Sliding Into 8th!!!

This morning started off with a really hard leg workout.  Maybe it wasn’t really that hard, but after taking 2 weeks off of working my legs for the NWM it seemed ridiculous.  By my last set my legs were super shaky.  So what do you suppose I did next?  I geared up and headed out for a run.  I knew it was going to be a slow run but I missed running so very much last week that I was just happy to be out.  Plus it’s supposed to SNOW tomorrow and Thursday so I wanted to be outside.  I only look at my Garmin (Lou) when it buzzes me, after every mile it shows me my average pace for that mile.  So I watched as each mile got slower and slower.  I just kept telling myself that I was in the “fat burning zone” so all was good.  The last 1.5 miles of this route are pretty downhill, which is always a good confidence booster ;) 

Now this is the part where I share my secret for keeping a good running buddy, wait for it….

If you are brave you can give this a try but I wouldn’t really recommend it.  You have to either, fly off a treadmill or trip and slide across the road.  It will make your “buddy” laugh so hard that she/he will be counting down the hours until your next run.  Now just to clarify, Holly was laughing WITH me not at me, as she later told me!  Truth be told, she didn’t laugh about it, at least out loud, until I did.  I know you are dying to know how I pulled off such a stunt.

I hit mile 8 and my Garmin buzzed me, I had to see how fast I could run down that hill.  Now please understand that it was DARK, okay it was starting to get light but just barely.  Anywho, I looked down to see my pace and all of sudden a freaking construction sign jumped out and TRIPPED me!  WTHeck ;) I’M NOT A HORSE!!! (Sorry I had to add that because Holly and I say it every time we have to jump over or run around an obstacle)  On with the story, I stumbled about trying to save myself not really knowing what the heck had just happened, before I knew it I was sliding across the ASPHALT!  NOT FUN…funny, maybe, but not fun!  Holly had apparently heard me trip on said sign and turned around just in time to watch my gracefulness.  I felt like such an idiot!  I hopped up real quick like and started running again.  We were at an intersection with about a million cars stopped and watching as I slide across the road.  I’m sure I gave lots of people a great story to share about the stupid girl who slid across the road.  We always see Mama Jex on her way to work, as we run down this hill, but she must have missed my act because I haven’t heard from her. 

My hands hurt REALLY bad but weren’t bloody at all, I still haven’t figure out why they hurt so much.  I am grateful for my “sippy cup” cause I’m pretty sure it saved my hand.

Thank you little sippy, thank you!

When we stopped running I pulled up my capris to see that my knees were a little roughed up. 

Not as bad as the Thanksgiving Day Disaster of 2011 :)

It made for an exciting run and one that I won’t soon forget.  I have seen many blog posts as of late about running in the dark.  I think most people are afraid of getting hit by a car or getting attacked by man or beast, but please DO NOT UNDER ESTIMATE the power of a construction sign!!!  I’m just grateful I didn’t bust a hip or something!!!

In closing I would like to caution you against EVER looking at your Garmin, running in the dark and most importantly...those blasted construction signs are near invisible when faced the right way!  You just may thank me one day...you're welcome!!!

Have you ever tripped/fallen while running?

Today was my first…correction, today was my first time falling on an OUTSIDE run!

While running in the dark do you wear a headlamp, run with a flashlight or pray for good luck?

I have a handy dandy flashlight that was sent to me while I worked at 26.2 Running Co. but McKenna took it and I can’t find the ding dang thing!

Nike Women's Marathon 2012

I'm going to start by saying that I had read up on this race and most of what I had read was negative.  I don't get people is all I can say, there was not one negative thing about this entire experience!  We decided to go to the expo on Thursday to try and avoid the long lines that I had read about.  We got there, snapped a quick picture and quickly got our bibs etc.  We didn't have to wait in line at all!!  I thought the expo was great, it was small compared to Boston. Then again the race was put on by Nike so of course they wouldn’t have a bunch of other companies there trying to promote their stuff…makes perfect sense to me!!

They had a HUGE hamster wheel so what's not to like...you tell me?!?

