Race Recap: Run Elevated 2014

Yes, it's true!  I'm doing a race recap! 

My friend Jen Q is running one half marathon a month this year.  She's crazy and that's why we "get" each other.  I signed up for a couple of them with her.  This was suppose to be a long run in my running plan, but with my leg pain I hadn't ran in a week.  I worked on a lot of strength training, rolling and stretching but no running.  Fell into that "I can't run so I can't blog and I'm just going to sit here and get fat and out of shape" depression.  I was nervous about this run.  

This was the Run Elevated Half Marathon. 

It starts up Little Cottonwood canyon at Alta Ski Resort and heads downhill.  Pretty awesome eh?  

Well, we live in Utah and it's difficult to tell how the weather will be.  It's August and we do get a lot of thunderstorms.  Of course in the days before the race it was clear that it wasn't going to be clear.  There was rain on the forecast!

I ran with Jen Q, Ashley and another girl they work with, Sam.  When I say we ran together I mean we started together.  

Looking out the bus windows.  RAIN!  Cold!

Bathroom break?  Yes, snow.

Jen is just SHOCKED!  SNOW?

I bought that blue jacket at Savers for 4.99.  Best purchase ever!  Kept me warm and dry until I could toss it.  

Bunches of snow bunnies.

Sam, Jen, me and Ashley.

I'm pretty sure Ashley was trying to spoon. Haha

Funny thing.  The snow and rain stopped IMMEDIATELY as the race started.  It was beautiful and magic!  The weather stayed cool throughout and I was able to shed my layers and stay relatively comfortable.

The city comes into view

My leg was sore.  I had moving pain.  I'm stumped by this crazy injury.  First my shin hurt then it moved to my ankle and lastly my quads.  Knee did ok.  I wore a knee brace and compression sleeves.  It feels like nerve pain.   I plan on taking some time off again and continuing with the ice, tens, core work and stretching.

Despite that, my race went pretty well.

I came in at 2:15.  My Garmin read 13.34 miles.  My average pace 10:08.  

My plan was to keep it around 10:30 but the downhill was very tempting.  I kept the pace down and was able to run with only 3-4 walk breaks.  

Mile 1 9:53

Mile 2 9:18

Mile 3 9:19

Mile 4 9:10

Mile 5 9:40

(walked through water and had GU)

Mile 6 9:05

Mile 7 13:00

(I had to pee :) )

Mile 8 9:28

Mile 9 9:21

Mile 10 11:17

(walked up the one hill)

Mile 11 11:31

Mile 12 10:10

Mile 13 10:35

Mile .1 9:39

I obviously slowed down at the end when we moved to flatter land and a few hills.  I still felt great!  It wasn't until the last mile that my head started to get out of the game and I wanted to start walking.  Such a HUGE improvement from my first half of this year.  When I ran the SL Half I was mentally and physically DONE at mile 8.  So this training is working, lets just hope I get back on track asap.

Ran into Martina, a burn nurse, half way through.  

Finished!!

Me and the Q.  Her 8th of 12 for the year!

Congrats!

Later it was home for an ice bath

Felt awesome.  Unfortunately my right big toe had a blood blister on it and it looks like a blood blister under the toe nail.  So infuriating.  I know I'm going to loose it and I lost it last September.  It was completely grown in for exactly 3 weeks.  It's a weird toenail, always bailing on me. 

It's day 2 after the race and I'm still sore as crazy.  Stretch and roll and ice, repeat.  Hoping that once all the soreness goes away I can re-assess that leg.  Right now it doesn't really bother me.  The muscle fatigue overwhelms any other pain now.  

Love these summer races!!

How is your racing going?

Ever run a race as a training run?

Blog on...........

Salt Lake Half Marathon Recap

I'm so excited to be back!!  Running with friends is the best.  One year and one month after my foot surgery (PROPS to Dr. Dan Preece!) and I'm back on the road running with my homies!

 First, Tera and I worked out our matchy outfits

It's easy for us to be matchy because we don't run together.  She flies past me!

Turns out my blue was sort of a different blue but she and her hubby Jason and I brought a lot of Lululemon to the race!

Ashley, Silvia (Jen's mom), Jason, Tera, me and Jen Q.

The three girls that didn't need to pee

I did as much training as I could. By the time race day came around I felt pretty strong.  I didn't work any overtime shifts that week, ate well and stayed hydrated.  I knew I could make the 13.1 miles pretty easy but I was hoping to come in under 2:15. 

Nice downhill, but there was some HILLS!  

 I took the downhill at a decent pace but the uphill's ended up being a walk sort of thing.  At about mile 7.5 - 8 miles my legs just decided they were done.  I am pretty sure it was the Pilates class I took 2 days before the race.  I was really mad that I had been away from Pilates for so long that it actually kicked my butt for the race. So at mile 9 I decided that I was going to finish but that I was going to enjoy it a little.  Just a little!  

I was really hating the run at this point, but determined to finish.

At 13.10 on my Garmin it was 2:14.  My official time was 2:16:55.

Still not bad.

I've signed up for 2 more half marathons.  One in July and one in August. 

6:59?  Could that be true?

Possibly for a nano-second.

 On my way down the home stretch I heard Tera yelling and made my way to her and Jason after I collected my medal, my creamy ice cream, a yogurt drink and water.  We watched the rest run in.  I love these cute pics of Jen and Ashley.  I missed getting a picture of Sylvia.

Did she really bring the gun show??

Yeah BUDDY!

Yeah Ashley!

After everyone was in we posed for pics!

These are all runners from our CVICU unit at the hospital.  I pick up shifts once in a while so I guess I count.

TADA!

