I Can Do Hard Things

Salt Lake City Marathon

Previous WeekRecent EntriesHomeJoin Fast Running Blog Community!PredictorHealthy RecipesToby's RacesFind BlogsMileage BoardTop Ten Excuses for Missing a RunTop Ten Training MistakesDiscussion ForumRace Reports Send A Private MessageMonth ViewYear View
Graph View
Next Week
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024
15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

American Fork,UT,

Member Since:

Nov 27, 2009

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

St George Marathon

2011 - 4:11:52 

2017. -4:01:17

2021 - 4:03:05

Salt Lake City Full Marathon

2013 -  4:23:03 

Ogden Marathon

2012 - 3:58:35

2013 - 4:17:20

2014 - 4:02:51

2017 - 3:55:22**

2023 - 3:57:09

Utah Valley Marathon

2019 - 4:05:37 

Top of Utah Marathon

2014 - 4:09:27

Mt Charleston Marathon

2019 - 4:05:33

West Mountain Marathon

2015 - 4:42:34

 

St George Half Marathon

2012 - 1:55:00

2013 - 2:03:00

2014 - 1:46:00

2015 - 1:48:00

2022-  1:42:45**

Salt Lake City Half Marathon

2012 - 1:51:00

2014 - 1:44:01

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

2001 - 1:40:00**

2011 - 1:45:00

2012 - 1:43:00

2013 - 1:43:00 

2022 - 1:48:53

American Fork Half Marathon

2013 - 1:48:24

2014- 1:53:23 (pacing Tim)

2017  - 1:47:54

2018 - 1:48:12

2019 - 1:47:50

Timp Half Marathon

2012 - 1:47:18 

2022 - 1:49:40 (AF Cancer course)

Utah Valley Half Marathon 

2011 - 1:55:00 

Top of Utah Half Marathon

2010 - 1:48:20 

The Haunted Half Provo

2018 - 1:51:28

 

Goblin Valley 50K

2014 - 5:58

Red Mountain 55K

2018 - 7:31:37

Antelope Island Fall Classic 50K

2017 - 6:14:23

Antelope Island 50 Mile

2015 - 10:10:00

Antelope Island 100 Mile

2018 - 26:53

 

 

**Personal Best 

 

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

 

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

To qualify for Boston

Personal:

Married for 23 years. I have 18 year old triplets and a 15 year old. I love to sew, garden, and run!

Favorite Running Quotes: 

1.  

"Sooner or later the serious runner goes through a special, very personal experience that is unknown to most people.

Some call it euphoria. Others say it's a new kind of mystical experience that propels you into a elevated state of consciousness, a flash of joy.

A sense of floating as you run. This experience is unique to each of us, but when it happens, you break through a barrier that separates you from casual runners. Forever. And from that point on, there is no finish line. You run for your life. You begin to be addicted to what running gives you."  

~Nike Poster

2.           A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao-Tzu

You’ve no doubt heard this.  And you’ve probably recited it in your mind on a run or at the gym when you’re just beginning to get in shape.  You have a goal in sight and this quote brings you back to the current moment.

 

But the problem is that many runners forget all of the steps between the first one and the goal.  If your goal is to run under two hours for the half marathon then you need to be honest about all of the little steps to get to that goal.

 

…and what I’d rather see you do is to get the goal out of mind completely, but rather focus on the process, not the outcome. -Jay Johnson Process orientation, not outcome orientation.

 

You should have goals, but you should take it one step at a time.  And you should be honest about the fact that you don’t know how many steps it will take to get there. ~ Vernon Gambetta

 

3.  Human beings are made up of flesh, blood and a miracle fiber called COURAGE! ~ George Patton 

 

4.   Find the courage to be patient.

Favorite Blogs:

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 22.33 Month: 127.28 Year: 374.00
2014 - Minutes Lifetime Miles: 28605.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
36.200.0036.20
Weight: 0.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

I totally made my kids watch the marathon this morning before they left for school!  it is such a great race!!!  Go USA!!

 

Ankle was a bit achy this weekend, so I decided to be safe!!

25 minutes on the bike

 

3x

10 squats on the smith machine

12 x pushups

60 sec planks

10 side to side lunges

20 dips

20 sit ups

Long stretching session. 

