My Marathon Man

Once upon a time, there was a little boy. He dreamed a big dream. His dream was to finish an ironman when he grew older. Well. . . that's still a dream, but. . . on Saturday, Ben took the first step toward his dream.

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true."

- Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens

Ben started training for the Top of Utah Marathon a few months back. He talked my brother, Bryce, into doing it with him. They've been running and preparing together on weekends - and running on their own throughout the week. Well, Saturday was the day.

The race starts up a canyon near Logan - so you aren't even able to see the racers until about mile 13. Apparently, I misunderstood where we could actually see the racers and so we didn't see Ben until almost mile 17. He was devastated when we weren't there when he expected us. I was a nervous wreck - and a ball of emotions. As soon as I saw racers, I started crying. We waited and waited. Bryce had come and gone (we missed seeing him by like 2 minutes). We waited some more and finally. . . he appeared.

I had my running shoes on so that I could run with him for a little while - I needed to know how he was doing. I was worried. . . was he okay? how were his knees? had he had stomach problems? did he have his head in the game? was he struggling? . . . I was worried.

Well, he had teamed up with a girl name Kirsten about mile 8. They were running about the same pace and had passed each other back and forth several times. Finally, they just decided to run it together. I'm telling you, it was a BLESSING. She was such a help to Ben. I am so grateful because she kept his mind off the grueling fact that he was actually running a marathon and pushing his body beyond anything he'd done to that point in his life,

I ran with them for about a mile and realized he was doing just fine, so I caught up with my ride and sent him on his way.

By then, we had talked to Nicki and Bryce was at about mile 24. He had cruised. So, we were hurrying to the finish line. Well, "Speedy" beat us by about 12 minutes. We didn't even get to see him at all. Bryce finished his first marathon in 3:32. Yep, he's amazing. (I'm so proud of you, little man. You're my hero. Always have been.)

Back to Benny. I had received a text at 10:47 that Ben had crossed the 20 mile marker. We didn't dare go find him again because we knew we wouldn't make it back to the finish line because there were so many people. So, we just hung around and watched racers coming in and recovering. It was crazy. These people ran 26.2 miles. And they were hobbling around and moaning - and happy. It was great.

We knew about when Ben should be coming, so we headed over to the finish line to wait. Pretty soon we saw this. . .

He had really struggled between miles 20 and 26. In the picture you can see him holding hands with Kirsten and another guy. They had met this man who was running for his wife. She runs marathons like crazy and was recently diagnosed with breast cancer - this was the first marathon she was unable to run - and he was running it for her. (I can't help but get emotional.) They ran their race in 05:12:30.250. I was so proud of him. He wanted to get a better time than that, but he ran the best race that he could. Who can say they've completed a marathon? Well, he can. I am so proud of him. He was pretty emotional after the fact. I'm so glad I caught it on film. I love a man who can cry.

The Marathon Men.

Our little family.

Bryce and his fam.

Overall, the experience was amazing. Ben gave me reason #589,340,123 that I love him. He is such an example of courage and determination. I love you, Mister Marathon.