I started running in the fall of 2007. I truly believe I was inspired to start running and I have seen some very big blessings come my way because of following that inspiration.
Ran Boston Marathon 2013 & 2014. My favorite PRs: 2011 at the SG 1/2 and 5K where I ran the 5K in 22:22. 2013 Nebo 1/2 (downhill) 1:36:15
Short-Term Running Goals:
Long-Term Running Goals:
Running throughout life with Tom. Staying healthy and happy.
Learn from others, learn from myself, work hard, do my best, enjoy!
On running and on life.....
On occasion we need to make a second effort - and a third effort, and a fourth effort, and as many degrees of effort as may be required to accomplish what we strive to achieve.
~Thomas S. Monson~
Personal:
Going to St. George? Bag the hotel and stay in one of our condos instead!
A nice 3 miler with the hubby this morning. Much warmer than it should be for Oct. 1. I'm a little nervous about the heat on Saturday. Actually, it's not really the heat, it's the sun I'm afraid of. I don't mind running in 68-70 degrees if the sun isn't shining directly on me. But whatever the weather, I am looking forward to getting on with the race! Enough thinking about it already!
Sister in law, Susan, is still in the hospital. It's now been a week. We are hoping she will be released tomorrow and be able to travel back to Califonia on Friday in order to be able to celebrate her daughter's open house there.
Great letter from the missionary! He is happy to be staying in his same area this transfer and thrilled to have a Japanese companion! He said he wants to learn all kinds of Japanese cooking from this guy and come home and make us some really fun things......scary!
Yes, that is three kids of ours with birthdays within the last 2 weeks! Tia is our sweet little caboose! She is 8 years old today! We had a "Monster Mash Birthday Bash" with 12 of her best little monster friends! I am so glad that hour and a half is over! But we had a really fun time!
Final preps then off to George! Ready or not, it's time to RUMMMMMBBBLLLLLE!
One thing I know for sure! As soon as I cross that finish line I WILL have a marathon PR! That's one of the benefits of doing your very first marathon!
Good luck tomorrow! Thanks for all the support and encouragement! Race reports should be plentiful and exciting tomorrow!
St. George Marathon (26.2 Miles) 04:05:21, Place overall: 790, Place in age division: 115
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Total Distance
26.20
0.00
0.00
0.00
26.20
Well, I never again can say, "I have never ran a marathon!" Because, I have now ran a marathon! Quite a journey, quite a day! A marathon is not a 26.2 adventure, it started several months ago. I was hoping that all would be perfect for my first marathon, but that was not to be. However, I feel so good about getting over that finish line that perfect doesn't seem to matter anymore!
We've been hearing that there would be rain and wind but everyone says, "Don't worry, they always predict rain for St. George, but it never actually comes." Well, everyone down in St. George must have been praying and paying their tithing and they were blessed with lots of rain today! How grateful they all must be!
It was fun to meet up with the bloggers last night. I was happy to meet Razmataz, Cheryl, Peggy, and Shimelle. I heard Tarzan had been there but I didn't get to say hi there.
I had a fairly decent sleep and woke up feeling good. Tom, Terry, and I headed to the park at 4:45. As we walked to the buses we almost felt a little foolish to have long pants, jackets and blankets with us. It felt almost too hot at that moment. However, the rain and wind came along to welcome us to the starting line. We were then glad to have the extra gear.
We had about an hour before the start. Met up with a few other people. I was glad that Christina and Tracy1 recognized me and said hi!
I started out on my own and really wanted to stick to my plan so I didn't burn out at the end. I felt great .....until about mile 5. Ouch...that's a long way from 26.2! Luckily the pain I was feeling in my knee at that time was only warning signals.
I actually really liked miles 8-13! The up hill felt much better on my knee. I never felt out of breath. And other than my bad knee, the rest of my body was feeling really good.
