The Despain Review

Darrick's sister Brenda was turning the big 40 this year and we have been talking since last year what we'd like to do for her. We were suppose to go to dinner with her and Steve on Sat. night after the marathon, but we finished and decided to go back to Travis and Betsy's house for a shower, a BYU football game & dinner with them. We were too tired to drive back home that soon after. Part of our gift for her was to decorate the outside of her condo. We didn't make it back until Sat. night at around 11 p.m. so we planned on going down on Sun. (her b-day) and decorate while they were at church. Again we were just too tired and way to SORE to move. Sunday came and went. Mon. morning I ran to the flower shop to buy a boquet of flowers and delivered them to the school where she teaches. (This was her "nice" gift from us) Lucky for Brenda it was raining outside heavily and so my plans of decorating her car came to pass. It would have been great though! Dang! Around 3 the skies were sunny and the last of our plan was going to happen! Me and the kids hurried down to decorate the outside. I got a call around 6 from Brenda, who pretended to be mad....but I knew that she was smiling ear to ear! The first thing she said was "Did you have to announce to all my neighbors how old I was?" YES BRENDA......WE DID!!!!! Love ya!

Well I finished my first marathon! Yeah I said first! I think I will do another one.....it just might be a while. I feel like I have accomplished a few physically challenging events in my life. This one definitely ranks towards the top. It was satisfying to find the time to train, & overcome injuries that I have never had to deal with before. And then accomplish the goal of the race. I never doubted that I could finish, it was just how I wanted to do it. I am pretty happy with my results. I was shooting for 3 hours and 45 min, and I got it done in 3:13:58. Course I had my usual pit stop at mile 9. The canyon was beautiful and I found myself looking at the hills for deer and elk & studying the river that ran along the side of the road for good fishing holes. One of the challenges is to not take off to quickly at the beginning. The excitement of it all and the anticipation of just getting the whole darn thing over with pushes you to take off hard. The first 14 miles were a pretty good downhill and I felt great. I averaged about a 7:00 min. mile and at times I was at a 6:00 min. mile pace. I would look down at my garmin and talk myself into slowing down. My calves were starting to tighten at about mile 3 so I knew I had to be careful. I have to thank Katie Calvin for her advice and help with my injuries. Changing out my shoes about 3 weeks before the race, running in the grass, & sprinting up steep hills really made a difference in my shin & arch injuries. I felt strong through 18/ 19 miles when I think that the length of the race and the fast start started taking their toll. I wouldn't say I ever hit a wall, maybe a few speed bumps, where my body started screaming at me. Course that's just when you turn up the ipod and pick up the pace. I thought the race was well done. Tons of volunteers. I even had a kid chase me down from behind to hand me a banana that I couldn't quite grab as I was running thru an aid station. That banana really hit the spot & I got quite the sugar buzz off of it. It meant a lot to me to have my brother and his family there. They were a great support watching the kids, taping the race, taking pics, being a cheer squad, and heaping praises on us afterwards. It was great. I will have to say as I came out of the canyon I was looking hard for my kids and yet people started blurring together. Trying to run and look around was difficult. But it was a huge boost to see my kids at that mile marker and then more than anything.....there at the finish. Naomi is getting so big and took the job of video taping. She did great. Hope you don't get too dizzy watching our videos. She's still learning but tries so hard and loves her Mom and Dad. When you run 26.2 miles you have a lot of time to think. It was a great time of reflection as well as recommitting myself to other things I'd like to accomplish. As I trained and throughout the race my thoughts always went back to my older brother. Again, I want to say it was a great experience and I'm extremly grateful to my wife who has supported me and pushed me to do this. She's a great inspiration for getting up early and getting the training done. I missed a lot of training....where she didn't miss any. I still beat her! (She's typing this and added that on her own) If you have ever thought about doing one go to a marathon and just watch the people cross the finish line. The pain is well worth it!

So here is my story.........my run.......my marathon #2!

My time 4:15:08 according to Susan's watch, which accounted for the potty break at mile 10. My official chip time was 4:17: something. I'll stick with Susan's watch!

We started out at a really good pace....we ran anywhere from a 7 min to a 9 min. per mile pace for over the first half of the race. The canyon was beautiful. We started our race with a long t-shirt over our tank tops but by mile 3 they landed by the road side in a pile of other clothes that would be taken back to the finish line for pick-up later. The moring air was cool and perfect for running. We had a few raindrops here and there while running down the canyon road but we enjoyed the beauty that surrounded us. The trees leaves have changed in color for fall and as we looked around us there were brilliant reds, oranges, yellows & greens. The river ran next to the road and the world seemed at peace. The only sounds you could hear were the pitter patter of feet running down the road and often times seemed all in sync. Susan and I of course talked about all different things. We have been running now together for almost 4 years and in that time you learn a lot about one another. We can almost finish one another's sentences and even when we make no sense at all (because of the lack of oxygen) we know exactly what the other person is saying. We have almost depleted our stories and so this time we brought up childhood stories, embarressing moments & spiritual stories. At times we just ran and enjoyed the moment. We found that we chatted with others, interracted with the spectators and gave hi-fives to the children along the side of the road. At mile 14 we came out of the canyon and headed north towards Logan. It was there that we ran into Travis. It was good to see a familiar face. We headed on. We ran thru small country towns that were nice and quiet. The people we came upon yelled out encouraging words. Our spirits were high and we were doing well. Around mile 20 the soreness crept into the muscles and I tried not to think of all that hurt. It rained on us some more but it only lasted maybe a mile. At mile 23 the muscles were getting tighter but my mind was clear and strong. Mile 24 came slower than the others but again my mind was strong. It's amazing how the muscles cramp up and no matter how hard you try.....you can't talk them into loosening up any. I knew I could get through the last 2.2 miles. I had done it before and I could do it now. Mile 25 came pouring rain and some familiar faces (Cathy & Mike Larsen), who had driven up to Logan earlier than planned just to see us finish. They are in our ward and Cathy attends the aerobics class that I teach. What a support that was to have them "yell" us on. The last 1/2 mile seemed more like 5 but it was growing shorter with each step. The last turn came and there in front of us was the "Finish Line". I tried to pick up the pace for my last .2 mile finish and it was hard........but so rewarding! We crossed that line with another marathon finish in our pockets.......and a little more sweat on the brow. I had seen people go down with injuries......saw big men on the side of the road sick not wanting to take another step further.....I had seen people of all ages, all sizes, all shapes......and I finished! I took 23 minutes off my time from my first. YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!

