St George lottery 2010

My husband begged me to do St George again so he could go get in some St George Mountain Biking. Okay, maybe not begged, but he was all for it, and that's good enough for me!!!

Marcie, should we register under your name again? Do we use your email address to link our names?

They will link 5 names together in the lottery. It doesnt give you 5 chances- it just means all or none. Five of us have already committed, but we want more of our fun runner friends to come have the St George experience too! So let us know if you want to be a part of the next 5 to link. I think Bridge is starting the next wave? Or else just sign on solo if you dont mind risking youre the only one to get in.

You need to put into the lottery in April. Dont miss out, St George is Gorgeous!
Goodluck Everyone!

Sporting the Hardware!

Karen, Lisa, Cynthia, Lindy.

Unfortunately Sharon had to leave after the race and wasnt there to receive her metal.

Team B.L.I.N.G. "sweeps" the Islands 5k

Lindy - first woman finisher - first in her age group (obviously)
Karen - first in her age group (seconds behind Lindy)
Cynthia - third in her age group (SEVERAL minutes behind Lindy & Karen - but managed to pull out an age group award)
Sharon - first in her age group
Lisa - first in race organization

PR's for everyone! Lots of our friends got in on the awards too. I love local races!

Go Team B.L.I.N.G.!

Riverton Half-Marathon

I'm here. And I'm still running. And loving it. And love reading about all of your races and training runs.

Today I ran the Riverton Half-Marathon posting my fastest time yet, 1:48:29 (which included a bathroom break at mile three, UGH!). I was aiming for 1:45 but I am absolutely thrilled with 1:48. I didn't want to go too fast, lest the olympics come calling. I just don't have time for that right now. :) I'll let them chase after Lindy.

I am always saying to myself that if I want to run faster, I have to train faster. And that's what I've been doing. Training faster. Posting some of my fastest training runs ever {which are not earth-shattering by any means} and working on a lot of speed work. And it paid off today. Who says age has to slow you down?

BY THE WAY, did everyone see who commented on Lindy's March 7th post? WOWSERS!

1:49:58 p.m. Saturday- The conclusion

After my second leg, I was feeling pain around my ankles, and on the inside of one of my knees. I was having a hard time walking. I still had one more run to go. I knew from past experience that if I could just run through the first half mile of pain, then I would numb up and be okay. Afterwards Id just have to deal with the consequences. I started my last run and then after not too long I had to stop at a traffic light and cross the street. A speedy guy ran up to the stop light, and a girl with a bright obnoxious Boston Marathon jacket. (I hope to own one myself someday soon:) I wondered if Boston girl might be a similar pace as me. I tried to start up a conversation, and thought I might run with her for awhile. But she was not interested in talking so I took off. Speedy guy raced on ahead of me and was soon out of sight. I don’t know how far behind me Boston girl was. I never looked back.

My mantra I kept telling myself was “You don’t have to run this damn fast”. My mantra wasn’t helping. I couldn’t slow down. My ankle and knees were feeling fine now. But it was hot and windy and noisy. It was noisy because the whole run was right along the busy highway. My girls weren’t allowed to stop and support me along this leg. I had my waist pack and water with me. I tried to ration my water to last through the 8.4 miles. There was one water stop.

I saw allot of “roadkill”, and hoped that it wouldn’t be me! I was running with traffic, and couldn’t see the oncoming cars that were going by.

After half way I was feeling a little nautious. I wondered if eating something would help, or make it worse. I choked down some shot blocks. They did seem to help. When I went through the water station, I used the cup of water to dump on me.

I had my music on and couldn’t tell that I was breathing hard. We had to stop and cross the road just maybe a half mile from the end. When I stopped by some other runners, I pulled my headphones out to be social. As I pulled my earphones out, I realized that I was breathing very hard! Its nice that music masks that from myself.

It felt good to run through the finish chute and know that my work was completed. Now I could just cheer on our last four runners.

I had a really great time at Ragnar. Im greatful to Bridge for being such a knowledgeable, great team captain. You got us to do this Bridge- Thankyou, thankyou. It was a very memorable, fun experience!!!

Thanks to Azamba!

I need to mention...a BIG THANKS to Azamba Consulting for sponsoring our Ragnar team BLING! for the remaining funds we needed. Meant the world to us! So much goes into this race and it was great to have the help when we needed it! If you ever know anyone that needs a great team to help with their CRM processes, send them to Azamba! :)

Ryan House 5K

Well, I know I owe this blog a full marathon story, a half marathon story and some Ragnar stories, but rather than get behind with the NOW here's this morning's story. I've been getting faster recently so I've been wanting to run a 5K to see if I could finally run one in under 30 minutes. Most of you know that I've always aspired to this, but I never was sure if I could ever get there. My last leg of Ragnar last weekend was just shy of a 5K (3.06mi by the Garmin) and I did that in a 28:40, a 9:22 pace, so I figured I am finally ready. It worked out that my IKAG team was off of regular Saturday practice today and the Run for Ryan House was on our schedule instead. I decided to sign up for the 5K.

