26.2 baby!

I guess the last post on our blog was 2 weeks before the marathon!! Well it's over now thank heavens. And what an adventure. Dad drove up Friday night to hang with me and get ready to race. We went to dinner, overloaded on pasta and picked up our packets. The race expo was insane. I automatically was wondering if I now belong to this crowd, this group of crazy people who will run till they die. Everyone was wearing their last race t-shirts, or their 50 miler shirts to prove they were die hards. Not sure my plain pink t-shirt exactly labeled me as competition! The next morning we were up at 4:30 Am, and walking to the buses. That drive in a regular car 14 miles up black smith fork canyon is long... in a school bus, it's eternity! The whole time I was in my head wondering if I'll be in an ambulance in 5 hours or not. We got to the top and ended up getting in the bum portapotty line ( aka the slow one!). It also started raining pretty heavily, which made my anxiety about the race triple. with 5 minutes to ditch our drop bags and get to the finish we made it down the hill sporting some sexy garbage bag rain ponchos. Before I knew it we were running. The rain would let up for a minute, then pour hard for ten. I got rid of my poncho in a moment of hope, only to get dumped on even more. By mile 10 we were completely soaked! The cold water felt really great on my feet, but everywhere else was just cold.  It was the hail that really made me feel crazy. Why do we do this to ourselves? Me and dad were doing dang good! We only walked 2 times the whole race and it was about 1 block both times.  I felt better than I ever would have imagined. We put our headphones in at mile 14 to get some pump up tunes, and my ipod kept shuffling to church hymns! I was getting so frustrated!Mile 18 was probably my favorite, my 3rd wind. Then at 20 I hit the dreaded wall and just wanted to be done! I knew if we stopped I would not be able to get my feet to keep going.  I kept hearing the finding nemo quote in my head... "Just keep running, Just keep running, running running" Dad was such a great motivator. When I say I couldn't have done this without him, it's 100 % true! I was intensely relieved to see the finish line and all those who were there to support me. My besty Ash was the first one I saw and it made me want to cry! I looked ahead to see Trev, Chan, Addi and Fin and seriously almost lost it. I knew I couldn't have dad  drag me across the finish line so I kept it together =). Dad, you got me through the last 6 months, and right to the finish line of one of my biggest goals in life. I can't even express how much I needed your support and patience through all of this. You deserve a medal just for being an amazing dad. Hopefully I've forever proven that I'm a Johnson!!Besides you, Trevor definately had to be patient with me. Through injuries, bad days, and crazy races you've always been my motivation to just make it to the finish line! We're both so glad it's over. As of today, I'm never doing that again! But we'll see tomorrow;)