The Woodlands Marathon 2019

The Woodlands race has been something I have tried to do yearly for about 9-10 years. I love that it is always on a Saturday, as those are hard to find, and it is close. It is always the first week of March which is a nice time to train and run as well. This year after talking to a few friends, I decided to do the FULL marathon instead of the typical half marathon. For many years I have been so stressed about training and trying to beat a certain race time, that I haven't been able to enjoy the training process. I felt like it may be good to change it up and try something different. I ran my first full in 2007, 12 years ago. I ran it a week after Ella turned one. I had always said that I don't love the full distance as it takes so much time to train, but that when my last child went to Kindergarten, I would like to do it again. With my hamstring tear 4 years ago, I didn't know if my leg could handle the training. I knew I wanted to do it, but I was scared to push it. I went to my dad who gave me a priesthood blessing to see if I could feel any direction if I would be ok to run. As much as I love running, I do need to put my family first, so if I was in a ton of pain, I didn't want to do it. After the blessing, I felt pretty good about some of the promises I was reminded of and decided to register. So, here I went. 

I started training with these amazing ladies, Becky Brown, and Amy Smith. They were running the half marathon, so it worked out nicely to go run 5-7 miles and then go meet them at their house and do 8-10 and then finish off the last 2 to my house. It really helped break up the long runs to be able to talk to these two women during the middle of my runs. They have been such a blessing to me during the training. My training went very well and I felt good the whole time.
On the night before the race I was feeling ok. I was naturally nervous, but was excited to see if I could still do that far of a distance. 

These pictures were taken by the race staff at the beginning of the race and completely depicted me for the first 18 miles of the run.  

I was so happy to be out there running and feeling good. I was saying hi to all the workers and feeling great. I ran the first half in 1:49 and was on track to hit my under 4 hour goal by quite a bit, so I was excited.

Then, I hit mile 19. My stomach started to ache from the sugar of the cliff shot blocks I was taking to keep some electrolytes and I mentally started to tank. The last 6 miles I hit a major mental wall and I really struggled. I just wanted to be finished. I kept saying one foot in front of the other..my pace was starting to decrease by a lot. Then, at mile 24 my watch battery died. I was so done by that point, I knew I had slowed down so much that if I didn't hurry I wouldn't hit my time, but I literally couldn't mentally get myself to move any faster.  

This was the last picture at the very end. I went from so excited to be even running the race, to the pressure I always put on myself to run faster and was so exhausted. I finished though. I barely hit my time at 3:58, but I was so grateful that I did it. 

It took me a good day to really be excited, because I was kind of emotionally shocked at how bad I tanked at the end, but today looking back, I am so happy I finally hit my goal after having so many races were I barely have missed it.

Ragnar has been a huge support to me and encouraging me to do it and helping me know that I can. I am so grateful that he has been supportive in my long runs and in being there for me emotionally.  

These girls finished their race and I am so proud of us for all finishing and completing what we set out to do! 

In the end, I am incredibly grateful for my body. I am grateful I can do the things that I want to with it and that I am healthy. My family has been wonderful and I know that they are always cheering me on. This race was a mental battle, but in the end as hard as it was, I conquered and I am so grateful!