May 5 - Conquer Covid-19 Virtual Marathon (5:49:07)
May 16 - Clear Creek Canyon Half Marathon (2:32:15)
May 25 - Utah Valley Virtual Marathon (5:33:110
June 9 - Independence Run Virtual Marathon (5:55:22)
Long-Term Running Goals:
Run happy and healthy all the days of my life. Be an example and inspiration to my family.
Personal:
I'm 64, retired RN, happily married, nana to 14 beautiful grandchildren, mother to 6 children (1 daughter, 5 sons) who are kind, hardworking, caring, wonderful people! Wish they live closer!!! :) :) :)
Picked up running in 2005 at age 50, to stay healthy so I can take care of my husband who had endocarditis resulting in AVR and MVR in 2004, end stage renal failure in 2014, kidney transplant on Dec 30, 2015. Six months after the kidney transplant, we discovered that he has a rare auto-immune disease that was probably triggered in 2004 with then the undiagnosed infective endocarditis. The doctors had to make up a name for this rare disease, Monoclono Gammopathy with Renal Significance (MGRS). It is not curable. After desperately trying different chemotherapies, the doctor finally found one immuno-therapy, Daratumamab, that works to treat the MGRS. It is a miracle!!!
Grateful for the gift of life, blessings, dear friends and loved ones!!! Thankful for the ability to move, walk, jog, and yes run!!!!
SoJo Marathon 2014 (26.2 Miles) 04:31:39, Place in age division: 2
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Total Distance
26.20
0.00
0.00
0.00
26.20
Signed up for SoJo at the last minute. Marathon #53, my 6th since July. Really wanted to run Goblin Valley instead but hubby urged me to sign up for this one because it's closer to home. Plus I get to hang out a bit with RAD. And Lowell wanted a "threepete". I ran this in 2012 and loved the community support and wasn't too crazy about the course and it was windy. Luckily the weather was perfect this year!
Got up at 5am and ready to leave the house at 6am for a 6:30am meeting at RAD's house...but I couldn't find my purse. Looked everywhere in the house, the garage, the cars...may be I left it at the car dealer's yesterday! Frantic, I woke hubby and let him know I'm driving his car without driver's license. I've only test drove my new Tahoe briefly yesterday and drove hubby's car once to church. I was one nervous nelly driving in the dark without driver license with me (no speeding), in an unfamiliar vehicle; and did I mention I'm directionally challenged? Needless to say I was 20 min late when I got to RAD's house where everyone (Rachel, her husband, her daughter, Becca and baby) were sitting in the car inside the garage WAITING for me! I was so ambarrassed and felt terrible to make everyone late. I knew RAD had bunch of race bibs/packets, pacer signs and pace bands to pass out at the start! SORRY, Rachel!!!! She is amazing like that, taking care of bazillion things and people!
Got to Copperton City Park and found out the first two buses were delayed due to drivers not knowing where to go. So, I'm not the only directionally challenged person! There were a total of 6 portapotties and thankfully, the lines were short. When it was time to line up, I shed my warmups in the car and walked over to look for Lowell who was oblivious that the race has started. He was talking with John Bozung and had not shed his warmups and dropoff bags. Needless to say, we were the sweepers! Well, he missed his chance running with RAD and got stuck with me! :)
We thoroughly enjoyed running through the sleepy town of Copperton with her quaint houses, small business, the firehouse and soon reached the cemetery at the edge of town and off to the road skirting the copper mine ahead. The sun peeked over the Wasatch mountains to the east behind silver clouds. We could almost see the temple that we will run by in couple of hours...that is SO far away. We looked at Mt. Timpanogos, and pointed out the canyons that we'd run through so many times together. I LOVE living in Utah!!! :)
We had fun chatting with fellow runners, a mother-son team (in neon yellows in the pix below), a big guy carrying 8 gels on his fuel belt, couple of ladies, and out of nowhere Becca zoomed past us. Thought she started the race with RAD, guess she was still taking care of baby when the race started?
My lungs just won't cooperate on the uphills. I urged Lowell to go on ahead to catch RAD but he just kept taking pictures.
Crossing the road to do the tangent...not good idea...there were lots of empty tour buses and dump trucks coming on the left lane.
