Ready to Run

This is marathon weekend in St. George.  Thousands of people come to St. George to run the famous St. George Marathon.  The papers said that there were 7,800 runners running the marathon this year.  It was the 38th annual marathon and the largest amount of runners.  Friday night before the marathon, there was a "Move It" Kids Run.  Emily and Colby had so much fun running in the race.

Here they are at the starting line getting ready to run.  In the kids' race there was a one mile race and a 200 meter race.  We decided to put them in the 200 meter race which was the perfect distance for their little legs.

Here are all of the kids ready to go.   There were quite a few little runners for this race.

On Your Mark... Get Set... GO!!!

And they were off.  Emily and Colby held hands during the whole race so they could stay together and not get lost.  They did so well!

The race coordinators said this was a parent free race so parents were not allowed on the course.  It was so funny because all of the parents were running along the sidelines watching their kids.  The announcer said "Here come the kids toward the finish line and on grass on the sidelines is the parents race to see their kids finish!"

They even got to cross the actual finish line of the St. George Marathon.  When they were done they both got finisher medallions which they have proudly worn ever since.

And who can forget the after race food!  The reason you do races is to get the T-shirt and the after race food!  They had Clif bars, go-gurts, water, doughnuts, and more!  Of course the kids just wanted the doughnuts but I grabbed a few Clif bars and go-gurts for us too.

After the race we also got to have fun on the bounce houses and the other activities that were there.  Emily and Colby had a blast and loved participating in their first real race.  They said they wanted to do another race soon.  We have signed up for a Color Run next week.  That should be fun.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to help our ward at the starting line of the Marathon.  

I had so much fun with the youth in our ward.  Since two of the Young Women leaders were running in the Marathon and the other leader had just had a baby, our Young Women president needed another leader to go with them.  I jumped on the opportunity because I am planning on running the marathon next year and wanted prepare myself for how crazy the starting line is.  As you can see there were sooooo many people.  I was amazed.  We got up to Central at 4:00 am to set up and get ready for the runners.  For the next 3 hours we served water, Gatorade, oranges, bananas, Vaseline, band aids, Mylar blankets, and anything else the runners needed before the race.  The youth in our ward are awesome and they made the whole experience so fun.  After all of the runners had gone and we had cleaned up, the Young Men even made us breakfast!  Thanks guys!

Here are my running buddies getting ready to run the Marathon.  All three of them did awesome running the marathon in a little over 4 hours.  Nice Job, Ladies.  

The Marathon has always been a goal of mine and I am getting there.  I have a half marathon coming up in a month and I plan on continuing to run and sign up for the full marathon next year.  Wish me luck.