Lindsey Dunkley

Chocolate chips and diet coke! That diet works better for you than for me, apparently! How awesome that you can run that time with some consistent but not killer training. You are amazing Lindsey! Congratulations.

Hey Lindsey - very nice race. You've still "got it" for sure!

Nothing wrong w/ the diet coke / chocolate chips diet - I am a diet mountain dew / M&Ms guy myself, and it works pretty good :-)

Fantastic race... just really impressive all around. Not many guys can thrown down a pair of sub 5 miles in a half (or a 5K, for that matter!)... so that is just some great racing in my book.

Maybe we'll see you around one of these days. If you ever want to go for a run w/ our group up in SLC, we'd love it if you could join us.

What a great report :). Congrats on an awesome race, super talented. Maybe i should give the chocolate chips a whirl.

pretty impressive. I am thinking you are headed for the olympics if you wanted to!! : D. sub 5s. seriously awesome!!

We'll all let you stay in that semi-retired state to your face, but behind the scenes we are scheming about your glorious return :-)

Seriously impressive performance yesterday! Only a minute or so off your Hobble Creek performance with less training.

I'm so glad you wrote a report! Every time I see you running I wish you still FRBed. Congratulations on an amazing race.

Wow. You rock!

Seriously nicest people ever! Thanks to ALL of you :) I think Jake and I have something figured out with the diet drinks and chocolate...it is just such a great combination!

@ Jake-I would love to run with your group if it is ever in the American Fork area around 6-8 am on a Saturday :)

@ Scott-You were the one with the very impressive performance, thanks though!

Lindsey I am so glad you got on and wrote this. I have missed you. I am all kinds of teary right now. What a weirdo I am lol :)

Your a sweetheart Lily :)

Lindsey:

Congratulations on the win with a solid time. Some thoughts.

I am glad to see that you finally got off the "dreadmill", and are training on the road. It took two years, slow progress, but progress nevertheless.

With 46 miles a week all on the road for eight weeks I would have expected around 1:11-1:12 in Hobblecreek for you even if your training prior to that had been minimal. I do not know this course, but the top 5 men times suggest it is similar to Hobblecreek in quality. Of course, it is easy to say this after the fact, so perhaps that is all I should say about that except add that you can be more optimistic about your ability.

This experience, I hope, will convince you that speed work is overrated. The foundation of fitness is the aerobic base (that's why they call it "base"), speed is mostly for the brain to learn not to be afraid of the race pace, and also how to run efficiently at race pace. It does relatively little in the way of conditioning. Thus a more experienced runner needs less of it - hitting race pace in some form for some reasonable distance as infrequently as only once a week is often sufficient.

Finishing in 5th place among men is great when the race director needs some encouragement to bolster the elite program, or when you just want to have some fun and see how close you can get to chicking the field, but as a general racing approach it is underpaid work. Even if you are not willing to change your training, you are still capable of bringing in $2000-3000 per race (half marathon) if you picked them right with the airfare, hotel, and race entry taken care of and without racing on Sunday.

I have told you this before, I believe, but I think it is worth repeating that with some changes in your training you are capable of competing on the national level against the "big girls". Now I have more evidence - in 2010 you beat Nan in Hobblecreek off not quite the best training. 16 days later she took 3rd in a nationally ranked New Haven 20 K. I am going to make a rough guess that you have about 2:22 marathon in you on an honest course with proper approach. So in other words, capable of making the US Olympic team, and maybe even Kenyan as well. Do you believe that?

You are amazing!! So glad you got on to write, I am just in awe of you!!!

While I'm sure everyone would love to see how Lindsey would do on a national level, (and I'm sure she would be amazing) I for one can understand her decision to run on a lower-key level.

Sorry, Lindsey, if I'm speaking for you here. I'm mostly speaking from my own experiences which are somewhat similar.(though I'm not as fast as you.) It is difficult to balance running, busy kids, church callings, and a marriage relationship. Plus, Lindsey helps coach at AF. That's a lot on one person's plate. When running becomes a stressor, it's just not fun to do it anymore.

To compete at a national/international level takes a singular focus that is difficult for a busy mother. You don't see too many Olympians with multiple children, and the ones who do have kids also have an incredible support unit. I don't imagine the women competing at the Olympics have much going on in their lives at this point besides running.

Nan is a great example of someone who balances it all, but I'm sure even she would admit that it is not easy. Lindsey, if you chose to pursue a higher level of running, I would be your biggest fan. However, I completely understand your decision to enjoy running as part of your very full life instead of as a singular focus.

