Each Day Is a Gift

Wanted 8 but only did 4.  Karen has taken couple weeks off from running due to post-SGM knee pain and was hoping to get back.  No such luck!  Her knee was fine the first mile just like the previous times she attempted.  We ran a mile on pavement to access the canal dirt trail which was better.  But,  by mile 3 she called it quit.  Dang knee pain!  So we cut the run short and just visited in front of her house.  Then I had to hurry home for the duct cleaning guy.  

Ran with Wendy nice and easy with the middle miles on the canal dirt trail which is gentler on our legs.  So proud of Wendy's 5 min. PR at Snow Canyon.   Other than the unhappy quads when going downhill or downstairs, she's recovering beautifully! :)  

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Spent the entire evening yesterday trying to book a room at Mesquite for the marathon.  Can't believe there is NO availability in Mesquite! :(   Finally gave up and got a room in St. George thru Priceline.  So will pick up race packet in Mesquite and stay in St. George Fri. night.  Will have hubby drop me off at the start race morning.  Should be interesting. 

Nice easy run with Wendy on the canal trail and bench loop.  Saw a big hawk overhead.  Gerber construction back-filling the dirt around the pedestrian tunnel.  More landscaping, hydro-seeding done around the trail and frontage road.  

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Got an email from the Mesquite Marathon RD.  She said the host hotel just opened up the rooms!  WHAT?!!!  Stink!!!  I already paid for the room in St. George!  O well, hubby doesn't mind driving.  Then the RD asked me what runners like to eat and how often we stop to drink.  I guess she has experience putting on cycling events and this is their first running event, along with the Valley of Fire the next day.  She is a bit nervous! 

The Mesquite Tri-State has changed hands over the years.  I wonder why Mammoth only ran it for two years.  I don't expect it to be a great event.  The course is changed this year.  The RD moved the start line further up in Utah to eliminate the *junk* miles in Mesquite.  Glad it is USATF certified.  Should be interesting!

A very special day!!!  Got to plan some fun stuff with the kids in the morning.  Went to the Draper Temple with 8 friends.  We've been friends for over 30 years and going to the temple/luncheon monthly for 20 years.  Had our annual Christmas luncheon at KathieS's house after the temple.  We stayed and visited and visited.  Precious times!

Got home to quickly throw some exercise clothes in a duffle and drove to Teena's for her birthday celebration triathlon.  She sure knows how to host a party/race! :) :) :)  She gave us *race packet* with all sorts wonderful goodies race stuff.  The race participants were:  the birthday girl (Teena), her daughter (Rylee), her sister-in-law (Annie), Fonz and me.  I was shooting for 4th overall and 3rd woman and I succeeded easily! :)

Teena set the rule on the way to Gold's Gym...no cheating! :)  She kicked my trash on the first event which was stationary biking for 40K!!!  I've never seen anyone peddling SO SO SO SO FAST on the stationary bike..and she was smiling the whole time like it was nothing!!!!  Every time I tried to peddle faster, my feet would fall off!  Why don't they make bikes that strap your shoes/feet in?!!!  I would've fallen off a road bike within 100 yards! :)  My sitting bones was KILLING me within 10 min.!!!  After peddling pathetically at the easiest level for 14.8 miles, I switched to the recumbent bike for the remaining 10 miles.  The recumbent was even slower...it was so boring that I started to flip channels on the TV monitor and watched Harry Potter.  I bumped my already banged up knee on the console!  OUCH!!! 

The second event was run 10K on the treadmill!  (Finally! no need to adjust the seats which must've cost me at least 2 minutes, not to mention time spent wiping down the machines afterward).  BUT, I had to find a treadmill that doesn't sound like a train was coming thru.   After running 4 miles, I asked Rylee (who was DONE with the Sprint distance) where Teena and Annie were.  She told me they went inside a room that I kept seeing people go in and out of.  So I went in there.  Wow! it's a theater and it was DARK!!!  The first TM I tried was completely broken!  The 2nd one said *clock calibration*.  Finally got on one, fumbled with buttons in the dark, I resumed my run at 7.4mph for 2.5 more miles while Teena was about ready to leave for her swim!  Dang!!  It took stepping on 5 TMs to run a measly 10K!  YICK!!!!

