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!
Well, now that I've had a day to think it all through I'll give a little report here of marathon #3.
My first marathon was SGM '08.....record cold. Last year's #2 SGM was about perfect weather. And this one was record heat. Three marathons in three years and three completely different experiences.
One thing that made this marathon really fun was having our own condo to stay in and having our good friends, the Beans, stay with us! We had a great time here!
Tom, Terry and I left the condo around 4:30 and was able to get right on a bus and head up to the start. We could tell it was going to turn out to be quite a warm morning for a long run. Funny thing is they were handing out the silver space blankets to everyone at the start. People still wrapped in them and there were still fires so it looked like a bunch of tinfoil dinners all over the place. Kind of weird.
We lined up just behind the 4:00 pacer. My goals for this marathon were
Run as far as possible without feeling ITB pain.
Hydrate enough to keep me out of the ER.
Run the first half more conserviative so that maybe my knees would feel better longer.
Get a PR (under 4:05)
Get a sub 4:00.
I am happy to say that I reached each and every one of my goals! Unfortunately I had some pretty bad GI issues that caused FOUR awful stops! Grrrrr! But even with that I was able to reach all of my goals. Maybe without the potty stops I would have reached my unofficial goal of BQ at 3:50. The reason that was an unofficial goal was because if I tried to make it one of the goals I think it could have hindered me on some of the other goals.
1.9:02
2.9:03
3. 9:00
4.9:47 (2 potty stops!)
5.8:43
6.8:39
7.8:28
8.9:55
9.9:40
10.9:29
11.9:43
12.9:33
13.9:16
14.9:55 (potty stop)
15.8:34 (now I've gone further than last marathon without any ITB issues!)
16.8:39
17.8:26 (I think it was around here that we passed a guy and he said, "Hey Kim and Tom". We looked behind and lo and behold it was our good buddy Paul T.....not feeling well at all...so sad for me to be passing him. I just read his report, so sorry for a bad day for Paul...but grateful he didn't end up in the hospital.
18.8:54 (here I've gone further than either of my previous marathons without ITB issues!)
19.8:56 (on this hill I told Tom to find some stories from his youth that he had never told me to help keep me occupied. He proceeded to tell me more of his Campin' Coyotes tales...this one involved 12 year old boys, exploding soda pop cans in bon fires, tents and sleeping bags catching fire and trying to come up with a good story to tell their moms about the whole thing.
20.9:24 (last potty stop.)
21.8:08
22.9:11
23.9:08
24.8:21
25.8:54
26.8:43
.2 2:28 (7:48 pace)
At the end....off to find a POP again....Yesterday I was convinced I had picked up Giardia from last week's Dirty Dash! Awful evening....TMI, I know,....But this morning I think I am feeling much better. I don't know if it was because I had taken Advil and the heat and the marathon or what. Whatever it was I sure don't want to ever run with that kind of misery again!
I feel like I did my best for the conditions I faced yesterday. I am not feeling very sore today so I'm not sure what that means...maybe I could have gone harder, but then I may have had ITB issues. So I am very happy with my effort and my results.
It has been a fun training year with Tom! It was great to have him with me...we really enjoyed the whole thing.
One thing we had this time that I haven't had before was our 2 youngest daughters cheering us on at the finish line with Terry's wife, Taunia. It was so nice to see them there! It was Tia's 10th birthday so we yelled a Happy Birthday to her...Tom ran over to say a quick hi as I focused on those balloons at the end. We crossed the finish line together and celebrated our victory!
I took my doggie out for a walk today. I intended to do 3 miles but the weather decided to change as I was a mile away from home and Rui did not like how wet we were and the loud thunder. So I ended up with a nice walk of 2.3 miles. It felt great and there were only TWO potty stops and they were NOT mine! Luckily I had 2 doggie bags with me to take care of his business.
I'm sorry to any of you who are still feeling miserable at the moment. I am very thrilled to be feeling quite well! I am mostly just very, very happy I am not dealing with ITB issues at the moment as I have on my past 2 marathons.
We spaced out and didn't get on for the Runner's Series sign ups this morning. But we have been thinking how fun it would be to be a volunteer for the marathon. So if we don't get in for the lottery for next year we will do TOU and volunteer at SGM.
