What not to do…learn from my new death experience!

1. Never train for a marathon at a low elevation, then expect to be able to survive a marathon in high elevation.

2. Never follow the ADVANCED training schedule when you are not an advanced runner (leads to some pretty painful shin splints and joint injuries).

3. Never take 5 weeks off before a marathon to let your legs recover and then think you can actually pull of a full marathon without serious consequences. (Seriously going from 0 to 26.2 miles just doesn’t work).

4. Never drug yourself the night before the marathon (with some pretty heavy pain meds) and then hope to have a good nights rest before the big day. You just might have a bad reaction to the meds and end up shaking all night, your body will be numb, and the last thing your body will let you do is settle down into a deep sleep. Therefore you will only get 45 minutes of rest before you are up and at em.

5. Never agree to run a marathon when the weather consists of HEAVY…HEAVY down pouring rain, and HAIL! Yes folks…I got to run in the rain and hail in the crisp autumn air while running down a canyon in a tank and shorts….nuff said!

6. Never have high hopes that heavy drugs will take away serious leg pain for 26.2 miles….because chances are at mile 10 the meds will wear off and your legs will give out leaving you with 16 more miles of pure HECK!

7. Never fall asleep while running a marathon. This indeed did happen to me three times. Due to my lack of sleep I nodded off a few times…luckily my body was in a good rhythm and it kept me going despite my mental status and awareness.

HERE I AM RIGHT BEFORE THE RACE STARTED…COMPLETELY UNAWARE OF WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN TO ME…

So what happens if you make these dumb decisions I mentioned above:

If you make it to the finish line…..only if….(which thankfully I did)…you will find yourself violently sick and feeling like you’re going to die!!! Here’s me running across the finish line. By the looks of these pictures you might think the following things are going through my head: “Man…I made it! Look at how awesome I am. I’m so strong and amazing”.

Please don’t let that smile on my face fool you.  It was just my attempt to make my family believe that I was just fine and was ending this race strong. But that smile was just a façade….it quickly turned into this:

I was breaking down both emotionally and physically. I WAS SO SICK! At the end of my last marathon I came running across the finish line with enough energy I could have kept going for miles. This time I felt like I couldn’t go another step. But my sister in-law yelled for me to give her at least one more smile with muscle man arms. So I pulled out every bit of energy I had to give this to her:

And then that’s when it happened….I had a breathing attack. I couldn’t get air in or out of me. All I could hear was this frog like croak coming from deep within my chest. The paramedics pulled me into their tent and started hooking me up to their machines. But within 15 seconds, I was back to breathing on my own and my respiratory was back up to a 90. They monitored me for awhile and let me go.

I went back to the finish line to watch for my friend who was a couple of miles behind me. I was trying to talk to my family but could tell I was delirious and I just knew I was going to pass out. I went and laid on the grass and either fell asleep or passed out (not sure if I can tell the difference). Next thing I knew my friend was standing over me. She was crying too and felt really sick also. It just wasn’t the best day for either one of us. After shedding some tears we pulled it together long enough to snap this photo:

Then we went our separate ways. I went looking for my family and she went looking for hers. I was getting so nervous because I felt like I was going to pass out and I didn’t want to be all alone. I stopped to throw up in some garbage cans…then I finally found my sister-in-law. She could instantly tell that I was not ok. I was as white as a ghost. She walked me back in and laid me down and had me drink some water. Then I made the attempt to walk out to where my Dad was pulling the truck up. Along the way I stopped several times. Each time I sat down I would fall asleep (or pass out…what’s the difference?) all I know is I was incoherent. They loaded me in the truck and I don’t remember one thing on the ride home. They woke me up once I got to my sisters house and I was SOOOOOOOOO SICK! I jumped out and started dry heaving like crazy. Then cried like a baby as they carried me into the house. I was shaking so hard. My clothes were still so wet and I felt like hypothermia was setting in. I knew I was dehydrated but I also knew whatever was going into me would just come right back out of me. My family helped me change and then my Dad gave me a priesthood blessing. I remember being in the worst pain in everyway…. muscle pain, nausea, constant shaking and trembling. My Dad kept insisting that I go to the hospital. But deep down I just knew I was extremely exhausted and I needed some sleep. And before I knew it I was  waking up 2 hours later. I thought I felt better until I stood up and then it was right back to the bathroom where I was dry heaving like crazy. I waddled to the kitchen to try and put some nutrients back into my body….which took a good hour…but lo and behold…after getting some water and food in me I slowly came back to life. And although the body and muscle pain keeps getting worse as time goes on…my appetite was back by Saturday night and I was eating pizza and functioning emotionally well once again with my family.

So there you have it…what felt like a near death experience! I wish I could have said that I crossed that finish line like superwoman…MAYBE NEXT TIME! But lessoned learned…I’m never going to make the same mistakes as the ones I mentioned up above.

Do I regret doing this race…NOT AT ALL! I love knowing I can survive hard things. It’s the hard things in life that give us the strength to overcome other hard things. I know I’m a stronger person mentally and physically for doing this.

P.S. Plus God sends angels to help hold us up when we really need them. At mile 16 my good friend from back in my Logan days called and asked what mile I was on. She met up with me and helped me along for 4 or so miles. Then she called again at mile 25, just when I thought I might really pass out. Again she came to my rescue and helped carry me through to the finish line….THANKS CAMIE…YOU TRULY WERE MY ANGEL

P.S.S And a big thank you to my sister-in-law that not only step in as my personal nurse through all the drama but also was my amazing photographer and caught all these images….good and bad! She didn’t miss a thing Thanks again!

So I came in way over my goal time. I wanted to improve from my last time which was 4:08…hoping to get under 4:00. I had a 6 minute delay at the start so my finish time was 4:34??? So I think…results aren’t quite in. But considering all I went through to get from 0 to 26.2 I’m still proud of that time and know there’s always the future to work for a better time.