Five and a half hours later...

Yes, I did it. I ran (or, more accurately, hobbled) the St. George Marathon. I can honestly say that was the hardest thing I've ever done. The last 10 miles were brutal. Everyone says it's because the downhills are killer on your legs. My legs were already dead, so the downhills didn't kill them, but I wasn't getting any joy or relief out of them either.

It started well, however. The first 8 miles or so were pain-free and I was running strong. I even made it up the dreaded Veyo hill without much difficutly. It's the biggest hill of the course, but not the only hill. And not the toughest, because it comes when your legs are still somewhat fresh. The toughest is the three-pronged hill at about mile 19 known as "Ledges". That was tough. Fortunately I had good friends who helped me get through miles 18-25.

I had two goals going into this race. I should have probably had 3. The two I had were 1) Finish. 2) Finish in 5 hours. Goal 1 was accomplished. Goal 2, not so much. I was at about mile 23 when I hit the 5 hour mark.

The third goal I should have had, which happened anyway, would have been to learn a lot so I can run the next marathon even better. This I did. Some of the lessons I learned:

- 25 miles a week is not enough running to do a marathon, even if the long runs are 20 miles of it.

- That course is HILLS, HILLS, and more HILLS. The hills I was running on in training weren't hill enough to compare or prepare me.

- Carbo-loading doesn't work, at least not so much for me.

- Two 20-mile training runs aren't enough. I'm going to need a 22 or 24, or maybe even 26 before the next marathon

All that said, I can now say that I am a marathoner, and that means a lot to me. I didn't finish in the time I wanted to, nor as strongly as I wanted to. I'm very very sore today, and probably will be for a few days to come. However, YES! I do plan on doing more marathons. If I had done this one to my satisfaction, I may have been okay with just the one, but I'm not. I'm going to train harder and be more prepared so I can kick this marathon's butt next year!

Oh, and my chip time was 5:35:36, start-to-finish.