I got in some good stretching and foam rolling last night. Not as much sleep as I really wanted, but no big deal - 5 hours would do. I woke up around 5:00am and did the pre-run morning rituals. Got on the road and called Sharon on my way to wish her luck. She was doing the 1/2 marathon part of the event so I wanted to remind her that she would ROCK it! :) I checked to see what she was wearing and when I got to the race I noticed her in her Ragnar tech shirt in the line up for the start of the 1/2. I got to give her a send off hug! Can't wait to see how she did! Then I turned around while in line for the port-o and there was Jen and her son Garrett. She was also doing the 5K. Nice to see her out there and wish her luck too. I milled a little with some of my IKAG friends after that and got in the line up. My buddy Tim just had gotten a new Garmin and was disappointed to find out that the battery was dead just before starting. Bummer! Well, I must have been thinking about Tim not using his watch because after the race started I didn't realize until over a mile in that I never started mine! I kept glancing at my pace, but when I looked for the mileage...nothin! Dang! So I started it right then just to get a little tracking out of it.

The course was beautiful through the DC Ranch area. Started running directly towards the beautiful mountains. A little overcast and a little breezy, but overall very nice running weather. The hills at the start we more gradual, but once we got into the last mile the couple hills there weren't so gradual! I started to look around while climbing the hill and saw people start to lose stamina and start walking. I decided I wouldn't let it get to me and just when I thought the climb was over we came around the corner and we're still going up! Oh well...press on! :) By then I knew it wasn't much further so I gave it all I could. I saw my fast friend Patrick, who was finished in 20 min, near the end cheering for me. Even more of a boost! I ran for the finish and for once actually looked up at the gun time just before crossing since I knew I didn't have an accurate time on the watch. I saw 27:08 and I was rubbing my eyes after I crossed looking back up at the back side of the clock. I just said to myself, "Sweet!" My friend Michael was taking pics for Zazoosh at the finish too, so I was happy to see him as he snapped my pic and he told me "Good job!" Super smiley now, I grabbed a banana and some water and went back along the course to cheer for Tim. When Tim finished, Patrick, his friend Naomi, Tim and I milled around for the free stuff and then eventually parted ways.

I was happy to come home to look up my chip time - 26:53, an 8:39 pace with hills. I'll take it! :) Definitely a PR - blew that 30:12 out of the water. Hmmm...maybe that flat Run for the Islands is next!

1:37:13 a.m. Saturday, Tragedy befalls Ragnar

We were able to purchase a pasta dinner for $6 after our van completed our first legs. They had penne pasta with a choice of marinara or meat sauce, with garlic bread and a side of fruit. The warm pasta and sauce tasted so good.

Then we went back to our hotel to catch a couple hours of sleep. It seemed really bizarre to set our alarm clocks for 11 pm. I knew that I was only getting a couple of hours of sleep, here, so I was very tempted to skip the shower. But I also longed for warm water and a clean feeling. It was too tempting- I took the shower. It was worth it! One of my favorite showers ever!

There were 3 double beds, so we all had a spot. I had assumed that I would be sleeping in a bag on the floor, so I was very happy to slide into clean sheets on a comfortable bed! I didn’t feel like I slept at all- maybe I really did. But just laying there resting and pretending to sleep was helpful.

Once our van got started again, it was quickly my turn. Jen seemed to be done in no time at all, and I was on. We were all decked out in glowy apparel that Bridge brought for us. It was a nice way to be able to spot our runners, and helped with safety. We were all required to be wearing reflective vests during the night, even when we were not the runner on shift. My run started at 1:37 a.m.

This was the run that I had been worried about- being in the middle of the night. But it was turning out to be my favorite run. I was really enjoying the night run. It wasn’t a super dark night, and I liked the way the silhouettes of the trees looked in the dark. It seemed like a peaceful night. And I had my music, which I had forgotten to wear for my first run. And I decided to just run whatever pace felt right- not putting any pressure on myself to run as hard as possible. I was fully enjoying myself, and then realized that I was almost down to only a mile left. I got sad realizing it was almost over. I wondered if I should slow down, to prolong my turn. I knew that the last mile of my run would be down hill, so I decided to run hard the last mile and up my final average for the leg. Just as I was about to start my final mile, I saw a big group of runners on the side of the road.

I thought ‘maybe an animal or person was hurt, but there are plenty of people there to help out. Id be best to keep going and not create any more road congestion. So I just went right around the group and kept going. But then a cop yelled me down. I tried to be cooperative “Where would you like me to be?” He yells “Right by all the other runners here, that would be a great place for you!”

