Each Day Is a Gift

Marci, hubby and I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics last night while Lowell was on the phone.  We had planned to go to bed at 9ish.  But hubby had to wait for a return missionary to arrive from Italy to release him so he and I didn't turn in 'till 11ish.  I set the phone alarm at 5:00am but woke up at 1:45am.  I was wide awake though; did not get out of bed 'cause I didn't want to wake hubby.  I could hear Lowell and Marci getting up around 2:00 and left the house at 2:50.  I laid in bed thinking about how much fun I was missing.  My mind was swirling with thoughts of all the wonderful experiences and races I had in 2011.  It made me cry a little.  I finally got out of bed at 4:20 and texted Marci to see where they're at (between mile 5-6).   O man, how I wish I was running up the Canyon with them.  Interestingly it was very hot at 2am and got cooler two hours later.

Got dressed and out the door at 4:44.  Karen has driven to my house.  We walked over to Wendy's house and waited for her and John to come out.  As soon as they came out I took off running.  I was anxious to get going!  We ran up to SR92 which goes straight up to American Fork Canyon.  It was good to chat with the girls as we have not run together for a long time.  We encountered a strong head wind, I guess about 25mph.  I asked Wendy and Karen if it was like running the headwind at UVM.  They said this is worse because we are going uphill.  I tried to draft off John but it didn't seem to help.

We reached the mouth of the Canyon and could see the fast guys already made their way onto the golf course parkway.  Got to cheer on the first women.  It was awesome to see Melanie zoomed by.  Then I got super excited to see Kelli looking fast and strong.  After Emily ran past, I called Lowell with no answer, so I called Marci who told me she had lost Lowell at the Half and she is coming down around her mile 18ish.  My Garmin has low battery so Karen and I exchanged Garmins as she was going to be picked up by her husband.  We did not stop our watches while we were cheering and waiting at the mouth of the canyon.  We were at mile 5.5ish so I told Wendy and John that I would run up the canyon to find Lowell.  They didn't want to run further so I bid them goodbye. 

It was so fun cheering on the runners and super happy to see Don Bigger, Becky, Erik, Karen Tree, Michelle Stringham, many FRBers and our awesome American Flyer pacer Rachelle and JulieC as I made my way running up the canyon.  Found Marci at the mile 7/20 aid station.  She was feeling great so I left her to look for Lowell further up the canyon.  I reached him around mile 7 or 8 then turned to run back down with him.  He was doing the 4/1 thing and no issue with his strained Gracilus (from Ogden).  So while he walked I would run ahead a ways and then run back to him.  It was super fun cheering fellow runners along the way.  On the way down saw Wendy and Matt Clark running up the canyon.  Ran into Danielle, my daughter's HS friend, on the Golf Course Parkway.  It was great to chat and catch up with her life a bit.  I encouraged the runners on the rollers as I ran back and forth to get Lowell.  Had so much fun challenging a tall guy on the uphills.  One guy made an off-hand remark about my exuberant running: "Too much caffeine this morning!!!"  I wanted to yell back: "Hey you have no idea how much I crave running, I am a caffeine free girl."...but I didn't!  Lowell later told hubby  that the women runners in today's race were generally more pleasant and would smile and respond positively while the guys were either grumpy or way too serious.  I ran with a teenage girl who said her grandpa talked her into running this.  Lowell sent me ahead to look for her grandpa...later found out he wasn't in the race but her grandma is...so I went back to look for her! 

The sun got over the mountain once we reached the road south of the temple.  I ran back and forth 5 times and somehow could not find Lowell.  I have already run 13+ miles when I saw Kelli and Toby running back on the course for their cool down miles.  Since I needed 2+ miles so I ran with them back on the course for about 0.75 mile and decided to call Marci who told me that she just saw Lowell crossing the finish.  So we turned back and I asked Kelli what's the remaining distance to the finish.  A quick calculation shows that I would be about a mile short.  Interestingly as I "crossed" the side of the finish arch, the Garmin showed 15 miles.  So I made my way running thru the crowds on the grass to the track and ran 3.5 laps till the Garmin read 16 miles.   Karen's Garmin does not have mile split set up, just time, distance and average pace.  Dang!  I was hoping to see how fast I was going on the track!  Anyway, total time of  2:53:39 which includes the standing around at the mouth of the canyon, AP of 10:51 and max pace of 6:40 which are totally meaningless. Well, 16 miles in the bag. 

Waited for the award ceremony while chatted with a few friends.  So many FRBers took podium, very proud of each and everyone of them.  Got home, showered and made a nice lunch of salmon, stir-fry veggies (red onion, red & yellow sweet peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini and Chinese lahpcheung), salad, rice.  Foot is feeling fine.  Will know better tomorrow.  So glad Lowell finished Sogonapmit without problem....he's taking a nap right now! :)

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I don't know how to handle the mixed bag of emotions flooding me since my stress fracture.  I feel such immense sadness for missing UVM, AF Canyon1/2 and Sogonapmit, the races that are close to home and to my heart as so many of my friends run in them and I have had such fond memories in past years.  On the one hand I wanted to hide and feel sorry for my self yet on the other hand I wanted to offer whatever help and support I could.  The later brought me tremendous joy.  I feel extremely grateful for the ability to run (albeit slow).  Yet I felt so very jealous standing around the finish.  I guess I really crave the satisfaction of having finished a race.  I know I am addicted to marathons.  I truly hope that I can continue to run and share the joy of running 'till the day I die! :)  On a side note, I would've volunteered in these races if I wasn't housing/running with Lowell.  I did help out a bit yesterday at the packet pickup while Lowell was waiting for the RD to go home to get last year's medals that he wanted an extra set of.  The RD's wife gave me a free bread coupon, she didn't know I wasn't running the race! :)