2nd Place!!!

Who would have thought I could get second place!! I'm so pumped. Just had to do a quick post to let you know that my PR at the Halloween half marathon of 1:50:34 got me 2nd place in my group! I dressed up as Nicole Richie as in inmate. My running buddy Kristi was Paris Hilton as an inmate. People loved it.

Here is a self portrait before the race. Unfortunately I didn't have my big sunglasses on yet.

Motivation Operation

I have had very little motivation since the marathon! So a couple weeks ago, I signed up to run, what seems to me, like an AWESOME Halloween Half Marathon! I'm really excited about it. Now I've just got to decide on a costume!

Official Freak Out

It seems to me that there HAS to be an official freak out before each marathon I run. I don't know why, but there always is. I have been having CRAZY marathon dreams. (Also nothing new) In one of them, I was at the Gyno's office waiting for my girly check up when I realized that the marathon started in 5 minutes! I told my dr. I had to go and hurried to the race. Of course there was traffic and I had to ride a bike(which I was worried was wasting my energy)and I didn't arrive at the start until TWO HOURS after it started! But Jeff and Jana had waited for me and we ran the marathon anyway. Totally weird, right! Anyway, I got my race bib number and I LOVE it!! I'm totally a numbers kind of girl, so I'm pumped. My number is............................................................................2442! How fun is that! A palindrome! So Candace, that is my number. Look for me! I think I'll be wearing a grey camo skirt and a white tank.

Lift Your Sole Giveaway!

There is an awesome give away on Tall Mom on the Run's Blog again! It is a gift certificate to buy some SWEET running jewelry from Lift Your Soul. Check it out HERE!

Is the Marathon Really Next Weekend!

WOW! I don't know how these races sneak up on me like this! I'm not feeling too nervous yet. Mostly excited. I've decided on running this marathon with the sole purpose of running it with my SIL and being her support. She is running her very first marathon. So, I don't care what my time is at all. And I mean that. I just want to be able to go her pace and give her the boosts she needs when she needs them. I feel like there were times in my first marathon when I could have used a running buddy. (But you have to remember that I ran my first marathon while my husband and kids were in a different state and not there to cheer me on). I haven't been sticking to my training plan very well. I skipped a long run two weekends ago due to photographing my cousin's wedding and this week I have only run once because I'm watching my neighbor/running buddy's kids. Her baby had surgery this week. (She trained with me the whole time for this marathon and then found out the baby needed surgery and now she won't be running it) So there's my update. Can't wait to run Top Of Utah for my first time. I hear it's a great course!

Mind Body Spirit Strong.

This is my mantra when things get tough on a run. I was all about the mental preparations when I trained for my first marathon over a year and a half ago. I have run two other marathons since that first one and have totally forgotten about all my mental tricks that I learned. Yesterday on my 20 mile run, in preparation for Top Of Utah, I had a very very tough run. It forced me to remember all the mental things I used to do back in the day. For the first time in my life, I thought I might just be having an asthma attack. It was so weird. I had to totally stop and calm myself down. After that, I just couldn't get my breathing right and I could hardly speak to my running buddy Kristi I was so out of breath. So I started using chanting my mantra in my mind. Mind, Body, Spirit Strong. I didn't love my run, but I loved that I was forced to think about all of my mental strategies I was so into long ago. I'm going to make better use of them in the future. Here's to a better long run next week and the power of the mind!

Canyon to Canyon Half Marathon Report.

Last weekend I ran the Canyon to Canyon Half Marathon for my first and last time! It should have more appropriately been named Rollercoaster to Rollercoaster Half Marathon, or Mountain After Mountain Half Marathon. YIKES! If you want to A) get a serious hill/mountain workout for 13.1 miles B)Get an extra tight bum from said hill workout or C) torture yourself, then this is the race for you!!

I however was not privy to this information BEFORE I ran the race. The website said "gently rolling hills." Ummmmm OK. Not even close. There was no elevation map on the website either. (That should have clued me in!) You get the point right, it was super hilly! INSANELY hilly!


