged me to join them in running this marathon. I kept looking at it online thinking I would only do the half, the problem with this was that the half was on a Sunday. I prefer not to run on Sunday's. So I kept complaining and whining about this to Brad. Telling him that I didn't want to do the marathon but really wanted to be a part of this race.
Well on Monday 5 days before the race Brad called me and told me that I should sign us up for the Marathon on Saturday. As we talked about it, we decided that worst case it would be a beautiful 26.2 mile hike.
SO WE SIGNED UP.

I have done lots of trail races and runs. They are my favorite so why not do my first marathon on a trail in the mountains. This race had an elevation gain of almost 6,000 ft up and then back down almost 6,000 ft. That is CRAZY Hard!
It was nice because the run didn't start until 9 am so we got to sleep in. Savy and her friend came with us. They were volunteers at an aid station until the Alpine slide and other things at Park City Mountain resort opened up. Then they just hung out and had fun until we finished.
I had looked at the race profile and knew that the first 13 miles were going to be the toughest. They were supposed to be all up hill. Then we would get an easy 13 miles of downhill.
We ran the first 2 miles, the were rolling hills and just stunning in beauty. The leaves were all changing and falling. Once we got to mile 3 we were mostly hiking/walking up the hills. We ran all of the downhill or flat. The next few miles actually went really fast. I enjoyed the trail and being outside. There was snow on the ground in some places.
The thoughts going through my mind at this point of the race were "I wonder if I can drown from my own snot?" "How can one nose produce so much snot?""I really shouldn't love running in the mountains so much when I am allergic to everything out here." "I wonder how much easier it is for people who don't have allergies." "I wonder if my farmer blowing will gross Brad out?" "What about the other people around me?"
At about mile 9 I started getting really hungry. I knew that my NERC friends were in charge of the next aid station, I was excited to see them and for the food they had. We finally made it to them, they were at almost 10 miles, further than I thought. As we were running up to the aid station, I heard "Come on Wonder Woman you can do it!" Then they all lined up on one side to give me encouraging Spankings. My friend got everyone at the aid station to do it. It was very much needed encouragement.
The food along the way at this race as with most ultra races was so awesome. There were PB&J's, potatoes with salt, chicken broth, potato chips, M&M's and coke. SO AWESOME!
The next 3.5 miles were HARD as we pushed to the top of the mountain peak. The race lied and we didn't get to the top until about mile 15. Then it was a STEEP downhill into the next aid station.

Brad and I stopped on this downhill for a little make out session...we are newly weds after all.

I was VERY surprised when we came into the next aid station and the sign said that we were at 15.6 miles. I did not think we had gone that far. This gave me a burst of energy. We ran the next 3 miles at a pretty good pace. THEN THE UPHILL started again for almost 3 miles. At this point my thoughts were filled with what I was going to eat after the race. A Carl's Jr Western BBQ burger, a big diet coke, lots of treats. My nose was really raw at this point from being wiped so much. I also was VERY Tired and didn't want to keep going. I kept thinking how can I make myself move anymore. I also had the thought of "I don't even know if they have medals for this race." "I will be SO MAD if they don't have a medal at the finish."
As we came into the last aid station we only had 4.7 miles left to go. This aid station had awesome music playing and could be heard for almost 3 miles coming into it. Same great food, awesome fun people that really gave us energy to keep moving. As we left this aid station, I kept telling myself I can run 4.7 miles just put into your mind your usual route and pretend you are doing that. We had run about 2 miles and realized we had missed a turn but only maybe 100 ft back thankfully. We walked back up the hill got back on the trail and kept running. As soon as we could see the finish line Brad grabbed my hand and we ran across together, holding hands.
There were lots of tears from me, tears of gratitude. I loved having Savy there waiting and cheering, wish the other kids could have been too.
I still can't believe that I ran a marathon. I was walking around on Sunday and felt like I should put a badge on that said don't you know that I ran the hardest marathon yesterday. I was kind of tempted to wear the medal around all day too.
Please don't ask Brad how many times I swore during the race when I tripped and almost fell down or when a new hill would come up in the last 13 miles because they were supposed to be all downhill. They weren't, liars!
We both woke up yesterday feeling remarkably well and really not that sore. Both of us woke up saying we would do it again next year too.

It was so amazing to do something SO hard with my best friend, My husband and to have him be by my side the entire way. He is much faster than me and could have gone ahead and gotten a much faster time but he didn't. I tried to get him to and he wouldn't leave me. It made me think of the race in terms of life. There are going to be big Gnarly mountains in life that we will have to pull each other up. There will be friends and family along the way giving us encouragement but then we will have to leave the "aid station" and go just the two of us. There will be the fun easy times when it feels like running down hill. There will be the times when one or the other of us wants to quit but we will keep going with the help of the other. There will be times when life isn't what we were told or expected but will still keep going and do it. There might be times when we get off track even though the path is marked so well. I love that Brad is my partner and that I get to go through life holding his hand. I look forward to running into the finish line of life with him seeing our friends and family waiting and cheering. Both exhausted from the good and bad that we have gone through together but so happy that we did it together.

At the start with the girls.

With all of our NERC friends that ran

At the NERC station, look at the food!!

At the VERY TOP

Brad showing off his awesome Orange underwear

Huge fan of this man, Dean Karnazes.

Our crazy route

Check out that elevation