Mesa Falls half marathon

I've been so caught up in life that I haven't posted about this yet! Pictures will come later- can't get it to work right now and I need to post this while i have the time and before I forget.

I did it! I did it and I'm so proud of myself! I ran that race the best i possibly could. I pushed all the way until the end and didn't walk once. I even asked myself while i was running,"Why am I pushing so hard? I don't have to do this fast my goal is just to finish." But I still pushed. I finished in 2 hours 32 minutes (unofficial time) which is not fast by any runner's standards other then myself. It leaves me wondering how I can do better the next time. That was an average of 11.62 minute mile.

So my family dropped me off at the bus that took me up to the starting line bright and early Sat morning. I sat by a nice lady from Seattle who has run like 15 of these and it was fun to talk to her. We drove and drove and drove until finally we reached the starting line which was Beautiful! I wish I had brought my camera. The whole race was pretty. It was on a mountain and along a river and just gorgeous. So they dropped us at the starting line which had like 10 bathrooms lined up along the road and a line in front of every one. I had to laugh that I wasn't the only one concerned with using the facilities. We waited for about a half hour before we started the race all the while some full marathoners ran by us which was really fun. The girl I sat by on the bus, her boyfriend, ran by and we cheered for him. Then after a few minutes, we were off!

The first mile I ran in 9+ minutes and I knew I had to slow down. By the time I hit 3 miles my watch said 30 minutes. At mile 4-6 there was a MONSTROUS hill! Not sure my time for those miles, I was working too hard to look at my watch but I'm sure they were 12+.

Hills are so mentally challenging. When I started up the hill I couldn't see how big it was but I was pumped. One of my friends told me a few days before the race that I was going to "kill it" so that's what I thought. "I'm going to kill this hill!" And I did, at first anyway. I passed like 3 people on my way up (and they never passed me later, yes!). One of the things I tell myself while running up a hill is "what goes up must come down" and some how that helps me. But this hill would NOT go down. We wound around the trees and beautiful scenery up the mountain we went. Three times the hill leveled out for a minute so I thought it was over then went up AGAIN! By the third time, I wanted to cry, I didn't though and I went on (what else was there to do anyway.)

Mile 8, 9, 10 I was pumped and doing great but mile 11 and 12 I was ready to be done. People all around me were walking, I passed a lot of people here. The last stretch I picked up the pace and I finished strong. I finished so early Lance and the kids almost missed me they had to run to see me cross the finish line.


It was fun, it was beautiful and it felt great!

One awesome thing- I didn't have to go to the bathroom the whole time. In a runners world, or maybe just my world, that is great!


Some downers though:
*I couldn't breath at the end. Like literally, i was sucking in air but couldn't catch my breath I've never done that before it was kind of scary.
*I had a headache a large portion of the rest of the day and felt physically ill. I hope the next one I run I don't feel that lousy after
*WOW am I sore!!! I think it must have been the hill because sheesh! I could hardly move! I was so sore every time I dropped something I had to think about if I wanted that item bad enough to bend down and get it.

I'm a loser baby!!

That's right~ down 1.4 this week but it wasn't without effort! This week I really focused on eating with a purpose and avoiding mindless eating. I wasn't successful on all occasions but I tried really hard to ask myself every time I picked up something to eat, "why am I eating this?" If I couldn't come up with a good answer then I didn't eat it. Looks like it paid off. Hooray!

Made my day

So I saw one of my Weight Watchers/Running friends while I was out today, running, and it just made my day. I don't know why but it inspired me to keep going knowing she was out too- I'm not alone in this world of running. Ever since I started running over three miles I've gotten a lot of comments like "Wow! Are you crazy?" "I could never do that." "12 miles! That's insane I think I might hurt myself doing that." "That is SO FAR!" Everyone means well when they say those things but it does make me wonder, am I really crazy for doing this? That's why its important to have friends in the sport I guess and made me so excited to see Lara out. Lara is faster, skinnier and older then me but she is all so my height so I look at her and think "that's my goal. I can do what she is doing"

I just started reading a great book about women and running and I'm only a few pages into it but I love it. It talks about why women are great runners. We can never really be faster then men but running mostly just takes a good pair of running shoes and dedication and women can be really dedicated and goal oriented. Just think about it we're more organized the men, we are mothers, wives, employees, house cleaners, chauffeurs, cooks, therapists just to name a few of our responsibilities. The secret to being a runner is to follow your training schedule and not give up. I've given birth to 4 children, naturally, by golly I can flipping run a few miles.

