2012 Racing Partner

In 2012, I just might have a racing partner for 2 of my races, and it comes in the form of my now 4 year old nephew Cooper.


(This pic was taken in July 2010)

Cooper LOVES sports. He's REALLY good at them too. He has his own set of golf clubs, and hits the golf ball farther than his grandpa sometimes. He plays baseball, loves to play basketball, everything.

Earlier this year I did the Utah Tour de Donut and had a BLAST!!! You should totally consider doing it next year. Well, after the Tour de Donut, I was talking to Cooper about it. He LOVES to ride his bike with his mom. I asked Cooper if he wanted to do it with me next year and he said yes (this was back in July when we had this conversation). He told me he could eat a whole box of donuts (the kid probably could).

Then, after the Dirty Dash in September, I asked Cooper if he wanted to do the 5k with me next year and play in the mud and get dirty and of course he said yes.

Well, I thought absolutely nothing of it after that. I mean, he's 4 years old, he won't remember. Well, when they came over for my birthday, Cooper came up to me and asked me if he could still race with me next year. Lol. It TOTALLY made my day! I couldn't believe he remembered the conversations we had 1 and 3 months ago. I told Cooper he could do the races with me next year if his mom and dad would let him.

I sure hope they let him race with me. I think it would be a ton of fun.

Las Vegas Ragnar Relay

This next weekend I will be doing the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay! I'm SUPER excited, but also scared out of my mind.

Earlier this year I did the Epic Cache-Teton Relay. It was alot of fun. Because of injuries I ended up running 4 legs (about 20 miles). It didn't phase me at all. It was really quite easy for me.

So, when I found out I was doing the Las Vegas Ragnar, I told my team captain to give me a challenge...and she did. I basically volunteered to run the hardest legs on the course.

Take a look here at runner # 7's legs. Yup, those are the legs I'm running. Lord help me!

The past 2 days I've been running City Creek Canyon to get my hills in hoping that it'll help me, but it has been rough. Tomorrow I have to run a total of 11 miles, so I'm going to go in to City Creek tomorrow morning to run all 11 miles.

Hopefully by next weekend I'll be good and ready for Ragnar. I'm also the strongest female runner in my van. So, I wouldn't be surprised, and I honestly don't mind, if I need to get out and help the other runners, even if it's running along side of them and giving them verbal support. I know how much that helps.

I will keep everyone abreast next weekend via Facebook and Twitter how things are going.

Layton 1/2 Marathon Recap

It's been a week since my 1/2 marathon. I apologize for it taking so long to get a race recap in here.

A week before the 1/2 marathon I was sick for about 10 days and hadn't been able to workout. As you can read in the previous post, I was nervous about the race, because I didn't know how I would do physically, but mentally I was ready for it. I just felt ready.

This was my second year doing the race. The first year it was an out and back course, and this year, they bussed us out to the starting line.

The race was supposed to start at 7:30 a.m. and it didn't start until about 8:10 a.m. I was getting kind of impatient at the starting line until I found out that it was out of the race directors control as to why we were starting late. The race director had ordered 9 school busses to get everyone out to the 1/2 marathon starting line and only 6 showed up!

The only other downer about the starting line was it was terribly cold. I didn't dress too warm for the race because I knew as soon as I started running I'd warm right up. But before the race, it was SUPER cold and they only had a very small heater for everyone to crowd around. :(

Finally the race started and I started my heart rate monitor. I normally don't look at my heart rate monitor during the race because it messes with my mind. I can see the time and I'm afraid it'll mess with my mind too much and it'll frustrate me. I decided to look at my heart rate monitor at the 1.0 mile mark and I had ran the first mile in 8:45!!! Woot woot!!! Never run that fast before.

I tried SO hard to keep the pace up for most of the race. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it up the whole race, but I wanted to keep that pace for as long as I could.

I kept looking for my dad along the race route too, but never saw him. It was really frustrating. However, there were lots of other people along the route that was cheering everybody on. There were lots of cowbells!

I didn't check my watch again until the 1/2 way mark. When I got to the half way mark I looked at my watch and it said 1:08:45. That didn't register in my mind that it was slower than a 10 minute pace until just now, but I still don't care. I felt like I was keeping a good pace.

Soon after the 1/2 way mark, there was a little boy, probably couldn't have been more than 3-4 years old and he was holding a poster board that said "Touch this sign for extra energy!" It was SO cute. Everybody that ran past touched the sign.

Soon after the 1/2 way mark, I started to feel rumblies in my tumblies. I thought "oh crap!" (no pun intended). I told myself though, I don't care if I crap myself, I REFUSE to stop at a honeybucket along the way. That is VERY valuable time.

