5-15-10 MARATHON DAY!

I woke up at 3:30am, tired but not feeling sick. I ate a piece of bread with some peanut butter which made me want to gag, then washed it down with some Gatorade. I jumped in the shower to wake me up, got dressed and grabbed all my stuff (ipod, knee straps, spi belt, shot blocks etc.) said a prayer and left the house at 4:25.

I rode to the parking area with Karri (and her brother in laws brother). The buses were loading at 4:45. As soon as we got there we got on a bus and we were headed up the canyon. I knew it was going to be cold because I remembered when James and I did the half we were just freezing. I had brought a sweatshirt, handwarmers and some gloves.

Once I got up there I stayed by the fire and was able to keep warm. We had to stand around for 90 minutes waiting for the other buses. It was a long time to stand around in the cold.

At 6:45 they started lining up. I went back to the 10 minute mile pace marker because that was the slowest pace marker there (they didn't have a 12 minute mile pacer :)

The gun went off at 7am and I crossed the start line about 4 minutes after that. I was feeling good. I had taken my sweatshirt off and put it on the truck to be taken to the finish line. I just kept my gloves and wore my long sleeved shirt. Mile 1 flew by, it was easy. Mile 2 was fine except for I realized just how hungry I was. I had eaten very little the day before and only a piece of bread that morning. My stomach was empty and it was starting to hurt. The first water station had GU so I grabbed some vanilla and just ate it. It worked to fill my stomach and I didn't feel hungry after that. I just grabbed something at every water station, like more GU or a cliff bar.

It is strange but a lot of the run is such a blur. I remember a few details about some points of the run.

 I remember I got warm about mile 5 figured I didn't need my gloves and handwarmers anymore.

Sometime after that I noticed the road really slanted to one side and I had to make sure to run right in the middle to keep my knee from hurting. I remember the police officers on motorcycles driving alongside us and thinking how boring their assignment was that day. 5 hours of riding a motorcycle at 5 mph had to be worse than running it.  The route was beautiful, the water flowed alongside the road, there were trees everywhere. People camping came out of their trailers and to the road to watch us pass. I found a girl that I tried to keep pace with that seemed to be my speed (but found later that she was only doing the 1st leg of the relay). 

 I started getting hot at about mile 10 and had to take off my long sleeved shirt, so I just tied it around my waist. At this point I had taken walking breaks about every 1.5 miles. I tried to walk as fast as I could. One guy who was running as I was walking said "when you take your walk breaks could you slow down so you don't make me look like such a slow runner." It was a funny compliment. He had a pretty consistent pace, even if it was slow,  so I stayed behind him and the others he was with for a little while. I eventually had to speed up but they did pass me two other times before I passed them for good.

At the 13 miles Vennesa and London were there. It was so good to seem them! Vennesa took some pictures and then they ran with me as we crossed under the start line for the half marathon. I was feeling pretty good, just a little hungry so I grabbed a piece of banana. As I turned the corner Michelle, Joey and the kids were there cheering me on. To see them there was so great, it just gave me a big boost of energy. I wish I would have taken a picture of the my family members cheering for me. It was some of the best scenery of the whole marathon!

I had my phone with me (I have always run with my phone in my spi belt, I think it is like a safety net, I feel like if I can't make it, I can just call James and he will come get me.) and so I was texting James about every 6 miles to update him where I was. At about mile 14 there is a hill. It isn't very long but it was sure tiring. I texted James. "This hill is killing me, a little past mile 14". I ended up walking the whole hill and a little after that too.

Passing mile 15 was uneventful except that I was glad to see the porta-potties.

At about mile 17 or 18 James called me and then I saw him up ahead. He had taken the kids over to his mom's house and parked the car and then walked about 3/4 of a mile up the route to run with me. It was so good to see him. He was encouraging and helped me forgot about how tired I was. He took some pictures and I told him how I felt like my head was on fire and hair was making me hot.

At the water station he held my ipod so I could dump water on my head. It seemed to help a little. At this point we were at the dam and the beginning of the canyon. James headed back to the car to go pick up the kids to meet me at the finish line. I was feeling like I was going to do great in the canyon because it was all downhill. When we did the half marathon I felt great going downhill. As soon as I got to the start of the downhill point I immediately felt shooting pains up the backs up my legs. The downhill part turned out not to be as easy as I had hoped. I slowed down significantly through the canyon. From mile 19-20 it was almost like I wasn't moving at all. Michelle Vennesa and Veronica were texting me telling me I could do it but I wasn't sure. I texted "19 miles. Kill me now."  Mindy texted me and told me that the canyon is the worst part but that after that I was "home free".

