Freedom Run 2014

Friday morning Jorge, Holly, my kids and I headed to Provo for the Freedom Run 10K.  This was Kobe's second time doing this race and McKenna's first time.  This is the only 10K I've ever done and I have done it for the past...I don't know, lots of years.  I kind of HATE shorter distance races but have found that I love running them with my kids.  This race can be quite entertaining because it runs along the 4th of July Parade route.  There are all sorts of crazy people out there, people who have been camping out through the night.  

On Wednesday's 3 mile run McKenna had quite a few aches and pains, her hip, gracilis, knee and ankle...pretty much everything hurt.  I worried that she wouldn't be able to run.  She decided she wanted to try and if need be she would stop at our parade spot which is a little before mile 4.  We used KT Tape on her inner thigh which lasted about 10 minutes, I kind of really hate that stuff.  How do people get that crap to stick?  Anyway, Kenna's goal was to come in under an hour, at least that's what she had told me a few days before and she wanted me to pace her to finish in that time.

Look at us all lined up in a row from tallest to smallest.

Jorge and Josh raced the 10K and Holly and I stuck with the kidlets. 

Kenna really needs to stop growing. 

Tall sock twins...looking good, hahaha!

I guess I wanted to add to my Pro Compression tan line, perma tall socks.  

 The gun went off and after walking for a bit we finally got past the starting line.  I tried to stay just a little bit in front of Kenna to keep her on pace, I noticed that whenever I slowed down to wait for her she would slow down too.  I stayed a few steps ahead and after we climbed the first hill I told her that we needed to catch Kobe and Holly who were just a little in front of us.  She wasn't speeding up, she had her ear phones in and had no interest in talking or really hearing what I had to say...teenagers ;D  I watched Kobe as he ran through all of the sprinklers, he is quite fun to watch run...he dances, skips, sings...all of it.

There they go! 

My favorite part of this race is seeing all of the hot air balloons.

Around mile 3 I told Kenna she was going to be really close to hitting her goal but that she would have to speed up just a little.  Apparently her goal had gone from sub 60 minutes to finishing without hurting herself.  I didn't realize she was in pain and felt bad for trying to pace her faster than she was wanting to go.  

At about mile 4 I could tell she was really hurting. 

 I could see Holly and Kobe and knew he would get under 60 minutes and hoped that wouldn't upset Kenna too much.  

Running selfie! 

Funny guy alright!

I thought that Kenna still had a pretty good chance of coming in close to an hour so the last mile I tried to speed up a little.  We were passing quite a few people and I think that helped push Kenna a little.  I knew she had more to give so at the finish I said, "Let's go, come on."  She sprinted into the finish and truth be told I could hardly keep up with her, she's a sprinter and I'm NOT.

 Jorge caught some sweet action shots of us sprinting to the finish.

She finished in 1:03:25 and Kobe finished in 1:00:00.  Holly said that Kobe ran so fast at the end that she thought he was going to go down, the kid was determined to finish in an hour.

 Congratulations buddy!

Thank you Holly for keeping Koko company on his run.

I can't remember Kobe's time from last year but I'm pretty sure he PR'd by about 10 minutes, go Koko!  Kenna did awesome and had never run further than 5 miles.  I can only imagine how fast she could have done it had she not been hurting.  I'm beyond proud of her for pushing herself and not walking at all, my kids are pretty dang awesome.

I sure do love these kids!

I'm a bit late telling you this but if you place an order for Pro Compression marathon socks or sleeves using promo code FOUR you will get 40% off plus free shipping, ends Sunday the 6th so get on it yo.  

Pro Compression has also come out with some women's workout leggings, use code LEG to get 30% off, I don't know how long that deal will go for so maybe just get on that one too.  I hope you all had a great 4th of July.

Wasatch Back Ragnar 2014

Wow, what an experience my fourth Ragnar turned out to be.  Pro Compression, my very favorite brand of compression socks, gifted us a team this year...thank you Pro Compression!!!  Holly, Jorge, Josh and I all knew we wanted to do an ultra.  We wrangled Jessica, Holly's sister in law, into joining us and even convinced Julia to join us.  This was Jessica's very first Ragnar, I am so impressed that Jessica was willing to do an ultra not knowing what a regular Ragnar was like.  She is a brave woman.
We had a 9:15 a.m. start time...perfect!  Holly was up first and then it was my turn.  Holly and I have pretty horrible luck when it comes to the weather when we are doing a race.  This time we got extremely lucky, both Holly and I had perfect running conditions for all of our runs...hallelujah!