 

Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
3.000.003.00

It's been 2 days since my long run, so I feel like it is safe to do an easy run. 

3 easy miles on my home TM.

I found this abs workout on Pinterest...it definitely worked

30 sit ups

20 bicycles

30 toe touches

20 reverse crunches

15 side plank hip lift R

30 crunches

15 side plank hip lift L

40 russian twists

30 bicycles

15 oblique v-up

20 reverser crunch

15 oblique v-up

10 leg left

 

Two quick LLL and a long foam rolling session. 

Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.000.007.00

I had planned on calling Collette to see if she was interested in meeting at the gym.  Despite my lack of preparation, Collette was already pounding out miles on the TM.  We ran together for 5.5 miles and had a great conversation.  

I only had 1.5 miles to finish on my own.  Easy 7 miles for the day.  I'm still miffed the gym doesn't have foam rollers anymore.  I'm too lazy to do it at home since I have only a limited time to get my morning nap in. 

Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

My ITB has been tight the past few days.  Though today is my official rest day, I did head downstairs this morning to stretch, do a few LLL and walking lunges.  Lots and lots of foam rolling.  Lots of it.

Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Race: Salt Lake City Marathon (26.2 Miles) 04:23:03, Place overall: 431, Place in age division: 115
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
26.200.0026.20

26.47 miles (my Garmin was way off the whole race) (I'm using my Garmin times)


4:23:03 (my slowest marathon yet, but an average pace for a training run...go figure)


AP:  9:56

 

So today I ran a marathon (or a long training run).  It hadn't been in the original Ogden Marathon training plan, but I'm heading to Europe next week and didn't want to run 22 miles on a cruise boat TM.  Hence plan B.


My main goal was to not get injured.  So I decided to do the Jeff Galloway run/walk thingy (it is very official).  Too keep it simple, I ran a mile and walked two minutes at the mile marker.  I made a deal with myself that I had to follow this plan or risk some dumb injury (who knows....maybe it won't work).  But I'll stick to the holding back during this race to defend off injuries.


 photo IMG_1675_zps56577fa5.jpg(They had this sweet Boston sign at the race expo.)


This is my first marathon that I haven't run with Karen.  I missed her sweet spirit and optimism today.  But I was grateful for her encouraging texts yesterday.  I also had several texts from other sweet friends (HI Collette and Kellie) and they brought me good luck treats.  They are the best!  Also, a big shout out to Tim for once again supporting my habit!

 

 photo IMG_1674_zps73a228ed.jpg


Onto the race: 

I woke up at 4:25am, got ready, and headed to the 1300 S Trax station.  It was raining lightly and for a split second I thought of leaving my rain jacket in the car (thankfully, I brought it with me).  The running shoe company Altra was handing out sweet Boston t-shirts at the station.  So I got to wear one during the race.  Thanks Altra!


  photo IMG_1680_zps7ee0f850.jpg

At one of the Trax stops, two officers had several of the passengers get off the train.  They brought their bomb sniffing dogs in to check out the train car.  Though they were polite, there was no monkey business!


We finally arrived at the starting line and I made a bee-line to the POPS.  Thankfully, the lines were shorts and I could take care of business quickly.


I was VERY impressed with the race organization.  They had police EVERYWHERE, large tents for rain protection, food and water, and a ton of volunteers. It was finally time for the start of the race and I threw my drop bag into the truck.  I found Allie at the start and said a quick hello!  She's fast!


I found Rachel with her sweet 4:09:32 pacer balloon, but didn't see Lowell anywhere.   They played Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" just before the gun went off.  I love Neil (and even saw him in concert last summer).


Mile 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (9:47, 10:55, 10:01, 9:43, 9:40)


I'll admit, it was very demoralizing to start walking at mile 1.  I had a few people say, "keep going...you can do it".  I know it wasn't meant to hurtful or unkind, but I had a certain plan that I HAD to stick to today. Ironically, I did see a lot of other people doing the run/walk thing early in the race. It did take me awhile to warm up and find my groove.  Ran through Sugarhouse Park.  Took water at every stop.  I saw a guy pushing a son/friend (?) in a wheel chair...go Team Bart!  There were a lot of people wearing USA and Boston shirts too.

