Air Force Marathon

I ran my 11th Air Force Marathon this past Saturday as a 42 year old. So, Larisa, Ethan, Johannah and Glo and I went to Columbus on Thursday last week to take Ethan to visit Kenyon College and we stayed in Columbus and Larisa and I went to the temple there. It was special, especially for Larisa as she played the organ for the groundbreaking and at our Stakes session for the temple dedication. I remember that I got to sit next to her in the celestial room and Pres Hinckley was right there about 10 feet away. I tried to catch his eye and smile and I remember he looked at me without a smile which I worried was due to my obviously sinful soul. Anyway, it was great being in that temple again. The next day we went and picked up Ethan and then drove to Dayton and went to our hotel. That night we ate pizza from Marion's. I have to admit I was not expecting much from myself for this Marathon. I have been running since my surgery for only 3 months, my longest run was about 15 miles and I walked some of it because I was talking on the phone. I really wanted to beat 4 hours but I did not have much hope because of my pathetic training. Anyway, the next morning Larisa dropped me off at 7 am at the gate. I ran in to the start line and the race started at 7:30. I started running and felt good. My heel hurt a little but it soon stopped. I ran and was at a 7 or 8 minute pace for several miles. I held myself back because I knew I was not in great shape, but you always feel really good at the beginning and the end is where the pain comes. As I was running I realized the course was different and where I usually would hit mile 8, I was already at mile 11. I kept running and realized that the end of the course must have been changed because we were ahead in miles from where we usually were at the same location on the race course. The last five miles of the USAF marathon have always been very hilly, in fact they have been the same hills as the start and I dread them. There was still one section that was hard with hills but the last very hard and daunting hill had been changed and the last part of the race was pretty flat. I finished in 3:53 which is my time for about 5 marathons. For some reason I like that time. It was a great experience and I feel like having done my best at training and with prayers from Larisa and others I did much better than I thought I would and it turned out well. I still recommend a marathon to anyone and this one was a great experience. Plus the medal was awesome with the F-22. In fact, three F-22s flew over the start line when we started and then banked straight up and used their afterburners at the beginning and it was really cool. (Posted by John)