Here We Go Again . . .

St. George Marathon put out this video in honor of it's 35th year.  Here's hoping we'll all be running it together! {The video is about 8 minutes.}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWwKrjgSsrg&feature=player_embedded

In Training

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd make a few notes on how my running is going.  I ran 13 today and had to post a picture of what I wore.  Shorts!  YAY!  It's been so cold here that I've been stuck wearing long pants {not to mention the hat & glove} but it finally warmed up enough to pull out the shorts.  These are the Nike shorts that Lindy gave me for my birthday.  I love them so much!  Aren't we all lucky to have a friend like Lindy?

I registered for the Utah Grand Slam this year, which is a total of four marathons: Utah Valley, Park City, Top of Utah and St. George.  It's a competition between 175 runners for overall and age-group awards based on total time of all four marathons.  How fun does that sound?!?  Anyway, I'm in training for the Utah Valley Marathon in June and I've got Boston on my mind.  A training run doesn't happen without me thinking of BQing. I'm hoping the training program I'm following will help me get there.  I'm now on week seven of the training schedule.  Here's a look at how my week's four through six training went:

Week Four:

Monday: 5 miles at 7:53 pace (39:34)

Tuesday: 8 miles at 8:10 pace (1:05:22)

Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5 miles at 8:13 pace (41:05)

Friday: 4 miles at 8:46 pace (35:05)

Saturday 12 miles at 8:25 pace (1:41:10)

Week Five:

Monday: 5 miles at 7:53 pace (39:25)

Tuesday: 8 miles at 8:53 pace (1:11:03)

Wednesday: 6 miles at 7:56 pace (47:37)

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 4 miles at 8:50 pace (35:21)

Saturday: 15 miles at 8:24 pace (2:06)

Week Six:
Monday: 5 miles at 8:12 pace (41:02)
Tuesday: 9 miles at 8:50 pace (1:19:36)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5 miles at 7:48 pace (39:04)
Friday: 4 miles at 8:52 pace (35:30)
Saturday: 13 miles at 8:15 pace (1:47:20)

Team BLING - Ragnar Champions!

I love this picture of us, although I am wondering why everyone is looking so powerful and I look like I'm "doing the twist."  This was at the very end, and I think we just wanted to prove that we COULD still climb up on top of the van! It had been an exhausting, fabulous, exhilarating and crazy few days. We had soooo much fun, and we ARE Ragnar champions. (Thanks Laura, for declaring us as that!)

This is what Lindy referred to as "The Look at Me Girls." We LOVED it!

This is me on my last run, it was ridiculously hard.  I had around 9 miles that leg I think and it was virtually all uphill. When Lisa emailed me this picture she labeled it as "pre-puking" because in the last mile I got totally sick and ended up gagging and throwing up for the last mile or so. I tried soooo hard and even though I ended up with a really slow average (SORRY) I know I gave it all I had! 

My sweat sisters gave me an awesome tunnel! Stuff like this is so energizing!

This is Captain Underpants.  He enjoyed his Ragnar persona immensely, certainly living out some unfulfilled fantasy.  At the end of the race he still strolled around in this "outfit" for at least an hour, well beyond the moment when costumes may have been appropriate and entertaining.

Thanks ladies for another awesome year, next year we will reign again as RAGNAR Champions!

TEAM BLING PICS

BLING Van 1
BLING Van 2
Karen about to Get This Party Started!!!

Makeover for Lisa's Van!

Our other Lovely BLING transporter! We are begging for compliments:)

Lisa passes to Kecia- Go Kecia!!!




At night we become the "Look at Me!" Girls!!! Everyone wants to touch our glowy pigtails! Where does Bridge get this great stuff???

RAGNAR 2011: Lindy account

RAGNAR 2011

Super terrific Ragnar! All the girls I run with the most were on the team BLING! So we put together a pretty great SLUMBER PARTY ON WHEELS this year!!! With a few new awesome additions! And a last moment RETURN. It was so GREAT!

With the first step of my first “leg” I realized that my hamstring issue (Ive been trying to be in denial about since before PF CHANG’S Rock n Roll Marathon) was going to make this weekend a challenge.

My Mantra for the Trip: Its Only Pain

1st leg:

Ow, ow, ow, its only pain, get through it, don’t have to go as fast as last year…maybe 8 min miles? Upon finishing, my Sweat Sisters got me ice, got me rolling on a foam roller, gave me a protein shake…these girls are so great! I am so lucky to be friends with such Awesome Gals!