The third event was swim 1500m.  Since I don't know how to swim, Teena said the equivalent of that is 4 miles on the elliptical.  Took me at least 5 min. to take off my shoes/socks to check on the hot spots (a blister has ripped), get a drink, find an elliptical that didn't make me feel like I was straddling over a gulley,  and again fumble with buttons in the dark.  It was a good thing I was elliptickling in the dark in the very back of the theater because it was so hot that I had to take off my shirt.  Everyone in there was watching the movie and hardly working out?!!  My quads were burning!  I was hot, thirsty and exhausted!!!  The distance readout was on a scrolling system.  So I had to wait for a gazillion numbers to scroll thru to find out how far I had gone.  Nothing worse than watching the stupid scrolling numbers (which I had no clue what they represented) while your quads were screaming!!!!  ARRRGH!!!!  FINALLY 42min. later, the number 4.01 showed up,  HALLELUJAH!  I jumped off that stupid machine, ran out of the dark theater to look at the clock to see the time...10:40pm.  Teena said we started the *triathlon* at 7:30pm.!!!  To be honest, 3 hrs 10 min. on those stupid machines is just plain GROSS, TORTURE, INSANE!!!

Found Teena, Annie and Fonz relaxing in the hot-tub.  Geesh! how long have they been finished?!!!  We then went to Teena's house for some yummy pizza that Ry bought and delicious red velvet cake that Annie made.  FUN time visiting and lots of laughing!!!  My legs were so so so so sore and I was so so so so so tired driving home.  BUT, I had fun watching my SSF celebrate her birthday...she was beaming from ear to ear!!!

THANKS SSF for having a birthday triathlon and letting me be a part of it even though I was so pathetic on those machines!!!!  :)

I didn't get home until almost 1am this morning.  Woke up with sore tired legs.  Wasn't sure if I could run at all.  Texted Wendy and Carolyn to see if they're up for run.  Wendy, my best friend, was the patient and willing one.  We left the house around 9:15 (had to wait for the contractor) with no plan of where or even how far.  I did want to run at least 11K on this special 11.11.11 day.

We headed east as usual and got on the canal trail.   My quads were pretty tight from last night crazy Olympic distance bike-run-elliptical-thon!  Surprisingly at the west end of the trail (about mile 4.5) legs felt warm up and ready to run some more.  We decided to run back on the trail then around the bench to make it 11.11 miles.

We stopped a few times so Wendy could put up her feet where the neuroma were bothering her.  Each time we stopped, my knees would lock up.  We explored the tunnel just over the 1200E gulley where the trail would eventually go east...however not much trail was graded at the moment.  On the way back we didn't even think to find out what time it was.  With a mile to go, we saw some construction worker and asked one guy if he had the time.  He said:  11:16...oh, darn,,,we missed it!!! 

When the Garmin beeped at mile 11, I got all excited.  I picked up the pace and luckily Wendy looked down at her Garmin and said, it's 11.11 and I looked at mine and it also said 11.11!  Whew!  We stopped our Garmins instantly and the clock read 11:22am.  We laughed, hugged and walked the short little way home feeling pretty cool that we ran 11.11 miles and just 11 min shy of finishing it at 11:11 on 11.11.11

Later in the afternoon, hubby and I went looking at spas, ellipticals and treadmills.  We went on a hot date with dinner and movie and relaxed under a full-moon lit sky in our new suite 11:11pm!  HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY!!!!

Ran 8 easy on the TM in our new addition watching Monk while sweet hubby slaved in the yard.  Went to R.S. Super Sat.  It's freezing cold!

Wonder how RAD was doing in Richmond! :)