Weather...

This was posted on the Boston Marathons website of the finish line...picture taken today. They said they have gotten over 60 inches of snow this year. Looks cold, but running in the cold is the story of my life lately!

Seeing this gave me a few tummy flips of excitement for the marathon. Even though today my 12 mile run was grueling. The inversion was thick and at times I could only see a couple feet ahead of me. It was so cold that my eyelashes and eyebrows were covered in freezing snow. I forgot to pick up my usual carb boom energy gels so I took a powerbar gel (hated it) and really missed the pick up that carb booms offer me. By mile 9 my muscles felt hard and stiff and those final hills about killed me. I was feeling down after my run. Actually I just wanted to wrap up in a blanket and stay there for the rest of the day. Of course I didn't but I wanted too. :) Looking forward to warmer runs.

Pick a side

Pet Peave #1 in running...Stay on your side!
On Saturday I was at the end of a 10 mile run, coming straight up hill (a mile uphill to be exact) and just as I was finally approaching the top there was a young girl running down hill towards me. First of all I run against traffic (after many closecalls with nonwatching or nonstopping cars) I've learned to run against traffic to see whats coming. So there was snow to my left, cars to my right and a girl coming straight for me. Usually in this case, you each pick your side and pass eachother. But this girl wasn't going to pick any side. So as I keep waiting and propelling myself forward (I'm struggling uphill) at the last second she decides to move at the same time as me. So we proceed to play lets move the same exact way untill we almost run into eachother. Finally I'm forced to stop dead and say to her in my most annoyed tone (annoyed that I'm having to waste my needed oxygen at this point on talking) "What way are you going"? So moral of the story...pick a side, stay there and better yet, please stay away from me when I'm going uphill.

Other than that and the awful yucky weather we've been having, trainings been going pretty well. I'm afraid that I'm developing a heel spur on my left heel, but after a couple of miles the pain tends to fade. And as long as I don't put much weight on it throughout the day, I'm fine. We'll see how long this lasts. I'm hoping for no injuries this time around. Fingers crossed...again.

First 2 weeks of Boston training...check

I just finished another frigid training run. 9 miles today. How do I love the Inversion in Utah oh let me not count the ways! Last Saturday I had an 8mile run in 5 degree weather and today I think it was in the teens, but so foggy I could barely see in parts. I can't wait for the sun! Not only is it safer, warmer, but it does wonders for my spirit. So I'm hoping it's not too far away. I am now 14 weeks away from running Boston! So far my first 2 weeks of training have gone pretty well. It's always a little hard to get back into the routine of things (not to mention that we've been having severe sleeping problems with our 2 year old). But I think he's finally out of this phase (fingers crossed) and I'm hoping to get more rest and not feel so tired!

Travel Plans

So we're trying to plan for our Boston trip. My hubby is super excited about spending thousands of dollars (yes I did say thousands) on this. But I'm trying to get the price down so we can all be happy. Besides when I am ever going to get to run Boston again? Probably never or at least not for a long time. Sooooo after researching flights I think we're making it work. If we fly into CT it's way cheaper then flying into Boston, and I have some fam. there who we're hoping to stay with for 2 nights. Then we'd only have to pay for a rental car and a hotel for 1-2 nights. So I'm hoping to lower the cost significantly...but we'll see. I am excited though!
Now my fitness level, or should I say blah level. It's amazing how out of shape you can get by taking a month off. That's all it takes to make me feel gross and out of shape. So today I'm back on the running kick. I got up and ran 3 miles on the treadmill (it's a snow covered wonderland outside). I'm just going to run 3 times a week till I think the last week in Dec. till real training starts. I actually feel a ton better just from that run today. Now the real challenge is all the holiday sweets. :)

Just call me a slacker

So after St. George I worked out at the gym almost every day for a week (to help my legs feel better)...and to compensate for all the food I was eating in Hawaii! Then when I got home, I think I forgot how to run or do much of anything. Or maybe I used the let your body have one day of rest per marathon mile. So yeah my 26 days of rest has come and past and I'm a slacker. I ran for the first time on Sat. and even though it felt great, I still haven't done it again. I think if I'm not training, I cheat doing my fitness runs. Just can't get myself to do it. So call me a slacker in running and blogging for the next few weeks.
Oh on an exciting note: I was accepted to run BOSTON! Yah! I was lucky. 25,000 runners signed up and within 8 hours the registration closed. Luckily I was included in those 25,000! I can't wait!

Video of run

It was Camerons first time using the video camera on our camera to film me running. Um yeah, you can tell it was his first time. I still wanted to post it though because it's all I have. This was me at the end of 26 miles...so beat. Enjoy. :)haha

My race results are in...

After a week of sleepless nights due to major anxiety over this race, I was nervous to say the least. Last night we checked into our hotel at 9:30pm in St. George and I pretended to go to sleep by 11 since I had to be up at 4:15am to leave for the race. Of course I didn't sleep a wink. After we boarded the buses that took us 26 miles up the canyon we got out to find it warm (it was a record for the warmest start time EVER). That worried me since it's usually freezing at 6am and I run much better in the cold than heat. 7,700 runners started at 6:45, me included. I had originally planned on running with the pace team to get my 3:40 finishing time, but I was ahead of them from the start and decided I better not chance waiting for them to catch up...so it was just me and my garmin. Have I ever mentioned how I LOVE my watch? It's amazing and made all the difference. So the race started and by mile 2 I was hot..not good. I ran hard, the hardest I ever ran. I decided to try and stay under an 8:20 min mile. One of the many hard parts was Veyo Canyon. That is the infamous volcano hill you have to run up for about a mile straight and it kills. So that slowed me a bit...but I never stopped running. I knew that at the half mark (13.1) I needed to be at 1 hour 49 min. I was at 1hour 50min. It was then that I knew if I didn't pull out all I had that I very possibly could miss the Boston qualifying time by 1min. or something totally defeating. So after that I tried to stay at an 8min. mile. The problem were the hills. St. George has a lot of downhill, but I forgot how much uphill there is too. Sprinting uphill at an 8min. pace kicks your butt very, very fast! At mile 20 my time was 2hours 45 min. Once I realized that I only had 6 left and that I was very possibly going to get Boston I was thrilled, but also knew I couldn't let up at all. So I didn't. Instead I experienced every emotion possible. I cried, I had a few hopeless feelings, at times I thought for sure that I was crazy...I mean who does this??? I had major highs of endorphins, but mainly I just keep kicking, and kicking as hard and fast as my body would allow. I finally saw Cameron at the last mile and I only had about 400meters left. I was a little over 3:30 and knew that I had Boston. Those last .2 of 26.2 miles were purely torture. I wanted to walk, actually I wanted to crawl or just fall over and never move my body again. Instead I kicked harder and crossed the finish line with a time of 3hours and 35 min and 28seconds.

One of the best accomplishments of my life. By far the hardest physical thing I have ever done, but one of the best achieved goals that I have experienced. I loved it! So many emotions, but a feeling of thankfulness for it all keeps running through my thoughts. Thankful that I know that even at times in life when we feel things are out of reach, they really can be reached.
Of course I am hobbling around, but I'm not complaining.

Just wanted to share my stats for the race
Out of 7,700 runners from the start only 5,694 finished. Out of that I placed 952 overall. There were 2,455 women who ran and I placed 186 out of them. For my age group 25-29yr olds I placed 28.
Now tonight we are packing to leave first thing in the morning for Hawaii. I think that is just the right recovery for all those miles. :)