So the first mile actually wasn't too bad. It was "rolling hills" on a road. After one mile you turned onto a dirt/gravel road that ran through the mountains and that's where the real craziness began. My watch beeps at every mile. I thought for sure I had missed the mile 2 beep. I looked at my watch and couldn't believe it said 1.56! WHAT! I was hitting the WALL at 1.56. WOW. I knew at that point, this race was about survival! Apparently hills are not my forte. They suck the life right out of me. This course was an out and back, so there was no getting excited about going down hills. I knew my buns would eventually be turned around going up them. Luckily I had my neighbor Kristi running with me. We kept each other going. We started naming the hills cuss words so that we wouldn't technically be cussing. (I'm not proud of my actions, just telling it like it is :>) When we got to about mile 5, we started seeing people coming back at us. We were deliriously tired and that made us act as if we were drunk or something. We started cheering like mad women for the runners coming at us yelling the most crazy/obnoxious things. At the time, we thought it was HILARIOUS! Looking back, people probably either loved or hated us. Some things I remember yelling, "It's all downhill from here." "I love hills and so do my buns." "You're almost there!" "Keep going, you're kicking my butt!" "You are the wind beneath my wings." "You are my hero!" "You're awesome!" "YES! Calorie Up ladies(three ladies were frantically taking gel packs around a garbage can)" That's just what I remember. So we made it to the turn around and got a drink and started to head back. We actually felt WAY better on the way back then on the way there. We got in a good groove and went with it. I decided to count hills on the way back, but at mile nine I went up a HUGE hill and forgot that I was counting hills. I was at 14. At this same time, Kristi got ahead of me about 20 yards. So I put on my iPod and worked to catch back up. I caught her at mile 10.5. I took out one earbud so we could still talk. We finished pretty strong. We split 6 minutes faster on the way back than on the Way there. Nice huh. Toward the end, I just wanted to beat the girl wearing the same skirt as me. (Why am I such an idiot???) I totally did it! When we crossed the finish line, I grabbed Kristi's hand and raised them up in victory. :)

Our official time was 2 hours 10 minutes 5 seconds. Yikes. My personal slowest. But I really don't care because I conquered Mt. Everest that day, like 50 times! OR MORE!

P.S. My buns have yet to recover!

P.S.S. The car in front of us hit a dear on the way up the canyon! CRAZY. Ummm, glad it wasn't us.


Waiting in the car for the race to start. We are so clueless.

Post Marathon: Starting Over???

Since I ran the Utah Valley Marathon, my training schedule has looked like this.

Post Race
Week 1: Nothing! Rest Rest Rest.
Week 2: 4 mile run and 3 mile elliptical
Week 3: 5 mile run, 5 mile run, and 3 mile run
Week 4: 5 mile run, five mile run, half marathon.
Week 5: 5 mile run, 5 mile run, 11.5 miles(today).

Let me tell you every single one of these runs has been HARD!!!! What??? I could have sworn I ran an awesome marathon 1 month ago. Why do I feel like I'm starting over??? So crazy.

Psycho Marathon Dream!

I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. I was bound to have a crazy marathon dream right? Last night was my night. The dream/nightmare went like this.

I was at my mom's house the night before the marathon. I woke up(in my dream) and realized I had slept in and there was no way for me to catch the bus to the start. My mom got up and said she would drive me to the start. We took off, in our old school red and white van that no longer exists, and she headed up South Hill instead of up to Bonney Lake. Now I was really freaking out because I was going to miss the start. We turned around and headed the right direction when I realized I was missing a history test in my college class. So my mom dropped me off at college so I could go to class. In class I realized I hadn't ever studied for the test, I didn't even know the names of the people they were talking about. So I asked if I could please go run my marathon and take the test later in the afternoon. The teacher agreed. Phew. Then Katie Rowe, a girl from high school that I haven't seen since, appeared in my dream to tell me who the historical people were on the test that I'd never heard of before. (I know, totally psycho) Then I was driving the red and white van to the start of the marathon and realized I was an hour and a half late! I didn't care, I was doing it anyway. I knew this course had a seven hour limit so if I could run it in 5 and a half hours I would be fine. EXCEPT I then realized I had never picked up my race packet and didn't have a bib number and I was worried no one would believe me that I had registered. THEN, as I approached the start of the race, there were forest fires everywhere and they weren't letting anyone else on the course. I wasn't going to run a marathon after all.