I also think as women we understand the physiological part of running. Men want to run fast and win, women do too but that's not all. We understand the personal therapy that comes with being alone and running. My runs are just about the only time I'm ever alone, I never want to give up that time.

So in short, I think women are amazing.

Yes, I ran my 9 miles today and I feel good about it. Much better then the other runs this week. I'm getting nervous for race day though. Can I really do this?

Sometimes running is just hard

Some days I can just put in my ipod and those miles tick by rather easy and some days it feels like my legs have never run a mile before in their lives. That's how I've felt all week. Every mile has been so painful it's hard to keep going. I tried to run while camping but I ended up turning the run into intervals since my legs just wouldn't move. I had to run my 5 miles last night and turns out, I don't like night running. My stomach was full from dinner, blah, and a lot more people are out in the evening then the morning. I like morning a lot better. So tomorrow I run 9 miles. I really hope they don't feel as bad as every other miles I've run this week.

Beggars can't be choosers...

when it comes to weight loss that is. For three weeks I have stayed the EXACT same weight despite all my running but today I finally lost 0.8. That is almost a pound and I am happy about it. At least the scale moved! (In the right direction)

I didn't lead the meeting tonight I thought I would be out of town but we came back early so Debbie led the meeting and I was able to just sit and listen for the first time in a really long time. It was wonderful. The meeting was on patience and not getting discouraged when weight loss doesn't go as quickly as we want. It was perfect for me and inspiring to hear it from another person. I was really glad I could just sit. And my good friend Kimberley made goal today so it was fun to sit by her during the meeting.

Congratulations Kimberley!!

ZUMBA!!!

As of Saturday, I am a certified Zumba instructor. Whoo hoo! 9 hours of Zumba instruction and I'm official. Thanks to running, I have really great endurance but after lunch (4 hours of shaking my booty), I was tired and I wanted to sit down. After 3:30 I was watching the clock anxious for it to it 5:30. It was really fun and I learned a lot of great stuff. It was really overwhelming. By the time it was over I was so overloaded it felt like I hadn't learned anything.

It was exciting to be in a room of 60 people who really know how to shake their booty with some amount of coordination and rhythm. Now I have to memorize about 15 routines and I'm ready to teach, eek!

We left Zumba and went straight to Red Robin where I inhaled 1000 calories of deliciousness!

So do you think with the 12 mile run and 9 hours of Zumba that I maybe made the scale move this week? Hmmm we will see in about 2 hours when I go to Weight Watchers.

11 and 12 miles

So its been a while since I updated here. We just got back from a week long vacation. I actually ran my 12 miles while visiting family.

So briefly, 11 miles was HORRIBLE! I don't know what it was about that day but it was not easy. I had to go to the bathroom after mile 6 which always slows me down and messes everything up. After and during the run I wonder why on earth I am doing this and doubting my abilities. I felt really lousy when it was over and discouraged.

12 miles- not so bad. We were in Rexburg Idaho, which is actually where my hubby and I met and went to school, visiting my husband's brother and family. So i left at 5:45am from Sugar City, where his brother lives right next to Rexburg, with my camelbac backpack on and 8 ounces of Gatorade already in my tummy. I ran to Rexburg, a little over 2 miles, through town, up a monstrous hill-(7 blocks of up hill holy molly it was tough!) past the first apartment Lance and I lived in when we got married (ahhh) past the new beautiful Rexburg temple, down some new streets and houses that didn't exisist 10 years ago, past the apartment I lived in, past the apartment Lance lived in, past the stadium and other nostagic places and back to sugar city. 12 miles in 2 hours and 25 min. The last 2 were REALLY hard but I did it!!! It was fun running somewhere new and yet still familiar a little trip down memory lane. That is the longest run until my race. I"m still nervous and doubtful that I can do it but I have to think positively. I CAN DO THIS!