We got some free stuff and were off to explore the beautiful city!  We went to NikeTown and found our names on "the wall!"  Yay, I made the wall...I didn't make the Boston poster and I still haven't gotten over it!

Kenna's "Blue Steel" in NikeTown!

Sunday morning we left plenty early and got to the starting line at about 5 a.m.  We weren’t sure what traffic would be like and didn’t want to take any chances.  At about 6:30 or so we took our drop bags to the buses, which I thought was VERY organized, they put a sticker on my bib saying exactly where my bag would be at the finish line.

WOW, I'm super greasy...it's cool to be greasy trust me!!

26,000 people all lined up was quite the sight!  The first mile we were barely moving, I believe we had a 9:00 minute mile :/, then I saw a couple of people running on the side walk.  I decided they were brilliant and did the same thing.  We ran through the city for a mile or so and then we were down by the Piers.  We ran past Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square.  This is where it started getting really exciting.  Hill after hill, after hill, after hill and then guess what?  More hills!!!  I would say my hill training definitely paid off.  While everyone else was walking or huffing and puffing up the hills Holly and I ran up with no problem at all.

I wish I would have ran with my camera because I can’t even come close to describing the beauty that surrounded us.  It was a very misty, foggy morning!  PERFECT running weather!!!!  The runner’s, and the hills, disappeared into the fog and it looked AWESOME!  It was actually pretty nice not to see how huge the hill was that we were about to climb.  Some of the hills seemed to never end.  The race directors were so smart because there always seemed to be an amazing cheer section on all of the hills.  They were a great distraction and really got us going. 

We ran near China Beach which is where we went exploring a few days earlier.  The houses in this area are AMAZINGLY huge and wonderful.  It was uphill, of course, but I didn’t care because I loved looking at the houses.

Yep, we ran right up that hill!

This picture brings me much joy so I wanted to share!

I felt great the first 10 or so miles and then I started to feel a little crampy.  If you are a man you can skip this paragraph.  Of all the relatives that I wanted to come on this trip with us the only one who showed up was my “Aunt Flo!”  I hate that woman!!!!  I really needed to go to the bathroom and thought that if I did maybe I would feel better.  I stopped really fast and then we were off.  I was feeling much better. 

At about mile 11 the half marathoners split off, that seemed to be a HUGE chunk of the runners which was really nice.  At most races after about mile 3 or so it starts to spread out and you find the people who are your pace.  Until mile 11 it was very crowded.  This is also where my legs started to feel a little weird.  The uphill/downhill running was starting to wear on me.

Mile 13 was for Kobe!!!  We were in Golden Gate Park, I felt like I was in another land!  It was BEAUTIFUL!  Actually the ENTIRE race was gorgeous!  If I ever started to feel tired or weak I just had to look up and take in my surroundings.  I seriously enjoyed every second of this race!

I'm not sure, do you think I was excited to see my cute family?!?  What a DORK!!

At around mile 14 or 15 we saw our families…YAY!!!  That was just the boost I needed to keep going!  Holly was having some tummy troubles so we decided to stop for another bathroom break.  By this point we knew we weren’t going to be setting any records so we figured we may as well be comfortable and enjoy it.

See that windmill in the back...AWESOME!  I had to get a picture of it...now I just need to crop my ugly mug out of it :)

At about mile 17 we ran past a cheer section with cheerleaders from one of the colleges.  They were cheering a bit and then I yelled something and they really got going.  It was so fun to have them there. 

Holly had her phone and snapped a picture of said cheerleaders :)

The next few miles looped around a lake/golf course.  It was a looooong loop but I knew at the end of it we were on the home stretch.  This is also where McKenna’s mile 19 was.  I’m so glad she picked one of these later miles where I really needed to get my mind off of what I was doing. 

At mile 22.50 I started wondering if my little leggies were going to hold up.  The entire last half of the race my heart rate was low, I had great energy but my legs DID NOT want to listen to me.  I kept telling myself that I could go faster, I wasn’t feeling weak or tired at all.  It was just that my legs felt non-existent!!  I tried pumping my arms faster hoping that my legs would follow but nothing seemed to work.  I finally decided to just suck it up and be happy that I was still running…along the ocean. 