Then I woke up. I was confused at first and was trying to figure out what day/time it was and if I'd actually missed my marathon. Quickly I figured out it was just a psycho marathon dream......luckily!

New Songs

I'm going to buy an iTunes card today so I can get some new songs! What are your faves???

The Official Freak Out!

So last night was my official freak out for this marathon! I did not sleep one bit! I tossed and turned all night worrying about it. Mostly worrying about how my body will hold up. Namely my IT band on the right side and my plantar faciitis problems that wont go away. Oh I'm nervous!!!

On the bright side, my neighbor and running buddy signed up today to run the marathon! It is totally a whim for her, she's never run a marathon before. So now I will have someone to ride the bus to the start with! So fun!

Updates

This weekend I'm driving to Washington to run the Rainier to Ruston Relay Race! This will be my 4th consecutive year doing it! So fun. My relay team is made up of all family. Three brothers, a sister, and a sister in law.

The week following the 20 miler was rough! I was very sick and only ran once. This week I got in a 5,4 and 7 miler. I'm taking today and tomorrow off for traveling and then on Sat. I'm running a total of 10.4 miles.

Then the marathon is here! Only 9 days away. I can't believe. It doesn't seem real yet though because this weekend is so exciting. Once I make it through this weekend, I'm sure the nervous breakdown will begin. :)

20 Miler:Done! Hallelujah!!!

This was an interesting run for me. I ran it in 3 hours 20 minutes and some change. Basically I ran it with an average of 10 minute miles. I would be thrilled if I could run the marathon with a 10 minute mile pace. Here's the kicker. At the end, I was so so so done with running. I gave this run all I had. I might as well been running a race. When I ran my 20 miler last year for Salt Lake, I felt amazing when I was done, like I could have run another 6 miles to finish(actually five since my 20 miler turned into a 21 miler). But with this run, OH NO, no way could I have gone another 6. Basically, it didn't do much for my confidence. On the bright side, my knees held up fairly well, just some IT band pain in my hip. My plantar faciitis wasn't too bad on the run either. And I did the run and finished. I figured out how to put my watch on a mode that would tell me my splits for each mile. Too fun. I listed them below.

Running with Brother in Law Tom
Four Miles up the Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls
Mile
1. 10:23
2. 10:27
3. 10:40
4. 10:46
Four miles down the canyon
5. 10:03
6. 9:49 Took a gel pack
7. 10:04
8. 9:46
Said goodbye to Tom, Hello to the bathroom
Running by myself to meet my cousin
9. 9:31
10. 9:21
11. 9:27
12. 9:33- Took another gel pack
13. 9:28
Running with cousin Shelby
14. 9:46
15. 9:55
16. 10:14
17. 10:04- Took my final gel pack(didn't seem to help:>)
18. 10:20
19. 10:34
20. 10:26


A special thanks to Tom and Shelby for being great sports and joining me for parts of my run! It totally helps! When Shelby and I went into the grocery store after this run for some Gatorade, a nice worker told us we looked like we need cold drinks and to go to isle 13. HA!

P.S. I have been sick all week and have not run since the 20 miler. That does nothing for my confidence.

P.S.S. I am turning 30 tomorrow and that does nothing for my confidence either. I keep trying to tell myself I am 30, flirty, and thriving. :) We'll see if having a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) helps.

Utah Valley Marathon: Count Me In!

This newspaper ad has been hanging in my house for some time now as a constant reminder of my goal to run a marathon this summer in celebration of turning 30. Since I couldn't get into the Rock N Roll marathon, I have decided to do the Utah Valley Marathon. It is on June 13. Their slogan is "26.2 miles of the pain you love." I totally get that and can't wait. My 20 mile run is going to be this weekend. Wooohoooo. I'm actually really looking forward to it. So if any of you want to head on down to Provo/Orem on June 13th to cheer me on, I wouldn't object!

I Did It! 16.15 Miles.

I got my buns up and ran at 6am this morning, even though I hadn't had one ounce of sleep. (I have a sick child, and insomnia) Isn't that the way it always goes?!

