Each Day Is a Gift

6.5 with Wendy & Karen.  3.5 barefoot.  All EZ.  Didn't get struck by lightening or drenched by downpour!  Nut'n too exciting!  Still having love affair w/ running!

6 circuits Pfitz CSE.

7 EZ w/ Karen, Sky & Carolyn.  Karen is training for her first Half at Spanish Fork.  She is doing so well.  I may just show up to run w/ her next Sat.  I Saw Faith Hope & Charity and pointed them out to my running partners!  :)

Interesting to see the progress being made on the SR 92 construction.  I had not run on the canal trail this whole year due to the construction.  I'm seeing some major sound walls being erected north of the trail.  I hope that means the trail will be graded, perhaps even made into a parkway.  Can't wait to see its completion. 

Only had time for 3.  

4 circuits Pfitz CSE.

Fun day started out with delish homemade whole food breakfast w/ former presidency; ended the day w/ concert and laughs w/ my best friends!

We sat too far away for me to see what Sheryl Crow looks like.  Now I know:

A nice run w/ a little bit of everything: gentle downhill, 10% grade uphill, dirt trail, fartleks, plyometric (jumps over tall weeds) w/ K, W & C.   5 miles into the run, felt pain on the left quad, shin and hip flexors.  May not run tomorrow and MUST take it easy at Pocatello on Sat.!

Then we went to Cafe Rio for take out and had lunch w/ Mary at the HS.  We missed running w/ Mary all summer.  Last year, we trained together for her first marathon at TOU.  This summer she started working and now has a full time job at the HS.  Time passes fast and friends are precious!  So blessed to have such strong strong valiant women in my life! 

*****

Stretches (man these legs are tight and sore) while watching this movie, Racing for Time, an inspiring story of a corrections officer changing lives of these young women criminal convicts of the Texas Correctional Facility for YM.  They turned their lives around behind bars by running, training and eventually forming a multiracial track team, qualified and went on to compete with other HS teams.  A very inspring and heartwarming show!

Day before

The Pocatello Marathon is a sweet little marathon with a BIG BIG heart!!! Lowell (who's from Pocatello) tried to get me to run it for the last three years. When I found out Doone (Rhett's sweet wife) was going to run Pokey as her debut marathon, I decided to do it so I could *run in her footsteps*. The weekend fun started with my sweet hubby taking Teena, Kathie and I to lunch at Maddox on our drive to Idaho. As soon as our arrival to our hotel we were treated like royalty w/Lowell giving us our schwag bags: a backback complete w/ a luggage tag, sack of potatoes and hashbrown mixes. He then gave us a mile by mile narrative as we drove the course.  Do you know why they call it *Running the Gap*?  That there are magic at mile 11 & 12?  Where to spot the Portneuf Pyramid and where the Three Lamanites'magnetic power secret hiding place was? Where you might spot a cougar, wild turkeys and Little Ireland? Well, you'll have to run it w/ Lowell to find out.   That evening we were invited by Doone and Rhett's friends' (Leslie & Ross) house for dinner. If it weren't for Teena's KT-taping the guys, I seriously did not feel like I was going to a race!!!

The race

The course was like a U shape in design making our hotel location within 10 min drive of the start and finish. Lowell picked us up from our hotel at 5:30. Got to the start with enough time to meet/greet his friends and do the p-o-p thing. Lowell and couple of girls were the last to hand off their backpacks to the UPS guys (Yes, its a UPS truck w/ nice shelves). We were the last to cross the start mat, about 1 min after everyone (350 marathoners) left. The first two miles were the REAL downhill miles. We took it nice and easy, speed-walking with Yolanda Holder, enjoying the cool crisp dawn. The sunrise was made spectacular with fluffy clouds illuminated by hues of soft pink/red sunbeams peeking through silver linings far to the east. We sang and laughed and tried to coax people to run w/ us as we passed them. I hope they weren't annoyed by our friendliness.

Pokey is organized with Full, Half, 10K, 5K and Kid K on the same course w/ staggered start times (Full @ 6:15, Half @ 8) finishing in the same park. Teena's goal was to make it to the Halfers before they start. Hubby drove Kathie to the Half Start and cheered everyone 'till I got there; then he would drive and cheer along the 2nd half of the course. It was tiring for him to keep track of all my running friends, safely maneuver around runners, spectators and traffic. The first 12 miles were on winding canyon roads w/ such beautiful scenery of pines, aspens, streams, ponds, green fields and hills that makes one breaks into songs, (exactly what Lowell and I did w/our own silly lyrics). We crossed the half @ 1:57:20.

Once we entered the town of Inkom, the course flattened out and the temp rose quickly; but we were blessed w/a nice cloud covering 'till about mile 18. We passed many halfers on this long stretch along Hwy 91 and the rail road. Many runners would find this a mentally challenging long straight stretch w/ a long hill at mile 17 and a mean one before mile 20 going up under the Freeway. Thanks to Lowell's pointing out the ancient Lake Bonneville shore line *waves* and the surrounding Bassault formation I was able to enjoy the scenery instead of looking at the long road ahead. The aid station volunteers were WONDERFUL! They had mustard packets for me, with the relish packets (provided by Teena, delivered by hubby), the only thing missing was catchup and hotdogs! Lowell was constantly encouraging the Half marathon walkers as we passed them. The highlight was running into Rita (Metermaid) and her sister. We did a ton of visiting as Lowell is the most popular guy in all of Pocatello.

To the finish

Around mile 22, Lowell urged me to leave him. I tried to entice him with the promise that Larry has his Dr. Pepper waiting at mile 23...he didn't take the bait. I finished my race strong, upright and happy with my last split @ 8:30. The magic at mile 11 and 12 came true with my fastest splits @ 8:15 & 8:12. My time was 4:08:00 and ended up 1st in my AG. The post-race feast was AMAZING! Besides the usual ice cream bars, chocolate milk, milk, juice, bread, bagels, banana, oranges, gatorade, etc....they provided a REAL meal of fresh baked Idaho potatoes w/all the toppings and BBQ pulled pork sandwitches. WOW!!!! The medal and ribbons is the biggest and best of all the previous 22 marathons I've run!!! Shhh!!! Don't tell Boston!    It was fun meeting some of the FRBs, jtshad, Bill Mandler, Barry Smith...can't remember who else.

Rhett, Kathie and Leslie (Doone's friend) waiting for the Half to start

 Ross, Leslie, Kathie, Doone, Rhett, Smooth, Teena at the finish

******

Dale, Yes, Lowell is for real!

Here's a pic of him running couple steps behind me at Pokey! 

 Here's Lowell running on my Ragnar team last year!

Maynard, here's a pic of the medal & ribbon w/ a $.25 coin for comparison.