St George Marathon 2015

The first Saturday in October was the big event that I have been struggling to train for all summer. Between kids, work, my hip injury flaring up occasionally and my demanding graduate school program I was not able to train as much as I would have liked. I still managed to do my long runs almost every weekend and cross-trained at least a few days every week.
 Four weeks before the marathon I did a twenty mile run and I felt really good. The following week I came down with a cold so I scaled way back on my training, trying to give my body time to recover. The day before the marathon I woke up feeling worse than ever so I took it easy and drank lots of fluids.
 The morning of the marathon I woke up at three and I felt ok, not amazing, but not bad so I decided to go for it. My sister-in-law and I headed to the starting line together, and hung out around the

campfires while we waited for the race to start.
 Usually it takes a few miles for my legs to get warmed up and get in the groove. After that, the running gets fun. That never happened. I never felt able to kick into gear. Almost every stinking mile was miserable. It was so frustrating to see people around me walking faster than I could run.
 Around mile 8 my knees started hurting. Around mile 19 my ovaries started wigging out (It's a thing they do a few times a year, treatment is worse than dealing with it.) and I cried silent tears when the pains would hit. I kept pushing because I wanted the thing to be done. Surprisingly my old hip injury wasn't causing much problems.
 One of the great things about the St. George Marathon is the community is so supportive. Thousands of people come out to cheer on the runners and give them snacks as they pass. I loved the lady who baked chocolate chip oatmeal pecan cookies. It was the perfect mid-race snack. The race support had lots of small banana and orange pieces along the way which were greatly appreciated, along with lots of water and gatorade. And my neighbor and her kids were passing out popsicles around mile 23.
 I pushed through and my family was near the finish line to cheer me on, so I smiled through the last

little bit, but wanted to break down. That thing was so hard. It really ranked up there with natural childbirth (which I have unfortunately experienced). But I did it. I finished at 5:26:32, averaging 12:27 per mile. Not my best work, but I pushed through every painful stinkin' mile.
 Then I went home and blacked out a few times. I really thought I was going to die. I remember falling in the bathroom and thinking 'Oh, shoot. I've made a really big mistake.' In between passing out I tried giving orders to my husband that were totally incomprehensible because I was so delirious. Eventually I made him take my vital signs, which were elevated for my normals, but not high enough to warrant medical treatment. (But I did contact my friend who was an ER CNS for reassurance.) I drank lots of fluids and ate as much as I felt my stomach could handle. I felt pretty weak, sore and loopy for the rest of the day. Looking back, I know that I followed all of the advice that they give to runners, I just thinking running a marathon + exploding ovaries + having a cold was just too much for my body to handle. I would say that what happened after looked a lot like heat stroke, but my temp didn't get into the heat stroke range.
I'm feeling much better now, I took a few weeks off of running to recover as well as take care of my sick family. I think I'm going to take a long break from marathons, if I ever do them again. I like the half-marathon pace. That length of race is fun. More than twenty miles plus random stuff that life sometimes throw at you, and it's just not fun anymore. I guess the lesson learned from this experience is you can't kick ass ALL the time, also never run a marathon while sick.

Marathon Training

A few months ago, one my best friends made the comment. "Someday when you write your autobiography, you should call it 'Living Crazy', because that usually sums up what is going on in your life." Haha, so true. But I believe that life is too short to live boring, and crazy generally isn't boring.