The run was pretty good. I ran the first five with my friend Kristi. Then stopped at my house to use the facilities. Then ran three to the canyon. My brother in law Tom met me at the canyon where we ran 2.5 miles up the canyon and then 2.5 back. Then I ran the last three back to my house. I was pretty tired when I was done!! But overall I felt pretty good. A little sore in the knees, but nothing unusual. Oh, I forgot to mention in POURED down rain the WHOLE time!! I was wringing my clothes out when I got home. I don't know if my shoes will ever be dry again! My pink skirt was falling off me because it was so heavy with water. Luckily I had on my favorite carpi's! And my iPod survived because I had it in a plastic sandwich baggy in my pocket. Ha. I had Nate take my picture when I was done, but I don't think it does justice to my soaking state of being. I should of had him take a picture of my sopping hair. Dang. Ohhhh, I just shivered thinking about it. :)

16 miles

I'm off to run 16 miles in the morning! I'm a little nervous. I haven't run 16 miles in 8 months. I feel prepared though. I'll let you know how it goes!

It Go Time!

Tomorrow is the big day. The Salt Lake City Half Marathon. I'm feeling nervous. But I know it's going to be great! The weather is suppose to be 60 degrees. Wish me luck!

12.25 miles

I got up yesterday morning at 7am to do my long run and looked out my window to see snow!!! What! So I climbed back in bed and told Nate I wasn't sure I wanted to run while it was snowing. I told myself all the reasons I didn't want to go, then told myself all the reason I should go. Should go won the battle. Five minutes later I was out of bed and 20 minutes later out the door.

As soon as I was running, I was so glad I was. It was really peaceful and the sidewalks weren't slippery at all. Minus one incident with a dog, it was a great run. I'm not as fast as I would like to be, but at least I know that I will be able to run the SLC half and not kill myself! I wanted to go the full 13.1 yesterday, but when I got back to my house, I was only at 12.25 miles and *conference was going to be on in 10 minutes. So I called it good. I'm not going to lie, I'm still proud of myself. :)

Salt Lake City Half Marathon, Here I Come!

P.S. I love Miley Cyrus. The last 3 miles of my run I listened to her new song, The Climb, over and over!

*Twice a year my church(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) holds a world wide conference. Because I live in Utah, same state as the church headquarters, it is broadcast on television. I get to watch right in the comfort of my living room. :)

Maybe it's because I'm the proud new owner of these......



but I managed to bust out 10.75 miles last Saturday. Miracles do happen. :)

HUGE Realization

Two Saturdays ago I finally got up enough oomph and went for a long run. It only ended up being 7 miles. Yes, that is a long run these days. Since December I have been telling myself I was going to run the SLC Marathon this year. Even though training has been less than stellar, ummm way less than stellar, I still had managed to convince myself that I could still do it. However, when I ran that seven miles two Saturdays ago and nearly killed myself, I realized that there is NO WAY I'm going to be able to do the marathon. Just NO WAY. Am I disappointed in myself, TOTALLY. But I've got to move forward.

So, here's to rockin the half, and being more motivated in the future!

It's All About the Time and the Heart

And right now I don't have either when it comes to running a marathon.

TIME: Nate is in school getting his MBA and that is more time consuming for him than having a full time job. Way more time consuming. When we decided that he was going to go back to school, we made a deal that I wouldn't run any marathons during that two years. But, after we got here, I was really itching to train for some sort of race and I wanted to do the SLC marathon again. He agreed and said that would be fine and he would support me. However, it's really hard to find the time to do a "long" runs on Saturdays because he is constantly gone at group meetings or just studying. (We have two cutie pie kids that needs to be looked after :) ) I don't blame him, it's just the way things go when you have a husband getting a Masters Degree in Business. So needless to say, while my runs during the week have been going alright, my long runs have basically been nonexistent. I have run 10 miles twice.

HEART: I don't think it's a secret that I would really really love to be pregnant, but for some reason it just isn't happening for me. When I started out training for this marathon, I told myself I would just train until I got pregnant and then I would stop the marathon training and just train for the 5K. The problem is, it's really hard to even want to run a "long run" when you are not sure if you will even do the marathon. My heart wants to be pregnant, not running a marathon. The even bigger problem is that every single long run that I do is a painful reminder of the fact that I am not pregnant. Last year I was so so so excited to run the marathon. Contrastly, this year when I imagine myself running it, I picture myself crying at the end, not because I'm so happy I finished, but because I'm so upset I don't have a baby instead.

