Laurel & Michael's Marathon Weekend
St. George, UT

October 2003

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The experience began one year ago when a few of us crazies
decided to run the St. George Marathon. We believed the myth
that it's all downhill and thought we'd try it! Michael and Laurel had
never run a step before a year ago, Kurt had been doing some running.
It was Kurt's suggestion. We're seen here at the San Francisco airport.
Left to right: Little Michael, Michael and Laurel Feddock, JulieAnn Feddock
Kurt, Karen, and Annie Wiest. (Breanne Feddock was in Salt Lake City this
weekend attending General Conference with the Young Women from
the ward, Erin Wiest is at BYU-Provo).

Oops, heh, Michael was the random one they
decided to search. We hadn't flown since before 9/11
so the taking our shoes off thing was new for us.

Little Michael enjoyed watching the airplanes come and go
while we waited and could hardly wait for our turn!
He's trying to not jump out of his skin here.

He made several friends on this trip.
This German-American girl was the first.
Looks like both children will be able to
fit under the airplane seats.

Our turn had finally come. We walked through the
tunnel and into a real live airplane! Miguelito was a little
concerned about the 1" gap between the tunnel and
plane so he asked his Dad to help him step over it.
I guess he could sense we were up high.

He got right to work on all the buttons
and gadgets. Who could resist such fun things?

The Wiests settle in.

Oh my, we're actually taking off now!
Can you feel the power, Mike?
Acceleration is a favorite sensation for these two.

Such beautiful clouds on the way to Salt Lake City.

This is as we are landing in SLC.
We could see Temple Square from our window.

Due to a delayed first leg, we only had minutes
to get to our second, smaller airplane. This would
take us from SLC to St. George. Interestingly, I (Laurel)
noticed that even while carrying suitcases and walking
quickly through the airport I wasn't even breathing
hard. All that training was good for something!

Some people are VERY serious about studying
those emergency procedure cards.
That is one winning profile!

The Bubster wasn't quite ready to run ahead to see
Gramma and Grampa Redd (in the window, aren't they so cute?)
by himself. That didn't last long.

Here are Mom and Dad Redd with Kurt Wiest.
This is showing how the plane just pulls up to the
front door and lets you out.

At Gramma and Grampa Redd's house,
Michael and his cool aunt JulieAnn play Legos.

The Bubster settled in next to Gramma.
He warmed right up to Gramma and Grampa Redd.
We were so glad! They didn't seem to mind either.

His bed on the floor, next to our sofa bed.

Little Michael LOVES to have stories read to him.
What a nice dad.

The next day, Friday, was the day before the race.
Although it's called a race, I feel a little funny calling it that
since we weren't racing, just participating and trying to finish.
We drove the LONG course up to the starting line.
We wanted to get familiar with landmarks and grades, etc.

The race starts at 6:45am when it's still dark and chilly.
These bonfires will be lit in the morning to keep the runners
warm until start time. There were about 40 bonfires.

There were possibly more runners in line for these
port-a-potties than around the fires. You try to really hydrate
all day the day before a marathon, that's really important,
but it does have it's consequences.

One has to entertain himself on a 26.2 mile drive.

In town there was this great countdown sign.
I wonder how far in advance they put this up.

We chose the sign as a meeting place to meet my internet
friend I accidentally met on the St. George Marathon
message board. Leigh and her family are from southern
California, they are LDS and she's a Sunday School teacher.
It was great to meet them! She had helped me so much
with encouragement by email. She's quite motivating!
Turns out she missed qualifying for the Boston
marathon by TWO minutes on this marathon.
She was very disappointed!

After driving the course we went to the Expo
to pick up our bib numbers and shirts.
Mom and Dad were so nice to give us a car to use.
Here runners can check out a topographical
map of the course. It includes mile markers,
so we could see what to expect, and when.

We checked out the vendors here (Laurel got some
sunglasses and we got Breanne a shirt) The Bubster
is trying an exercise machine at the Expo. His middle
name is "Keep Moving." Michael Keep Moving Feddock. Yep.
It was right here that we got a phone call from Breanne
just saying hello. It was nice to hear her voice, we missed her!

Mom and Dad brought us lunch before the first-timer's clinic.
The speaker was so funny, His dry humor reminded
us of David Barker. I thought he kind of looked like him, too.
It was extra fun having Mom and Dad with us.

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