In Which I Run a Half Marathon...Part I

Over seven months ago, my wife made a suggestion: that we get in shape by training for a half marathon. I believe I laughed out loud at the suggestion. I've never been a runner, nor any type of athlete for that matter. The last time I ran over a mile at one time was during middle school back when I looked like this:




Combine that with the fact that, since middle school, I'd put on about 70 extra pounds and had bad knees from that extra weight and basic genetics, it seemed a fool's errand.

But something made me change my mind, and we began training for the Ogden Half Marathon. From October to January I used a Couch to 5K program to whip my legs into submission and force them to run 3 miles at a time, and let me tell you, 3 miles felt like an eternity at the time.

I mastered 3 miles, then pushed onward at the beginning of the year, starting in mid-February. I found a half-marathon training program online and began spending Saturday mornings running progressively longer and longer runs until this weekend, it was time.

I think one of the most fun things was how much of a complete experience the whole thing was. Not just the race, not just the running, but the whole thing. Getting out of town and making a whole event out of it.

We checked into the Ogden Marriott on Friday night, and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was literally just around the corner from the finish line. Checking in, I had a panic attack for a few minutes as I listened to a manger talking to the couple in front of me in line, informing them that their Expedia reservation had been canceled due to some military exercise that had taken a huge block of rooms. Evidently Expedia wouldn't give out the phone numbers of the people who got bumped, they show up and all of a sudden don't have a place to stay the night before the marathon. Major bummer. Luckily, I booked through the hotel directly, and our reservations were fine.

We checked in and headed down to the runner's expo. Walking around, it was a strange experience. I've never done something like this before, and I'm looking at all these people thinking "These people are runners. I'm not." But we picked up our packets, walked around the vendors and just took in the whole experience.

We got some Italian food for dinner to get our carbs in and headed back to the hotel to get some rest.

If there's one thing I would have changed if I had it to do over again, and something I likely won't ever do again, it would be bringing the kids to the hotel for the night before the race. When it was time for bed, both kids were screaming, and I ended up bringing my two-year-old in bed with us for the night, who proceeded to push, kick, jostle and otherwise inflict his mom and dad with a barrage of sleep-preventing activities while he slept, making for a quite unpleasant night's sleep. Next time, I think we'll opt for finding someone to take the kids overnight.

Wake up time was 4 a.m. That's early. Really early. But race day was finally here, and it felt great to be lacing up my shoes for the actual event rather than a normal morning run.

We threw our clothes on, left the kids with my wife's sister (thanks a million, by the way) at the hotel and walked the three blocks to the shuttle buses. With the 35-degree morning temperatures, the heated shuttle bus with its padded seats was a welcome environment.

The Ogden Marathon starts up in the canyon, winds its way past a beautiful reservoir, through jagged cliffs, next to a real-life babbling brook and down into the city of Ogden for the final 3-plus miles. The Half Marathon starts just a few miles short of the reservoir in the city of Eden, Utah. Participants gather in a quaint little town park pulled straight from a Norman Rockwell painting, complete with an old-fashioned baseball field and a general store across the park to the north.

We stepped off the bus, this time with the temperature a good 5 degrees colder than in the city, and huddled around fire pits for a half hour or so waiting for the race to start. After an hour and a half of walking around, stretching and getting to the starting line, it was finally time.

It's hard to explain the anticipation of seven months of training, cold morning runs, weeks of sore muscles and hours of a treadmill all coming down to this one moment. The gun sounded, (although we were far enough back we didn't hear it) we crossed the starting line, and the race was on....