So it's been one week since that fun day in St. George running 26.2 miles! I have been enjoying going over it in my mind this past week! It is an absolute joy to have done that and felt so good throughout the run and through this week! Today was my first run since then. I have gone out and done some walking but I didn't want to go out and do something dumb even though I was feeling good but am probably still in a weakened condition. So this morning after Tom got 6 miles in he came back and got me. We tried out some new city trail that we've been waiting to see completed. It only has about a 2 mile stretch added in, but it was fun to see new things. He jumped back in the truck after 4, (10 to him) and I continued on to home. I ended up with 5 miles running and 1 mile walk. I felt a bit in my right ham and quad areas when I tried to go close to 9s so I kept it more around 9:40.
Yesterday morning when Tom went out he was hit by a biker! It was pitch dark out down in the river bottoms. Tom had a reflective vest on but the biker didn't have a light at all on! How do you dare ride a bike in the dark without a light?! Anyway, they saw each other just in time for the biker to apply some brakes and they both swerved....unfortunaltely they both swerved the same direction. But the biker had slowed enough that it didn't hit Tom head on. Tom's hand hit the handlebars and the tire hit his leg but he stayed standing as he turned and watched the biker go down. Luckily they both made it through ok.
Wow! What perfect fall weather to run in! I am loving the morning, dark and still, but if I were to be going out later it would be perfet too! Wonderful October! I love still being able to go out in the morning and see the stars on a clear morning and not much wind to deal with! I know this probably won't last long so I will try to enjoy every minute of it while I've got it! And to have my own built in running partner to wake up with and go makes it even more enjoyable....even if I don't always show it. Thanks Tom!
Tom and I went out in the beautiful fall sunshine around 11:00 today. It was nice to sleep in a bit. Tom has to take some vacation time before the end of Oct. so he has been working shortened days. It's been kinda nice.
We started out together but he went up and down hills for 10 miles while I ran around in the river bottoms and back home in time to see miner number 17 emerge into the light. What a joyous day to watch each of these men be reunited with family and friends and life! I love how much they are all praising God....even the reporters make mention of divine intervention and comparisons to biblical stories. So nice to have amazing happy news!
Tom and I got to sleep in and go out in the sunshine this morning. I'm really going to hate it when he has to work full time again. He's had to take several days off work this month for vacation (use it or lose it).
After the run we took our 22 year old and his girlfriend and our 13 and 10 year olds to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We quite enjoyed it. Loved the jelly fish, sea horse and penquins the most! We decided we want a wall of glowing jelly fish with tranquil music on one whole wall in our home!
Tom and I ran together till the SF water stop and then we each went our own way for the rest. I went back up into town and intended to keep things around 9:30 but ended up in the 8:50 - 9:00 range for the rest. Enjoyed the sunshine.
Got home and heard a knock at the door. When the kids say, "mom or dad", you usually have a salesman at the door. This time the guy asked if I was interested in selling the clunker in our drive way. (OK, he said car, not clunker). It has been sitting there for 1 1/2 years waiting for us to figure out how to get it off our hands. They gave us $150.00 and now it's not in our driveway anymore. They were happy and we are happy.
Tom and I out in the dark, but otherwise perfect morning....except the dang dog that gave us a little scare! It was so dark we had a hard time seeing the dog which made it's threatening barks even more scary! We changed our route so we didn't have to come back by him again but instead we had to be on a heavy traffic road which we didn't like either.
So I have a stand up hobby which is running and a new sit down hobby which is quilting. I have just finished my very first quilt top and am getting ready to put it on the frame for some good old fashion quilting.
Still able to enjoy the star lit mornings with my hubby! No moon to give us light so the stars are very bright. We saw 5 shooting stars this morning! That is better than in August when there were suppose to be tons of them. We always sit out and try to see them then but it's usually cloudy or we are out at the wrong time. This morning they were just doing their thing for us to enjoy.
It's been 11 months and one day since we dropped our son off in the empty sea, (oops, I mean MTC!). He is doing great in Denmark, learning new things and sharing his testimony with many people! It's a great experience to be a missionary mom!
Tom wanted to sleep in a bit today and get his hill work in during the sunlight hours but I needed to get done so I can head to SLC for an appointment. So I got up and ran with the dog. We stayed in the neighborhoods instead of venturing off into the dark wilderness. Even though I was in the more lit up town lights I still saw 3 shooting stars this morning! Six yesterday and 3 today! There must be some shooting star exhibit going through our area....I don't usually get to see that many. One went all the way across the sky in front of me! Very fun indeed! Look at all those wishes I get!
