I wrapped up a gorgeous morning run before we headed down south to participate in the actual marathon.
They inducted my grandpa into the "Road of Fame."
This is my aunt Liz receiving his award since my grandpa passed away last October. Side note: The lady in the stripes took 1st place in this year's race and the gal in the polka dots took 2nd in the women.
A couple things I want to remember about what I learned from his induction ceremony.
-Sherm Miller had the idea to do the St. George marathon. However, my grandpa saw it through and set it up. I knew he was a part of it, but I didn't know how important his part was.
-The St. George marathon was originally set up for the first week in November, but it was too cold and it was later moved to the first weekend in October.
-My grandpa had to recruit/beg runners to run the first couple of marathons. They used to manage the city pool and out of all the lifeguards, two said yes to running it that first year. One of them has run it every year since the beginning, pregnant or not. The St. George marathon today has 7600 runners. I got choked up while running passed Baker Reservoir seeing thousands of runners for miles on a course that one dear person to me created.
-My grandma gets a lot of credit, along with her kids, because while my grandpa was running the marathon she would manage it. They would shuttle runners up to the starting line. Then they would drive 5 miles down, set up a card table with snacks and aid to pass out to the runners as they passed by. When the last runner crossed the 5 mile mark, they would pack up the table and goods, load the kids into the car, drive 5 more miles down the course, and set it up all over again. Repeat. Repeat. My grandma would keep track of each runner's splits while managing the aid, snacks, and her children. Once they got to the finish line at the park, they would record on a stopwatch as the runners crossed the finish line.
-My grandpa could not stand bandits (runners who hadn't paid to run and had no number). He would personally tackle them and take them out if he saw them approaching the finish line without a proper number. When the digital chips were in place and they could easily tell who was legit and who was not, he still tackled them. He was later asked to stop, although I'm not sure he agreed with it.
-At the age of 52, he set a personal record finishing the race in 3hr 4 mins (wish I had that skill!)
-My grandpa did lots of research about running--he entertained the thought of intervals to help you run faster and he pushed his workouts with cross training and building strength. He would clean up the community as he ran picking up trash in the gutters and kicking rocks back into their places.
-One time when my uncle Scott was 10yrs old, he came back from trick or treating saddened by the fact that two older kids had stolen his candy. My grandpa slipped on his tennis shoes and asked which direction the culprits went. My grandpa caught up with the kids and they started to ran faster. If the kids were only warned about the endurance and experience my grandpa had with running they would have stopped sooner. When he caught the winded boys, he brought them back to the house and he called the cops. When the cops arrived the boys said, "we thought we could out run the guy, but he never stopped!" The candy was returned to my uncle Scott and justice was served. I told you my grandpa couldn't stand bandits.
October 5th, 2013:It was a beautiful day to run! 72 degrees and a tail wind. My knee was giving me trouble so I said a quick prayer to my grandpa pleading with him to let me finish. I was inspired to get icy hot smothered on my knee and thigh and it pulled me through. I ran with my neighbor around the corner, my best friend from high school and an old friend from North Carolina.
The kids made some signs and unfortunately I missed seeing them when I ran by. Sad. Next time.
Crazy me signed up to do another marathon in May and I'll probably do the St. George every year that I can get in.