Sylvia, me, Jason, Jen, (forgot her name..my bad), Ashley and Tera

It's a pretty cool medal even though I was holding it funny.

My official numbers.

It was just so much fun to be able to go to the race with friends and meet after we were done.  We are all different abilities and styles but it's just a blast.  I'm so glad I'm back to racing.  I still have lots of things to work at with my running but I have plenty of time!

When you run races with friends do you run together?

Do you enjoy running alone at a race?
   I actually do.  I like the mind challenge and the strategies that go through my head.  I also LOVE running with a friend.  I've never ran a race side by side with someone so it's certainly something to try!

Blog on.............

Let it snow..

The perfect race at the perfect time!

Two weeks ago me and 3 of my good friends climbed into a car and traveled down to St. George for a 50 mile - 5 man relay.  When we signed up we thought that going to St. George in December would be fantastic!  Warm weather and sunny skies would be a great change from the cold dreary Salt Lake weather.  

Well, we were wrong.  But just about the weather.  The weather report called for cold in the 30's with a chance of snow.  WHAT?  SNOW?  In St. George?  Crazy.  Let's just say that we learned that St. George only has ONE snow plow and that most/all people do not even have a snow shovel.  That's how much it snows in St. George.  Well mother nature picked the perfect weekend...well, not really. 

My team members included Tera, her husband Jason, Jen Q., me and Laura.  Laura was the wife of an attorney that works for Jason.  We were happy to have a 5th but a little worried we might be..ahh..a tad bit offensive to her.  When we are all together there just isn't any taboo subject which we are well aware isn't every one's cup of tea. 

We were prepared for the cold, we brought everything we had to keep us warm.  The morning of the race we picked up our #5.  Well Laura turned out to be absolutely perfect and HILARIOUS!!  I swear she was Jen Q's spirit sister!  They had the same sense of humor, said the same things and when they laughed they squeaked the same.  The team was awesome, funny and more then anything my laughing muscles were as sore as my running muscles.  Did I mention that the three other girls had asthma (exercise induced)?  There were inhalers all over the place!

Jason and his 4 running gals. 

Our original "outfit" was to be bright yellow shirts.  Yeah, they are there.  

Ready, set..go

Go JEN GO!

Hi FIVE girls!

No slap bracelet here!

Another exchange and the snow is starting to GO.

I love this picture.  Tera is reconsidering the weather and the fact she is going to have to run in the snow.  Plus she is worried about her stinky (Jason).

My first leg (I only had two) and off I go.

Yeah, it was a trail of packed snow.  What this picture doesn't reflect is the blowing snow.  I had a bunch of snow on the side of my head on the left side.  I was a little cold but my vest kept my core warm and I wasn't hot, which is most important.

Yeah, I'm waving!

Woot Woot!

The run actually felt great and I ran it much faster then I thought I would.  9:40 min/miles and in the blowing snow on a trail that was ROLLING. Which means I would climb up and steep hill and run down a very steep hill.  

What I wore.

The temp was 30 degrees. (2 degrees warmer then Salt Lake!) I wore my warm lined Nike long running pants that have taken me through at least 4 winters.  They have a water proof area on the front of the thigh so they never get wet and they are lined so they are toasty!  I had on my usual block and tackle running bra and a short sleeve bright yellow shirt.  Over that I wore a Lululemon long sleeve (Ice Addict LS). The same one I wore on my Thanksgiving snow run. Of course I bought it last year so they don't even have any Ice Addict shirts.  

Running in Idaho.

Over all that I had on this vest.

I bought it at Kohls.

It has been my favorite vest all winter!  I wear it over regular clothes for extra warmth and I've worn it over running clothes on a few cold weather runs and it keeps the core warm and is easy to run in.  Plus I got it on sale PLUS 20% off.  Yeah.  Score. 

I also wore a thin running hat and some running gloves.  I have to say that I really dialed in the cold weather running outfit.  If it was a longer run I may have worried about covering what little of my ankles were exposed and had a neck warmer on that I could pull up over my mouth if I was too cold.  

Back to the race.

Jen takes off!  I ran down Snow Canyon so it was super cold and snowy and it warmed up a touch when we got closer to the city again.  

This is the shit that goes on while I suffer during my second run.

Get a few dorks at the state line and shenanigans will happen!

I was suppose to tap the sign.  Yeah right.  I really don't need my feet soaking wet.  Even though they were a touch moist. 

Before this pic was taken I was running around puddles and ice and basically hell for runner conditions.  After this pic I ran on a road that had a great shoulder and no snow or ice.  I hit the "I'm super tired" stage at about mile 5 but luckily I just had a mile to go.   Much slower, around 10:30 min/miles.  Total miles around 13.  Boom.  

All done!  

I don't have a pic from the finish but we did finish!  Had a blast too!

After we dropped off Laura and went back to the condo and we all had hot showers and went to dinner.

In the elevator.  HAHA!

The snow outside the condo.  Nothing is shoveled because why would they have a snow shovel??  It was definitely an experience getting to the restaurant, but mostly because we were watching other cars all over the place.  There is a technique to driving in the snow and it's not "gunning" it up a hill.  Thankfully we had Jason's 4 wheel drive and he did great!  But I'd lie if we didn't have a few laughs on the way. 

This was a perfect get away weekend.  I was able to be with wonderful people that are great friends and have a good time.  I love getting back to regular life and being a regular single gal in her 40's.  Right.

Thanks again for every one's support!  The whole transgender husband thing is getting less and less an issue every day but only because of all the love!  

What is your trick to running in cold weather?

Next big race?

Blog on.........

PS.  YES, I'm still going to put up the Vegas Ragnar Post.  I was just...ahhh....distracted a bit.