Running For Trevor

This was not a great race for me.  But I did have a blast in Phoenix and it was a very much needed break with plenty of sleeping and being completely lazy!

My friends and I got a ride up to the start in style in my friend Chris's Limousine...that was fun!  The weather was crazy and I was sick so I didn't really know what I was going to do.  Was I going to race or was I going to run for fun with my friends?  I am not using my illness as an excuse for my performance (it was my choice to race) but it really has wiped me out and it definitely effected me.

My initial goal when I registered for this race was to run 1:21-1:22 and maintain a solid 6:15 pace.  I ran the first 3 miles at exactly 6:15 pace and that was all my body had.  I just had no energy and realized it just was not going to happen.  So I backed off to marathon pace and readjusted my goal to 1:25.......and Ahh finishing!  I averaged a 6:25-6:35 pace for the remainder of the race and barely snuck under my readjusted goal.  The only problem was I felt like I was finishing a marathon instead of just a half.  I truly had to "pep talk" myself into keep going every single mile it seemed.  When we ran into the 10K at mile 7 I found myself pacing with 10kers and all alone.  I think I momentarily even forgot I was racing...gosh it was just painful.   It was lonely and miserable and I was so happy to finish!  I'll update my splits later.  It really wasn't a tragic fall apart but I just felt awful and really hope not to feel that terrible again until I actually race a marathon.

Splits:  6:13, 6:14, 6:15, 6:30, 6:33, 6:30, 6:30, 6:30, 6:33, 6:38, 6:40, 6:35, 6:24, :48

2 mile warmup with Julia/4 mile cooldown running my friend Christina in for the full marathon.

A few notable highlights of the race:

• Watching Riley run in was AWESOME!!  Major congratulations to him.  He had such a big lead and just looked so strong.  It was so fun to cheer him on.
• Salted Caramel GU is kind of amazing.  That was the only highlight of my race.  Once that was gone it was back to my misery but seriously everyone should try this flavor.  Yum!
• The Phoenix Marathon is such an awesome race.  One of the best organized races I've ever done.  The course is great and I highly recommend it.  I really can't say enough about how well I was treated by the organizers.
• Seeing Derek and Allison out on the course was so fun.  They are both inspiring athletes and just so kind and encouraging.

It was a really great vacation and I am not too upset about the race outcome.  Sometimes you just have to do the best that your body has on that day and that is exactly what I did.  The last 10 miles I seriously wanted to DNF and I somehow held it together so I guess it was good mental practice at running fast with nothing to give.

After an early flight and 3.5 hour nap I got out for a 5 mile recovery run in the sunshine on Murdock.  Just took it nice and easy.  Gorgeous day!

30 min weights at the gym

7 miles easy from the gym on 8th in Orem up to provo river trail.  Nice and peaceful morning.  I feel so much better but I still have such low energy.

PM:  2 miles, 8:30 pace.  I got a new pair of shoes and couldn't resist taking them out for a little shake out.

7.75 miles on a new route starting around the orchards and climbing up to the downtown payson side, 7:41 pace.  It is always fun to find a new route and I am loving the sunlight the second half of my runs.  Why must daylight savings time come.:(

I am planning to take the next 3 weeks off of doing any sort of specific workouts.  I need a bit of a break mentally & physically and I have some fun things planned the next few weekends....that may not necessarily be smart training wise...but they sure will be fun!  Sometimes fun trumps smart.  I also hope to get up on the trails again now that the snow has cleared out.

March 15th - Me and the best friend are running 28 miles for our 28th Birthdays.  We are just planning a nice and easy run but 28 miles is still a lot farther than I've ever ran before so it should be interesting.  I can't wait!

March 22nd - Pacing and crewing my good friend Janice for her 100 miler on Antelope Island.

I'll start training again if I'm ready the last week of March and my next race will be Provo City Half with maybe a 5k thrown into the mix for training.  After that I'm planning to race UVM and then I will shut things down and just enjoy Summer fun running.

7 miles with Julia on Murdock, 8:14 pace.  I always love running with Julia, great conversation and the miles fly by.

7.25 in the orchards/santaquin area, 7:35 pace.

I live in such an odd place....I love it for running but it is funny the things I notice when it is actually light out.  One of my neighbors has a pet goat.  This is normal...several of my neighbors have goats in there yards and it's actually a really cute goat!  Today I realized the goat goes in and out of the house via a doggy (goat?) door.  I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.

