WE DID IT!!!!

New York Marathon...DONE!!! Brandon and I went to New York City with his family to run the marathon. It was the coolest marathon I have and probably will ever run. What a cool race- you start in Staten Island and run across a bridge on your first mile in Brooklyn. Then you run along 4 more bridges while you go through Queens, the Bronx, then into Manhattan where you finish at Central Park. There are tons of people throughout the whole route cheering you on. People hang out of the windows of their apartments yelling, and bands on the streets playing music. There were rock, country, and calypso bands- and a few rappers too. It is so cool how much the city gets into this marathon. We took it very slowly because of the body problems Brandon's mom and I have been having, and I think it payed off because we got faster and at a good pace and I didn't really feel any substantial back or leg pain until like mile 15- which is great cause most of my runs before, this the nerve problem would kick in at like 1/2 a mile-pathetic. There was so much to see (like Katie Holmes...Yes, we saw her but didn't know it was her till the next day when we saw her in the paper and recognized her outfit. Wierd...) that we jogged and just enjoyed the experience. The biggest problem came for me at 20 when for some random reason my foot began hurting like crazy! So...I stopped and walked-oh well, I don't care about my time, and it really hurt so it was okay. Brandon stayed and walked with me(his brother and mom had gone on ahead), then I told him to go and he ran off like a bat out of hell at mile 24. I kept walking to 25 (I had tried a couple of times to run but it was incredibly painful) then I decided to bite the bullet and run the last mile. So I started hobbling and got more and more used to the pain and ran the last mile through Central Park. Yes! The finish line-Hallelujah! Then we hobbled down to the subway and collapsed into nap time.

But anyway, so for the rest of our trip, we hobbled our sore bodies around town to see the sights. We went to the coolest exhibit called the Bodies Exhibition. They had these real bodies that had been treated and they strip them of certain parts to show different systems of the body. It was absolutely incredible. We went to Time Square, Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center)



and saw "Wicked". It was such an amazing trip and I think that we will probably end up doing this marathon again. What an experience.
Oh and we stayed with Spencer and Nicole Clawson a few nights in their cute apartment by the temple and Central Park-they are the best! Anyway, with all my problems- it ended up being just a randomly great day for my back, all things considered, and it was well worth all the problems I've had. Brandon also did awesome in his first marathon and was so sweet to stay with me when I had to stop and walk those last few miles. SUCCESS!!!