So, I don't know what I'm going to do about the race. I still keep hoping I'll just get pregnant and it will make the decision easy: a 5K. In reality I guess I'll wait until the week before the race and then make a decision based on how much I've trained and of course the baby situation.



NOTE: Last year I did not train for the Pocotello Marathon because I was so sure I would be prego by Aug. 31st. Well, I ended up not and ran it anyway with my sister having trained less than what I have trained for this marathon. So, anything's possible.

Sick Sick and More Sick

I have been sick for a very long time is seems like! So this week I only got in two runs. I have yet to decide if I'm going for a run today. On Tuesday I went to the gym during Biggest Loser again, but not with the same results. I ran four miles and was just so done.

On Thursday I had the opposite occur. I got on the treadmill with my new tunes and just felt great! I went just over six miles. AND the last 1 and a 1/2 miles I ran at a 8:33 mile pace. (The rest was at a 10 minute pace.) I love it when runs just feel great and you feel like you could go forever!

Oh, last week on Friday I tried a speed workout, inspired by my cutie SIL Jana. I decided to do 800meter runs. I ran at a 8:33 mile pace for 800meters and then walked for .1 of a mile and then another 800 meters. Ummm, this was way harder than I thought. I planned on doing 6 of them, but only did 4. Ha. Then I ran another mile just regular.

DUH!

Yesterday, Tuesday, I went to the gym right after Gage got out to school. I was rushing the kids to get to the gym on time for their scheduled time in the daycare. We got there on time and I went to go to the locker room and realized I had on my regular everyday shoes, not at all shoes that should be worked out in. UGGGGGGHHH. So I just made the most of my time there and walked and the treadmill for 30 minutes, climbed the stair machine for 10, and then worked my core a little. I guess that was my cross training day for the week. :)

On Monday I ran 3.25 miles on the treadmill speeding up the last 1.25 miles.

Spandex is Happiness

Somebody had this sign on their garage during the SLC Marathon last year. I couldn't help but use it as my title today because I wore my capri spandex to the gym. I had no other choice. And I decided on my way over there that I was just going to own it. I didn't care who saw me running in all my spandex glory. But let me tell you, spandex really is happiness! I love all my running tights. I do usually wear a running skirt over them to cover my buns! I have never had enough guts to wear the skirts to the gym though.

Anyway, I had a great run. I ran six miles while watching American Idol/Lost recap shows. I had the treadmill on 6.0 again and ran the last mile a little faster. I love doing that.

P.S. Wouldn't you know it that a tiny little girl in her running tights got onto the treadmill next to me. Whatever, I didn't even care.

10 Miles and a Mustard Miracle

Last night my husband, who is in the MBA program at BYU, says this to me, "I think I already told you this but I have a group meeting tomorrow at school at 10:30." Um actually no Babe, you didn't mention that. That's why I wasn't able to make the group run this morning. *SIGH* But, I did do it on my own. And I actually had a really great run.

I started out from my house and headed for the Provo River Trail. It is just over 2 miles to get there. Then I headed towards the Canyon. I always go the other way to avoid running up the canyon, but today I decided I could use some hillage. When I got the the canyon, I needed to run 1.75 miles up it. I was nervous, but running up the canyon was not what I thought it was. It was very very gradual. Nothing huge. I couldn't help but thinking how much Jen would love it because is had little yellow and white lines just like a road, and instead of dodging cars, she could just dodge bicylces. :) And it was BEAUTIFUL! So I got to 5 miles and turned around. I love doing out and backs. There's something so great about turning around and knowing you are more than half way done. I was at 53 minutes and some change. So I get headed back down, which was AWESOME. Who doesn't love running downhill? Then a problem occurred. I started getting a major cramp in my right calf. YIKES. All I could think of was that I was 4.35 miles from home. A long way to run with a cramp in my calf. However, I remembered a little nifty trick my older brother taught me. Apparently when you have a muscle cramp,a little mustard will cure it. I was running with my fanny pack(it doesn't look like a 1980 fanny pack, it's a running one that is way cuter) and it had mustard packs still in it from when I ran the Pocotello marathon back in Aug. I had never had to use them before. So I stopped, stretched for a minute and downed 1 mustard pack. And before I even began running again, it was like I had never even had a cramp. A little mustard miracle! I was feeling great! When I got back out to the mouth of the canyon I stopped at the subway to use the facilities, buy a gatorade, down a gel pack and then I continued on my way. I was feeling so good that I sped up. I ran mile 9 at about a 9:30 pace and the final mile in under 9 minutes. My second five miles I ran in about 48 minutes. Crazy right! It was a good run for me. Hopefully next week will be the same.