10 miles on murdock with Julia & Janae, 8:05 pace.  Fun times!

10 miles easy on Murdock with Candace, Janice, Julia, and Heather.  Laid back fun run with friends.

7 miles on Murdock, 7:40 pace.

I didn't want to run alone in the dark.  Waah, waah, waah so I ran on the treadmill.  10 x 1 min on/off just so I didn't go crazy.  6 miles total in 45 min.  really really boring.

planks/pushups/lifted a few dumb bells.

6.5 with Julia on murdock.  Love my runs with her.....we will get plenty of running together on Saturday when we do our 28 but honestly I don't think we ever run out of things to talk about.

5 miles with Julia on murdock, 8:05 pace.  Enjoying the extra sleep and taper for our 28 miler on Sat.

20 min core work.

6 miles in the orchards, 7:20 pace.  So so cold!  brrrr

4 miles easy, 7:40 pace.  Up 1600 North, across State, and then down 800.  Nice little route.

28 miles with Julia to celebrate our 28 years of life! :):)  3:59, 8:31 pace.  So so much to say about this run but I think I'll save most of it for my journal and not get too cheesy on the blog.  I'm such an emotional runner and for me running is just so much more than logic, math, and physical capabilities.  It is just so much deeper and this run was so symbolic and meaningful in so many ways.  It was an absolute blast and could not have been more perfect.  I was truly sad to see it end.  The last mile was by far our fastest and I said to Julia "I feel like I could keep going forever".  When your best friend is a Pshycologist it is kind of great, she is so insightful and her response was so perfect and will resonate with me forever.  She just looked over at me and said "That's because you have so much more to give. There is no finish line today, life is a journey and your more ready than you've ever been for what lies ahead.  You feel so strong still because you are so happy and comfortable with who you are and where your going in life.  Your so ready!"

It was really just such a great experience and I'm so thankful for Julia and for my other friends that joined us along the way and made it so fun and memorable.  My sister and Mom were going to bike the last 8 miles with us but my sisters bike tire popped when they were filling it with air so she ended up running the entire 8 miles.  She hasn't ran more than 3 since May and the headwinds during the last 8 mile loop were 23-25mph.  She was about 5 minutes behind me and Julia but just kept following us and never quit.  I was so proud of her.  My Mom even went back to pick her up after 5 miles and she said she wanted to finish.

6 miles on Murdock in the sunlight, 8:05 pace.  Sore calves but other than that all systems are a go.

I slept all day besides waking up to eat candy and cake.  It was a pretty awesome recovery day!

7 miles with Julia on Murdock, 8:28 pace.  Even after 28 miles together we are not sick of each other....now that is true friendship!:)

I'm going to take it really easy all week.  My body is tired from the LR on Saturday and I just mentally need another easy week.  I think by next week I'll be ready to start some faster running again maybe.

7 miles up to Murdock on 1600, across and then back down 800 with a gym stop in the middle to pump some iron.  I got a new watch that actually works for my Birthday.  Yay!  I was so excited to run with it I ran the 2 miles up to murdock in a little over 15 minutes.  I really liked this loop....I am so bored with the out and backs on murdock.

7 miles on murdock with Julia and Janae.  Perfect morning run with friends.

9 miles in 63 minutes, 7:00 pace.  Up to murdock, out a few miles and then back down.  I definitely wasn't planning a workout this morning but I was feeling all bouncy and was just naturally running faster so I tempoed out the last 3 6:37, 6:25, 6:20.  Nothing too fancy and the last 2 are pretty aided but the effort felt really controlled so I think thats a good sign.

If anyone is looking for a good supportive shoe that is lighter weight I would like to throw out my plug for the Altra Olympus.  They are just as supportive as the Hoka (in my opinion) but you can actually run fast in them and they don't look funny. :)

5.5 easy recovery miles, 7:51 pace.  Ran up to the gym, did 20 minutes weights and then ran back down.

Headed up to Antelope Island tonight to pace my friend Janice for the 100.  I am pacing miles 70-90 and should start around 3am.  I've paced a lot but this is completely different...I'm excited and nervous!

19.5 miles pacing my friend Janice from miles 69.5 - 89 at Antelope Island! 13:14 average pace.

