Mauri's Training

I got out running alittle later than normal.  It was pretty tempting not to go since Sunday is usually my day off. But, I knew my sister was running 16 miles for the first time in Calif. so I kind of felt like I needed to alittle longer today.  After one loop around the river I went over to SRL and down to Sunnyside.  After getting back to Broadway I decided to finish with one more loop around the river.  Ended with 10 miles because I wanted to do a bike ride in the afternoon.

Since I go to my parents every morning, I went over on my way home.  When I drove in the driveway I saw a strange car and couldn't figure out who it was.  When I went into the house I saw someone in the kitchen with my mom.  For the life of me, I couldn't figure out who it was.  Then she started laughing.  It was my pregnant neice and her husband from Calif!  I had just gotten off the phone with her mom (who did the long run).  She and her husband had driven the day before to see my parents and not told a soul!  They arrived at my parents house at like 9pm last night.  I was so happy to see them!!! 

Later in the day I went for a bike ride with my sister up at Sunnyside hill. We bike up hill for 2 1/2 miles non stop.  It was not quite the bike ride we expected.  I wanted rolling hills.  Biking down scared me alittle to say the least.   I know I can go down 2 1/2 miles without pedeling once. 

Six miles in the morning around the river.

Six miles in the morning.

Lunch - 1.25 miles from work.

Just had time for 5 miles this morning. 

After work biked 15 miles out around New Sweden.

I ran with my sister who was visiting from Orangevale, Calif.  She wanted to do a long run while she was here. She has a half marathon in two weeks. She's been trying to go under 2 hours for a half and hasn't done it yet.  She's so close and wants it so bad.  It was fun running with her and made the run go by so fast.  I know I wouldn't have done 18 miles if she wasn't there.

Six miles before work.

Lunch - rowing machine and stretched.

Six miles before work.

Lunch - Bike and weights.

I just had the chance to run/walk the 50K River of No Return (RONR) Endurance Run with two other women, Claudia Russell and Karen Smith.  What an experience!  Ever since I ran the Ogden Marathon I never quite felt ready for this race. I seriously considered backing down to the 25K.  It wasn't until the night before, after they had a meeting for everyone, that I made a final decision. I went into it with no expectations and would do what I could do.  After the first few miles we started climbing up the first hill. We hiked up the hills and ran even ever we could. I loved looking down to the valley to see how far we'd gone up.  It seemed like forever to get to the first aid station (at mile 9).  It was strange to see food (fruit, potatoe chips, pretzels, etc...).  After snacking on a few things and getting our hydration packs checked and refilled we continued to head up some more to the next aid station. Once we reached that we were actually going to head down to a little ghost town called Bayhorse.  This was a great aid station.  There were spectators and so many volunteers.  The volunteers through this whole course were AMAZING!  They were there to help and do whatever they could for you.  We actually spent quite a bit of time at this aid station.  Karen's ankle and foot were bothering her so they taped it up tighter than it already was (she had taped it up that morning).  She had been struggling once we started climbing the first hills, but she was really hurting now. After we left the ghost town we had to hike back up to get back to the second aid station (it was an out and back).  Once we got there we were hoping to run since it'd be downhill from there to the finish.  Karen was really, really hurting!  She couldn't run at all. Long story short, we walked the rest of the way to the finish. We had actually walked 15 miles because we had hiked back out of the canyon.  It would have been nice to run down the remaining 11 miles, but Karen just couldn't do it.  This was a hard course because you were either going up the mountain or coming down.  The elevation got up to 8104 feet twice since we climbed two summits.  It took us over 10 hours to cover the course, but this was not a race about time.  We had made the decision to finish together so that's what we did.  Karen was hurting pretty bad and we didn't care how long it took us to finish. She did everything from using a tree branch as a walking stick, walking backwards and just walking slow. We came in close to last. I was just glad to be with two great friends. This race was well organized and the volunteers were more than amazing. It was great camping right next to the track/finish line. I loved watching others come into finish.  I really enjoyed the course and had a great day! 

Went down to the gym at work to ride the bike to see how my legs felt.  Made sure to stretch for awhile.

Rode the stationary bike at lunch with more stretching.

Managed to run 5 miles this morning.  Legs and body still sore from last weekend.  So glad I forgot my watch to know my pace.  Legs were tired, but it was nice to get them moving again.