cheryl

I warmed up for about 1/2 mile on the treadmill, then I met some of the group at the Jr. Parkway trail.  We headed out for an "easy" 10-miler (they're never quite easy enough for me, probably easy for everyone else.)  We ran on some roads with no lights, so we were trying to be careful, but then Kelli turned her ankle, and shortly thereafter I fell on some raised part of the road.  Besides banging my piriformis muscle, the muscle that's plagued me for a couple of years now, I was ok.  Kelli had to turn around with her husband, I kept running with Peggy and Cheris.  About 9 miles into the run, we hooked up with Kelli's husband Scott again.  When we got back to the cars, we had run 9.7, that was good enough for me, I needed to head for home to see my kids off to school.  I was ok after the run, I'm hoping Kelli will be all right also.  We need to run in better lit areas, or bring our own light.

 Later on, I rode the spinner bike while watching a replay of the men's Olympic marathon.  That guy who entered the stadium 3rd and then ending up being passed and finishing really slowly reminded me of how I feel and must look at the end of marathons.  He just had nothing left, poor guy.  I also did a little more running, so I think my total today was about 14 miles, that's including a couple of miles of bike cross-training.

I met with the group at Riverton High at 5:30am, and we ran "easy" around the neighborhood by the school.  Then we broke up into the track group and the road group.  The track just doesn't seem to agree with me anymore, so I opted out of doing the track and supposedly lead the road group, even though we got pretty spread out.  We had a pretty big group that wanted to run on the road.  Kelli and I ran together and had a nice chat, then we met up with Jody, Amy and Lisa, and we ran with them the rest of the way.  I used them for speed work, going faster to catch them, then falling back, then speeding up again to catch them.  So I got some speed work in that way.  Total miles for all that running, plus a small warm-up I did beforehand, was 8 miles.  Later on I did some stationary bike stuff plus ran a little more on the treadmill, so I'm giving myself 4 more miles for that.  It turned out to be a pretty good day.  It was fun to see all the people at running group today.

It was sleep in day.  I notice that others in my group were glad to not have to be up before what, 6:00?  As Kelli says, it's pretty bad when sleeping in is 6:00.  Actually, I made it to 6:30.  After piddling around the house, I finally got on the treadmill.  The plan was to run for two hours, speed did not matter, just make that time.  So I put on my recording of the men's Olympic marathon for inspiration and I made it to 1 hour 23 minutes.  So not quite 2 hours, but whatever.  That gave me 8.5 miles.

It was quite the day of running.  I met the group at 5:30am, then we drove up to the top of Glenmoor and ran down, trying to practice downhill running.  I ran with Kelli pretty much the whole time, which was fun.  I was happy to see our time was just under 48 minutes.  Now I thought the distance was 6 miles so I was happy because I thought I had averaged under 8 minute miles.  Then when I drove it later I saw the distance was only about 5.5 miles--so much for being under 8 minute miles.  Debbie and I ran back home, giving me 8 miles for the morning run. 

Now to get to Glenmoor this morning, I had driven my truck up and left it there.  The original plan was to ride my bike back up to get it, but then later I thought, hey, this would be a good way to get in a second run today, so I ran back up to get the truck.  I added some additional distance to give my total distance for that run 7 miles.  That gave me 15 miles for the day.  That is half of what Steve Ashbaker did the other day, so I still have a ways to catch him.  Now if I just had some reason to do this amount of running every day, I'd either get really good or more likely injured or burned-out.  It was fun for today anyway.

Not much running today, I'm resting up for the SL half marathon tomorrow.  I did get in 3 miles on the treadmill.

I ran this half marathon last year in 1:41:33.  I know that this year I'm not as fast, so I didn't expect that time again.  I was hoping to run it in 1:45 and to keep the pace at marathon effort.  I managed 1:46:55 and the pace never got terribly difficult but it still was probably harder than I could have maintained in a full marathon. 

The first 4 miles were uphill.  Last year I ran them in the low 9's or high 8's.  This year the first mile was 9:52, last year it was 9 even.  Pretty much every split was slower this year, I guess it would have to be for me to be over 5 minutes slower.  On the bright side, I was 9 minutes slower at the Ogden marathon relay this year than last year, so the gap between the two years is closing.  Maybe I shouldn't compare the two years, but I can't help it, so nobody give me any flak for that!! 

Anyway, I pounded it out.  When I turned the corner at the finishing street, who should I see but my trainer Steve Ashbaker.  Apparently he came there to help run me and anyone else he knew in.  Now for several miles of the race a woman had been consistently ahead of me by about 10 seconds or so.  Steve told me to draft off of him, then he had me sprint it in right at the end, so I passed that woman who led the entire race.  Was that nice to do?  I have a philosophy that all's fair in love and running, so I don't feel guilty about it.  My husband can't figure out why anyone would think it was wrong to pass right at the end, he thinks that's perfectly fine, so I've adopted his way of thinking.   It was nice of Steve to meet me.  In his blog he says I had my determined game face on.  That's really my determined agonized face saying get this torture over with as soon as possible!   I should probably think of smiling right at the end so nobody knows how much I'm suffering.

I then hurried off to watch my 9 year old play football.  His Bingham team defeated Alta, so at least for the Gremlins, Bingham was victorious over Alta.  Now if only the high school team could do as well!

I'm glad all my running friends had good long runs today (I've read all your blogs, all you who ran 20 miles and have already blogged.  And yours too Kelli.)  Good job all!  I know each and every one of you will set a PR at St. George or Top of Utah or whatever marathon you're running.  I don't think I will, so maybe Steve won't have to wear a skirt after all.