Monday, May 21, 2012

"Gonna push it to the limit, give it more..."

So, it happened!  Crystal, Melissa and I all finished our first full marathon!!!  Wow, that was SO HARD but SO COOL!!!  My rockstar cousin Crystal finished in 4 hours.  Holy awesome!  Melissa and I weren't as speedy but we finished AND we accomplished our goal of running the whole thing- that's right we didn't walk at all.  We felt pretty good about that. 
So I woke up at 3:10 in the morning to get ready and head over to Melissa's to carpool up to get on the bus.  We got there just before 5 and got on the bus to head up the canyon.  We got to the start at 5:30, which meant we got to spend an hour and a half freezing up there waiting for the race to start.  They had fire pits that everyone hovered around, so then we got to smell all smokey before we got sweaty and gross from running.  :)  We started right at 7 and were pretty nervous.
Melissa and I met the coolest guy around about mile 10.5... his name is George.  He started talking to us- giving us tips about the course.  We asked how many marathons he has done and he said this was his 144th.  Holy smokes!  He spent about the next 2 1/2 miles talking to us, telling us about his favorite marathons he has done.  He's done the St. George Marathon 24 times, the Boston Marathon 3 times (although he said he has qualified for it 8-9 times), New York once, and a bunch of others.  The coolest one he told us that he's done is the Bataan Memorial Death March.  Here's the site if you want to read about it: http://www.bataanmarch.com/ This is technically a military marathon but they open it to the public.  It's held in honor of those who served in WWII defending the Philippines.  He said it was the most emotionally taxing marathon he's ever done.  At the beginning they show a movie about what the prisoners of war went through and talk about the Bataan Memorial Death March. 
"On April 9, 1942, tens of thousands of American and Filipino soldiers were surrendered to Japanese forces. The Americans were Army, Army Air Corps, Navy and Marines. Among those seized were members of the 200th Coast Artillery, New Mexico National Guard.

They were marched for days in the scorching heat through the Philippine jungles. Thousands died. Those who survived faced the hardships of a prisoner of war camp. Others were wounded or killed when unmarked enemy ships transporting prisoners of war to Japan were sunk by U.S. air and naval forces."

George said that the gun went off to start the race, and everyone just stood there and he couldn't figure out why they weren't moving.  When he finally made his way up to the start, he said all the survivors were lining the start so everyone could stop and shake their hands.  After doing that, he started running but the people in front still weren't moving very quickly.  After a few minutes, as he began passing people, he realized that was because there were amputees running in front of him.  He said some had no legs but were doing the whole marathon with just crutches!  After getting over being choked up over that, he got to the running part.  Then, he said, at the finish, the survivors were lining the finish too, so he got to shake their hands and thank them again.  It sounded like a really incredible marathon.  I thought it was really cool that a guy that could have easily smoked us ran with us for almost 3 miles until we got to the halfway point.  :)

The course was gorgeous.  We got to run around the reservoir, over a dam and at one point, we were running past a bunch of horses and they started running along side us- that was pretty cool.  It was a beautiful day and we had a nice breeze going- it was incredible.
By the time we got to mile 17, we had to stop for a quick bathroom break- we had been drinking water at every water station because it was a little warm, and we ate Cliff bars everytime they gave those out.  After making that quick stop, my legs didn't want to keep moving, but Melissa was determined to make us keep running the whole way, so she pushed me to keep running.  Around mile 18, we ran into a guy with an artificial leg.  Wow.  That made me realize I had better quit complaining about my legs hurting- at least I had both of them.  Then, we saw a girl with a sign on her back that said, "Survivor: celebrating 11 years cancer free".  Holy smokes.  There are some really cool people running marathons- let me tell you...
When we got to about 20 miles, we started hurting... alot.  Melissa's sister Angela was going to join us at mile 22, so we just kept telling ourselves we got to see Angela soon and kept going.  When we finally got to Angela (at about 22.5) we were both so happy we wanted to just cry.  Angela was very encouraging and made us feel cool and like we could finish.
My wonderful, amazing husband was going to meet us a mile before the finish to run the final stretch with us, but he actually caught up to us a mile and a half before the end, which I was SO happy about.  I always love seeing Matt, but I don't think I've ever been that happy to.  He was so sweet and encouraging- it was very helpful.  The last stretch was so hard!!!  Every step hurt and the finish didn't seem to be getting any closer.  Angela and Matt kept cheering us on though, and when we saw our families and they were cheering for us, that helped a ton too.  The last 15ish feet, Melissa and I sprinted it out and ran across the finish line.  It felt so good to be done!!!  Then we got chocolate milk and bread and I got a creamy.  Delicious.  It was so neat to finally finish what we've been training for since February.  Looking back, it was hard, but I think I could do it again.  Probably no more than one each year, because that takes a lot of time and work.  For the rest of this year, I think I'll stick to Ragnars and half marathons... and the Dirty Dash of course. :)
This is Melissa, Angela, Matt and me running down to the finish

