We left for Boulder City on Friday Morning (1/2/09). We ended up going all the way through Las Vegas. What a long drive. Gordon stopped in Cedar City to decorate the car with some encouraging words which meant a lot to Cathi. When we got to the Hacienda Hotel it was a smooth check in. The hotel/casino sure seemed catered to gamblers rather than runners. No shuttle bus, no shower accommodations after the race, no extra perks, just a smoke filled, bell ringing place. At least it wasn't sleazy.
On Friday night we met up with Aaron and his family, and went for Pizza at a nice little place in Boulder City. Watched a little of the Utah Sugar Bowl against Alabama. What a fantastic game. It was nice to get to know Aaron and his wife Becky better. They have two cute kids, Joey and Miranda who fit right in with our kids.When we got home we played a few round of dice game and Gordon fell fast asleep.
On Saturday morning Gordon drove Cathi to the starting line which was only 5 minutes from the Hotel. He went back to the room, packed up the things and the kids and headed out. We saw Cathi at around mile 5 and parked about every 3 miles to cheer her on. Austin and Jacob were excited to ride their new Ripstiks. Jonas, Isaac, Sam and Oliver were excited looking for snakes, throwing rocks, and making sand castles with the small gravel dirt.
It was a long day, lots of hills for poor Cathi, the wind was gusting at times and sometimes it was fairly cool, and other times a little warm. Overall though the temperature was just about perfect for running. Cathi was able to run the first half, and stay with Aaron, Scott and Arizona Kathy. At just after the half way point she told them to go on ahead and she wasn't able to maintain the same pace. She started walking up the hills and running down. Jacob joined up at around Mile 17 and stayed with her through to the finish. Thank goodness for Jacob or we would probably have sent out a search and rescue party. Her finish time was 4:58:48. This was the second slowest time in the Marathon for Cathi so it's due every once in a while to have a bad one, so now its
time to have a good few in a row. Definitely the highlight of the race was getting to catch up with Aaron, a dear old friend from BYU, who she hadn't seen for probably 15 years. He ran a great race and cut around 45 minutes off his time from his first marathon. He didn't walk at all on any of the hills which is simply amazing. He must be very satisfied with his results. I bet he's caught the Marathon bug now. Cathi and Aaron will be running together again in the Ogden Marathon in May.
We left for Salt Lake at around 2pm. We met with Mom and Dad in St. George who will now spend the winter months there. We went to Chuck A Rama and the kids ate up and as rowdy as ever. When we left it was already dark and knew we had a long night of driving home. Thank goodness for the laptop and all the movies on several hard drives. The kids were quiet watching movies the whole time. We made it home about 11pm and were grateful for 1pm church so we could sleep in a bit.
1 comment:
I want to make sure that everyone who reads this understands just how hard this marathon was. Don't look at Cathi's time and think she's anything less than a fabulous athlete. For starters, she's a Boston qualifier, something I'm sure I won't be able to do for at least another 2 years. Secondly, that course was tough. The hills were relentless, and the wind only let up just often enough to mess with your head. Thirdly, she beat Bart Yasso, who is a bit of a running legend. So she's got that going for her, which is nice.
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