We knew we were getting close and I just prayed that my legs wouldn’t give out on me!  I felt exactly like this…

Yes, that would sum up EXACTLY how my legs felt!  I think those ladies are awesome but I can't help but laugh my head off everytime I see this.

Mile 25 was for Jake so I just kept chugging along…no walking, or crawling, was allowed!!

We saw the finish line and our cute little families!  We crossed the line in 3:45:08 (my Garmin said 3:40 without the bathroom breaks), not my fasted marathon by a long shot but then again I wasn’t running downhill like in all Utah races.  The WINNER finished in 2:59 which made me feel better about my time.  We got our Tiffany necklace from a Firefighter in a Tuxedo…well hello there handsome ;)

He told me I earned this...

Hmmm, not only handsome but smart ;)

(This is a disclaimer for Jake...I don't really think he was all that so don't go get all jealous on me ;)

The finish area was beyond awesome!  We grabbed a bagel and banana, got our drop bag and tried to find our families.  Holly and I were stretching a little when I stumbled down a few stairs, I don’t know how I saved myself from certain death ;) I could barely walk straight.  I’m sure it was quite a sight!!!

We found our families and saw that Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan were getting their awards.  YES, I ran with Olympians!!! 

We found the chocolate milk by the “stretching” tent!  I'm glad they got the memo that I MUST.HAVE.CHOCOLATE MILK!!!  So awesome, they had a lady leading stretching/yoga.  They had tons of foam rollers too, we wanted to join in but there wasn’t much room and we had families waiting to get on with the day.   We ended up walking about 5-6 miles in the afternoon which I’m sure helped work out some of that lactic acid.  I am sore but I thought it was going to be much worse.      

I LOVED everything about this race, I LOVE San Francisco and I LOVE my family for coming with me to explore a new city!  I’m so grateful that I was able to train for and run this race with Holly!  This was by far my favorite race that I’ve done and I would do it every year if I could!

You Can Do Hard Things!!

My Wednesday workouts have always been my FAV.O.RITE!!!  Today’s KYT (kick your trash) was quite possibly the hardest one I’ve ever done.  I knew as I was typing it up that it was going to be brutal…I would have it no other way!!!  My clients have accused me of being “high” or just plain “hating” them!  They can rest assured that I am actually extremely nice to them, apparently I hate myself ;) 

This is how you should feel after a great workout...DEAD ;)

I love pushing my body beyond what it wants to do and that is exactly what KYT workouts are all about.   These workouts are meant to be done as FAST as possible.  I am a true believer in a slow and concentrated movement but in these workouts I go as fast as I can, being sure to use correct form.  Not only was my heart going to beat out of my chest, I was sweating like crazy and I looked like I had rouge on :) I left it all on the gym floor and nearly tossed my cookies…a few times!

To give you an idea of how hard today’s KYT was it consisted of a total of 225 push-ups, 180 lunge jumps (with arms straight over head) and 180 step-ups with shoulder presses.  Those were mingled into 9 HARD strength movements.  All done in about 45-50 minutes!  It was FAST , it was HARD and most of all it was AWESOME!!!

I finished that beating and then did an hour long spin class, it was a great workout.  I knew following all of that I was going to have to get my 3 mile run in.  If it’s on the schedule it must happen!!!  I knew it was going to be ugly.  3 miles is nothing, I can do that in my sleep.  Except for during a taper!  I did 3 slow miles and thanked the heavens that it was over.  I know it is completely normal to feel this way during a taper and quite frankly I brought it on myself.  On Monday, I was supposed to do 4 X .25 mile repeats.  I wasn’t about to run around the track so I decided to do a 4 mile loop and throw the .25 sprints in along the way.  That is the way to do sprints!!  I felt AMAZING, it was actually a good confidence booster for me. 

Throughout the day I started to worry because I have always heard that hard training runs make for a great race.  Did I feel too good?  Was I doomed for race day?

