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.