26.2 x 4

Today ends the first week of my official St. George Marathon 2008 training! I am so excited -- it feels like getting ready for Christmas! I don't know exactly when I started to really love running; I'm sure it wasn't until I had a couple of marathons behind me. There are still hard days and slow days, days when I would rather not break out the running gear, and lots of days when I just can't find the time, but I really do love to run, and I can't wait to run my next marathon.

There is so much more behind that medal they drape around a runner's neck than pounding out 26.2 miles. Here are 26 of the 100's of thoughts that run through my mind when I think about running a marathon:

1. months of training



2. and months before that, getting ready to train



3. relationships built with training partners



4. runs that are easy and chatty



5. runs that are slow and quiet



6. runs that take us through serious conversation



7. runs where we laugh and remember



8. runs that are meditative and nearly silent except for the brush of quick feet on the pavement



9. runs with my ipod turned up loud and my heart pounding hard and I can't quit smiling



10. 3 mile runs that are slower and harder than they should be



11. 10 milers that are unexplainably fast, where I feel like I could run forever



12. pre-dawn Saturday mornings, getting an 18 or 20 mile run in before coming home to being a mom, hurrying off to baseball games, and soccer games, cleaning the house, doing a little yard work and putting the finishing touches on a Sunday lesson



13. 15 miles run when I was so sick I could hardley stand, and yet somehow I ran



14. my husband, who tries not to roll his eyes even though I know when marathon time comes around, he's thinking "not again!" (I love you, sweetie!)



15. family members, even in-laws! who show up on the side lines for encouragement along the way. Unless you've run a marathon, you can not know how much it means to come around the corner of mile 16, or 22, or 26, and hear people you love screaming your name or to see your babies waiting for you at the end with their carefully crafted homemade signs on a paint stick.



16. the unbelieveable marathon support operation run by my parents and my St. George sister and her husband. We have been comfortably housed and wonderfully fed. They have provided transportation and unbeatable child care. They have made signs with my kids and cheered us on along the trail and met us at the end. I can't imagine running a marathon without them.



17. Truly, running has been a spiritual journey for me as much as physical. I have never been so keenly aware and profoundly grateful for all of our Heavenly Father's crations as I have since I began running.



18. running in the early mornings and watching the sun peek over the mountains



19. running through the canyon and seeing the seasons change right in front of me



20. running along silent roadways



21. and by busy school yards



22. one of my favorite routes loops around the temple near our house. How can one not be uplifted by the feeling of running toward the temple?!



23. I am amazed, too, at this body my Heavenly Father has given to me. It is amazing to me that even when I want to stop, if I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, soon, I can look back and have 2, or 10 or sometimes even 26.2 miles behind me.



24. During marathon training, even when I'm not running, life is different... food tastes better, hugs are sweeter, every sensation and emotion is felt more deeply...the heat of the pavement through my shoes, the slightest whif of a cool breeze on a hot day, the struggle to breathe through a wall of wind when I'm trying to make it up the canyon on a cool morning. My heart seems to pound harder and louder, silence is truer, breathing is rythmic and deliberate. I feel like maybe I have begun to understand how anxious and excited we must have been in our pre-mortal existence to come down and try out this body and this world.



25. I think about Enos, who prayed all day and all night...I think the closest I'll ever come is with the prayer that begins when the alarm goes off at 4 AM on marathon morning as a prayer for strength, progresses through the day through every emotion from jubilation to desperation and ends as a prayer of enormous gratitude when that finish line is at last behind me.



26. I think I love running because it is something that is only mine. No one cares if I skip a run, or if I push myself really hard one day. No one can take even a few of the steps for me. No one is depending on me to finish a race, and no one would care much if I didn't run at all. Although I won't pretend that I could do it without my Heavenly Father's help, I have to deliberately take every single step.

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this crazy and wonderful, beautiful, difficult mortal life! And I can't wait to run another marathon!