The weekend of 13 years and 13 miles

Friday May 7th marked 13 years of our marriage. Wow...lucky 13 ;) This was also the night of the ward Father/Son camp out. Jared couldn't go last year because we were in San Diego. Jake got to go with friends, but Cooper didn't. I really wanted them to go, but was sad that meant I would be going to the half marathon alone. I suggested maybe they could meet me at the finish line. They had til about 11:30 before they needed to be there. Jared agreed and I was satisfied with that because I knew it would be a sacrifice for Jake and Coop. Leaving early meant they wouldn't be able to play 18 holes of frisbee golf! The camp out was in North Plains, not too far from here, which was good. Due to a high adventure prep hike on Sat. 22nd when Jared has call again, he switched with Dr. Hicken this weekend because there won't be cell service available at Silver Falls and Jared really needs to go on that hike. The pager and phone would reach North Plains no problem.

Fortunately I was able to have my friend Kahli (a good friend in her first year at Pacific University) come spend the night with me, watch a chick-flick, have pizza and be here in the morning with the little kids while I ran.

I sent the men-folk off for their camping adventure around 5pm and picked up the pizzas and met Kahli here at 7pm. We had started watching TV and had a slice or two of pizza when I heard the garage door open at 7:35pm. What the?

It was Jared. But no boys.

Turns out, his pager DOES reach North Plains, but the camp ground is down in a valley and there's NO cell service. If he got paged, and he doesn't NOT get paged on a Friday, he wouldn't be able to call anyone back. They hadn't even set up camp yet when he realized this and Jared was really bummed he'd have to ruin the boys' weekend. He figured he'd take them to a movie so the night wasn't a total loss for them. Jared started explaining to Cooper what it meant for him to be on-call. Jake piped in and with a face longer than the Mississippi River and said "I know what it means. It means we have to leave." Apparently word got around and one of the dads who had a 12 man tent (and not that many boys) and 3 pizzas offered to "adopt" Jake and Cooper for the night. What a sweet and touching gesture!

Personally, I think this was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father to Jenn. I HATE going to things ALONE...especially things with BIG groups of people I don't know. Makes no sense, but it's true. It was like that even when I was little, huh Mom?

Jared went and bought anniversary milkshakes for me and Kahli and himself and we watched some TV before turning in for the night.

I wasn't nervous about running this half marathon. I just wanted it over with. Why on earth was I running it then? Good question. My friend Bev emailed me and a few others last fall and asked if anyone wanted to do this with her. I figured, I've run a 10K, a half marathon is the next step, I guess if Bev is going to do it, why not? Misery loves company after all. Bev told me you have to register at midnight though because it fills up fast. I had casually told Jared the night of the registration that if he was still awake at midnight, could he try to sign me up.

He went online a couple minutes after midnight and got me registered. I guess there is a perk to him being an "insomniac". But there's also a drawback...Bev didn't get in. Major bummer. But I was committed and wasn't going to back out. I didn't get to train for it like I wanted to because life happens and there are other bigger priorities in my life, so my only goal was to run it without stopping. (Minus potty stops because those don't count!)

I was sooooo grateful to have Jared with me. He has been my biggest fan and cheerleader. It was so fun to talk with him on the way to Champoeg State Park and to navigate where to go and to get my number on and to wait for the race to start with someone other than me, myself and I.

Jared wanted to take a "before" picture. So here I am...all fresh and perky and eager to get it behind me! (#395 and registered just minutes after midnight!) Speaking of behind...I saw the back of a lady's shirt that Jared entitled "A Runner's Prayer" or maybe "A Wanna-Be Runner's Prayer." It said, "Dear God, please let there be someone behind me to read this." I told the lady not to worry, it would probably be me.


Jared snapped a picture after the crowd started going and managed to get me in it!


I saw a few people donning shirts that said, "Courage to start, Faith to finish." Although, a little over halfway through this endurance test, I decided it takes faith to start and courage to finish. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but that's how it felt to me.

Another poster being waved at us as we passed said "If you're legs hurt, it's because you're kicking butt." Yeah...I liked that one!

