Date: Saturday, July 27, 2013 @ 6am
Location: Idaho Falls, ID
OK, I'll be honest, I'm writing this almost 4 months after the fact so I'm not going to follow my normal day to day narrative because honestly I don't remember what we did. Actually, we didn't do much of anything while in Idaho. The week after the half marathon was a lot of panicking about the full marathon coming up, visiting with my brother-in-law and his family plus a trip to Twin Falls to visit the guys grandmother, aunts and uncles, father and his family.
The one thing I did manage to do just about every day was to go for short runs mostly along the Great Blackfoot Area Greenbelt and to the gym. This is a relatively new, paved loop that travels north for about 5 miles to Rose Pond before turning around for the return trip. I never went to the end but I did go about 3 miles out and back. The trail is beautiful and the sights in the early morning are quite inspiring.
We spent most of the week just chilling at the house. David, the BIL, and his family came by on Wednesday and we made plans to drive to Twin Falls to see their grandmother, aunts/uncles and dad. Our nieces by the hubs little brother, Vince, came by most days and we'd play croquet, do a T25 video, go swimming and just goofed off at the house. That night the whole family went out to dinner at a local restaurant that the hubs and I had never been to.
On Thursday we made the trip to Twin Falls. Our first stop was at the guys aunts house where we had lunch and caught up with everyone. Since the day was nice we were all siting or standing on the back porch when we noticed to humming birds buzzing by chasing each other. I know I got some pictures of them, but I can't find them anywhere. All the time that I was trying to get pictures I was, literally, getting dive bombed by one of the crazy birds. After several hours visiting we took our leave and headed over to the father-in-laws house.
It had probably been 15 or so years since we'd seen the guys dad. This trip we were lucky enough to see their step brother, Tuan, whom we hadn't seen since the early 80's when we were all active duty military. I know I took some pictures but I'll be damned if I can find them anywhere. We spent the day eating crawfish and just talking around the table. Their step mother is Vietnamese so you know that the food was never ending as it is in most Asian households when visitors are expected (or even when they're not). We ended up heading back to Blackfoot around 4pm.
Friday the girls came by and it was packet pick up day in Idaho Falls for the M.A.D. Marathon and Half Marathon. This was the race that I had been dreading, my second full marathon. After driving the course I knew that I was in trouble. You've probably read my previous post where I'm in total panic mode. If not, you can read it here.
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| M.A.D. Marathon swag. |
I was bused to the start of the full marathon, Troy would be bused to the half marathon start an hour later. I had a sheer few minutes of panic thinking that I couldn't do this, but when it came time to line up I did so all the while telling myself to just do the best I could. Almost the whole time of the race I was in the last 5. It seemed that me and an older gentleman who was walking were taking turns passing each other...yes, by this time (about mile 15) I had started walking more than running. By mile 18 I felt as if I was leaning to the left, much like I did at the TinkerBell HM earlier in the year. By mile 19 I was stumbling and off balance. At mile 20 I threw in the towel and called it quits...better to be safe than sorry since a diagnosis had still not yet been made (and never has been). I have to admit, I was in tears at having to quit only 10K away from the finish but there were no more water stops and there was only one car driving the course to pick up anyone. I figured that we'd be up in Idaho eventually and I could just catch a different marathon for the state at that time. Yes, I was disappointed but like I said...better to be safe than sorry.
Finishing Time: DNF
We spent the next day just hanging out doing laundry and packing. We took off before dawn on Monday for the 16 or so hour drive home. It's funny but I feel differently about Blackfoot, a small town, than I did when we were living in California. I always thought I'd never be able to live in such a small town but after living here in Clovis, NM I kinda like it. Who knows maybe one day we'll move up to Idaho...
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