26.2 St. George round 3-wetter than wet

Stacha and I have talked about running here and there at work. One day we started talking about the St. George marathon. She always wanted to do it, and I kind of wanted to do it again. I knew I couldn't run the big cottonwood so I was considering it. We kind of talked each other into signing up.

We drove down to St. George separately and met up at the expo and for dinner after. The weather forecast wasn't looking great so we worried quite a bit about what to wear the next day.

We met for the buses and also met up with Sharon and her son. The weatherman the night before said there shouldn't be any rain so it eased our nerves. Unfortunately it started to sprinkle while waiting for the buses. 

We got to the top and hung around for a hit. Eventually we got in our places to start, and the rain also started. We got our garbage bags out and put them on. We thought it would be temporary and the weather would get better. It never did. We wore them for 26.2 miles.

There were several times where the rain stopped for a minute or two, and we were hopeful. Around mile 17 or 18 we finally knew we weren't ever going to take them off. Stacha started getting blisters in the first 10 miles somewhere. I didn't start noticing them until later-probably around mile 15 or 16. We knew things were going to be bad when we finished, and they kind of were.

I was really proud of us. The weather was bad-really bad. We were pretty miserable, but we stuck it out. We stayed together the whole time, and helped each other stay positive. We had pretty good attitudes through it all. We chatted and laughed and tried our best to distract ourselves from the weather.

Stacha's sister and her family surprised her along the course and cheered in several spots. It was the push we needed to finish strong.

We were so happy and proud when we finished. It was by no means my best marathon time-wise, but it felt like one of my biggest accomplishments. I am so happy we stayed together the whole time-something I had never done before. Our bodies were pretty wrecked for several weeks after from blisters and severe chafing and other effects of the weather, but our sense of a accomplishment made it worth it.

Documenting my garbage bag.