About a month ago Janice, Julia, and I ran 17 miles together.  At the time Janice was registered for the 50 miler and after talking about her training Julia said you should just do the 100 miler....I chimed in and agreed.  The next week she switched to the 100 miler and since we were the 2 that talked her into it we were committed to pacing her.  I'll admit I was completely nervous about this....I mean first of all I'm far from experiences on the trails and secondly what do you say to someone after they've already ran 70 freaking miles?

Julia paced Janice through elephant head and I started running with her at 3am.

Miles 1-4:  Things started out okay but after mile 1 there was an incredibly steep downhill portion.  Janice's IT band started bothering her at mile 46 so she was walking all of the downhills and running the uphill/flat.  We walked down the hill but it was so steep that it irritated her IT band so bad she could barely walk.  She was in a lot of pain and the first 4 miles of the run took us 75 minutes.  She caked her IT with icy hot took tylenol/ibuprofin and got a blessing from her husband.  Somehow after mile 4 she was able to run again.

Miles 5 - 19.5:  We ran the entire way.  There were miles clicking in between 10:00-12:30 pace and Janice never stopped.  Her breathing got a little heavy at one point and I suggested we walk for a minute.  She didn't want to.  Walking irritated her ITband more than running so we just carried on.  We talked the entire time, I reminded her to drink/fuel and really that is all I did.  She was absolutely amazing and it was seriously inspiring to see how strong she was this far into the race.  It was an absolutely incredibly experience and I was so sad to see it end as we ran into the aid station where we met her husband Greg to run the final leg of the race with her.  I finished running with her around 7:30 am and I cannot believe how fast those 4.5 hours flew by.  I am so thankful I was able to experience this and I am truly inspired by these ultra runners.  It is freaking amazing what our bodies are capable of.

Janice ended up finishing her very first 100 mile race in 22 hours and 19 minutes.  She was second place female.  She is seriously one tough cookie and I am so proud of her!

It was fun to see some FRB people out there.  I finally got to meet the famous Jen (neasts) she is adorable and it was so fun to hang out with her.  Also RAD, Kelli, and Scott W.  Congrats to Scott on his 100 mile PR.:)  I have absolutely no desire to run a 100 miler myself but it sure was a cool experience.

7 miles on Murdock in the sunshine!  7:30 pace

AM:  7 with Julia in Provo Canyon, 8:23 pace.

PM:  4 miles on Spanish fork river trail, 7:50 pace.  Beautiful afternoon!

9 miles on pipeline trail with Julia, 9:30 pace.  Trail running makes me happy! :)

9.5 miles mostly on murdock with a 5 mile progressive tempo 6:36, 6:35, 6:29, 6:24, 6:23.  I felt completely out of shape but I've got to start somewhere...

I tripped on a pot hole and fell kind of hard in the first half mile of my run today.  I knew I was bleeding but I wanted to finish the run so I did and then headed to the clinic once I got to work since I couldn't dislodge the rock stuck in my right hand on my own.  I'm glad I didn't try too hard on my own because Dr. Daly had to get out all sorts of tools to remove the boulder from my hand.  She stitched me up, gave me a tetnus shot, and I still made it to Managers meeting by 9am. It was a busy morning for me!

7 miles with Julia mostly on bonneville shorline trail and then we finished up on murdock once it got too muddy.  Pelting hail up on bonneville but we had a good time.

My hand is healing well from the fall yesterday....I just can't put pressure on it or do pushups until I get the stitches taken out next week.  Darn!

8 miles with Julia on Murdock, 8:06 pace.  No stitches, hail storm, or mud today...but there was a nice light snow fall for the last mile. :)

6 miles easy with Amber 8:03 pace, 5 mile tempo solo 6:21, 6:11 (I got WAY too excited when I saw the Kenyan guy pack and went too fast this mile) 6:08, 6:13, 6:18.  3 mile cooldown with Amber 8:15 pace.

This week was kind of a test to see where I'm at moving forward with my training.  My speed is there and my endurance is there but just not together. haha!  I felt like I was hanging on hard that last mile and obviously fell off pace a bit.  But I'm optimistic as my goal race (UVM) is exactly still about 10 weeks out.

7 miles on murdock, 7:28 pace.  WINDY!

15 minutes weights

7.5 miles with Julia, 8:22 pace.  Heavy leg syndrome this morning!

PM:  3 miles easy on SF river trail, 8:00 pace.  I always have a hard time starting these PM runs but once I get going I always feel fine.