Dinner at Olive Garden:

Bring on the Breadsticks Please!!! More Pasta! More Carbs!!! The FOODY in me will take any excuse to CARB LOAD!!! Ill take bread and pasta over brownies! Mmmmm, mmmmm! I did avoid the cream sauce as you never know how that will digest once you hit those mid-thirties! Gotta be careful when your next run is in a few hours!!! And be sure to hit the clean flushing bathroom on the way out- what a treat! After Porto-Johns, a ceramic bowl and a flush is heavenlyJ

Trying to Sleep at the School:

We were able to go in to the basketball court and try to catch a few winks, or go into the Ladies Locker Room and get a shower. After just one run thus far, a nap or a shower didn’t sound necessary yet. We tried for the sleep, but I think only Lisa slept in that Gym. Im glad Lisa got a little shut-eye, cause she has been our Driver, kindly driving her mini- van so that we could chill and enjoy the scenery! Or enjoy a van snooze. Yes we did use mini-vans this year instead of the big kidnapper vans. (When I was a kid I was scared of the big white vans with dark windows and always thought that kidnappers drove them) And less space worked just fine for us. Cause we like each otherJ Id do mini-vans again. Not saying Id turn it down if someone offered me a free kidnapper van…but the mini van was super great!

2nd leg, aka the NIGHT RUN!

Loved this one the most. It was dark and so I didn’t look at my watch much. And party of my run was an off-road trail course. With loose gravel and also sandy patches. At one point the ground just seemed to end, and there was a huge drop- I had to carefully walk down- I considered sliding on my bum! The terrain made it impossible for a speedy run, so I enjoyed the freedom of just letting that go (the need for speed), and just enjoying the night and the change in terrain. I had a good time and a smile on my face the whole time.

Karen reported that the turns weren’t marked very well during her night run, so right before my run I memorized all my turns- right or left, and the names of the roads. Weeelll, maybe not a good idea for me. I took a left on a smaller “Lake Pleasant” just one street shy of the major “Lake Pleasant”, and came to a dead end. Turned around. Ran back onto the correct course. Gave myself an extra half mile on my favorite run of Ragnar. Really enjoyed the extra mileage, but sorry we probably could’ve beat the “Muffin Tops” if I hadn’t gotten lostL

3rd Leg: the Final

My final leg was 8 miles, a very slight down hill for much of it. After getting lost last leg, the first mile of this run made me nervous. Because right off a girl with long dark hair stopped with me at a traffic light- do we turn or go straight she asked me? Turn that way, I guessed. We saw one runner, way far ahead of us, in pink. But she could’ve been a recreational runner and not a Ragnar Racer. I wasn’t convinced that we were on the right route until some young, long-legged, born to run fellows passed me up. Then I was sure that we were all heading the right way. I let dark hair girl take off and get way ahead of me. I wasn’t going to push things with this left Hamstring pain. But eventually I passed girl-in-pink and caught up with dark-hair-girl. I passed dark-hair-girl but heard her right behind me for a long time. Hearing her immediately behind me made me run faster than I intended to. In your head, sometimes, you don’t care about being passed, but its that awkward feeling like you cant just let it happen…so youre thinking “Just pass me already!!! So I can relax!” I didn’t have allot of fight in me for this race, but just enough to not move over and wave her ahead! At the end, for some reason I didn’t see Sarah waiting in the shute, and the (ultra) guy in front of me kept going, so I got a little panicked that I had to keep going! But then I saw Sarah and was so happy to give her the slap bracelet!

Some extra FYI:

*Our dear Brynn got so sick at the last moment. We were so sad for her to have to miss! We were so happy that Sarah with the long flowy hair was able to fill in! And she only found out the night before! Amazing! Sarah only had a baby just a few months ago. And has been running some, but not back to her regular load…but her family rallied and got things covered for her 5 kids, including baby! What a great Husband! And we got Sarah back! I wish we could’ve had Brynn AND Sarah!

*Bridge was our Team Captain again! We were lucky to have her experience and appreciate all the pre-planning and set-up that she does for us!

*We missed others from last year….Jenn Gloria who had a baby recently, Beth who is prego, Sarah who lives too far away to come every year, Sharon who is running with Shadow these days, and poor Brynn who got sick at last moment.