At mile 21 there was a volunteer on the side of the road so I asked if she knew when the next porta-potty was. She said it was coming up soon. She wasn't right. I finally got to the porta-potty. I had been drinking steadily and really needed to go. The problem was once I sat down it was so hard to get back up. It was like my legs wouldn't cooperate. When I finally got out of the porta potty I had to force my legs back into running.

Once I got out of the canyon Michelle Joey Jaiger Maizic Taigon and even baby Haizyn were right by the Dinosaur Park waiting to cheer me on again. I told them I was going to die. They cheered me on anyway. I felt bad they had to wait so long because it took me a lifetime to get out of that canyon. Once I got onto the Ogden River Parkway I just kept thinking 3 more miles and I am done. It turned out to be the longest 3 miles ever. The parkway even had hills, they were small but they felt huge! Everytime I thought that I was almost into the city I would find that I was still on the parkway. It was so long and I was so slow. I could barely run. I would run for about 50 feet and then have to walk. My hips were so sore that when I walked my legs were so far apart and stiff I  looked bowlegged. By this time my knees were sore too and I could feel that I had a blister on my right little toe.

Mile 25 finally came. It was encouraging but 1 more mile seemed so far.

I finally reached the straight stretch where we just run about 5 block until 25th street. There were people on the streets cheering and shouting "you can do it!" and I was able to keep running. As I got closer to the finish line I spotted Veronica and Mindy and the rest of my family. I was so glad to be almost finished. I could see that I was going to finish in under 6 hours and that was a relief.

I ran past them but I really don't remember anything except for looking towards the finish line.

As I got closer to the finish line I saw that there was a lady whose husband had pushed her in her wheelchair through the whole marathon. Her husband was lifting her out of her chair so she could walk across the finish line with her walker. It was really cool and everyone was cheering but I felt so awkward because I just wanted to get across that finish line. I didn't know what to do.

I stopped for a second but I just had to cross the finish line, I couldn't wait any longer. I just ran across  finish line and just kept running. Finally a guy stopped me and said you can stop running now. A girl gave me my finishers medal and another guy handed me an icepack and then I wandered aimlessly until James found me.

Rachel had made me a sign that said "Lightening Speed Go Mom" it was so cute and Livy hugged my legs. Jack was just his cute self. Veronica Matthew and Easton were there. Mindy and her friend. Michelle and her family.

It was a great moment.

I was so happy I was finished. My official time ended up being:

05:43:24.3

I didn't set any speed records but I finished with a smile and in under 6 hours.

The day before the Marathon...

I woke up still feeling horrible. As soon as I woke up I was throwing up. In addition I couldn't get more than 5 feet from the bathroom before I was running back in there. I was so so sick. I hadn't been that sick for a long time. Running has really boosted my immune system. I used to catch multiple colds, and strep throat from the kids. I had been lucky and sickness hadn't been a problem during any of my training until now. It was such horrible timing.

I can't even describe how miserable I was.  I was just crying and feeling so depressed. I knew there was no way I could run, when I could barely stand without being sick. I told James that I didn't think I would be running tomorrow. He, thinking he was an expert because he was able to overcome his sickness to drive us home from Vegas,  told me to just do what he said and I would be just fine.

I went to back to bed, James took care of the kids and about every 30 minutes would bring me water, or Gatorade and force me to drink it. I was a big baby and got mad at him for waking me up. He didn't listen to me. Just kept making me drink fluids while I complained and told him to go away. About halfway through the day he made me drink a smoothie. Literally said he wouldn't leave me alone until I drank it. I drank most of it with many insults thrown his way. :) He kept it up until about 4pm and by then I was able to get out of bed. We headed to the Runner's Expo to pick up my number. I only had to use the bathroom once there, I was feeling better already.

Then we came home and ate some pancakes, I was able to keep two pancakes down and was even able to take Rachel to her school carnival for a short time. I came home and ate some pasta and drank more Gatorade and kept hoping for the best. Family members were calling me and wishing me good luck and I was having to tell them I wasnt' sure if I was going to run the next day. It was very depressing.I wasn't needing to run to the bathroom anymore but I was so drained, I had no energy.



By 10pm my bathroom visits had subsided and James was completely tired of me. But, his plan had worked, I felt well enough that I decided I would do the Marathon. I updated my Ipod with some new songs, got my running clothes ready, set my alarm for 3:30am and went to bed.

A change of plans----we are taking a vacation!

So James surprised me and planned a trip to California to go to Disneyland and to the Beach. The timing could have been better but I tried to go with the flow. The plan was to do my two 3 mile runs in California at the beach in the beautiful weather but that never happened. :)

Saturday James went to the Convention in SLC, I took the kids to Rachel's soccer game. I cleaned most of the house, James came home and finished cleaning the house. I made 3 batches of cupcakes, made a giant cupcake for Jack's birthday, made 6 pies for Mother's day and then some of the family came over and celebrated Jack's 1st b-day.