AutoMaxx let use this Suburban...we like to call it the Beast.
Jake was not only our driver but at times our photographer.

Team Pro Compression
Josh, Jorge
Jessica, Holly, Me, Julia and our driver Jake #allofthejs
We decided that Holly should be Jolly and I should be Jeph...just so we could fit in.

#keepittight
I went into this run extremely worried that it would end up like last years, you can read about that HERE.  My left ankle had been bothering me a bit, luckily I found out last Saturday that running slow helped a lot.  I had gone on a 10 mile run with Holly and felt my ankle A LOT.  I then ran 5 slow miles with  my kids and I felt nothing.  I had to tell myself repeatedly that it was better to run slow and  finish uninjured than to run my normal pace and end up hurt.  I watched my Garmin quite closely, not to keep a fast pace but to keep a safe pace.  Maybe that's why this was such a great experience, I took my time and actually enjoyed the scenery and the fact that I was able to run.  My first run started close to 11:20 p.m.

I don't think the 6.7 miles was "hard" all I know is that it was beautiful.

More beauty!

The cloud cover made the temps perfect and there was a tiny drizzle from time to time.

Holly got some action shots of my first run.



Did you notice how cute my shoes are?  Josh did and pointed it out every chance he got...I think he may have been making fun of me a little but that's okay.  I took my family to Utah Run to pick up the new Saucony Kinvara 5's for my birthday.

They are heavenly...see they glow :)
I believe I got 27 kills in those 11 miles.
I was very good about doing my dynamic stretches after each run and drinking my Tru Moo, after my last run I said forget chocolate milk I want Dr. Pepper...and that's what I had.

He's da man in da pan! 

Julia during her super hard first run.  Luckily the rain made this part much better than usual because it wasn't so dusty.  She rocked it!  I'm so grateful for the friends I have met through running.

My second run started pretty close to 9 p.m.



  I ran the first part alone and convinced Jake to join me on my 4.2 easy mile run, he doesn't really run but he was nice enough to join me anyway.  I married a good man :)  I got 46 kills.  I ended feeling great!
We got a little bit of sleep while Jorge did his crazy long 19 mile night run.
My final run started at 9:15-ish Saturday morning with perfect weather, it got a little warm by the end but nothing crazy.  We really lucked out this year.

Running much slower this year made this leg so much better, I didn't have to walk at all except through the water stations.

I held back a lot on the huge downhill because downhill running is what causes me problems with my calfs.

Jake ran me into the exchange to finish off my Ragnar. 81 kills on my last leg...yeah buddy! I felt amaze balls and had so much fun.

Dr. Pepper for the win!!

I'm so thankful that Jake joined us on this grand adventure.  He is the best! 

We are just like 2 people :)

Let's finish this thing but first let's take a weezie!

Just a little gun show, we had to show you how cute our shirts were.  Utah Run made them for us and we love them.

The view at the top of Ragnar Hill is amazing.

We chatted with the Pro Compression gal for a bit, I believe her name is Suzanne and she is as cute as can be.  She gets to travel all around for Pro Compression...lucky!

We finally finished...YAY!!!  Julia had to leave after her third leg, we were sad to see her go.

Outtake numero uno with Nacho...Jake and Jess wondering what the heck Nacho was doing.

Outtake numero dos with Nacho...Holly and Josh wondering what the heck Nacho was doing.

And there's the money shot :)
We had so much fun but I was told at the beginning of Ragnar that what happens in the burb stays in the burb so all I will say is YUP! :D

This was by far my favorite Ragnar!  I loved everyone on our team, we all got along and there wasn't any drama.  We had a few set backs at exchanges that slowed us down a bit but everyone did their best and had fun doing it. Everyone on my team amazed me but Jessica REALLY amazed me.  She was awesome, not only was she entertaining but she did an ULTRA on her first Ragnar...and the girl can twerk like you wouldn't believe.

Dino Half Marathon 2014

Yesterday my little family, along with Holly and Kaden, headed to the land of the dinosaurs...Vernal, UT.  Our pacing team, Run Your Race Pacers, was set to pace the Dino Half Marathon.  We got into town, got our race packets and met Niccole and kids at Costa Vida for some dinner.  We got to our hotel and I must say it was pretty awesome.  We stayed at the Spring Hills Marriott Suites.  Who knew Vernal would have such a hip hotel?!?