After the race- the traditional Neel family pose

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

"Even Crazy Dreams Come True"

So it was brought to my attention that I haven't updated this blog for months, and it turns out that quite a few things have happened this year! 

1. I married my best friend in the entire world on March 8th, 2012 in the Salt Lake temple.  This was without a doubt the most wonderful, perfect day of my life so far!  I couldn't believe how many people came out to celebrate with us!  It was a beautiful day- first we were sealed at 11- I thought that was a pretty great time.  Not too early, but we still had time to take some pictures before our lunch at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Matt's parents arranged that whole thing and it was just perfect- his mom made the cute centerpieces and his dad made our slide show which I just loved (there are some pretty cute pictures of Matt- if you didn't get to see it, come over and I'll show it to you ;) ).  Matt's dad had a microphone and opened it up for people to come up and say something- I was surprised when both my brothers and my sister went up to say something.  They were so sweet, I started bawling. 
After the lunch, we went to our reception at Heritage Gardens.  Everyone made that so perfect!  Annie picked up our centerpieces so those were already set up and ready to go, our cake was gorgeous (thanks to Rebekah Poppleton- I can give you her card- she's amazing!) and delicious... I've been looking for an excuse to get another ever since.  We had the most fun DJ ever- he even got the dads and brothers and Matt to dance while ridiculously dressed- if you missed that, you'll have to check out the pictures.  A BIG thank you to everyone that helped with everything for the wedding and to everyone who came.  :)  Best day ever!


2. Tomorrow I am graduating from the University of Utah with two of my best buds- Melissa and Torri.  I couldn't have made it without these girls.  They definitely got me through.  Sadly, Torri is now moving to Colorado so her husband can go to pharmacy school and she can do a program to be an ultrasound tech- pretty cool.  Good thing I still get to hang out with Melissa- in fact, Matt and I moved to Bountiful so I get to run with Melissa every week which leads to the upcoming third thing:
3. Melissa and I are doing the Ogden Marathon on May 19- Melissa's birthday.  Crazy girl- who wants to spend 4-5 hours running on their birthday, right?  Well let me tell ya- this girl.  She is hard core and it was one of her goals to run a marathon by the time she turned 22... so she's doing it ON her 22nd birthday.  What a rockstar!  I am sure I would have quit by now if it hadn't been for her making me keep going on those long runs.  We've gotten up to 18 miles and will be running 20 this Saturday. 

4. I somehow got admitted to the grad program for Speech Pathology at the University of Utah, so I will be starting that in August.  In the meantime, Matt and I are planning on going to Hawaii and St. George and hopefully Disneyland this summer- to have as much fun together while we can. 

5. I somehow got Matt to agree to start running even though he hates it.  We did his first 5k- Color Me Rad- this past Saturday.  Emma Kofoed- my favorite 10-year-old, did it with us as well.  It was a blast and made us all want to do more races.  As a result, Matt and I are going to be doing Wasatch Back Ragnar next month AND Vegas Ragnar in November.  I'm also trying to talk him into trying a half marathon at the end of the summer, so stay tuned for that. :) 

Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on the adventures of Matt and Charisse trying to learn how to be responsible (if you look at all the faces we made on our wedding day, you'll appreciate the challenge that must be) and figure out married life in Boutiful, Utah.  Also- I'll have pictures for graduation and the marathon, etc. coming soon!