So I stand with all the other runners in the road. After a few minutes I ask “Does anyone know what’s going on?” The guy by me says “Someone got hit.” It was cold and I hadn’t dressed appropriately for standing around. So I found myself a bum spot leaning against a cop car. I talked to the guy by me who said he’d been there for at least 20 minutes already. He said that he was one of the first 5 to be stopped. I think we probably stayed there for at least 40 minutes. Then we were told to go back to our van, and then skip to leg 24. We were told to carpool over if we couldn’t find our van. I was thinking that my van might have gotten ahead of the accident, and that I probably wouldn’t find them. I walked back along the highway probably a mile. I was looking for a friendly girl van to get in with. I didn’t want to get in with a van full of guys, which was what I kept seeing. I was getting nervous and wondering how much further Id have to walk. A guy caught up with me and started talking to me. He didn’t think he’d find his van either. I was sooooo happy when Bridge and Justine appeared in front of me. They had my jacket and put their arm around my shoulder, leading me back to the van. They were very concerned about me, and it made me feel good that they were so nurturing. Once our van started driving the other direction, I started worrying about the guy Id been walking by. Then I saw him walking and told our girls to offer him a ride. He glady took the ride and stayed with us until we got to leg 24. We started asking him all kinds of “get to know you” questions, which was a nice distraction from the sadness of the runner who had been hit. I thought Rich was a nice distraction from the situation, but having a guy in the van did stop me from changing out of my cold wet clothes. Luckily I had a cozy blanket with me. But I decided that all girl vans are betterJ

We kept waiting for more instruction, and were finally told that we could pick whether van one or van two would continue the race at leg 24. We were cutting out 4 legs of the race. We let van two proceed with their pre-assigned legs, and it was 4 of our van girls who lost their middle run.

I was very sad for our van one girls. I was visualizing them having just gotten to the hotel, taken a warm shower, and climbed into bed. Then us calling and telling them to get up and drive to leg 24. If we had known sooner what was going to happen, we could’ve run the first few of their legs. But we didn’t know what would happen.

The tragedy made it feel like all the rules were kind of out the window, and I wondered if it was even appropriate to finish the race. Some teams did leave- or at least their van one’s went home. After this I felt very concerned for the hurt runner, and also more paranoid about my own safety for my last run.

Next entry:
1:49:58 p.m. Saturday- The conclusion

1:49:58 friday, 1st leg

Van 1: Cynthia, Bryn, Karen, Sharon, Sarah, Lisa
Van 2: Jen, Me, Justine, Sarah, Bridge, Beth

Our van supported Karen along much of her first run. She was runner 3. She was killing some really big hills. It was fun to see her fly up those hills. She was unstoppable. I ran over and tried to see if she needed a gu or anything- all she needed was to give me her "bling" ring to carry. I tried to run with her for a few minutes, but she was going toooooo fast, and blew me off- good girl Karen! We drove slowly at one point so we could see her pass "Rainbow Bright".

I was runner 8. The second in my van. My first leg was 5.5 miles. It was rolling hills. I felt pressure to start things fast. I had estimated my time to be 8 minute miles, and didnt want to disappoint the team by putting us behind estimated schedule. I considered this a "short run" and knew I wouldnt have time to up my average late in the run. So I started out fast and just kept charging the hills. There were about 5 big hills. About half way through it I felt warmed up enough to start enjoying it. At the end I felt like my face was totally flush. I felt really hot for a long time afterwards. Bridge said that I wasnt all red, but I think she was just being nice.

We quickly realized that some of the other teams were checking us out- considering us competition. We walked past the "gingerbread girls" while they were talking about us "they have those sparkles on the back of their shirts, and those sparkly ribbons in their hair- watch out for them and dont let them pass you!" Bridge called them out- she turned around "hey, are you guys talking about US???" They looked a little awkward about getting caught.

We kept seeing "the Brides" and Beth's friend's team "Los Dos Chicos", I think was their name.

We saw one guy sitting with his naked bum over the curb, bum facing the road, pants around his ankles, reading a paper- for a long time! And it was really cold outside! His team was called something like "Dont take no crap"....something like that.

Everyone was pretty nice- other teams would drive past and give you a cheer. But there was a little spirit of competition in the air too.

Our van stopped at this quaint little old-fashioned convenience store (think Little House on the Prairie General Store) to change into running clothes. Jen was the first runner from our van.

I just realized Im kind of typing this all out of order. Ill be more coherent with my next entry:)

Stay tuned for my 2nd leg entitled "1:37:13 a.m. Saturday, and tragedy befalls Ragnar"...

Edge of My Seat

You guys are holding out on me! I want to hear some Ragnar stories and see some pictures. How was it? I've read some accounts of the race from other runners but none from our blog. Do tell. Please. I'm on the edge of my seat.