After Tuesday’s HORRIBLE 3 mile run, that I was certain would never end, and this morning’s 3 miler, that was almost as bad, I think I will be just fine come Sunday!  Phew, that was a close one!

Sometimes (or every Wednesday in my case) it’s good to push yourself HARD and it is going to hurt and you will be miserable (unless you are like me and you enjoy that kind of thing) but that is how you get stronger.  That is what it takes to get results!!!  Don’t get me wrong I push hard in all of my workouts but KYT’s are a special kind of hard.  They are not for the faint of heart ;)

You can’t just go through the movements you have to push hard and get a full range of motion!!!   Doing tiny movements isn’t going to do much for you.  The more muscles you can activate the more calories you will burn.  Moving quickly from one exercise to the next will keep your heart rate up and, again, you will burn more calories!  And you can take that to the bank…or whatever. 

Believe that you CAN do hard things and then DO them!!!

Sometimes, or every race day, I wish I could push myself as hard running as I can during a killer workout!  I don’t know what it is, I can kill it at the gym but as soon as running gets hard I lose all confidence in myself and die a little in side ;)  So come Sunday my goal is to not give up on myself!  I want to push through those San Francisco hills and apparently...WIND and have a great race!   Whether I PR or run a 4 hour marathon, I really just want to “enjoy the journey!”

Frivolous Fursday!!!

In case you have missed my non-sense posts about absolutely nothing I have a treat for you.  Frivolous FURSDAY!!  Hee Hee Hee, I did just make that up…I think, unless you have heard it before in which case they copied ME! ;) 

Today as I was at the gym I said to myself, “WOW, these shoes feel amazing!  That’s weird I wear them all of the time.”  Then it hit me, it wasn’t my shoes it was my socks.

I had forgotten about these little beauties that the Balega rep gave me when I worked at 26.2 Running Co.  They have got to be the most comfortable socks I have ever worn.  I know it probably seems a little crazysauce to get so excited about socks but they really are amazing!  Needless to say I had a great run…it was like running on clouds.

I got home with just enough time to shower and get everybody packed up for a quick trip to St. George.  Jake had to go for work so we decided to make a little trip out of it.  It’s a good thing too because I am getting pretty pasty!  I can’t wait to sit and do nothing but bask in the sun…after my workout of course.  Gold’s has a giant gym in St. George so I will be going there to get my workout on!  Because I have an over protective daddy (AKA Jake) I will be stuck on the treadmill for the next 2 days.  I guess he doesn’t want me running alone, in the dark, in a strange place or something crazy like that.

I have some very sad news that has me quite perplexed.  I was assigned to pace the Haunted Half Marathon, which I was SUPER excited about because it is put on by Runtastic Events which does an amazing job!  I kept thinking about how close it is to my Nike Women’s Marathon and I freaked out and told the “pace master” that I was going to pass on this one L  I went back and forth as to whether or not I should do it but I have had a rule since my last injury that I would take at least 1 week off of running after a marathon.  The Haunted Half is 6 days after my race.  I would hate myself if I ran it and ended up with an injury.  I was set to do the 1:45 group which is very doable under normal circumstances but post marathon I’m just not sure I should go running down a canyon.

I have had great sadness ever since I backed out.  Of course I did do something really stupid that didn’t help, I went to their website and read all about how awesome it’s going to be.  Why must I torture myself…idiot!  I did have a brilliant idea that I’m trying to get my family excited about.  I think it would be so fun to volunteer for this one, you know give back to the community a bit J!  That way I could still see all of the fun costumes and be a part of an amazing race.  We’ll see what happens I guess.

Do you think I’m being lamesauce here?

How much time do you take off after a marathon?

     

Big Cottonwood Half Marathon 2012

This is a little late but oh well I loved this race so I had to do a post.  Last Saturday morning Holly, Trent (our neighbor friend) and I headed up to the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon.  Holly and I were put together to pace the 1:45 group and Trent was pacing for his first time, the 2:00 group.  We got to our meeting place at the buses and waited for the “pace master.”  While we waited this fine feller that was checking Holly out ;) gave us oodles of glow bracelets and necklaces. 