Seen on my run

 My latest crazy adventure is marathon training. I signed up for the St. George marathon this year. I persuaded a friend to sign up too, so we can plan some long runs together. It only takes one friend to keep you committed to exercising, then you can't let them down, so you'll do it even when you don't want to. I enjoy running (usually), and I was excited to get back into it. Of course when I signed up I fully intended on taking the summer off from school. I cleared it with my specialty option coordinator and we agreed that a break from school was feasible and well-deserved. Then I talked to the graduate

Piyo Cross Training

adviser. She said that if I took the summer off that it would mean I would be more than a year behind in my classes, and there would be a couple semesters where I wouldn't be able to take classes because they are only offered at certain times and I have to take them in order. So now I'll be working, going to school (just one class), shuttling kids to swim lessons and summer camps and training for a marathon. Yup, living crazy. But taking advantage of the beautiful opportunity to do so. I'm grateful and thrilled that I have such beautiful scenery to train in so close to my house.
 For my marathon training plan I chose a 20 week schedule where I run 4 days a week (last time I ran 5-6 days a week, I'm not such a fan). On my off days I'll cross-train with Piyo to keep my legs and joints flexible and help prevent injuries, or take the occasional rest day. If anyone wants to do the
Piyo workouts with me, the sale was extended this month, so now's a good time to get a discount. I love them, they're fun and just make you feel great. And my plan is to use them to protect my knees!

My Ragnar Adventure

Last Thursday a friend posted on Facebook that she needed someone to take her place in a Ragnar, the next day and the race was taking in place in Zion's National Park. Me! Me! ME! Pick me! I have always wanted to do a race through Zion's (Even the Zion's Half Marathon doesn't go through Zion's, but just up to the park.) And I have always wanted to do a Ragnar relay and my plans for the weekend were flexible. I could use an adventure. Plus the race fee was already waived. Score! So I agreed, even though I had had zippo training and have only gone running twice since January.

Then it turns out that it wasn't my friend that was on the Ragnar team, she was advertising for another friend, who was actually advertising for another friend, so I ended up on a team of perfect strangers. But they had TWO team members drop out at the last minute and they were grateful to have anyone help them out. Oh and this is a TRAIL run and we're camping together. It's an adventure, right?
 The weather was forecasted to be perfect, or at least that's what I heard when I was packing my bag.
The drive up was lovely and rejuvenating. The race wasn't IN Zion's National Park, but it did overlook it and I had to drive through the park to get to the campsite. And even the drive to Zion's is beautiful.

 When I got to the campsite, the rumor was that there was supposed to be light showers for 2 hours. That's not too bad. I unpacked my gear, did homework and took a nap. During dinner it started drizzling. I ran my first leg starting at about 6:45 pm. Our team name was Adventure is Out There, which I loved because I'm a big fan of Up.

 The Ragnar trail runs are made of 3 paths, green, yellow and red. Green is the easiest & shortest (3 miles), yellow is 4 miles and red is the hardest & longest (7.8 miles). My first leg was a yellow. I ran through the forest wishing that I had waited to eat until after my race or wishing I could just throw up because my stomach was so unhappy with me. The trail was VERY hilly, but the view was beautiful. You really do get to overlook Zion's. I started out wearing several layers because it was cold, but took them off as I got going. On the last mile it started to rain pretty hard so I put them all back on. Considering I had zippo training, and I my stomach was so upset, I was pretty happy with my time of 53 minutes.

Overlooking Zion's National Park from the yellow leg trail.

 After my leg it started to really rain. The guy on my team who ran after me took an extra 40 minutes because of the dark and rain. Around the time he got back they decided to pause the race until 1:30 am, because it was taking so long for Search & Rescue to find the runners in the mud and rain Then they decided to pause the race until 6:30 am. It poured buckets all night long. The rain leaked on me and the two other ladies in our tent and we were glad that we weren't out running in it.
 In the morning the trails were all sludge. The race coordinators said we *could* continue the race, or we could just grab our medals and go home. I was the only one on my team who had any interest in continuing. I was not afraid of a little mud and I really wanted to have a chance to run (or wade through the mud) on the red leg. I'm probably a little crazy. But my team just wanted to go home, and frankly with that much mud and that many people, the sooner we go out the better.

My shoes after hiking to the bathroom and back.

 It wasn't quite the adventure that I expected, but I enjoyed it anyway. Taking a break from boxes and school was exactly what I needed. And the medal is a cool multi-tool.