The first 8 miles were actually okay. I did take my one and only quick pit stop after mile 8. My bladder actually raised it's hand to get my attention shortly before mile 2, but I tried ignoring it and went as long as I could. I passed Jared the last time right at mile 9 (see below). Wow, and I even managed a smile. It was the last. My real test was coming up...after mile 10 when I would hit unknown territory. I was only able to train up to 10 miles.


I was keeping an 11 minute per mile pace, which saddened me. I had been training at 10 minutes per mile. But...I just wanted to do it without stopping so I tried not to let my pace frustrate me.

Miles 11 and 12 were BRU-TAL!!! I slowed down to just over 12 minutes a mile as I figured I would. But I was having pains like never before. Figures. It was grueling and every time my feet pounded against the ground, I wasn't sure if my body would be able to keep me upright. I think it did help knowing I wasn't the only one out there...that--and going to my happy place. I'm not even sure where that is.

I marked my time on my watch when I completed mile 12. And then a few minutes later it dawned on me to check my total time. 2 hours and 19 minutes and I had been working on mile 13 for 4 minutes. I realized that if I kicked it up a notch, I might ACTUALLY come in under 2 1/2 hours. Totally slow but faster than I thought I'd be.

Out of NO WHERE...seriously, I still can't explain it, my legs started propelling my body forward at a faster pace. Where the heck did that come from?? It was almost as if my lower body were disconnected from my upper body. It was weird. I kept chanting to myself "go, go, go, go, go..." I swear running long distances is just as mental as it is physical. My body was screaming at me by this point, but it was funny because it was like it was throwing a tantrum. It would scream and I'd hurt and feel pains I didn't know I could have and then after a couple minutes, it stopped..."silence". And then it would throw a tantrum again a few minutes later.

I hit mile 13, pushed the button on my watch and I had to literally choke back tears. Omygosh, Jenn. Are you really crying?? How embarrassing. Deep down, I don't think I believed I could do it. I didn't want to approach the finish line with tears streaming down my cheeks, so I started to choke them back. Then I began having trouble breathing and that led to me hyperventilating a little bit. I was so close to being done, so I put my head down and ran as fast as I could across the pink mat that was tracking the timing chip on my shoe and there was another one, so I ran across that one too, full speed ahead. Jared said I came in SO fast, he practically missed me.


I realize now why people were yelling at me. They weren't cheering for me. They were telling me to stop. I ran right past the guy who was handing out the finishers' necklaces and finally stopped when I was well beyond free and clear of the crowd.

Fortunately it didn't take long for Jared to get to me. I just wanted to collapse. I just wanted to sit. He had to hold me up and wouldn't let me sit. He made me walk around. I couldn't walk. I think I was whimpering. We got my necklace (I really wanted a medal and how dumb is this...even the "hippie chicks" who did the quarter marathon--isn't that pretty much a 10K?--got necklaces too. Figures we'd all be winners the year I decide to do a half marathon. Am I being petty? You betchya!) Jared grabbed a couple of orange wedges for me to suck on and I kept whining about how I wanted to sit. There was a pancake breakfast for all the runners, but I told Jared, I just wanted to go home. Because then I could sit. So we did.

Oh and my time: 2 hours, 28 minutes...even. I did it and I did it WITHOUT having to walk to rest. I competed against myself and I won.

We were going to go to ward temple night because that evening appeared to be our only shot for our monthly session together. But Jared was on call, so there went that option. Since we already had a sitter, we decided that we would go to Olive Garden to help replenish some of the calories I had burned off and to celebrate our anniversary. What a novel idea.

The babysitter took this picture of us before we left. This was me after a shower, 800 mg. of motrin and a much needed nap.


I couldn't have done it without Jared...helping me train, encouraging me, giving me perspective and hope and for cheering me on the sidelines. Ironically and as a record, he never got paged Friday night. Heavenly Father knew I needed him more than our boys did.

Jared, I'd rather re-live the last 13 years of our life together than run another 13 miles!