Run of Remembrance 5K 2013

On Monday the whole fam damily did the Run of Remembrance 5K and it was #AWESOME!  I ran it with Kobe which is pretty much my favorite thing EVA.   When the gun went off Jake, Kobe and I started together.  McKenna, Kaden and Steph Numero Dos started together.

#ItBeBright

The first mile was VERY congested so we had a 9 minute mile.  Holly caught up to us with her buggy and Jackson.  I told Kobe to set the pace where he felt comfortable.   The second mile was a 8:34 minute mile and that was with a big hill.  Kobe had said that he wanted to slow down on the hill by the cemetery, it’s a BIG one!  When we got to the hill I told Kobe to think of my daddy who was up in heaven looking down on us, surely he would give us his strength.  As soon as I said that Kobe got a little burst of energy and zipped right up the hill.  I’m guessing this is where we lost Holly, Jake and Jackson.

My cute boy...love him to pieces!

I thought I had it rough having such short legs I can only imagine how hard Koko had to work!

I loved running through the cemetery with all the flags lined up.  I really loved after the cemetery because it had a nice downhill.  We cruised down the hill and again Kobe said that he wanted to slow down, so we did.   Soon after that we passed a guy who was talking to his little boy, he was saying that the pain would only last for a minute and to keep pushing.  And with that Kobe zipped off again.  I wondered if I could keep up for a minute.  I told him to hold off for a little bit so that he could finish strong.  We got to the firehouse and I told Kobe that once we turned the corner to go for it. 

We turned the corner and he started to sprint…then he slowed down so I told him we were almost there and to keep pushing…so he did.  People were cheering for the little feller and I loved it.  We sprinted to the finish in 25:30, the last mile was a 7:33. 

Kobe shaved a few minutes off of last years time which I believe was in the 27 minute zone.  He did awesome!  I wish I could run with him every.single.day!  

Jake and Holly finished right behind us, around 27 minutes I think.  Jake made Run of Remembrance's Facebook page and it is AWESOME...so I stole borrowed it!

He is flying, I wish I looked like that when I run...without the goofy face ;)

Group shot!  Kaden, Jack Jack, Nicolas, Jorge, Holly, Jake, Steph Numero Dos, Koko, Steph Numero Uno and Kenna Corn!

Silly kids!

Holly and I ran back for Kenna and Kaden, they were grinning from ear to ear!  I can't remember when they finished maybe around 32:00, they did great.  

Watching Nicolas finish his first 5K was awesome, he is such a cute little guy!

#I'mADork

LOVE!!!

MUH!

If only Kobe could run my marathon with me on Sunday.  I'm doing the San Diego Rock N' Roll Marathon all alone.  Sunday is Kobe's 10th birthday so I may just run every single mile for him, hopefully he can run with me for a little of it but who knows.

I've never done 2 marathons so close before so I'm a little nervous. I've been feeling good though so hopefully I don't die!

I have no time goals, my only goal is to go have fun and take in all of the sights.  I love, love, love San Diego.

We are spending the week with my parents going to Sea World, the beach, Disneyland and whatever else we feel like doing.  It is sure to be a partay, I'm so grateful to have such loving parents that take us on awesome trips. What a great way to start off the summer :) 

Ogden Marathon 2013

Considering the kind of day I had on Saturday, May 18th I really had no intentions on doing a post, obviously since it's been 2 weeks...#FAIL.  This race was nothing short of craptastic for me, the race itself was AWESOME, very well organized and everything from the packet pick up to the finish line was perfect. 

This is the only picture I have from this race!  I hope you like my HUGE muscles :)

I had done quite a few things different leading up to this race to insure a PR, too bad for me it didn't work!

Looking back on DailyMile I realized that I was a complete idiot leading up to my last 2 marathons, can't remember what I did before DailyMile but it was probably more of the same.  I came up with a fabu plan for the week that would leave me well rested and ready to run.
Monday-Shoulders and abs with a 3 mile run.
Tuesday-Chest, triceps, back and biceps with a 3 mile run.
Wednesday-Core workout with an hour long spin class. NIGHT-Jorge's House of Pain(massage)
Thursday-Slept in and rode my spin bike for about an hour.  Yoga at night.
Friday-Slept in, rode the spin bike for 40 minutes and did a 2.25 mile run. NIGHT-P90X stretch

I also watched everything I ate and had my feedings every 3 hours I'm a hungry little gal!  I can't think of anything more I could have done to set myself up for a good race.  I had a good solid 5 hours of sleep before my 2:50 a.m. wake up call.  Got all ready and Holly and Jorge picked my sorry butt up at 3:30.  We drove up to Ogden, about an hour long drive.  I felt ready to run and have a grrrreat time.