I was able to push through without killing myself until about mile 17. It was there that the warning signal was now a lot more than a warning! I really wondered at that moment if I would be able to hobble to the finish line or not. I had to stretch, hobble, stretch, hobble for a while. It was then that I was sent a little angel by the name of Christie! She saw me and told me to join her. She even walked with me for a bit. She was doing some hurting of her own. I was able to get a hobble/jog going there with her for a bit and was able to continue without walking. Her and I traded leads back and forth, but I think she ended up coming in a few minutes before me. Thank you so much Christie! I may have still been out there at this moment if it weren't for you! :o)
I think my favorite part of my whole marathon experience was seeing Tom waiting for me at the finish line! A big hug and a warm blanket and a few tears...very nice moment!
Tomorrow I may add my splits and some more info. But for now I am home with my kids and my bed and I think I want to be with all of them. I kind of messed up my garmin a few times so I need to try to figure things out.
Some info for my records: (me/all) 2351/5030 finishers, 790/2180 female finishers, 115/279 age group finishers.
A quick up date on recovery. I feel great, oh I feel so great! Uhh! (You have to say that like the cheerleaders do.) I really haven't had sore muscles at all. Kind of strange. I don't even have a stiff knee like I thought I would. However, I am still feeling my really big blister on the arch of my left foot and a pretty big sized pain on my right foot. I am actually going in to the doc tomorrow hoping I don't have a stress fracture. The weird thing is, I didn't feel any pain in my foot throughout the whole marathon! I'm really hoping that it is not a stress fracture, but it's kind of seeming like that may be what it is.
Also, Tom and I are going to be backing away from the blog a bit for a while. We will both continue to run and may even still use the blog to keep track of our miles. But we won't be adding as much detail and checking up on everyone quite as often. It's kind of bitter/sweet, but we feel like we need to spend more time doing a few things we have neglected the past year.
I'll let you know what I find out from the doc and how the recovery ends up. Happy running to everyone! I appreciate all you've done for me! I'm not dying or anything, I'll still be here, just not as often. :o)
I just thought I'd give an update on the doctor visit. It's looking like tendonitis and not a stress fracture. That is good news. He told me to hold off on the running for another week and then start in really easy. If it continues to hurt at that time I need to go back for another x-ray. It looks like a good time for me to start a yoga class and some cross training. I've been wanting to try yoga, I'm thinking it will be good for the body and the soul!
Fun little mini vacation with the kids. Went to Boondocks yesterday. Had some fun with mini golf, laser tag, arcade games and the fun race track cars. We stayed at the Hampton Inn on 45th and had the pool and fitness center all to our family only! We did a lot of frolicing, some swim laps and races and some really fun water running. I also tried out some barefoot treadmilling. I ran 1 big mile without any pain in the foot, but with some pain in the IT band area. I then put on my shoes and did 1/2 mile with pain in the IT band. Dang!
This morning Tom and I went out on the Jordan River Parkway for my debut outside run post marathon. I went about a mile before the pain in the IT band took over. From there I walked about a half a mile and then stretch/ran the last mile.
So I guess I have good news/bad news for myself. The good news is that the feet problems seem to be less of a concern than I once thought. The bad news is, I still have a very rebelious IT band. I guess it's better than a rebelious teenager! Tom and I are thinking of getting in touch with a sports doctor to help us through these injuries so we can come back stronger.
Some pretty pathetic mileage for me in the month of October! Oh well! Yesterday I tried the treadmill slowly and got .65 in before the pain started too fiercely. So I jumped on the eliptical for 30 minutes.
Last night Tom and I were doing some more research on IT band recovery and found something we hadn't seen before. This guy recommended doing intervals as recovery. No jogging or slow running. Run fast then walk. So I decided to try that out today. First of all I went to my Yoga class for 70 minutes. I'm liking that. It definitely takes some cooridination, I have some, but hope to gain more as I improve with Yoga. There are some stretches and poses that I can really feel will help with the IT band issues.
Anyway, after the Yoga it was home to get everyone off and running in different directions. After they all got on their way I went out to try the interval workout. I would do a .10 walk, (average 13 minute pace on the walk), then .20 run, (ave. 7 minute pace on the run). I wore my "ITeena" band and rubbed my knee down good with Icy Hot before I went out. It actaully felt good. The last run started feeling a bit strained so I decided to quit for today. But I think I will try that out for a while and see what happens.