Right during the rumblies in my tumblies, my earphones kept falling out of my ears. I thought screw this and ran the last 6.5 miles with no music. I should have done that from the start.

I finally crossed the finish line at 2:11:01.1! Yes, that is a new PR. My time from last year was 2:12:37. So, I improved my time by a whole 1 1/2 minutes! That is a LONG time in the racing world.

As soon as I crossed the finish line I headed straight for the honeybuckets. God bless the honey buckets! Lol. Wow, never thought I'd say that.

Unfortunately, the only pictures my dad got was at the finish line. Every time he tried to pull over on the course to watch for me, a police officer told him he couldn't park there. :( So, that's why I never saw my dad along the course. I'm not sure where my camera is right now, so that's why there are no pictures on here.

I was just thinking tonight...the 1/2 marathons are getting easier and easier. I didn't struggle with energy or anything during this race. I'm SO ready to try my hand at a full marathon. I'm going to try & sign up for the Ogden full marathon in May 2012.

Ready or Not

Ready or not, here I come 1/2 marathon. In 2 days I'm running the Layton 1/2 Marathon.

This is my second year running this 1/2 marathon and I'm pretty excited. They've changed the course a little bit and I'm super excited. Last year it was an out and back course. This year, they're bussing us out to the causeway to Antelope Island and then we'll run back 13.1 miles. I'm excited to be running on the causeway. This is a nice run. Last year I saw parts of Layton that I've never seen before and I've lived in Utah my entire life. Lol. It's actually a pretty flat course too.

I wanted to do the full marathon. I emailed the race directors a couple of months ago to see if I could upgrade and do the full marathon, but they never emailed me back, so I'm just sticking with the 1/2 marathon. My first full marathon will be next May.

Earlier this week I wasn't feeling to hot. I'd been sick for about 2 weeks and this last Monday was the first day I felt REALLY good. So, I've been working out every day this week. I've been pretty worried lately about my running this 1/2. Especially since I haven't been able to workout as much lately.

Today while I was at work, I just got this overwhelming feeling that I'm SO ready for this race. I might not set a PR, but mentally I am ready for this race.

Ideally I'd love to finish this race in less than 2 hours, but I don't think that's too practical considering I've been sick and this is the first full week I've been able to workout. Last year I finished in 2:10:00, so I ran a 10 minute mile, but I just don't think it's practical to hope I finish in less than 2 hours. I'll be happy just finishing.


Me before the race last year

Running Shoe Giveaway

I am on Twitter (singlentri_ing) and one of my friends on there posted about this free shoe giveaway. Who doesn't want a free pair of running shoes? Seriously!

So, I went to this blog, and I'm actually gonna start following it because she sounds like a really cool gal. But, you should go there & enter for this free shoe giveaway too!

http://www.hungryrunnergirl.com/2011/10/running-shoes-giveaway.html#comment-101646

My Bum Hurts

My bum hurts and here is why:




My workout tonight was to do a 90 minute ride and then run 3 miles after the ride. It was terrible weather today, so I didn't want to take my bike out, so up to the gym I went.

I got up to the gym and the only spinning bike available had the seat picture above. The cycling still had to be done so I hopped on. Oh dear Lord it was painful. I'm sure it was quite humorous to see. I felt like I was on a unicycle because you were constantly trying to balance your weight in hopes of keeping the seat in a flat position. It never happened. I stayed on the bike for one hour and then switched to the other bike, but it wasn't any better because you can't adjust how far back the seat is, so it was uncomfortable too. BUT...it was less uncomfortable than the other bike.

I have now emailed the SDRC to let them know they need to get that fixed pronto.

Best Time

I had my best time ever running up City Creek Canyon on Friday. It was an out and back 5 mile run. So I ran 2 1/2 miles up, and 2 1/2 miles back. There are parts of the canyon that are pretty steep. The farther up you go, the steeper it gets.

But, I only did 5 miles 'cause that's the amount of time I had available to me. I did it in 50 minutes. So, I stuck to a 10 minute mile the entire time. I'm pretty satisfied with that considering I hadn't been running for a while.

I was so excited to be back out & running. I had gone swimming Friday morning as well. I was feeling pretty good.

Unfortunately, about midnight on Friday, I felt like I hit a brick wall. My cold came back. :( It's more a chest cold than it is a head cold. It really sucks. So, I'm back to taking Mucinex every 12 hours and I hope that it clears up asap.

No matter what, I've got to get up and go swimming tomorrow morning and running tomorrow night. Come hell or high water, I'm going to do my 1/2 marathon next Saturday.