We met up with Josh, Joanna, Dr. Lloyd, Joanna's friend and Paul.  We said goodbye to Pam (who was supposed to run but is injured) and Ashley (She be prego)!

The wait at the starting line was beautiful.  It wasn't raining...yet and it wasn't very cold.  We had a great time and then it was time to line up.  We had talked to Bill about pacing us to a sub 3:30 finish and we finally found him at the starting line.  By this time it was raining and it rained for the remainder of the race, seriously?!?

For the first 7 miles we were right on track, we had banked a little time and we kept a good pace.  My heart rate was good, I felt like I could maintain the pace for the remainder of the race.  Then I started feeling weird.  My quads were frozen and I felt like I couldn't control my legs, I didn't know how I was still running.  My body didn't really feel cold but my quads did...weird.  I tried to pay attention to my form, I prayed...a lot!  I was slowing down and I knew it.  At mile 8 Holly asked how I was, I sarcastically said that I was good.  She admitted that her legs felt the same as mine and from there it was all downhill.  I don't mean that the course was downhill at this point, but our pace was!

Mile 16 was for McKenna and I'm so glad it was.  It was a beautiful mile, painful but then again Kenna has experienced a lot of physical pain this past year so I sucked it up and kept going.
I was having a VERY hard time eating or drinking much of anything.  I think I wanted my PR so bad that trying to get my fuel was taking too much energy so I just gave up on it.  At one point Holly said to refuel before our big hill near mile 13.  I got my Sport Beans out and ran holding the bag until mile 17 when I finally decided that I HAD to eat some.  By mile 16 my stomach starting getting VERY angry!!!  My stomach NEVER hurts during marathons...ever.  We had finally reached the downhill, fast part of the race and my legs wanted nothing to do with any of it.  It felt better to run uphill but unfortunately the rest of the course was pretty much straight downhill.

Around mile 17 Holly threw her pace band as a souvenir for Jorge, I wonder if he ever saw it?!?  We were hating it but kept plugging along.  I thought to myself "Wow people must be feeling really good, they must have saved themselves for the downhill."  No IDIOT, you are slowing down, waaaaay down.  Our splits are actually quite comical.

I had to take a potty break at mile 21-ish, which I shouldn't have even bothered.  Thought it might help my tummy issues but nope!  At mile 22 we saw Pam and we were a mess.  We were all bawling all over the place, we wanted to stop to give her a hug but she yelled at us to keep going.  We love Pam!!!

At mile 24 a lovely man offered us cookies, did I hear him right?!?  Yes, yes I did and grabbed one and went on my way.  I wasn't sure what it would do to my tummy but at this point I really didn't think it could get much worse so why not.

Mile 25-26.2 were for Kobe, Pam and Holly's Aunt Leslie and late Uncle Dave.  I wanted to walk soooooo bad!  We chanted Kobe, Pam, Leslie, Dave!  We kept repeating that and somehow it helped.  We saw the Ogden Temple and I told Angel Moroni to play his horn...louder I can't hear it!!!  At this point I think we were both hallucinating, here came the unicorns and Smurfs ;)

We saw Jake, Kobe, McKenna, Jenne, Kenya and Kaiya cheering for us.  They had made signs and it really meant a lot that they had all come out in the pouring rain to cheer for us.

As soon as we crossed the finish line I saw a table with water bottles and COKE!!!  I yelled, “I NEED A COKE!”  I don’t even like Coke but at that moment that was all I wanted.   We got our medals, took a couple of goofy pictures, spilled Coke on my shoes and then Jake and the rest of the fam found us.  We were freezing!  Jake, being the gentleman that he is, gave me his hoodie.  Then me, being the gentlewoman that I am, shared it with Holly…it was a big hoodie!  We got our drop bags and got outta there as fast as we could.

We ended up finishing in 3:42:17, only 12+ minutes off our goal time…POOP! 

7 Mi:	54:51 Pace: 7:51
Half:	1:45:27 Pace: 8:03
18 Mi:	2:26:47 Pace: 8:10
23.1 M	3:12:33 Pace: 8:21

Average pace was 8:29

Since it has been 2 weeks and I’ve had time to search, ponder and pray about this :) I have decided that although we didn’t reach our goal at least we didn’t quit!  We were smart enough to listen to our bodies and slow down.  I knew I had another marathon in 2 weeks that I REALLY didn’t want to miss because of a stupid injury!  I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe I’ve already had my glory day in the hot sun maybe my current PR will remain my PR forever.