Darrick and I are beginning the countdown. We've done the training, we're tapering down the miles and looking forward to the big 26.2 mile marathon run this coming Saturday. This is an exciting time for us.....especially for me.....having my husband run the same "long" race with me. This will be Darrick's 1st marathon. I am excited for him and for that feeling of accomplishment that you feel when you cross that finish line. It doesn't matter what place you have taken, what time you have, or what you look like at the end.....noone can take that feeling of satisfaction away from you. I am so excited for Darrick and wish him a great run.....way out in front of me. My only sadness comes from knowing that I won't be at the finish line waiting for him like he was for me. Darrick just runs too fast. Darrick is what I like to call a "natural born runner". He is amazing. He runs occasionally and decided to run this marathon with Susan and I at the beginning of our training. He has missed out on most runs during the week and then gives it all he has on the long weekend training run. He has sacrificed his body for injuries. He is unbelievable! He is going to do so awesome and I hope his experience with this race is what I had.........or even better. This will be my 2nd marathon and I swore at the 1st that I had accomplished the mission I had set out to do and that I would never do another one again.........well, here I am training again. Running becomes an addiction. A good addiction! For those of you who knew me growing up....will be surprised with this information. I was not a runner and had no desire to be a runner. I looked at marathon running and thought to myself how much I admired these runners and told myself that this was something I never would do. I got into running about 5 years ago and did my 1st marathon 3 years ago. Who knows where this next event will lead me. I am grateful for a great husband who supports me in whatever I decide to do and gives me encouragement to continue on. I am proud of him for letting me talk him into this race and I now know how much he loves me. :-) I am thankful for my running partner Susan. For the time she sacrifices to train. I like to think we both keep one another going......I know she pushes me forward. How rewarding it is to have someone love something like you and to have that desire to keep moving ahead. I don't know how many times we have given up sleep to get a 10 mile run or our 20 mile run in. Thanks Susan for your inspiration! I hope to have some pictures from the race and we will post our results on our blog.

On Sunday afternoon after Regional Stake Conference we decided that there are not enough Sundays we have as a family without meetings going on to enjoy the outdoors. We love taking rides as a family and exploring different areas around us. It was a tradition of ours years ago to drive up to Strawberry Resevoir during the Sept. month to watch the Kokanee Salmon spawn upstream in the different creeks. We have let 3 years slip past us so we decided today would be a great day to start up our tradition once again. This video was taken at the visitor's center/ egg collection center. Some years we see thousands of fish and other years we only see a few. This was a decent year with lots of red fish in the water. If you ever get a chance it's worth the drive to see this spectacle of nature. Salmon are normally silver in color until this time when they head upstream to lay their eggs. They change color as well as their bodies deform. It's amazing to see the humps on their backs poking out of the water and splashing as they speed upstream. You don't have to go to the Northwest to see this amazing event. We only traveled 45 min. We are lucky to live in Utah.

This morning after a great 4 mile run on my own I came home to a message from my running partner Susan. My first thought was.....Oh no, she found a way to do our 10 mile run today and I just got done running 4. I told myself if she had found the time, I would run 10 more with her or at least the first 6. How wrong I was......she asked if I wanted to come to a Zumba class with her that would be starting soon. I said yes, knowing little about Zumba, but the little I did know was that it involved dancing and how hard could it be right? I've danced all my life and was looking forward to lots of fun! I hurried to Springville and made my way to the back row. I couldn't believe it......the women there started calling me "Shakira" and knowing that "the hips don't lie" I was pleased with the outcome of my dancing until I realized......oh wait,..... that it was just my imagination! Okay, so I'm totally kidding about the last sentence. Haha. I really did take the back row and I did have a lot of fun but "the hips don't lie" when they tell everyone in the room that I had no idea what I was doing! :-) Shaking your hips in the way Latin Dancers do is very challenging. I felt the work out in my hips, abs and arms. I hope if I have another opportunity to go that I will make myself relax and not worry so much about how I look while doing those "sexy" moves. I'm glad that I have a good sense of humor about myself and allow the laughter that escapes from my mouth. Thanks Susan for the invite and the great morning of shaking the hips.