He is a very kind chap and I will go ahead and defend him and say that I am nearly 100% positive that he was checking out Holly’s calves.  She has some juicy steaks if I’ve ever seen them and so we will say that that's what he was looking at.

We got our glowing goods and pace bands and hopped onto the bus.  It’s funny how the ride up to the starting line seems sooooo far away.  We finally got there and saw that they had space blankets, which was SUPER awesometastic!!  I just made that word up right then ;) JK!  It was actually on a sign that was along the course.  One day Holly and I were at the Spanish Fork Gold’s Gym, which can be quite entertaining…and annoying, anyways there was this meat head who said “Awesomesauce…I just made that up!”  Oh bull crap, Janae has been saying it for years.  Sorry for the tangent! J

We lined up and waited for the gun or in this case the horn…of a moving van!  It was still dark which was a little freaky, call me crazy but I like to see where I’m running.  Holly and I ran in our space blankets for a few miles until I finally got sick of mine and tossed it.  I realized we had probably been YELLING because of how loud the blankets were.  Oh well, we were warm so who cares if we were driving everyone around us nuts ;)  I quickly started talking to Brad who we would pace the entire race.  This was his first half marathon that he was doing for time.  He had run one other half with his wife who would finish around the 2 hour mark.  He said he would start with us and re-evaluate things around mile 7.  We also had Maria who was hoping to stay with us to secure her 1^st place in her age group.  There were many others who had come and gone but these two were in for the long haul.

It started getting light and the fall colors were AMAZING!!!  It was so peaceful and beautiful.  I love that I was able to do this race!  The miles flew by and once again we found ourselves ahead of schedule.  We told Brad and Maria that we had to slow down to get back on track.  Maria decided to go ahead because she was feeling good.  Brad admitted that he could use a little walk break.  We walked for a few minutes which is when we saw Todd, our gym buddy, who was volunteering.  He was such a great little cheerleader, such a nice fella’!

We started “running” again albeit quite slowly.  I’m not sure how we got so far ahead of ourselves…probably because the canyon was quite steep.  I kept checking my watch and it didn’t seem like we were that far ahead but suddenly we were like 3 minutes ahead.  We decided to send Brad on his way while we stopped to cheer people on for a few minutes.  We saw a few people who were very pleased to find out that we were ahead and that they would in fact beat 1:45.  It’s always nice to pass the pacer that you’ve been following…you’re welcome, anything I can do to help!

We hammed it up a bit for the Zazoosh guy.  These pictures are so ridiculous that they make me laugh every time I see them.   I look horrible but they do a fine job of showing what a great time we were having. 

White girls CAN jump!

Let's not talk about that one...okay?!?

Or that one!

I case you didn't know it's very cool to run with your eyes closed!

I guess we messed around for a little too long and looked at our watches to see that we had about 10 seconds to get 1:45:00 with quite a ways to go.  We sprinted to the finish and got 1:45:53.  Oh well, at least we were able to cheer on a few more people and we got our people to finish with plenty of time to spare.  Maria found us at the finish line and was so excited because she had in fact gotten 1^st place in her age group J  I was hoping to see Brad but we never did.  We decided to run back and find Trent.  We “ran” with him, he got a bit ahead too.

We wanted to see the full marathon winner and assumed he would finish any minute.  Of course we all know what happens when you assume things.  We waited and waited and waited.  We got to see a lot of people finish the half which was awesome.  It’s very inspiring to see someone finish something that has kicked their trash.  I LOVE watching some of the last finishers they are truly the strong ones!!!

We were just about to give up on seeing the winner when finally at 2:45 he came sprinting through.  It was awesometastic J to see him win the race.  This was the first year for this race and with the St. George Marathon just weeks away there wasn’t much competition.  He was of course shocked to have won his first marathon.  This was his 27^th marathon and he WON IT!  We talked to him for a second.  It was so fun to see someone who would normally not win take 1^st place!!