Tom and I are afraid we are getting to the end of our perfect early morning runs! Today was still warm but overcast. It sounds like rain tomorrow and possibly snow Tuesday. It would be nice to have a little bit of a gradual decline, but hey.....October has been fantastic!
Tom had to go to St. George for an HOA meeting and to take some supplies down to the condo. The kids had too many things going this weekend so he had to make the trip alone while I hold down the fort here at home.
Since I knew I didn't have my built in running buddy I wanted to make sure to get up and go with the running group. If I would have known I was going to end up going alone I would have given myself another hour in bed and waited for the sun to poke it's head over the moutntain.
There were actually two ladies there at first, the first one dropped off quickly because she hasn't been running much lately. The second one noticed some of her speedy friends at about 2.5 miles so she moved on with them. That left me in a pretty dark area alone and I didn't like it so much. I headed back into town and stayed in the city lights for the rest of the run.
I only got about 5 hours of sleep and that just doesn't cut it for me....so after getting home and showering I got some cozy jammies on and snuggled back into bed. : )
I decided not to head out in the dark and possible rain with Tom this morning, choosing to sleep a bit longer and take my chances with some sunshine a little later in the day.
I went out around 11:00 and had hail just a coming down on me! So much for waiting....Tom said there was no rain or hail when he went out in the dark. Oh well. It's actually kind of fun to head out in the hail and see the looks you get from people! When I was about 2- 2 1/2 miles away the lightning made me a bit nervous. I stayed near neighborhoods so I could jump up onto someone's porch if the lightning got too scary.
To the east and the south was big, angry clouds and lightning. To the west and north was absolutely beautiful blue skies with sunshine peeking down on mountains with snow down to the middle and reds, oranges and yellows towards the bottom! I was so wishing I had a camera with me! I also wished that I could come home and paint the pictures that I saw! Every minute the scenery changed and made another pretty picture for me to store away for those really nasty days that are sure to come. By the time I reached home the sun was shining brightly on me and the blue skies above. I did notice however that it changed for the worse again really soon after getting home.
The hard part of this day is when I went over to say goodbye to my dear friend, Ellen, who is dying of cancer. Last week she didn't know she had cancer and today she is on her death bed. She is almost 82 years old so she has lived a good long life. She lost her sweet husband, George, just over a year ago and will be so happy to be with him again. But it's hard to say goodbye.
Tom and I had a nice morning run in 36 degrees. No wind or rain so it felt just dandy. A little nippy on the nose for the first half mile but then just fine. Until I get in the house and realize I am cold and can't get out of the nice hot shower.
Kind of a sad, emotional day for me today with some family changes and a friend who is dying of cancer. She didn't know she had cancer a week and a half ago and now she has just a few days left. : ( Luckily she is older and has lived a good long life, but she is a dear friend and it's still hard.
Went out on my own in the nice sunshine! Still able to wear shorts and short sleaves. It's a bit nippy to start but turns out perfect for the run! I didn't really have any goal in mind, just planned to do 6 miles however I felt like it. I ended up with an 8:33 AP progression run with my fastest mile the last one at 7:47. It was kind of invigorating and satisfying!
We got the news that our cute grandma friend, Ellen passed away this morning. She is almost 82 years old. Her sweet husband, George passed away just over a year ago. She has been strong and healthy until about a week and a half ago when she found out her lungs and brain were full of cancer and now she is gone. Great way for her...not a lot of suffering, not alone for a long time, family and friends were able to come and say goodbye, then peacefully slip on this morning. I will miss her. I have learned a lot from her and George. I know they are enjoying a happy reunion at this moment!
Tom and I brought or girls and some friends down to St. George for a few days. We always love the time we get to spend down here. Unfortunately all our big boys are not able to be with us, they will hold down the fort at home.
Tom and I slept till we wanted to get up and get going. Got out the door just after 8:00. We ran 3 miles down the bunny trail and back to the condo. I decided to add 4 more and get my long run done today.
It's always so hard to pack up and leave our St. George home and go back to the real world. I always wish I could spend just a little bit longer down here! Fun morning run in the beautiful sunshine!
