Steve's Marathon

Our friend, Brian, told Steve that he should try to run in the St. George Marathon, that the course was great and different from the course that Steve had ran in Salt Lake. So in May Steve registered to run in the St. George Marathon. He began to train, but in July he began to have problems with his hip. As October 6 began to approach, the problem had not completely subsided and within a week or two of the marathon we began to wondered whether we should cancel our hotel reservations.

Well, yesterday was October the 6th and we had driven to St.George the day before. Steve's hip had been feeling relatively fine, but we were not sure how his hip would take 26.2 miles. He woke up at 4:00 am and met our friends Brian and Suzanne in the front of our hotel to get a ride to the starting line. I slept another hour and then got dressed and brought my iPod and a book to the finish line and found a spot on a bleacher to spend the next 2 1/2 hours as I waited for Steve to cross the finish line.

His time for the Salt Lake Marathon had been 3:29, so because of Steve's injury and lack of preparation for this race I was not expecting him to cross until after 3 1/2 hours. As we rounded the 3 hour point I began to keep my eyes open for our friends Brian and Suzanne. Then at 3:14, as I was scanning the runners there he was. I was shocked!! I SCREAMED his name a couple of times and then yelled, "I LOVE YOU!!" He kind of turned my way, but still kept focus on the finish line.

When I finally met up with him, he was spent. Almost seemed a little dazed. I would talk to him and it was almost like he couldn't comprehend what I was saying. I think he was proud of himself, but also questioning whether he was crazy for doing this.

I was so proud of him!! his finishing time was 3:14:55, this gives him a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon (by 5 seconds)...so who knows, maybe in April 2008 I will be blogging his results from Boston.