I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to pace races.  This race was very well organized, I would definitely recommend it.  Not only did they give us a Go BIG tattoo, an awesomely HUGE medal, a space blanket and running gloves.  They also posted all of our Zazoosh pictures to our Facebook page for FREEEE!  I love having the pictures but I would have to be crazy to pay to look like such an idiot.  The only problem I can come up with was that they didn’t have TruMoo at the end.  I love nothing more than some delicious chocolate milk at the end of a race.  They did have Jimmy John’s there handing out sandwiches which was nice.

Sorry for the long post, that is if you made it all the way through.

How To Properly Prep For 20 Miles!

Do you want to know how to properly get ready for a 20 mile run???  I thought you would.  First, after your workout for the day you do the P90X Stretch DVD.  I desperately wanted to share my favorite part of this DVD but with all the laws and such I wasn't sure I could do such a thing.  If you have the P90X videos, PLEASE for everything holy, put one in and watch the little thing at the end of the workout.  There are people talking about being a BeachBody Coach and some kind of nonsense.  Watch for the buff man who says he wants to "Have the ability to move large shrubbery!" then comes the magic.  The little lady who does a HILARIOUS laugh :D  Oh, how it brings me such joy!  If you don't have access to these I am truly sorry because you are missing out.  I do the DVD just to see my favorite funny lady at the end and YES I do wait for it EVERY TIME!!

If you can you go to Holly's house to do the DVD because she mixes you up a special concoction...Nuun and Zip Fizz!  I love the benefits of Nuun but lets be honest...it's gross!  Mix it up with some Zip Fizz and it's not to shabby!

After you are done stretching and drinking you go home and take an hour long nap.  Then after being in your disgusting, sweaty, nasty running clothes for hours on end you can finally shower.  I was too tired to shower before, those stretches take a lot out of a girl.

You have to have a chocolate cake donut. this is important so don't skip it...trust me on this one!

Proper carbo-loading is a MUST!  My kids and I went to Brick Oven with a friend.  Our husbands went to Moab and left us husband-less so why not?  We had a great time and the best part was that my garlic bread was perfect!  The salad and pizza were quite delicious as well...and the cookie!

With Jake being out of town I was able to go to bed early without feeling guilty about it and I had my big ol' bed all to myself.  That paired with NyQuil equals a good sleep, almost 9 hours to be exact.  I LOVE sleeping in my compression socks, especially the night before a race or a long run.  I slathered my legs in "Magic Stuff" before bed as well, that stuff is amazing!

This was my last 20 miler before the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco on October 14th.  I am thrilled to the gills to be doing this marathon.  Who wouldn't want a firefighter...in a tuxedo...waiting for them at the finish line with a Tiffany & Co. necklace.  Having Jake and my kids there will be pretty awesome too!  I'm sure Jake doesn't love that our second vacation of the year is for another race, but I sure do appreciate his willingness to come and cheer me on. 

My 20 mile run went pretty well considering that I have had a HORRIBLE cold for the past week.  Other than hacking up a lung every once in a while I felt pretty good. 

While I was out running all over town Papa Mike took my kidlets to breakfast, what a great grandpa!!  Then I got out of the shower to see that McKenna was going on a cleaning spree.  I LOVE when she does that!!  She vacuumed the whole upstairs, steamed the hardwood floors, dusted, wiped down the bathrooms and even cleaned the toilets!  I knew buying her a vacuum at the age of 1 would pay off eventually :)

Man, I have cute kids!  Why did I ever stop having babies?!?  She was so tiny, she only weighed 15 lbs at her 1 year old check up...same with Kobe.  That was just a little side note of nothingness but oh well!  Have a great day!!

Mt. Nebo Half Marathon 2012

To say this race was AWESOME would be an understatement!!!  Everything about it was amazing.  To start off, at the packet pick-up we were greeted by quite possibly the nicest man on the earth.  I don't know his name but I do know that if I could carry him around in my pocket all the time I would!!  He was one of those very positive-happy types.  He told me good luck and said he would see me in the morning at least 4 times...not in a creepy way and not in a way that should concern Jake :)  Just in the kind of way that says "I am the nicest man around and I love people!"  This nicest fellow held up the race shirt to show me what a small looked like because they didn't have x-small.  He said "They are small but you are...VERY small!"  I'm sure it will do just fine but I was a little taken back by said shirt.

