Final Preparations Underway For Salt Lake City Marathon 

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It sure takes a lot to get ready for a marathon, and it’s not just running.

You have to get your bib, your shirt, and your supplies – and, of course, you have to get your picture taken because, did you really run, if you don’t post it on Instagram?

It’s a good thing Dea Tuft understands.

“Social media these days is the max,” said Tuft with a laugh.

Tuft is a volunteer with the Salt Lake City Marathon and spent her shift at the Salt Palace Convention Center during race packet pickup, making sure runners had that perfect picture pose.

Dea Tuft took thousands of photos today. She's volunteering w/the SLC Marathon and made sure runners picking up their race packets had the perfect pose for their social media posts. She's also quite a character. We'll show you how she makes people laugh on @KSL5TV at 6:30.#KSLTV pic.twitter.com/yFvWhGnfRf

— Alex Cabrero (@KSL_AlexCabrero) April 13, 2019

“I’m just a social media kind of a girl, grabbing the phone from everybody and taking pictures,” she said while actually grabbing someone’s phone to take their picture in front of a marathon logo screen.

 Tuft will admit she’s happy pictures are digital these days.

“If it would’ve been 40 years ago, big mess,” she said. 

Then again, when it comes to capturing smiles, you really can’t mess that up.

“It’s cheap to delete the pictures that are not good,” said Tuft. “You can delete them whenever you want and only keep the pictures you like.” 

The Salt Lake City Marathon starts Saturday morning on Wasatch Drive on the campus of the University of Utah, goes through several downtown streets, and ends at Library Square downtown.

In all, 56 streets will be closed for the marathon.

Here's a look at all the road closures for Saturday morning's Salt Lake City Marathon. https://t.co/ZTX3uqfdFS pic.twitter.com/ALbGTAjEmi

— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) April 13, 2019

Race organizers said the marathon is becoming more popular and more respected by serious runners who travel to these types of events.

“This year we’ve got actually all 50 states represented. We’ve got Delaware – we haven’t had them the last two years,” said marathon marketing director Jennifer Nelson. “We’ve got them and we’ve got 17 countries coming out this year, so what an incredible city to highlight, though.”

That means a lot of pictures.

Tuft had no problem taking as many pictures as runners wanted.

“This is super fun because everybody is happy,” she said. “I do it for the fun because of the people and participating with the City of Salt Lake.”