The kids did a bit of swimming and then it was time to meet up with all the pacers to hand out singlets and some stuff from our sponsors:  Yogurtland, Good2Go and Emergen-C.  We are so grateful for all of our sponsors.  We are excited to add another great sponsor to the list, Warren Orthodontics is now a proud sponsor of RYR Pacers, YAY!  Dr. Warren is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and he is a GREAT orthodontist.  He has been my kids orthodontist for years and even got me hooked up with a permanent retainer.

After the pacer meet up it was time for bed.  After getting all ready for bed and setting everything out for in the morning I got in bed and laid there WIDE AWAKE :/  Usually it takes me about 3.7 minutes to be dead to the world.  I laid there for well over an hour, I could not shut my brain off.  Thinking of all the crap I have to do to get things set up for this boot camp thing is way overwhelming.  After Jake's stupid phone DROIDED at it's loudest 2 times, I finally gave up and turned the TV on.  Everyone else was fast asleep and doing the whole deep breathing, I'm having a wonderful dream thing.  I got little sleep to say the least.

I woke up and really started  freaking myself out about the pace that Holly and I had to hold for the race.  We were pacing the 1:40 group which is an average of a 7:38 minute mile, I haven't ran that fast in a very long time.  Usually 1:40 is easy for me but for some reason I really let it stress me out.

We got on the first bus and headed up the beautiful canyon to the starting line.  The temperature wasn't bad at all, which was nice, last year we nearly froze right to death.  We talked with the runners and got ready to run.

Tall sock twins unite! 

I found Parker and Keli who I paced at this race last year.

The Run Your Race Pacers. 

Let's pace a race...but first, let's take a selfie!

From the very beginning we started running with Chad.  This was his second half marathon and he was hoping to stick with us but said that he would be thrilled just to finish before 1:50.  We ran and chatted, learning all about Chad and Vernal.  He lives in Vernal and told us about some pretty cool places.  

I found out pretty quickly that today wasn't going to be my easiest race ever.  I really had to work to keep pace today, it could be the lack of sleep, the stress I have caused myself over the past week or the fact that I was seriously doubting my abilities before the race even started.

I let Chad and Holly do most of the talking, while I tried to get into my music and let it carry me along.  I noticed at about mile 4 that Chad, Holly and I were lone rangers...not a person anywhere near us.  We ran along enjoying the views and loving to see the smiles on peoples faces as they drove past us.  There are only a couple of races in Vernal so it's probably fun for the people to see a bunch of crazies running around.  At about mile 10 I was starting to wonder if I could hold on, it was HOT and I was struggling.  I just had to tell myself that my legs and body were fine, it was my head that was the problem.  I kept pushing and praying for a little downhill action.  Did I happen to mention that there was a head wind pretty much the entire time...RUDE!  We had a couple of pretty good hills to climb and that head wind was really starting to make me angry.

We hit the 12 mile mark and Chad thanked us for all of our help and zipped off.  He did so awesome, we both felt like proud parents watching him run ahead of us.  Chad passed a couple of guys and ended up getting second place in his age division, pretty awesome.

 
 Meet Chad

 Just a quick shot of me doing my duty as a pacer, checking my pace band to make sure we were on track.

I just love this canyon.

  As we neared the finish line the kids starting running us in and we ran right into Jake who happily gave us our medals.  I'm so grateful for a supportive family who will put up with my shenanigans,  

Holly and I finished in 1:39:41, good enough for 3rd place OVERALL female.  Technically I was .02 milliseconds before Holly so I took 3rd but let's be honest, we started and ended at the exact same time and I honestly couldn't have done it without her.  Holly got 1st place in her age group and I got 2nd place in mine.  I can't wait to get our awesome 1st and 2nd place medals in the mail.  There were some timing issues so we weren't able to get them at the race but they are seriously the coolest medals I have ever seen.

After we finally got back to the hotel we only had a few minutes to shower up before getting kicked out of our rooms.  We then went to check out some petroglyphs that Chad had told us about, he said we HAD to go.  He was right, it was awesome!!

Jake, Pitbull Jr. and me 

The tall sock twins with the "twins"

I had such a great time, I'm so grateful for the adventures we have while pacing.  I'm grateful that I got to pace someone for 12 miles and then watch as he finished strong.  I'm grateful that I was able to get outside of my own negative thoughts and push through to the end.  I'm grateful for all of our friends who come and pace with us.  We had a really fun group this time and I'm grateful for all of them.  I can't wait for our next pacing adventure.