Kick-off the trail season at Javelina Night Run!

Javelina Night Run, 25K
Sept 29, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

Javelina Night run was allot of fun! I really enjoy running at night - it is exciting and just a little bit scary! But not too scary. Just enough!

I thought Id pick a conservative pace because I was resting up for St George Marathon the very next weekend. But it is hard to take a conservative pace when your legs have been resting up! My legs wanted to GO!!! We all started off in a pack and I started a little faster than I usually might do, trying to find an open spot in the trail for me. I need my own space out there on the trail. Once I found my own space then I settled into it and got in the zone. Dark came quickly. The first half of the course is the harder part with allot of climbing and rocky technical terrain. After the aid station, its kinda smooth sailing for the last 7 miles.

As I came into the aid station I needed to refill my water bottle, but I tried not to linger at the station for long. I wanted to keep my groove. I knew that my pace was faster than last year and I kinda hoped to beat my time for last year. I came into the aid station with 8.5 miles and a 9:25 pace avg.

The second part of the race was fast and was good, except for I was experiencing waves of gut cramping. I thought the cramps might just be a result of my womenly hormones and the time of the month, but on the way home I realized that the gut cramps were something else - yuck! In the second half of the race I heard the coyotes crying. It makes me a little nervous, but its kinda cool.

I finished with a 9:04 avg., 4th woman. I stuck around for a while and saw some friends finish. I ate some of the finish line offerings. Which seemed fine. But I was starting to feel chilled and my stomach not so great. So I hopped in my car and started for home. On the way home I got pretty sick, and I will spare you the gory details. The next day my husband and daughter got stomach sick, so that settled it in my mind - a flu bug. Not food poisoning. At least it didn't come on full-force until I was on the way home.

It was fun to see friends Sammi and Becky there this year. Mary took an early start so I was thinking out there about her, knowing she'd be finishing about an hour or so into my race.

It was a little warm this year, but was okay. I wore my icy cold towel and that helped.

Great Job Aravaipa! I am so excited for this trail season and Javelina is the perfect kick-off!!!

Two Marathons

The Ogden Marathon was May 19th.

Official time: 3:45:56, a PR!

 The Good:

•  I ran the entire race.  Usually towards the end, I walk a little due to cramps and fatigue, but this time I stayed strong both physically and mentally and ran to the end.
• No cramps - which is great since this marathon has a good amount of downhill.  My right quad threatened to cramp but never did.  The electrolyte pills I take during the marathon seem to have stopped the cramping I experience towards the end of the race.
• No bathroom breaks.  I despise bathroom breaks during a marathon and I'm glad I didn't have to stop at all.
• Took in a gu around miles 3 and 8.  Swallowed electrolyte pills every five miles.  Ate two bites of Clif bar twice later in the marathon.  FYI: When you're using all your energy running, it's hard to chew and swallow.  But when those bars hit my stomach, my body was much happier.
• First time I've ran this marathon and I loved the course!  Especially liked the downhill towards the end.  

The Bad:

• I was going for a BQ time {my BQ time is anything under 3:40. 3:39:59?  I'll take it!}but didn't get it. I can't be too upset with myself though considering all the good things that happened.  
• It was downright cold at the start.  I was shivering and used a lot of energy to try and stay warm.
• Next time I'm going for a time goal, I'll wear a pace band.  I was trying to remember important split times {half, 20 mile, etc} from memory and wasn't too good at it.
• I'm a mess after a marathon.  I have to spend a good amount of time in the porta-pottie and I feel like curling up in a ball and dying.  But once I get showered and fed, I don't feel like dying so much.

Utah Valley Marathon was June 9th

Official time: 4:02:34

Since this was my 11th marathon, here are eleven random thoughts about the marathon:

1. Woke up at 2:30 a.m. for this race.  Southbound traffic was busy for that time of the morning - a lot of crazy people up early heading to Provo to run.  {There was also a half-marathon and 10k)
2. The bus that took us to the start of the marathon was the slowest bus ever.  There were probably eight buses that passed us.  Lots of comments from other runners like, "Is it the bus or the driver?"  "He needs to downshift."  Luckily, we got there before the race started and I even had extra time to use the porta-pottie.
3. Since we're talking about porta-potties, I dislike them with a passion.  But if you're going to be a marathon runner, you have to get used to those puppies.  And those good ol' porta-potties have provided me with lots of embarrassing moments.  Yesterday was one of them.  After the race, the porta-pottie is my second home.  I was sitting down and the door flies open.  I screamed because it startled me and I'm pretty sure the little girl who opened the door got a good scare.  Gotta love those porta-potties.
4. It was CRAZY windy.  Major, major headwind until around mile 20.  I had to hold my hat on through a few gusts and one lady that I was running behind, lost her hat and she chose to run back and get it.  If that was my hat, I would have let it rest in peace.  
5. Running uphill, into the wind is completely exhausting.
6. I'm not convinced I like pacers.  Before the start, I grouped myself with the 3:40 pacer and talked with him for a minute.  When the gun went off to start the race, he ran to the side of the road and sprinted forward.  I thought to myself, "What is he doing?"  There are so many people at the start of the race that there was no way I could keep up with him.  I couldn't get around all the people. Finally, I did catch him and he was running around a 7:30 to 7:38 pace.  A fast pace to start the race when our average pace should be around 8:20.  I should learn to ignore the pacers and run my own race. 
7. I'm thankful for the volunteers who hand you water, gatorade and gu.  They're friendly and they cheer you on.  It takes a lot of volunteers to pull off a marathon and they're always so happy to be up early in the morning dealing with all the sweaty runners.
8. During a marathon, I never question why I'm running.  I love running.  But when things start to get hard, I wonder why the race has to be 26.2 miles.  Couldn't it stop at mile 20.2?  Or even mile 23.2 would be fine with me.
9. At mile 23, I hit the wall big time.  I was exhausted and there was nothing left in the tank.  Zero.  Zilch.  I told myself that I'd just walk the rest of the way.  I walked from mile 23 to 24.  Then when I hit mile 24, I talked myself into running again and ran to the finish.
10. I drank some chocolate milk at the finish.  The best chocolate milk I've ever tasted.
11. I love running!

Whiskey Row

My disposable outer layer

We are the first ones here

The race was to start at 6:00 am. We got there a little early – about 5:20. The start was on a street corner in front of Hotel St Michaels. We knew we were in the right place because we saw the overhead banner- Whiskey Row Marathon. But we were the first ones there! Okay one other guy was arriving at the same time as us. Just one. We walked into the hotel looking for a restroom to use. As the race got closer a few other people showed up. But not til about 5 minutes before did the “crowd” show up! Next time I’m staying in Hotel St Michael so that I can walk out just 5 minutes before start!

I was looking around, trying to decide if I had a chance of winning that day. There didn’t seem to be very many women, so I decided that it might be a remote possibility…

10 minutes before start

I had no time goal for the day. The whole race was 5,000-7,000 feet elevation, and I didn’t know what that kind of elevation would do to my pace.

We had hills to climb right off the bat. The air felt thin and I wanted to walk within the first few miles. My pride didn’t want me to be the first person around walking. I did start to walk 5 miles into the race though. I think I saw someone else walk and thought ‘okay, now I can too’. Even though I was one of the first to start walking, I thought, ‘these hills are going to catch up with everyone. Maybe if I start walking now, I’ll be better off later’. And I believe I was right about that.

When I started walking so early in the race I thought ‘Do I really want to do this today? This is going to be a looooong day. Maybe I’ll take the whole time given’. I wasn’t worried about missing the cut-off, but I just thought that suddenly I was in for a long day. But after questioning myself I decided ‘yes, I do want to do this today. Karen and Cynthia are watching my kids. Noah is mountain biking. No one is relying on me to do anything. All I have to do is enjoy the scenery of Prescott! I just have to let go of my pace, and just keep moving forward’.

So that’s what I did the rest of the race. I just kept moving forward. When I wanted to walk I walked. It was ALLOT. Sometimes I felt like I was walking more than running. But then I’d run a little. As long as I was moving along the 26 mile course…

The course was to run up a hill, climbing from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. You knew when you were at the top- there was a beautiful lookout. Then it was down hill, but not all down hill. Back to 5,000. Then turn around and go back up that big hill. Nothing was flat. It was never ever flat. Always up or down. The first and last 5 miles were paved. The rest of it was on shady dirt road.

I wrote texts in my mind to my friends sometimes. Texts that said “I’m doing the buddy walk today…but where are my buddies?” This is a reference to an inside joke from one of our earlier races…Long Beach I think. And at the half way point I did a mind text that said “I’m half way through, now Ill turn around and walk home!”….

It felt so good to get to the highest point for the 2^nd time. This was mile 17. Then I knew the hardest stuff was over. There would still be some hills to climb, but I had reached the highest point for the last time. My pace was at this point averaged close to 10 minute miles- just under. Over the last 9 miles I was able to shave it down to a 9:22 pace on my watch.

My legs felt strong and good in the last 9 miles. I was happy to find that I could still take the down hills fast. I thought about Top Of Utah Marathon where my quads hurt so bad that I had to walk down hills toward the end.

I started to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in awhile. The crowd really spread out and with maybe 5 miles to go I found myself alone. I couldn’t see anyone and started to panic that I had missed a turn. I decided to keep moving forward and hope for the best. I was so happy when I saw other runners again.

I remembered there had been steep ups and downs in the first few miles. So I knew I still had some steep hills to climb in the last couple of miles. But I wasn’t worried anymore. I just kept thinking ‘do what you can do today’. I kept thinking that training was the time to do the pushing, and today was the day to let my body do whatever it was prepared for. Whether it was walking or running hard. And some of it, luckily, was running hard!

I was happy with the experience because it seemed like a great opportunity to work through challenges. I had a chafing spot that I fixed. I pulled out my aquaphor and took care of the problem before it got any worse. I worked a small pebble out of my shoe. Some races I’ve just held onto my rhythm and ignored pains, figuring that I’d deal with the consequences later. It felt good to solve problems and keep working my way through this race.

It felt good to be in the moment, realizing that I wouldn’t work through this race in the usual timely manner, I started to just enjoy the moment. To think about only the mile I was in. Or the hill I was on.

But in the end my pace and finishing time wasn’t bad at all! It ended up allot faster than I thought it would be. I’m happy with my finish time but I’m most of all happy with my mental acceptance for the day.

I love PF Chang’s Marathon because I can work into my rhythm and just hold it. I can take it easy or I can push my pace and be really challenged. But sometimes I like to seek out a course that cannot be easy. A course that is challenging no matter what. It won’t be my last elevation race. It won’t be my last hilly race. I’m already wondering about Flagstaff marathon now. How does it compare?

I went back for the awards ceremony at 5:30 pm. I had no idea where I came in. I couldn’t really tell out there because I saw other women ahead of me but figured some were part of the half marathon and some might be relay? I wasn’t sure. But I thought there might be a chance….turns out I did get an age group award- 2^nd place in age group! I was 6^th woman out of 46 female marathoners and 39^th marathoner out of 166 marathoners. Very exciting to get an extra medal for an age group place. A perk to small challenging marathons I suppose!

And the best part of my marathon day was when Mitzi texted me that very day to tell me that my 2 little nieces, age 10 and 8, just completed a progressive marathon and were super excited to show me their shirts and medals! What an exciting thing to see someone you care about catch the excitement of running! Hearing that was like the whip cream and cherry on my marathon sundae:)

Age group award! 

Extra Info: Of course food and running go hand in hand for me and so I need to put in a plug for the food establishments of Prescott! We stuck with a chain for lunch- 5 guys, but enjoyed some local establishments later in the day- A bakery in downtown historic Prescott- called “Granny Annie’s Bakery” I think.  Anyway this women working in the shop makes it all herself. I had my first chocolate Napoleon. It was really great. But she had many amazing choices- cookies, cannoli’s, cream horns, fresh pie, cinnamon rolls, etc etc….amazing. And then we ate dinner later at Firehouse Plaza. We sat outside upstairs and enjoyed the ambience of the perfect day and good food. 

More Proof

In the last two weeks I have had three people tell me that running is bad for me. Two told me my knees are going to be ruined and a third told me that it has been proven that walking is much better for your heart. I don't really run for the same reasons as many of you, its mostly social, but I love the physical side effects. :) So here's another study that proves running won't kill me!

According to a recent Copenhagen City Heart study, jogging less than two hours per week can add years to your life.

The Copenhagen City Heart study started in 1976, around the time that the jogging boom happened, and followed 20,000 men and women, aged 20 to 98. Of the group, there were 1,116 male joggers and 768 female joggers. When their mortality rates were compared with the main group, the men lived 6.2 years longer than non-joggers, and women 5.6 years longer. Even crazier? The amount of exercise needed to drastically increase your lifespan isn't much at all. Just one to two and a half hours per week, split over two or three sessions.

Sure, folks who at least make the effort to run a little bit every week might also be taking care of themselves in other ways. The lesson? Stop being such a lazy turd. Or if you're already pretty active, you are probably going to live to be older than your lazy turd friends. Really, though, rippling abdominals aside, five or six years tacked on to the end of your life for a few hours' worth of effort a week is a pretty good deal.

I especially love the part that says one to two and a half hours per week will drastically increase my lifespan. I can do that.

The Boston Marathon

Here is what I can remember about the Boston Marathon, It is crazy that it has already been two weeks since I ran this.  I woke up at 5:10 am on race morning (Monday April 16th), but truthfully I woke up several times during the night, I was worried I would over sleep and I was nervous.  I woke up and put on sunscreen and my pink tank top and pink checker shorts, and headed out the door.  Reddin and I drove to the subway station and I was happy to see so many runners getting on the subway.


We meet Heather and then got back on the subway to park street.  There was a long row of yellow school buses, we took a few pictures and got on a bus and Reddin took of to go explore.


Heather and I talked the whole way on the bus, It was nice to have someone to talk and it made the trip go quick.  We got to Athletes village a few hours before the start so we ate a bagel, stood in the potty line a few times, collected free stuff (powerbars and body glide), and at about 9:30 started walked to the buses to drop off our drop bags and walk to the start.  Before the race even started I was sweating.  I was in wave 2 in corral 8 so I wished Heather good luck and we both went to the correct spots.  I crossed the start line at around 10:25 and then started running.  I didn't look at my watch very much I just wanted to do what felt comfortable but every time I did look it was always around 8 or 8:15.  I felt pretty good but sweat was dripping down my face and I really wished I had a towel or visor or something.  I drank all of my water and had to take my first gel by mile 5 because I was starting to feel funny.  At mile 10 I started to slow and knew that I needed to slow down if I wanted to finish this race and not pass out or get sick.  I was doing anything I could to cool my body down.  I ran from sprinkler to sprinkler, the spectators were amazing they lined the whole 26.2 miles and they came prepared with garden hoses, spray bottles, and water guns to keep us cool.  Several also handed out ice and cold wet sponges (those where to of my favorite items).  The race organizers where really worried about the heat (It got close to 90 degrees that day a race record I think) so they had the fire department come out also.  They fire department opened up fire hydrants and sprayed us down and they even has at least three huge yellow tents that you could run thru that sprayed water on you.  My shoes were soaking wet early on in the race, but I didn't care I just wanted to finish.  At mile 13 I ran by Wellesley college and laughed at all the signs (kiss me I am a senior, or never been kissed)  I saw a few guys stop and get kissed.  Right before mile 17 I saw Reddin and stopped and gave him a big sweaty hug and kiss and then kept running.

 I was felling pretty good then, but a few miles after that I started to slow again and took another gel, I realized then that I probably wasn't going to finish in under 4:00, but I just kept running.  I walked a little to take a gel as I started up Heartbreak Hill which helped and then just kept going. I loved the spectators at Boston College they were so loud and called me pink (go pink, looking good pink).   The last 4 miles I just kept telling myself one loop around the Islands and then when I got to 3 miles I told myself you can do anything for 30 minutes.  Then the crowd really started cheering the last 2 miles and even though my legs where tingly I finished as strong as I could at 4:16:59.  My worst race time ever, but I was still so proud because I finished.  This was the hardest race I have ran so far but I was glad I did it, it is fun.  After I finished they have you walk to get you metal and goody bag and then you have to keep walking to to get your drop bag.  I saw the long line of runners in wheel chairs and I didn't want to have to sit in one of them but by they time I got to the bus with my drop bag I felt like I was going to pass out so I set down behind the bus and texted Reddin.  He was waiting for me in the family area under the letter E.  I ate a few potato chips that is the only thing that sounded kind of good and then got up and walked to him.  After I found him I set back down again and finished my chips and then we walked to the park and got on the subway and headed back for our hotel.  I took an ice bath and then went and got in the pool and finally around 8pm that night decided I wanted to eat more then just salty snacks.  Overall it as so much fun and want to do it again someday if I can qualify again.

Runabout - An amazing addition to my training schedule

Karen, Lindy and I set out on our first Runabout on Friday, March 30th around 8:30am.

We learned a lot:

1. Always do a Runabout with friends! I loved having all day to spend with Karen and Lindy and we never ran out of things to talk about.

2. Eating must be central to your loose plans for the day, but don't eat too much, definitely don't eat until your full. Instead, eat half as much as you want and then a few hours later eat some more. Next time I would stop for a bagel or a muffin a few hours in, then half a sandwich a few hours later then a cupcake a few hours later. Along with gels and Gatorade that should get you through a day of running. I loved our stop at 7-11 to share a Cherry Coke. It tasted delicious!

3. Run as far away from home as you can, on new routes if possible. Next time it may be nice to park at Tempe Town Lake and run up through Scottsdale.

4. Plan a Runabout during cool weather. I loved our day, but after lunch it was just too hot for me to enjoy the running part of the outing, and since that was pretty much all we were doing that kind of spoiled it. :) Along with this, wear sunscreen! I'm still peeling from my sunburn, and it's a funky tan line because I sunscreened my shoulders and wiped down my arms but not enough got down to my forearms. So it is smeary and I have a definite line from my Garmin.

5. Bring more stuff. Medicine (Tylenol and Benadryl for me), maybe a few wipes in a ziplock bag, sunscreen. I feel like there should be more, but I don't know what else.



About to leave, looks like Lindy was still giving directions for her babysitter. :)

Lindy and Karen at Discovery Park with the new Gilbert Temple going up.

 

Discovery Park. I knew my shorts were too big, but this pic might make me retire them...



LUNCH!



We ran in to a friend at Paradise and she took our picture. I'm fairly certain she thinks we are all nuts!

They are so fast! We braved some construction and unknown canal routes.



Cooling off at Zanjero park.



When I saw this oasis park in the distance I knew that was where we needed to stop!



Yep, this is how we felt when we reached the shade!



Still smiling.



Our final pic, we must be good friends because we were disgusting, but still willing to touch each other for this pic.

Runabout is for friends

Checking texts

Entering a raffle at San Tan Mall

Lunch in Paradise

March 30, 2012

Cynthia didn’t have any upcoming races on her calendar and was looking for adventure. When she suggested it might be time to do the “Runabout”, Karen and I both signed on with no hesitation.

The Runabout was a concept we both learned from Dean Karnazes suggestion in his book about running a marathon in 50 days through all 50 states. He said if you really want a fun experience to pack a little bag and take off running all day in whatever direction strikes your fancy. We thought this sounded like a great idea. Not always an easy thing to do when you have kids, but a suggestion that we added to our bucket list.

Recently Cynthia came upon a blog post by Kristin Armstrong. Kristin and her friend Paige had taken a day off to do a Runabout. Reading their post got us excited about our Runabout, and we moved it higher on our priority list.

So we picked the date and lined up babysitters. We decided to do it during school hours- 9:00 to 3:00. This way Karen and I had only to find child care for our youngest. And Cynthia's kids would all be in school.

By 9:00 Friday morning we were on our way. With a few ideas, but an adventurous spirit…all of us willing to go wherever sounded fun by the moment.

Over the course of the day we spent little time on canals that we regularly run. We spent allot of time on canals that are more out of our way. We traveled new running/biking paths. We stopped when we needed bathrooms or snacks. We stopped when we needed to share a cherry coke. We put three straws in the coke and boy was it tasty. We waited for lunch until we really worked up an appetite. We were close to San Tan Outdoor Mall when we were ready. So we agreed on a classic favorite – Paradise Bakery. We all picked sandwiches and ate enough that we had to take our cookies with us for later.

Cynthia’s Mom worked near by so we swung by her office and left our long sleeve shirts (packed for our comfort inside an air-conditioned restaurant) with her. We ran on a little lighter without shirts tied around our waist. But the food in our tummies and the heat outside was starting to take a toll and we started to fade a little after lunch.

We didn’t want to start running home, we wanted to keep going in a new direction. We had this option available to us because Cynthia’s husband Scott was willing to pick us up. Yay for Scott. We just kept going until we could tell that our time was short and we had to get back to reality. We had to get back to pick up kids from school.

Over the course of the day we ran into people doing normal stuff. This is one of the things I really liked about doing runabout on a weekday and not Saturday or Sunday. It was fun to see people doing their normal stuff, and know that we were having this special day that we created for ourselves. We got allot of questions and strange looks….where are you guys from? How far have you run? Do you do this everyday?........

I highly recommend runabout with friends. Kristin Armstrong had a really great quote in her blog about how “sometimes it takes endurance to have the best kind of fun”. I liked Dean’s idea of running all day, but I really like having cool friends to share this activity with. At one point I was about to take a picture of Cynthia and she insisted one of us be in the pic with her. She said “Runabout is about friends”. And I have to agree with her. Runabout is for friends.