That being said, Congrats on an amazing halfA!

@ Carina-thank you!

@ Sasha and Emily-thank you both for your comments. Sasha I truly admire your belief in me and I agree I could make some money on a national level, I don't know know if I think I am quite as quick as you think but nevertheless thank you!

Emily really spoke well for me, thanks :) I have the fullest plate with 3 kids, housework, church callings, coaching, yard work, etc. A typical week for me brings about 4 practices for my kids, 4 to 6 games of baseball and soccer, dance, 3-4 high school practices and meets, church calling stuff which is in the primary presidency, scouts for one, ym's for another, and that doesn't even count how many hours I have of laundry,cleaning, and yard work. Add to that the biggest factor, my husband works on a slow week 70 hours and on a busy week 100 plus...he rotates 12 hour shifts between the hospital and fire dept. So all that stuff mentioned before is all up to me! Not complaining, just laying it all out there. I typically sleep 5-6 hours which wouldn't cut it if I upped the miles any. The biggest difference between Nan and I was her husbands work from home situation which made it possible for her...and props to her for all she accomplished, truly awesome!

I have thought many times about doing more, competing more, and then another crazy week begins and I know it isn't possible. I love to run but I also love to have a happy husband, happy kids, and a little sanity :) Some weeks I do without the sanity though!

Again thanks for the belief and support on this blog, I will always be around and following the running community, but on a smaller level. I hope this comes off as I meant it to, which is gracious and thankful for what I have and what I have been able to accomplish. Thanks to you all.

Lindsey:

My son Benjamin and I play chess competitively. To prepare we like to solve tactical problems. My favorite type of problem is when you have five or so different threats to deal with, each potentially game losing if executed, and you have only one move to address them all. You make one quiet move that is easy to overlook because it does not seem to do much - no capture, no check, no attack on the queen - just some seemingly harmless pawn push or repositioning of a rook - and your opponent now can execute any of his threats, but it does not matter anymore - he gets checkmated in the next move no matter what he does. Such moves are marked with an exclamation mark in game annotations.

Perhaps the reason I like such problems is that they mirror my life. We have seven children with one more on the way, we home school, I try to run competitively, I train my children, and I discovered that seven kids including a 13-year old boy that runs 40 miles a week, a pregnant wife that still runs 5 miles a day, and a guy that is running 80-90 miles a week eat a lot. So I have to earn a living for 9.5 people on top of that. I do not have a choice but rely on those exclamation mark moves.

The key to discovering them is found in the scriptures. Psalms 46:10, as well as Doctrine and Covenants 101:16 - "be still and know that I am God". With the Lord's help you can see clearly what matters and what can wait, and you put whatever little energy you have into what matters. With the Lord's help you can also see better when you should ask for help, and overcome the inertia and perhaps the fear.

Lindsey - I am completely confident that if a few doable things were done, you would run 2:22 marathon. Those doable things would not be a negative for your health, your family life, or your church service. Rather than take away they would add. It would require some prayer, some inspired thinking, and some moves with an exclamation mark. I believe we h have enough people on the blog and in the community that could be mobilized to provide whatever support you will need. Contrary to a popular myth, you do not have to sell your soul to the gods of running to achieve. A healthy moderate approach is sufficient, and is frequently superior to what you observe some elite runners do.

Here is what needs to happen:

- Up the sleep to at least 7 hours a night, 8 is better, but 7 should be OK, I think, with a nap

- Rest in bed for 30 minutes after a morning run

- Make sure you are eating a balanced diet. With your tendency towards stress fractures, particular emphasis should be put on calcium intake.

- Very gradually work up to Mon-Fri 10 miles in the AM, two PM runs throughout the week of 5 miles, and a 20 mile run on Saturday with the last 10 hard

- 1 hour nap in the afternoon

I believe we have enough people that while not having the talent to run 2:22 (women)/2:07(men), would like to share in the achievement vicariously, and thus would be happy to do what it takes to enable you to follow the above schedule. Being a father of seven myself, I find particular delight in watching a mother of three thoroughly beat professional runners with no children in a big race. I think with our demographic on the blog and in the community, I am not alone by far. If you are interested in this plan, I will volunteer myself, and I will do what I can to generate enough blog publicity so we have enough people to help. You just tell us what needs to happen and when.

Thanks Sasha-your a good man...you will be one of the first to know if I ever really think I could chase a 2:22 marathon :)