I thought to myself how unfortunate it was that they had misprinted the shirts.  I got home and looked it over for a good 3.5 minutes trying to figure out why on earth the E was backwards.  I thought "what the heck does IEI even mean" (sorry I don't know how to type a backwards E).  FINALLY, I saw the second half of the B and I saw a 3 and then it hit me like a ton of backwards E's!!  13.1 Brilliant!  I'm a little slow but I catch on eventually!  I asked McKenna what she saw and she immediately said "Oh, 13.1!"  Are you freaking kidding me :) Whatever!

We (Holly, Jorge and I...no, I didn't have the nice man in my pocket or a mouse) got to the buses at 5 a.m. where we met up with the pacing group to get our fancy shmancy singlets and pacing sticks.  We were on the first bus and when we got to the starting line we were greeted by a WELCOME sign hanging over head.  Perhaps I am strange but that welcome sign really made me feel welcome ;)  I thought it was a great touch, sometimes it's the little things in life that bring me such joy!  There were fire pits galore and those warming station thingies.  It looked so cool with all the fires in the dark.  I LOVED that they had a zillion fires so that everyone could get warm, not just a select few.  As we were standing there I decided to sing Holly a little song "Drop it like it's hot, drop it like it's hot!"  And she did!  

The race started right on time!!!  I started down that mountain hoping to have a good following at my 1:45 pace.  Pretty soon I noticed a few people sticking right with me and I started chatting it up.  I think I had about 10 people that let me know that I was pacing them.  We were having a great time!  I loved pacing this race because I could really take in the beauty of my surroundings.  I have lived near this canyon for 36 years and have never seen it.  It was such a perfect morning!  The colors were changing and it was extremely peaceful.  Had I been "racing" and I use that term loosely, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much.  I made sure to point out some especially pretty parts to my "followers" :)  I just noticed that the bib says "tranquil beauty" on it and that's exactly what it was!

The group of people I had with me were truly amazing.  They were all super nice and had some great stories to share.  I kept finding myself ahead of schedule and tried to pull back but they would look at me like what are you doing.  I finally told them that I had to pull back a bit but to keep going because they were doing awesome.  This race was EXTREMELY downhill which made it a little tricky to take slow. 

I finished around 1:44:20...I think!  I decided that I had gotten all my people there early so rather than dink around for 40 seconds I would just finish, please don't fire me "pace master!"  I crossed the finish line to see my favorite happy man who congratulated me and asked how the race was.  He was so kind to EVERYONE who crossed that finish line!  There should be more people like that in this miserable world we live in...just kidding about that last part!!

I congratulated the people that I paced and told them how amazing they all were.  One sweet little lady, Kim, found me about 10 minutes later to introduce me to her husband who had run the race as well.  She was so grateful to have pacers at the race.  Another guy got a 20 minute PR!!  He did great!  I've said it once and I'll say it again, runner's have got to be the nicest people.  I guess it's all those endorphins!

I could honestly go on and on all the live long day about how much I LOVED this race and pacing!  I think I have found my new favorite thing!  I guess it's tradition or something for the "pace master" to take our pictures after the race.  Here is our first picture from the Top of Utah Half Marathon

WOW!  What a horrible picture.  I don't know where I am looking and that guy behind Holly...I don't want to know where he was looking ;)  I mentioned how horrible this picture was and asked for a little notice or something this time around and here's what we got.

 I am a freaking model ;)  I just can't win with these blasted pictures!  I guess I will take cheesy over dur! 

I guess a 20 mile long post should just about do it.  I will end by saying that this race was one of the best races I have done.  I did the Timpanogos Half Marathon last year and loved it, it was put on by the same people.  They have got these races perfected!!

I can't wait until September 22 when I get to pace the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon!!!