 

Mile 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (10:09, 9:41, 9:26, 9:33, 9:27)

I took a GU at mile 6 and started to feel my legs come alive.  The thought did cross my mind to keep running through the mile markers, but I stuck to my plan.  There was literally an officer every 400-600 meters.  I made a point to tell every one of them thank you.  They were standing in the rain all morning!!  The rain continued to fall and the wind was picking up.  Brrrr....  


One of my favorite parts of running races is the spectators.  I love it when little kids hold signs for mom/dad and freely give out high-fives!  There were a lot of great spectators and signs today despite the pouring rain.

 

Mile 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (9:10, 9:13, 10:28, 10:07, 9:24)

I spotted a guy with the signature Lowell hat.  Sure enough, I found him at mile 12.  It was so great to see a friend!  He was running with Susan and also doing the Gallo-walking thingy.  Lowell is such a great chatter and it took my mind off how many miles I still had left.  Took another GU at mile 12.  I lost them at the water station around mile 15.  Sad.  My legs were still holding up quite well!  Rain stopped for awhile.

 

Mile 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (9:25, 9:31, 9:44, 10:21, 9:31)

I found the couple that I sat next to on the Trax train. We chatted for awhile and I told them about my crazy race plan.  I was hoping I could run with them for awhile....they were great company. I was relieved to hit mile 16....only 10 miles to go.  GU at mile 17.  Bathroom stop at mile 20.  


Mile 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.2  (9:56, 10:33, 9:59, 10:27, 11:14, 10:45, 4:41)

The reality of the marathon started to set in.  My legs/hips were getting very sore.  My mental state was tired.  The rain started again and I was getting cold.  Water was dribbling off my visor and soaking my tights.  My nose wouldn't stop running.  I lost the Trax couple and I was now running alone.  


It was getting harder to start/stop walking at every mile marker, so I just ran.  Occasionally, I would walk through a water station but it was very painful to start running again.  I knew I still had 50+ minutes of running even though I was ready to be done for the day.  Mind over matter.


The volunteers at the aide stations were incredible.  So cheerful and positive.  But I felt foolish to be cheered for.  I was slow.  I was shuffling.  I looked like a wet rat with mascara running down my face.  Why would anyone cheer for me?  But they did and it brought tears to my eyes.  My mental demons were fighting hard and the volunteers gave me hope that I could finish this race.


Around mile 24/25, I came upon a young girl walking.  I asked her to run/shuffle with me.  I needed a buddy to help me through the last mile - I was fading fast.  At first she ignored me.  Then I could hear her breathing behind me.  I asked her name, Laura.  She was using the marathon as her long run too.  She told me she had recently lost 120lbs.  She explained parts of her success story.  She was an angel sent from heaven to help me for the last 13-14 minutes of the race.  I was so grateful for her company.


I finally saw the finish line.  There is something so surreal about seeing that timing clock, banners, balloon arches and a sea of spectators.  The emotional reality of just completing 26.2 miles is all unleashed at that very moment.  The mental demons ran away and a flood of tears flow freely.


I grabbed my medal and a bottle of water.  I quickly looked for the bag drop area.  I was starting to shiver uncontrollably and wanted to change my wet shirts.  Sorry for all you innocent folks who had to witness that! 

 

Liberty Park (the finish area) was one big mud pool and I wasn't interested in hanging out.  The rain was still coming down and I was freezing.  


As I walked to the shuttle, I passed by several bomb unit trailers,  SLPD, SLFD and many race officials.  Thank you Salt Lake City for keeping us safe today! 

 

 photo IMG_1681_zps03484d5e.jpg 

(Sick of the cold rain! )


So now that I've eaten (an In n Out burger on the way home...mmmmm), showered and taken a nap, I've realized once again that 26.2 miles is to be respected.  As much as I would like to take the bull by its horns, it is still a beast.  

 

Weight: 0.00
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
36.200.0036.20
Weight: 0.00
Debt Reduction Calculator
Featured Announcements
Lone Faithfuls
(need a comment):
Recent Comments: