Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't

Six on a perfect morning by the river trail. 

Enjoying beautiful St. George!  We came down yesterday with tickets for The Little Mermaid but were informed that it was cancelled due to technical difficulties....how sad.  Luckily St. George is a fun destination to be stuck at so we are still having a good time.  Just very sad we didn't get to enjoy the show.  

Tom and I just did four miles around the neighborhood.  Tomorrow we will wake up early and try to get 15-16 in before the sun heats things up too much.  

Plenty of swimming, mini golf, shuffle board, basketball, volleyball and hot tubin' today!  Can't complain of this life.  Too bad it gets over so soon.

Oh what a beautiful morning!

 Oh what a beautiful day!  

So fun to wake up in St. George and know that we are going to run with great weather!  We were out the door a little before 6:00.   I was a bit nervous that we were getting out too late for our long run and we would be too hot.  I was also nervous that we were running 15ish miles in St. George without planned water stops.  We were hoping that we would just come across water fountains whenever we needed them.  Not smart, I know, but it actually worked out!

From our condo it takes about 2.25 miles running before jumping on the trail towards Snow Canyon.  We just stayed on that and enjoyed the beautiful red rock and desert landscape!  The roadway by the Entrada area is so pretty!  I have never really liked the desert landscape look but I decided it was because I am use to seeing the Utah County "idea" of desert landscape.  The people down south know much more how to pull off that look!  

There were several others out enjoying the morning with a run, walk or bike ride.  We noticed there were still many wearing "longs"....figured they were the locals who might still be thinking 50s is cold.  : )  Fifties were actually just perfect!  The final few miles ended up a little warm, we were happy we were not going to be continuing in that!

We were lucky to find water fountains along the way to keep us nice and hydrated and to wash down a few Car Booms.  Had a gritty, yucky one around 7 miles and then tried out one  with caffeine around the 12 mile mark.  I have never tried those, but I think I liked it and will try in on the last few miles next week at the UVU half marathon.

Over all the weekend at St. George was wonderful.  Just sad that we had to miss The Little Mermaid.  Luckily it will be going on for a few more months and we have a great place to stay down there so maybe it will still work out to see it before the season is over.

I didn't go out and do hills with Tom today because of the UV half coming up on Saturday.  I slept a bit longer and then went out and joined in with a few different people along the way.  I was fine outside, but now that I am indoors the allergies are hitting me hard!  

Tom and I did the out and back river trail this morning.  We ran into an old friend who moved from here to St. George and now back.  We had to laugh at her as we were in shorts and she had long pants and THREE layers on top!  Ha ha!  She did admit to missing good ole hot St. George.  To us this morning was perfect running weather.  

Six miles down in the west end of town while Tom did speed work on the track.  

Jump in the shower.

Throw in a load of laundry. 

Primary Presidency Meeting.

Hearthstone Manor Relief Society Meeting. 

Furniture shopping for the condo.

Pick up lawnmower at fix-it place. 75 dollars later...no more borrowing new lawnmower to the neighbors. : ( 

Laundry. 

Make a sandwich for lunch.

Mow front lawn.

ALERGIES hit!  Down for the count!  : (

Benadryl......  : )  

More laundry.

Details later....potty break and helping a collapsed runner cost a minute maybe.

 *Tom took the liberty to come in and give that quick report for me.  I will know finish my report.

It's always crazy that we end up having very little sleep when we do these things.  I had to meet the bus between 3:30 and 4:30 so I planned to wake up at 3:15.  I woke up at 3:13 by being elbowed in the face by my sleeping husband who "claims" he was dreaming about being chased by a dog.  (Should I believe him or turn him in?)  

I got ready and headed into Provo all by my lonesome.  Tom was running his own 18 miler into the finish line to watch me come in.  It was kind of lonely going this all alone.  Even up at the start line I hardly saw anyone I knew.  

Sat on the bus by a nice kid named Dan.  We did the regular old pre race chit chat. I also like to listen to all the people around and the things they have to say.  You can learn a lot by sitting and listening...sometimes too much!

I had to wait over an hour up at the start line.  I hit the POPs twice and just wandered around by myself.  

The first mile was hard to weave through everyone of course.  With it being just one lane of the road it was quite crowded and no one ever lines up according to their pace.  It was a lot of fast/slow/back/forth movements to get through there.

Then my right shin started tightening up real crazy like.  I don't usually get that kind of thing.  It gave me a mental issue I had to deal with the rest of the race even though the tightness went away.  

Coming up on mile 6 I was needing to hit a POP.  I didn't really want to but knew life would be happier if I did.  So just before the mile I forced a Carb Boom down and washed it down.  Luckily there was an open POP so I was able to make a very quick stop.

After getting out I wanted to make up time but it had some up hill so I'm not sure if I made up time or not.  One thing about this race is that I wanted to get in around 1:45 but I didn't really know what I had to do each mile to make that happen.  I was mostly just running how I felt.

Just before the 10 mile aid station I decided to take my last Carb Boom.  Uhhg!  It was hard to force that one down...almost lost my cookies there.  Luckily I got it down but I had to stop for a bit to force in two cups of water  to help get it down.  

Up till here I had found one lady who I would pass, then I took the POP, so I passed her again, then I stopped for water so I passed her again.  Each time she told me "Good job!" and was so nice.  I had just passed her again when I saw a guy in front of me doing  very non running type of moves.  I notice the two guys next to him looking at him and then he was going down.  Luckily he didn't hit the ground.  We all lowered him down and that really nice lady was the next one up.  She didn't even hesitate and said, "I'll run back to aid station 10 for help."  I told the two guys that I would stay with him and they could go finish for their time.  But the one guy said that he was not even registered for the race so for me to carry on and he would stay.  The poor guy that was down was in pretty bad shape.  It was hard to leave him.  He had a very sickly green color and was talking but not making any sense and couldn't focus on us.  I hope he is ok.

I must have turned my watch off when I stopped to help him.  I wish I wouldn't have, I didn't notice until about a half a mile later so my last 5K I don't really know my splits.  

I was happy to see the finish line but you could see it for quite awhile before getting there so that is sometimes hard.  

As I was coming in through the finish chute there were lots of people lined up to watch but no cheering.  Grrrr!  I raised my arms and told people to give me some love and help me to the finish line.  It was fun as they all obliged and I got some nice good cheers to give me what I needed to get through to the end!  I could hear Tom out there shouting my name that always feels great!

I waited at the finish area to watch for my new best friend/hero who had went back for help.  She came in just under 1:50.  It was nice to talk to her.   

So I ended up 5th in my age and lucky for me they were giving away prizes 5 deep in each age.  So I got to stand on the little platform for my 2 seconds of glory.

I had a Mother/Daughter Activity at 10:00 that I was trying to get to, while at the same time trying to get my award.  Awards started at 9:30 and they did ALL the men FIRST!  What ever happened to women first?  I had my friend take my daughter and told her I would get there asap.  I hurried home, did a mucho quicko half clean up and got down just about 20 minutes late and was able to enjoy the rest of the 2 hours with her.  However I had thought it was going to be a brunch and it wasn't and I was starving!  

After the activity we took the kids to Applebees and had some nice family time with all three kids still at home.  We don't get that much anymore since one of them is 17 and needs much more time with friends than with family.

Sorry this ended up so long.  It is mostly for my benefit, but thanks for reading if you did.  : )

Here are the splits that I do have:

1 8:30 (weaving game)

2 7:59 (shin starts acting up/mental games start)

3 8:21 (one of the hills I was expecting)

4 7:30 

5 7:18

6 7:22

7 8:44 (this one started with the potty break and then had a hill)

8 7:41

9 8:02

10 (turned watch off about 10.2 so from here on out I'm not sure.)

 One last thing....the canyon sure was pretty today!  : )

 *We just looked at the official results and it has me as 4th in age instead of 5th.  Thought I better change that for posterity!  : )

I took a few days off of running since the half marathon on Saturday.  I figured with Ragnar this weekend I ought to give my legs a break.  Tom, Jansen and I went down to St. George for a couple days to finish up the details for our 1 bedroom condo.  It's all ready for renters now and I already have a week and maybe 2 - 4 more days that are being asked for in June.  I think this is going to be a fun little addition to our family.

This morning I was planning on an easy 7 with Tom.  But his easy and my easy are not always quite the same.  I could tell in the first half mile that I was having some hamstring issues that surely didn't want to make worse.   So I told Tom to go on without me and I went to find the faster of the "Iwannarunna5K" group.  Their pace was just right for me to have someone to run with that wasn't too slow or too fast.  It was nice to catch up with LeAnn and Colleen.

Yesterday our girls found out their parts in the summer play they doing.  It is Alice in Wonderland.  Tani is the Cheshire Cat and Tia is the DoorMouse.  They are both excited to have some more drama fun! 

.

How do you even try to write about something like this without writing a whole book?!  This was my first experience as a runner in the Wasatch Back Relay.  I have volunteered for Tom's teams 2 or 3 times so I have been able to see it from that angle, but running it and being a part of a team is a whole new angle!

Tom and I were on a coed master's team officially named Spanish Fork Running Club #2 but self proclaimed as "Run like Hal" after our team captain and great runner Hal Amos!  We were with the very first teams to start at 5:00 am Friday morning.  So with the early start and Hal and Tom being the runners right before me passing people I was never around more than 2 people throughout most of the whole race.  I was also the only legs with all three runs that I could not have my van support on. 

As I waited for Tom to come in and hand off the slap bracelet I all of a sudden started feeling a bit nervous.  I've never been on a team with running before.  It's always just been for me, not a team.  Tom handed off to me and I was off.  I knew this was going to be uphill most of the way.  I wanted to run it without walking.  I did it.  The first mile was a bit too fast to help me love it to the top but I made it.  The first mile had some level at the beginning and then up hill the rest of the way. Mile 1 8:54, Mile 2 10:38, Mile 3 11:39, last .16 11:06 AP: 10:26, Overall time: 32:57. I was happy to be able to pass people on this leg.  I think I passed 5, and one sandbagger (or speedy guy on slower team) came flying past me.  After this leg there were never many in my area to pass or be passed.  I was pretty happy to see my team and especially Doug who would now start running!

Leg #23 started just before midnight.  I was nervous about running in the dark and getting lost out there.  When Tom handed off to me at this exchange I could tell he was really worried about me going off on this.  I found out later that his leg had really creeped him out.  See his blog for the details of that. www.tom.fastrunningblog.com  It's good I didn't have time to listen right then, I just started off into the dark night.  Luckily while I was running the big, full moon came up over the mountain and was absolutely gorgeous for me over the water for my whole run!  

This leg had lots of memories for me....While I was still starting to get use to running in the dark on my own I was going up a hill concentrating when I hear a man's voice yell out to me.  I can't even remember what he said but I let out a scream!  He was on the other side of the road in the dark and scared me to death.  I'm pretty sure he was cheering me on, but it creeped me out because there wasn't suppose to be any vehicles stopped along this road. Then I started hearing phlegm boy behind me.  It was about driving me crazy, I couldn't wait for him to pass me.  (for two reasons...one so I didn't have to hear him behind me anymore and two so I would have someone in front of me so I didn't feel so alone.)  He passed me and got enough ahead of me that I didn't have to worry about him spitting all over me but I could keep him right there to follow.  This was also "Skunk Row". Holy cow!  I thought for sure I was going to be sprayed and I wouldn't be allowed back in the van!  I could smell skunk pretty much the whole run.  My favorite memories are of the beautiful scenery that followed me through this run.  The moon, the water, the mountains....I just kept wishing I were an artist who could go home and paint the scenes I was seeing!  This turned out to be an amazing time for me....one of those runner high times!  Even after getting back into the van my teammates could tell that I had a great time on that one!  Mile 1 8:53, Mile 2 9:20, Mile 3 8:29, Mile 4 8:05, Mile 5 8:02, Last .55 7:27  AP: 8:27 Overall time: 46:56

After getting a few hours of something we tried to call sleep we were up and running again.  It was fun to cheer the team on again.  Especially Hal on "you've got to be kidding me" and Tom on Ragnar.  They are both awesome runners and did great on these hard legs!  It was very fun to watch them Run Like Hal!

At the end of Tom's leg I was there waiting for the exchange with the funky snow sculptures and abandoned snowmobiles.  I got a nice salty kiss from him and started up the rest of that hill thinking this was the only part of this final leg that would be up hill.  (I was wrong).  I got up feeling good and started letting it go on the downhill.  However, it was very downhill so it was scary.  I didn't want to 1.go rolling down the hill or 2. trash my knees.  So I was trying to run fast but keep in control.  I could hear someone behind me flying down...I just hoped he wouldn't run right over me!  He went screaming past me and I never really saw him again.

 Then I could hear one more person behind me.  He ended up passing me on that downhill then I passed him on some flat, then he passed me on some down then I passed him on a major uphill.  I thought he would pass me on the last big down hill but I had won the battle!  I came in plenty before him!  I am glad he was around though because I would have been completely alone without him.  Mile 3 had a hill I wasn't expecting and I had to walk a bit there.  My team happened to be able to see me feeling a bit frustrated there and tried to cheer me on a bit from the van.  Then they saw where I was going to have to climb a huge hill that I REALLY wasn't expecting and they tried to wait there for me for a minute to cheer me on.  They were'n't suppose to stop much on this road so it was kind of tricky but they knew I was going to need a little cheering.  However, I don't think I accepted their cheering in a very happy way when I was having to go up that hill.  I wasn't feeling the love and I wasn't giving the love back either.   It was here that I passed that guy again though.  And now that I think about it, he passed me one more time after this on a down hill but then I passed him one more time before leaving him for good.   I never saw the "one mile to go" marker on this so when I saw the people who were calling my number into the finish line I was pretty thrilled I was almost done.  It was fun running fast into the final chute!

 Mile 1 9:10 (uphill) Mile 2 7:06, Mile 3 7:23, Mile 4 10:04, Mile 5 7:42, Mile 6 7:23, Mile 7 7:15 and the final stretch (last .08) 6:08  AP: 7:59 and overall time 56:30

Passed to Doug and the rest of us hit the shuttle to the finish line.  Van one went home when they were done so we ran through the finish line looking like an ultra team ha ha!  Then the next cool thing was to see the clock that said our time was 23:39:29.  How cool is that?  Except that it was 6 hours wrong.....they had us with an 11:00 start instead of 5:00.  So our real time is 29:39:29.

Last night I was finally able to walk down stairs without pain! So this morning I went out and found one of my speedier Iwannarunna 5k ladies to hop on board with for a slow run. She was happy I was there to push her and I was happy to have someone to run slow with. Thanks LeAnn!

My legs are still not quite the same after my 2 downhill weekends.  I'll keep it easy this week and hope things kick in a bit better next week.  I'm still just grateful that it seems to all be regular old muscle fatigue and no injuries.  

We took our girls to the Kid History Episode 5 release tonight.  Kind of funny how some guys silly little videos have done so well!  We were at the 5:00 sold out show and they had another sold out show at 8:00. 

Five slow but not as slow as yesterday.  : )

Today was the best I have felt all week.  Tom and I started out at 5:00 and got around 7 miles in before we saw any of the rest of the gang.  At that point Tom took off with the speedy guys while I enjoyed some chit chat running with a group of about 7.  Had some fun laughs.  Two of the ones I ran with this morning were on our team so it was fun to share the memories.

Here is a picture of Tia as the Dormouse and Tani as the Cheshire Cat with Grand ma-ma and Grand pappy!  The did a fabulous job in their performances yesterday!  Our two little drama queens!

I met Kay on Center Street this morning and did some up and down the city street with her.  Had a nice run and a nice chat.  : )

I went to bed last night with the plan to wake up and do 7 miles.  During the night my back decided it was time to really make me uncomfortable and keep me awake.  When the time came to get out and run I was tired and my back was not helping me feel happy.  I almost decided to try to crawl back in bed but I know that it's the laying down that makes it worse.  So I decided to lace up the shoes and start out with Tom.

I could tell in the first few blocks that my back was not loosening up for me as quick as I would like so I told Tom to go ahead without me.  At that point I thought I MIGHT make it out a mile and turn back.  At a mile I decided to see if going down heartbreak hill would help loosen things a bit.  By that time I decided I might as well get to 2 miles and then turn around.  But by the 2 mile mark I was finally feeling better and ran up to Canyon View Park to meet up with Tom.  I think he was surprised to see  me...he didn't think I was going to make it that far today.  We got to run back home together and I was feeling much better and running more like an actual human being again.  I won the battle this morning! 

I decided I need to give my back an extra day off this week.  I had a bad night again last night...maybe the two weekends of down hill races jared my back more than I thought. 

Just have to mention our son, Camron...he just placed 7th in a national business competition in Florida!  He is really getting some good experiences with this competition, I just wish they were handing him a little more moola for schooling with the awards....Oh well.  Good job Cam!

Six miles on the bunny trail with Tommy!