The Utah Valley Marathon

On June 11th, a few friends and I ran the Utah Valley Marathon (well some of my friends ran the Half) and we all had a great time! I was a little nervous about running the full. I had a lumpectomy on May 24th and was hoping my "Frankenboob" would be healed enough to endure 26.2 miles of bouncing! I was also concerned about my training. I had only ran 5 miles in 3 weeks. I decided to go for it, but I gave myself permission to take it really easy.

Hysterical photo of Maniacs at the Start. The Porta-Pottys were just around the corner!

This was the first time in a while I ran a marathon not wearing the Maniac colors! This was my first sponsored race (meaning 1800 Contacts paid for the race), so I wore the 1800 Contacts singlet, but still sported the Maniac arm warmers and hat (I still had to represent!)

I have always loved this race. I did the half last year and really wanted to do the full this year. There are many things I loved about this race:

1) The weather was perfect. Sunny, but not too hot.

2) The Organization- This race is so well organized. I think it is because the race director is a runner. They always try to improve to meet the needs of every runner out there. From the packet pick up to the finish line, every thing was great.

3) The Course- one of the most beautiful courses I have run. We are super lucky in Utah to have a number of races with breathtaking scenery. Utah Valley is one of them!

4) The Swag- Nice shirt, nice medal and the gear bag was a reusable back pack which I really found handy. The Utah Valley Marathon also does something special for those who qualify for Boston. If you qualify for Boston on their course, you get another really nice "Boston Qualifier" shirt.

Patrick Finney showing off his BQ shirt!

5) The Finish- The finish line was moved this year so we didn't have to run that awful hill at the end! Seeing all our friends at the finish always makes the race fun!

Big congratulations got to Sue and Lindsay for placing in their age groups and Suzi for completing her first Marathon! Way to go!