I absolutely love the littlest volunteers...they are the cutest angels ever!!! :)
Lowell told this little dude: "DON'T smile! DON'T smile!" So obedient!!!! :)
The early miles were great! Lowell took a pit stop at mile 11ish by the Herriman HS; so I walked and texted hubby who found my purse, whew!!! As we approached the corner by the HS turning east, Lowell gave me a strip of bacon. I had gu'd at mile 7 and 11, so why not! I yelled out "thank you" to the traffic cop as we crossed the intersection turning east...a bit of bacon decided to go down the wrong pipe...COUGH!!! CHOKE!!! COUGH!!! CHOKE!!!! Finally, I asked a gal with a fuel belt flask running by if I could take a squirt of water to dislodge that salty sucker! Lesson #1, never eat, yell and run at the same time!
Running past the Half start is not the same as in 2012 when hubby, Jeff, Jen and baby Skylar were there to cheer and Karen waited to run the last half with me! This year, there were not a soul there cheering, only a timing mat. My watch read 2:08:39. Lowell was optimistic that we'd get our BQ! Nah, no way! His pace was slowing as we approached mile 14. He started to talk to random people out walking around this Day Break neighborhood. He talked to an 80 yo lady walking (she ran SGM in 1980 at age 48 and took first in her AG).
Something was not right with the aid station placement in this stretch. There was an aid station at mile 14+ and none until mile 18+. Luckily I took a Gu at that station thinking it was mile 15, but then desperately needed water by mile 17. We're now running uphill on the west side of the road by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.
May be the sight of Angel Moroni is "aid" enough! We made it up temple hill alive!
Such irreverent crazy runners! TOO MANY fast moving vehicles!!!
Lowell picked up Abbie, a 24 yo BYU girl running her first marathon. We encouraged her along. She really needed an aid station. I picked up a very tall and skinny girl walking under the Bangerter Hwy viaduct. I said, "we'llwalk in the viaduct shade then we need to RUN to the aid station which is surely not too far ahead." She followed. The aid station was near a gas station by a busy intersection, manned by couple volunteers who just stood there and the curbs and road was littered with cups and gel packets. Clearly these volunteers looked disgusted and did not want to spend their Fall break standing there! Sad! I grabbed a cup each of water and gatorade. I didn't wait for Lowell, decided to get this done!
The next couple miles were winding in a neighborhood through a traffic circle, I soon found myself running alone and trying to catch the lone runner up ahead. I was afraid that I'd take a wrong turn. I caught up to and soon passed two girls as we turned onto a main road again. There were some shady trees and gentle downhill after the turn which was so NICE as it was getting sunny and warm. I passed the mile 20 marker and my phone rang. It was Wendy!!! YAY!!! She's waiting for me at mile 23! That uphill at mile 20 caused my shins to start cramping. I was running at 10:30s pace so I told her I'd see her in 30 min. At some point I had to run on the sidewalk, as the road was not coned off, and very narrow shoulder with speeding cars coming from behind. One aid station had the volunteer's SUV parked at the curb in front of the table, so runners had to run around his car into the traffic from behind....crazy!!!
I was so happy to see Wendy!!! She talked to me, sang to me, kept encouraging me and I just willed myself to put one foot in front of the other. I was SO tired, hot, stressed from heavy vehicle traffic and simply spent! The last couple miles on the JRP were hot, humid, death march...why do they make the pathway so winding?!!! I did not look at my watch...I just kept telling myself, 15 more min. 10 more min. 5 more min. Then I saw the 4:30 pacers around a bend. AT last, I could hear the finish, couple more turns and the finish was in sight. Jeff, Jen and hubby were there and I high-fived them!
No charlie horse, just lead legs, and took 2nd in my AG. So grateful to have such wonderful friends!!!
Isn't this the cutest baby you've ever seen!!! She is SO adorable and sweet!!!
Rachel's hubby drove us home with 4 seat-belted children and the 5 of us women and a stroller in the trunk! :) Will never ever forget this great end to a wonderful day!
From Rhett on Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 14:52:01 from 24.121.0.8
How did you finish in 4:30 with all those extra adventures thrown in there?
From Tom Slick on Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 07:09:17 from 168.179.157.240
How did I miss that You had done the SoJo? Congrats on a job well done. Looks by the photos that you had a ball and still finished in a respectable time. What's next? Is there a 2015 Boston in the mix?
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