And I did take a couple of pics when I got home, but they were nasty. I have learned to only take before pictures! (Or at least have some makeup on when I start the run. )

So how were your runs today????

Getting My Bootie Kicked by Hills, a Speed Workout, and a Fabulous New Trick!

On Monday I failed to go to the gym at all. My poor Kyah was having issues with her bowels(I'll leave it at that) and I knew I couldn't leave her in the care of anyone else.

Getting my bootie kicked by hills. On Wed. I went to the gym and was feeling inspired to run some hills so I could keep up with Jen! I put the treadmill on the hills setting and off I went. I probably should mention I only had the level set to 5, out of 20, but hey, I'm starting from square one, remember. I lasted 2 miles on a 6.0 speed and then put the setting back to manual and finished with a flat mile. I just knew towards the end of the hills, that if anyone around me wasn't wearing their earphones, they would be worried that maybe I was having a heart attack because I was breathing so hard!

A Speed Workout. Today, Thursday, I went to the gym and did one of my favorite speed workouts I found online from another girl. I wish I could remember who. It goes like this.
2 miles at half marathon pace (10 minute mile)
1 mile at 10K pace (9:15 minute mile)
800meters at 5k pace (8:35 mintute mile)
800 meters at 5K pace

I know I'm not really that fast, but that was the pace I was running at today. I walked for a minute or two in between each interval. It really speeds up a 4 mile run for me. It's more entertaining.

AND FINALLY A FABULOUS NEW TRICK!
This may not work for everyone, actually probably won't, but for me, it was awesome. Because Kyah was still having issues on Tues. I went to the gym at 7 o'clock in the evening. It just so happen to be when the Biggest Loser was on. I LOVE THAT SHOW! (Joelle better step it up this week!) So I plugged my earphones into the treadmill and turned it to the TV showing my show and I ran for 6 miles straight without stopping once and I was at a 6.0 speed! This is really really good for me at this point in my life! I had previously been letting myself run at 5.8 if I wasn't "feeling" it that day. And I had also been stopping about every two mile to walk for a minute and get a drink. There was just something about being totally into my show that just did it for me. And the fact that it was a show about losing weight helped that much more! It was such a breakthrough run for me! I love it when that happens!

Long Runs and a New Running Buddy

My first long run of official training was last Sat. Kylee and I went for 8 miles. We took it slow and easy since there was lots of snow on the ground and because we are out of shape! It was a pretty good run though. We started off doing about 11:30 min. miles and then sped up to 10:30 minute miles. We averaged 11:04. Yes, I've slowed way down. That's what happens when you don't run 4 months. Here is a pic I took of myself when I got home.

My face is still red!

Then today I had the chance to run with Jen, a friend I met last year at the marathon mommies dinner. She started up a blog called. will run for designer jeans and we kind of found each others blogs and trained for the marathon together virtually last year. Anyway, so we met up today to go for a 11, oops, I mean 7 mile run. So we're improvising on the schedule, big deal. Well, this 7 mile run was an adventure! We were by her house and so I wasn't really familiar with the area. She had us running up big hills, through major traffic- in the road, and then she ran way faster than my body wanted to the last half of our run. Whew. It felt way good when we were done. It totally inspires me to work harder during the week so I can get faster and keep up with her better. I just want to mention, she is totally one of those fun girls that you just get along with right away. I love her! We are going to have so much fun training for this marathon together. Also, part of the course today was running the marathon course backwards. I kind of forgot how hilly the course was. Not huge hills, but rolling for sure. I would be lying if I said I didn't question myself a time or two about why I was even training for a marathon again. :) We all have those thoughts though don't we. Anyway, here is a pre-run pic.


Jen's totally cute. I need to lose a few pounds!

Oh, that reminds me. I am giving up sugar during the weekdays. Anyone want to join?