I've always been a runner and this was my fifth marathon. I had our first child almost exactly 18 months ago. I had a rough pregnancy and gained 100 pounds. I had a lot of trouble losing the weight. Last January I finally started back running and it was REALLY hard! I could barely run a mile and it took me 13 minutes! I worked really hard adding miles but was unsure if I'd ever be able to run like I did before.

After six longs months I was finally able to go for runs in the double digits and decided to run another marathon. I push a baby stroller so I wasn't sure what my pace actually was and the longer training runs were really hard. I found a great running partner who had never run a marathon before. She helped push the stroller half way on our runs so that helped.

I found the Revel Big Cottonwood and thought the downhill would help me not have an embarrassing time. I still had 10-15 pounds to lose from the pregnancy and training was tough since my running partner has 5 kids under 10 years old and I'm still nursing so I didn't think I would do great. I actually finished under 4 hours and got a PR by 4 minutes in the marathon!

The marathon was really well organized and it was a beautiful course and the volunteers were great! The elevation was challenging since I live at sea level, but I was able to manage and was really happy I got a PR for both my half and full marathon.

Congrats, Jessica!