With all that being said, I would HIGHLY recommend this race!  The biggest thing I noticed was that there was no weaving in and out of a huge crowd when the race started.  I have NEVER ran a race like that.  The course was beautiful and for Pete’s sake they had Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and Coke. 

I didn't get even one picture from this race, not even a pre race outfit shot, nothing….lame!

Dino Half Marathon 2013

You know those races that you love beyond what words can describe?!?  That would be today's Dino Half Marathon.  We ran down a canyon in Vernal, UT...yep I said Vernal.  It was so beautiful and the course was perfect.  Just the right amount of downhill, along with some rolling hills.  The temperature was PERFECT.  It was freezing cold at the starting line but once we got going I warmed up fast.  

RYR Pacers with all our razzmatazz!!! Pic borrowed from RunYourRace Pacers of Utah FB page

#keepittight Me, Holly, Jorge and Josh are rocking our Lime Green Pro Compression socks!

It was a pretty small race with just about 200 runners which I quite enjoyed.  There were some complaints at the starting line about there not being enough potties but really for the amount of runners we should have been fine.  People were staying in the Honey Buckets for like 20 minutes and I'm not exaggerating.  The lines weren't long at all, people were just taking their sweet time.

I was set to pace the 1:45 group and for the first time I had a follower by mile 2.  Her name was Kelli and this was her first half marathon.  She had started in the back of the pack so she was about 2 minutes off of my time.  She had mentioned that her husband, Parker, was running the race also.  Within a mile or so Parker caught up to us and the 3 of us ran together for a majority of the race.  No one else, just us :)

At mile 6.2 they had what they called the Sprintasaurus race, it was a half mile stretch where the fastest runner would win an award.  I thought that was a fun thing to do, you didn't have to run the fastest 13.1 miles to win an award just .50 mile.  I made sure Kelli and Parker knew about the Sprintasaurus and encouraged them to go with how they were feeling, I was going to stay at a steady pace.  Kelli wanted to stay with me but Parker zipped off.

For the first time ever I was pretty much right on pace the whole race...yay me!  The miles clicked by so fast, my pace felt awesome the entire time and I loved every minute of it.  At about mile 10 Kelli started falling behind, I tried encouraging her but could tell she was getting tired.  I had to go on ahead, after all I didn't want to get fired!  Plus, I knew she was a good 2 minutes faster than my time because of our different start times.

I had slowed down a bit hoping that Kelli would catch up so I had some time to make up.  I zipped by a couple of people and then saw Holly coming back to run with me.  When we got to the last little stretch McKenna, Kobe and Kaden ran me in.  I just LOVE having my family at races and I especially love when they run with me :) I finished in 1:44:52, according to Lou my Garmin!

I handed Jake my medal and ran back to find Parker and Kelli.  Parker was right behind me and Kelli was right behind him.  They both did AMAZING, especially considering that this was their first half.  They both got 2nd place in their age division, so awesome!!!  Did I mention that Kelli had a baby 6 months ago, she is awesome!!!

Parker, me (a people McNugget) and Kelli

I was surprised to see Jake volunteering at the finish line, what a gem!!!  He took his job very seriously too.  I wanted to get a picture with Kelli and Parker and had to convince him that it would be okay if he left his station for a minute.  Jake was awesome to help out.  My kids helped too.  They filled cups of water and Powerade and Kobe cut up some bananas.  I had to put a stop to that right quick before he chopped his ding dang hand off.  It was frightening!!

Then we had a little fun... 

Koko and Dino

Oh how I love my cornies!

We busted out our Monica poses

Me and Holly

Our 1st attempt at a jumping picture...we should have stopped there :)

We got Josh to join us for a "jumping" picture but we just look like a bunch weirdos.

Uh oh, that one was even worse :D hahaha, raise the roof!  Maybe we were doing a squat assessment???

We got showered up and headed to the Dinosaur Museum!  We were nearly eaten alive

but don't worry we got away.  It's a good thing I have my water bottle...that looks weird!  Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Lovely family photo! 

I was impersonating the Stegosaurus and got some strange looks.  My leg was supposed to look like my tail...duh!  Okay I'll admit it, I was high...on ENDORPHINS!!

Kobe, Kaden and McKenna...they are special!

We had a great time, the race was AMAZING!!!!

Oh yea, I almost forgot the best part.  I won a pair of Pro Compression marathon socks in our pacer team raffle.  I do so love me some Pro Compression! #keepittight

If this doesn't make any sense or if there are 576,489 grammatical errors please forgive me, I got little sleep last night!