Sunday I finished making pies, went to Church, went to a delicious dinner at Mindy's for Mother's day, went to my mom's for a minute, came home packed our bags, slept for a couple hours and then left at 5:30 am on Monday to drive to California.

We had a good time at Disneyland and spent the day riding rides and just having fun.

Livy got a little fever but after some Tylenol she was fine. Then a couple hours before we were about to leave Rachel started throwing up in the souvenir shop. Lovely. She continued that until we got back to the hotel and even into the next day. All the kids seemed to come down with something and they slept most of the morning.

We had to check out of the hotel and stopped at the beach and let the kids play. Livy was feeling fine, Jack had a fever by then so we gave him Tylenol.

 Rachel perked up for about 30 minutes long enough to play in the waves and then started throwing up again. A couple hours later she was okay though and so were Livy and Jack. 

In Vegas the kids seemed all better we played games at Circus Circus

and watched the clowns and trapeze acts.

 Then James got sick, he stayed in bed for a few hours and then was so sweet and drove me to get a massage so I could relax a little before the marathon. The massage was good and I even had some foot reflexology done too.

After that James was still feeling sick but  was able to overcome it to drive us home. I ended up holding the "barf bowl" the whole way home from Vegas. I was so miserable. We arrived home at 3am. James is the champion driver. He got us home fast and safe (although there were times I was sure he was going way too fast). We all got in bed and I hoped I would be better by morning.

5-7-10 The last of my "long" runs before Marathon.

This was going to be an 8 mile run but 5.67 was what my ipod said, although Karri's said it was longer. It was a great run at the River trail. Beautiful day. This was the last "long" run for the training, next week it is just 3 milers and a walk before the Marathon. I am nervous and excited and tired all at once. I feel so busy with trying to get ready for Standard's Night at church, getting gifts for the Mom's for mother's day, planning Jack's b-day and getting the house clean before anyone comes over and sees what a mess we live in. I am thinking about all of this and trying to stay relaxed about running 26.2 miles next week!

5-5-10

Another shorter run. This week my long run will have to be on Friday because Saturday will be too busy (James in Salt Lake for Convention, Rachel's soccer game and Jack's birthday). My house is a complete mess, the laundry has overtaken the basement. I can't keep up with anything but I am getting my training runs in. That has to count for something.

5-4-10

Hooray for short runs! I love them.

11 days until Marathon day. I am feeling good about my training, no injuries, still sick most of the day but haven't thrown up, I am exhausted but I think I can do this!

5-1-10

This was going to be a 9 mile run but by 7.5 we had run the full trail and were just ready to go home. It was a good run.

4-29-10

Early morning run with Karri. Felt good but took some breaks. I look forward to our runs, I wish we were running the marathon together, the time would just fly by.

4-27-10

This is the first week of tapering. Yay for tapering! I am so very tired of long long runs.

4-24-10 WRC 30K (18.64miles)

This was my 18.64 mile, last run of the WRC, longest run of my training runs. I did it. I felt really good most of the time, it was hard but I never felt like I couldn't finish.  As I was running I kept thinking how good I felt compared to how miserable I had felt last night.

 Last night I was so sick to my stomach, so drained of energy, I couldn't eat without feeling sick, I was tired but couldn't sleep. I was so discouraged and told James I wasn't sure if I was going to do the 18 mile run. The only thing was that I really wanted to get my finishers certificate for the Winter Racing Circuit.

I decided I would just set my alarm and if I felt good when I woke up in the morning I would do it. Morning came and I got up and felt fine, I got dressed and headed up to Eden to the Red Moose Lodge to do the run.

It was pretty slow going, I didn't push myself just tried to keep moving forward. Getting to the halfway point took forever!

 Being out there for almost 4 hours was hard and I was slow and my knees and hips hurt but I would rather be tired and sore than laying in bed feeling like I was going to throw up. I think I was about sixth to last to cross the finish line but I am okay with that.

Afterwards I just sat in the sun and relaxed for a while, it was a beautiful day.

They announced the winners of the Training Circuit and everyone got some free stuff (water bottles, bag, hat.) I am so glad I was able to do it.

A little determination and a whole lot of prayer got me through today.

And I got my finishers certificate!

4-20-10

Went running with Karri before the kids got up. We planned on 5 miles, it went by so fast we didn't even notice when we had reached 5 until we had gone 5 1/2. It was such a good run, I felt great, not sick at all. I even felt good for about an hour after I got home.

The rest of the day I felt pretty sick though, every smell makes me sick. I am so tired of feeling like this and I don't see an end in sight. I have completely stopped nursing Jack (2 days now) he isn't very happy and doesn't take a bottle. I am just trying to get enough fluids in him by giving him a sippy cup, atleast he doesn't throw the sippy cup across the room like he does the bottle.