I finally ordered the foam roller....(yes, I know Bonnie, you've been recommeding that for a long time now). I will be excited to try that out.
Some sad news in our neighborhood....this past Wednesday a family was driving down to Juab County to be with grandparents for fall break when they lost control of their vehicle and rolled. The 13 year old boy and their dog were both killed. Mom, Dad and 2 brothers made it through without life threatening injuries. Last night my 14 year old son and I went to the viewing. What a hard line to go through. It's hard to see your tough 14 year old boy break down and cry like that. There was a whole roomful of teenagers sobbing and clinging together. I think it will definitely cause a lot of serious reflection in all of these kids. It will probably be life changing for many of them. It sure would be more pleasant if we could learn lifes lessons by traveling the easy path all our lives, but I've come to find out that isn't the case. I've learned more through my trials than I ever have in my smooth times.
Just for your FYI, for some reason this boy wasn't wearing his seatbelt. They aren't sure if he just took it off to get more comfy for a minute or to help out a brother or what. But everyone else had theirs on and are alive today.
I guess I got a little long winded here. One thing my son mentioned as we left last night is that he knew of one boy who had teased this boy quite a bit. He was wondering how that boy must feel right now. So it was a reminder to me to try with all my might to show kindness to everyone I meet each day. And especially to let my family always know how much I love them. Hug a kid and a spouse for me today would ya? :o)
Recovering from injury isn't much fun! I guess each of us have to take our turn though. Yesterday I was driving along one of my favorite places to run and really felt a sting of pain for not being able to get out on the road and run.
Wednesday I did 2 miles on the TM, 20 minutes on the elipltical and 10 minutes on the bike. The IT band hurt with the running. And today I tried to do a bit of running and it was hurting my foot more than it has. So......no running for a while. I hate to hinder the healing by trying to run, so I shall not even try for a while again. Today I did 30 minutes eliptical, 20 bike and some arm workouts. Haven't worked on the arms in quite some time.
And now a WARNING to all injured runners....
Last night I had a dream that when I went to the bathroom I peed fish. Real, live fish. There were about 5 or 6 or them. One was a trout like fish about 6 inches long. One was a beautiful angel fish. I don't remember what the others were. Anyway, I called Tom in because I was worried and he said, "Don't worry, that is something that all injured runners do." And then I was fine with it. I was just wishing someone would have told me that is what happen to all injured runners.
So just in case you are injured and have this experience, don't worry....it happens to all injured runners!
(If there is anyone out there who interprets dreams, please don't interpret this for me, I'd hate to know how "off the rocker" I really am! :o)
Ooohh. ...I hate to get on here and look at my calendar and the very itty bitty amount of running miles logged on it! Oh well, what to do?
Yesterday I went to Dr. Rich. A second X-ray has ruled out a stress fracture! Yeah! I am so happy about that! He sent me to a Physical Therapist by the name of Orrok. I went there today. I was quite impressed with things there. Everyone was very kind and concerned! I felt like their most important item of business was my well being and getting me repaired and find the ways to help me stay repaired and be able to run the way I want to be running. (I know that was an awful sentence....no grammar police please!) They did a lot with my foot today, but after today the focus will be more on my IT band. He showed me some stretches that are different than what everyone has always told me to do. He will analize my form in running as soon as I am able to run without so much pain. I will be going back tomorrow to learn more of what I can be doing on my own to help this out.
One thing he mentioned was for when I start back into the running. He said it is important to incorporate walk times in with the running. When I first go back he wants me to run 4 1/2 minutes and then walk 5 minutes and continue that throughout my run. I can see the good in that. It will probably be hard to follow through with this plan though. There is always that pace goal in the back of our minds not wanting us to give up a few seconds here and there. But I decided if a few seconds here and there can help me run pain free and do another marathon at my true potential then I'm all for it!
Here's to some more cross training. Not sure how long for me yet. Anything that my foot stays in contact with the surface, (eliptical, bike), is fine.
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