Believe to Achieve

Ran long route to Manila Elementary (2.4 miles).  Watched Brooke receive a Hero Award then resumed running a varied route up to Cedar Hills and back down to total 6.91 miles.  Avg pace 8:26.  Extremely busy day.  Visiting teaching, orthodontist appt., early out, work tonight, homework and  piano superivsor.  All in a days work : D.  Tired and now my jaw is elasticized shut so can't just eat whenever.  Have to take out elastics to eat.  Agh!!

Slept three hours.  Went to bed with a slight sore throat that came on about 3am at work.  Dang.  Stayed up until 1045pm.  Scratchy throat, achy a bit, no fever.  But taking ibuprofen so who knows.  No run.  Just running around getting stuff for Halloween costumes and taking girls to dance after school.  

Ran the "FREEZE -YOUR- BUTT- DELIVER- THE- HALLOWEEN-WARD-SOCIAL- FLYERS-RUN".  Ran 3.63 around the ward boundaries (help with Troy) then tagged on 3.37 miles at the end.  BRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!  SNOW?!!!! ARGHHHHH!!!!  High winds!!!!!  yucky, blucky and a nagging left-sided swollen tonsil!!!  Last part at easy 8:18 pace.  Before that I was running around like a mad-woman.  The flyers fell out of the plastic bag twice and I had to do the mad dash back to get them before a gust of wind took them withersoever it wanted.  Good little speed play extreme run.  Now to make a do-it-yourself  MUMMY costume for Amber (6) and add the finishing touches to the Corpse bride costume for Brooke (9).   Luckily I found a good Egyptian costume for Courtney.  Her six grade class is required to "walk like an Egyptian"  since that is what they are studying right now.  I am going to be a zombie.  Got the idea from my daughter's dance instructor.  Ward social is tomorrow night so  I better get going.  Spent the morning soaking Amber's shirt and white cloth in tea bags for the real mummy effect. Currently the outfit is drying.  Next I need to tear the pieces of cloth  and sew them on to her shirt and pants.  Way cool !!!!  Glueing plastic spiders to Brooke's homemade veil later with black feathers and making a bouquet of black and  off-white flowers. Cobwebs go on the day of.  Along with white hair spray and black fingernail polish.  Happy Halloween!!  Did I mention I work the most exciting holiday weekend ever?!!!!  

Stress miles.  Too much stress.  Going to break soon.  Irritated to the max.  Ready to go bezerk. Overcharged medical bills for 10 minute visits.  I could go on.  But I won't.  8:31 pace for 12.61 miles.

So I worked last night, dressed up in a Zombie costume (torn dress and scary make-up) over my running tights with a huge green button down light wool sweater.  Drove Melanie and Kim to the start of this half marathon at Aspen Grove.  Conversed in the warm building for a bit then headed down to the Riverwoods (the ending) to get started on my trek up the trail to meet them then run as fast as I could on no sleep with them.  The race started very late.  Could have run 9 miles before meeting them but stopped at Vivian Park (6.2 mile mark in the Half).  The run up was extremely cold to me, winds and ice and fog.  Just plugged along thinking how insane I was and how insane I looked.  Mostly my arms and legs were frozen.  Got a lot of comments on how I looked on the trail.  I fit the part, a true zombie running the trails on no sleep.  At Vivian Park the fog was more intense it was crystalizing the water at the station and all the surrounding grounds.  I waited about 20 minutes while my sweat began to freeze.  Jumped in a strangers car and warmed up (thanks again!!) and waited for Melanie or Kim to wiz by.  And boy did they.   Melanie was the first woman (a bandit, however) and Kim was third.  I also saw Julie Esplin (as I identified later).  I flew out of the car as I saw Mel pass trying to catch her.  I stayed pretty close to Mel for a bit then Kim was right there and I kept her in my sights (they finished in 1:22 an 1:24).  I came in just under 1:25 and something (not thru the shoot of course) but I did get tons of cheers.  I just pushed my body to the max on empty.  Actually felt more with it then Hobble Creek Insomnia Half.  Last 7 Miles were at a decent pace.  MaryAnn came up to me during the race and I was able to pull ahead.  Her breathing was labored (asthma?)  I felt strong then had weird sensations like my dress was falling off with my large sweater around my waist.  Just losing reality but still focused.  Ended up sixth girl including Mel and Kim (bandits), Julie E., and some young girl, and tutu girl that passed me the last mile.  No big kick at the end because hey I am a bandit and need to exit stage left, so I did about 20 feet from the finish, not long after Kim.  Now to try and sleep because I work tonight on Halloween in the nursery-- the best part.  Sad to miss my kids trick-or-treating.  The hospital is in lock down so they can't even come visit except outside.  Total mileage 14.  The course wasn't marked but course tooled it to be 13.25 mile half.  Garmins reading 12.8. Not sure of accuracy with either method.  Pace was 6:30  to 7 down, 8:20 to 9 on the way up.