*We got to know some great new people this year…Barb and Aubrey who have been running with us for awhile now, Kecia who teaches our kids art and is a great runner, Lisa’s friend Laura we’ve been hearing about for years, and Barb’s friend Linda who flew here, and also filled in kind of late in the game…

*My favorite rivaling team: You are often around the same teams for much of the race. I loved Victoria’s Secret. They wore big padded bras, panties, banana slings, all of it over their running clothes, and wings too. And usually even RAN their legs with their underwear on. I was very impressed! They were cute and energetic, always had music going and dancing…seemed like a really fun team! We tried to stay ahead of Flamingo Girls, and Cynthia did some trash talking to a cheetah girl. Maybe she can tell us about that in her blog accountJ

*Many had injuries or health issues to work with but still pushed through the challenges and took one for the teamJ Way to go Girls!!!

*Ragnar was all about SAFETY PRECAUTIONS this year, as last year’s Del Sol had a fatality. Im glad Ragnar made some changes, gave some extra safety precautions, and gave us a good race this year.

*I didn’t take pictures, so Im counting on one of you girls to post some Awesome Pictures, because Pictures are the Best!!!

Thankyou Ragnar!

BLING Team will Run again!!!

So just a short post to express enthusiasm for Ragnar Preparation! We all decided we'd better sign up for Ragnar again, because we remembered the fun lead-up preparation. And Ive been experiencing that a little-

Saturday we had our Awesome team captain- Bridgitte- make a long drive here to run with us. We went to breakfast afterwards at Liberty Market. Im not usually one to want to eat so many calories in the morning that Im stuffed until 7 pm, but after a long saturday run, sometimes it just feels sooo good! Especially with my sweat sisters!

And sunday a few of us snuck in an extra run- a night run. Night runs are fun because they are different than our usual routine and therefore stick in my brain longer. And they make me appreciate the girls so much, because Id never go out running on my own at night. I just wouldnt do it. But we did it, and it was great! I get a funny sensation during night runs- the dark and our bouncing flashlights makes me feel a little like Im running on a trampoline! A little unsteady! But I like it.

Just a couple of weeks now til Ragnar del Sol. Im looking forward to a couple more practice night runs, and to a couple of days of "doubles"- we have to be in shape to go running more than once in a day. Fun stuff!!! Nothing better than having a legitimate excuse to ignore the dishes and go out for a second run!

Karen's summary of the P.F Chang’s Marathon 2011

When I came home from Long Beach I was not excited about the fact that I was signed up to run the P.F Chang’s Marathon, partly because I was tired and sore, and partly because I was disappointed and didn’t know if I could really ever qualify for Boston and didn’t want to be disappointed again, but now I am so glad I did it. I feel like I took the laid back approach to training this time around and it worked great. We never did really long mid week runs and I even skipped a whole week when I was sick, but overall I did feel pretty good while training so I decided that I would try for 3:40 on marathon day, but I would be happy if I finished in under 4:00. When Lindy told me she wanted to run with me I was really happy and I felt like 3:40 was maybe more of a possibility.

I decided to stuff myself the night before just to make sure I would have enough energy come marathon morning so my family went to rigatony’s for an early dinner, I ate tons of pasta and bread and then was ready and in bed before 10:00 pm. I was so nervous race day morning, but after we started running I started to feel a little better and the miles just seems to keep passing by. I knew that I would see my family around mile 15 and I was excited for that (this was the first time they have been able to see me run in the middle of a race). Reddin had a water bottle ready for me, and I was able to leave my gloves and empty water bottle with him. It worked out great, because I never had to stop for water. Lindy and I seemed to keep a pace around 8:15 or close to it, and it felt pretty good. I only took 2 gels around mile 6 and then mile 19 and the rest of the time I sucked on the pomegranate honey stinger chews. Every mile we would check and see where we were at time wise and we always seemed to be two minutes ahead of schedule according to the pace band Lindy had, I don’t really know what we talked about for 26 miles, but we always came up with something to talk about, which made the time pass really fast. The crowd was great and I did like hearing the music as we came upon certain miles. At mile 22 we told ourselves we only had one loop around the islands left, putting it in that perspective helped. I think the last mile I slowed a little, but I knew I was going to reach my goal of under 3:40 and I was so happy. Lindy and I crossed the finished line together and we were so happy, I couldn’t believe I did it. After the last two marathons I felt terrible at the end, but not this time I felt great I was happy to eat yogurt and walk around, and I was excited to see Reddin and my girls. I had so much fun this race that I wish I was signed up for another one right now.