Ogden Marathon fun, challenging — and only 5 more races to go!
Amy Donaldson
Saturday morning I ran the Ogden Marathon — the first of the five marathons I plan to run in celebration of my 40th birthday.
The Ogden Marathon is one amazing race!
Not that my time was amazing. It was, however, a personal record. I finished with a time of 4:54:59, and my only other marathon time — two years ago in the Salt Lake Marathon — was five hours and six minutes.
My goals Saturday were modest.
1. Finish.
2. Get to mile 17 by 11:30 a.m. so race officials don't ask me to leave the course.
3. Have fun!
My work schedule is a little hectic right now — it is state tournament time — and there was a bit of road construction on I-15, so I didn't check into my hotel until about 11 p.m. That was interesting. I made a reservation at the Ogden Marriott and specifically said I would be checking in late. But as they had my credit card, I figured that meant I had a room. I found out from the very nice desk personnel, "It means you have a room, but we just don't guarantee which room."
They explained that it was "first come, first served" and most of the other runners had checked in, so I was likely going to get a hospitality room with a roll-away bed. I was OK with that because I was exhausted and knew I wasn't going to be sleeping a lot, but I did want a shower and I didn't want to pay $110 for this secondary accommodation. When I asked how much that would be, the clerk left to ask a manager and then returned with some good news. She said I was getting a luxury suite in the hotel's most exclusive, secure floor — for my originally quoted $110. So I made my way up to my exclusive room and discovered a room that looked an awful lot like the one I'd reserved.
I was not excited. I was tired and worried I had forgotten something. In fact, I was so nervous I had to get up every hour or so and eat a slice of bread to keep from vomiting. At about 2 a.m. Dani woke up and saw me eating bread. After a few minutes, she got up and ripped open a PowerBar and ate it — in our king size bed. I asked her if her stomach was upset as well.
"No," she said in the darkness. "I was just worried you were carbo-loading without me. I don't want you to have more energy than me."
Two hours later, we woke — without an alarm — and got showered and dressed for our race. I was so worried about the heat that I wore shorts and a tank top and didn't even bring a sweatshirt. Unlike others, who actually read the e-mail we got from Ogden Marathon officials, we didn't know it would be between 35 and 40 degrees at the start of the race.
You can be the first to comment on this story.