I received an invite to a private blog a few days ago, and when I logged in, it took me a minute to figure out that the invite was from a cousin on my dad’s side of the family.  (Before you judge me too harshly, you should know I have over 100 cousins).  I don’t remember for sure when I saw Candice last, so I was curious to see where her family was now. 

Candice had just run her first marathon in St. George, and her experience was incredible!.  I was so moved, I emailed her for permission to share her story.  There are many life parallels in her running experience.  Not only did it almost make me want to get up and run a marathon (I hate running), but it made me think about helping those around me as kindly as Lowell helped Candice.  It was such a simple thing, really, but Lowell’s act of service was an act of grace to a fellow struggling runner.  We are all running in life, and I believe we each experience a time during our race when we don’t think we can run any more. 

Candice never saw Lowell after the race, but when she shared her experience in church, a woman in the congregation approached her who had been Lowells’ neighbor in Idaho.  She gave Candice his contact information, and she was able to call him and thank him personally for his kindness.  Lowell emailed me the story behind his running experiences, which you can read after Candice’s article below.

Meet Lowell.  This is him in the St. George Maraton.           

This is Lowell running backwards.  Look how happy he is!  Wouldn’t you want to be running by him?

This is Candice being congratulated by her kids.

The hat and gloves…

Candice with her family.

My Marathon Experience, by Candice Rodgers

I finished my first marathon today! I ran it in 4 hours and 14 minutes. I really wanted to run it under 4 hours, but we had cold rain the whole 26.2 miles and my body took a turn for the worse because of it! Unfortunately, I was not dressed for the rain. My gloves were not waterproof, and I had taken off my soaked sweats and jacket at mile 4. Needless to say, I started to lose my body heat quickly [Read more →]

Lowell’s Running Story

For what it’s worth here is my running story in a nutshell.

My best friend Terry Jensen got me running in 1979 by going up to the ISU Minidome after work every night starting in January.  A month later I had gained a pound and could not run a mile.  Two months later I still struggled with a mile but had had two 2-mile runs and one 3-mile.  Terry challenged me to try and run 5 on the second Saturday in March.  When we went to the mindome I was sure I had the Black Plague as I didn’t think I could do even one mile.  Ended up running 10. 

We did some races and my first marathon on July 24th in Salt Lake on the Deseret News Course.  It was hard and Terry wasn’t there to meet me at Mile 22 like he promised .  So I really struggled.  He met me at Mile 24 down by Sears and chewed me out for walking.  He chided me until I was running again and I finally got to where I thought I was pretty fast once again and rather amazed I could still run.  While I was being so impressed with myself I looked over to Terry on my right and he was walking as fast as I was running!  Running can be relative.

On September 17th in 1979 I ran a race that started at 2 p.m. in 82 degree temps.  A 10K.  I was gung ho and ended up in the hospital with internal bleeding and was unable to run for another 5 years.  In 1984 I ran St. George for the first time and experienced the emotional fear of knowing running could kill you as it almost had me.  But at Mile 4 I “ran through a door” that put that fear behind me forever.  In those 5 years I had searched for answers to what had happened to me and we finally started to learn some things about heat and hydration the gave me enough sorta-confidence to walk through the fear of St. George.

We ran until 1992 and then got lazy for a decade.  Terry gave me an entry to St. George for my 60th Birthday on August 1, 2002.  He had pulled some strings to get me in as the lottery was closed and I had only 2 months to get ready; had only run some 10Ks.  That turned out to be the beginning of a nice running group with roots in Denver, Wichita and Pocatello. 

St. George this year was my 52nd marathon.  And my 12th St. George.  My fastest ever were two 3:32s in 1988 and 1989.  Third fastest ever was last year at St. George with a 3:44:59.  In the 65-69 age group last year I won my age division 5 of 8 marathons with one of them being a 6:18 at the Tecumseh Trail marathon in Indiana on December 1st.  That was a terribly tough forested course and included an extra mile as Terry and I ran an extra mile to get help for a lady in our group who hung up on a root and broke her leg and was bleeding.  This year I have only placed 1st one time; here in Pocatello.  But was 2nd in Ogden in May and 2nd in Alaska in June and 2nd at the Logan Top of Utah marathon in September.  I  was #3 in age the week after Ogden at the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, Michigan; Terry was #2.  Terry ran a 2:58 marathon back in the late 70s so we call him “JackRabbit” and I consider myself lucky any time I beat him.

I am not competitive but am in love with the kind people I meet running.  It is an area of my life where I have learned you can be totally “safe” and never have to watch your words and be fun and open with people.  Runners are the best friends and the best citizens and neighbors as they have discovered that real health is just recognizing the only race in life is with yourself.

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