Ogden Half - Race Recap

I have been looking forward to this race for a long time. When Heidi told me how beautiful the course was and how much she loved it, I decided to go ahead and enter the lottery. I had only been running for a few months at that point and was no where near being able to run 13 miles. I was mildly concerned about being able to run that far, but I didn't think I would get a spot. When I actually did get in, I was excited and terrified all at the same time. 

Working out the logistics for this one was a bit of a struggle. I had a ton of things to get done right after work on Friday (pick up part for broken air-conditioner, drop off kids' stuff at Grandma's, pack the car, etc.) and Matt had to rearrange his work schedule a bit so we could make it to Ogden in time for me to pick up my packet. We got on the road a little later than we wanted, but made it to the expo in plenty of time for me to pick up my stuff.  Unfortunately, we were already a little late for a dinner reservation with Dave (who I ran with) and some of Heidi's family, so I had absolutely zero chance to look at anything.

We met up at Sonora Grill in downtown Ogden. Everything on the menu looked amazing, but I was trying really hard to stick with something that wouldn't give me stomach issues the next day so I ended up getting chicken tacos. Boring...but tasty. I'm looking forward to getting up there again sometime when I can be more adventurous with what I order. Dave managed to sneak a ninja photo of us during dinner...

Matt and I - I look like I'm already having issues guessing from the expression on my face!

It was fun getting to chat with everyone for a while. I think it helped keep the pre-race jitters to a minimum.

We split off from the rest of the group to go find our hotel and get checked in and settled for the night. I had booked a reservation the same night I registered for the race. I'm so glad I did! The hotel we stayed at filled up really quick since it was right next to the bus pick up and the finish line. It was amazing location-wise. Comfortable bed-wise...not so much. We hardly slept at all. I ended up staring at the alarm clock for the last 30 minutes before I needed to get out of bed. Oh well...good practice for Ragnar and running on no sleep, right?

I got up and got ready to go at about 3:30, then headed down to the lobby for the pre-race breakfast from the hotel. Since we still had about 3 hours before the race was supposed to start, I ate a banana to keep from getting too hungry. While I was sitting there, I looked out the window and saw rain. Blast! Some of the other runners mentioned that it had been raining hard all night. When I left the building a few minutes later, it was only sprinkling so I had high hopes that the worst had passed over us during the night. (Spoiler alert - it didn't.)

I waited outside for a few minutes to meet some friends of mine that were doing the full. I couldn't stay long enough to meet up with Becky since she was running a little late and I had to get over to the half buses to meet Dave, but I did get a couple of minutes with Evelyn before I had to take off. This was her first full marathon! She is such a fun person and an amazing inspiration to boot!

Me and Evelyn

I somehow managed to find Dave in the sea of people lining up for buses (thanks to a little texting triangulation) and we hopped on a bus at about 4:45am. As we wound our way around town and up the canyon, the ride seemed SO LONG. This is when I really started to question my sanity. Do I really want to run aaaaaaall the way back to where we started? If it seems long in a bus...it's going to be much worse on foot!

The start line was in Eden Park, which I'm sure would have been a lovely place if we had been able to see it in the daylight hours. We were at the tail end of the buses to arrive so by the time we got there, all the fire pits were completely surrounded and all the porta-potties had healthy lines. It was still drizzling outside so we decided to take DRY over WARM and camp out under the small pavilion for the 1 1/2 hour wait that we still had ahead of us. At one point during said wait, some people got an extra wake up call in the form of giant farm sprinklers turning on them while they were waiting in line for the porta-potty. Many screams were heard. We even had one guy tell us that he got blasted in the face by the full spray of one as he came around the corner. Ha! Good times.

An hour and a half of this...
tons of people huddled together in a pavilion surrounded by porta-potties.
it did not smell good.

About 15 minutes before the race was supposed to start we decided to leave the shelter of our pavilion so I could drop off my bag and we could make it to the start line. Coincidentally, this is also when it decided to start pouring buckets of rain. Yay. I managed to find a longer garbage bag in a discard heap on the walk over, so I snatched it and put it on over the other kitchen size bag I was already wearing. Double bagging for the win! Also, at some point in the extra long walk to the start line, they actually started the race. We didn't hear anything before that so it must have been the quietest race start ever.

Dave caught a picture of me in all my garbage bag glory...

After crossing the timing mat, we started running. There is short downhill section there, then the rest of the first mile or so is uphill. As we chugged along, I was surprised at how many people were already walking. Not sure if that was the rain or a fear of hills, but it seemed weird since it wasn't that steep.

Miles 2-3 had some rolling hills (small ones) and some fun aid stations. It was somewhere in here that my IT band started to hurt and I decided (again) that I was really tired of having it hurt every time I run.

Miles 4-5 we kept running and only slowed to a walk for a couple of minutes to get fuel out of my belt and grab some water from an aid station. Tried a new flavor of Shot Bloks - Black Cherry - and they were gross. Tasted like medicine, blech. I spent the next few miles trying to get the taste out of my mouth. I didn't carry water this time though, and I was really glad for that. There was an aid station at pretty much every mile and a hydration pack would have been annoying with the garbage bags. At mile 5, I ditched the black garbage bag, but kept the smaller one on.

Miles 6-8 Tried our best to avoid puddles and keep running. Somewhere in here we crossed the dam. Dave's foot was hurting and my knee wasn't happy so we didn't talk much. Dave was trying to concentrate on his form and I was mostly just zoning out and trying to enjoy the scenery. It really was so pretty...there was a low fog over the mountains that was breathtakingly beautiful. We also hit a section here where the wind was whipping through a narrow part of the canyon that made it SO COLD. Aside from that part, it really wasn't too terrible temperature-wise. A little chilly, but not nearly as bad as the Salt Lake Half.

Mile 9ish - There was a spectacular waterfall at the mouth of the canyon. I made Dave stop so I could take a picture of it. Also took the opportunity to fuel again while we were stopped. Had one of the Clif gels from an aid station and it was much better than the Shot Blok.

Mile 10-11 Hello second wind! This section was through some wooded but paved running trails. After the first little steep bit to get down into them, it was lovely. I felt refreshed since we were sheltered a bit more from the rain down in here. The trail was like a green tunnel through the trees and offered a bit more variation in the terrain. While the little hills felt big, it was a nice break for my IT band which was tight all the way up into my hip by this point. I ditched my other garbage bag finally somewhere in here too. Also, texted Matt at mile 11 to let him know we were in the home stretch.

Miles 12-13.1 Ouch. I think Dave and I were both just getting to the mentally done point after all the rain and aches and pains we both had. We sort of took turns pushing each other through to the end. I would have to stop and stretch out my leg, so he'd get me going again, and then he would want to walk for a bit to ease his foot pain, but I would get him started up again by telling him stuff like, "Okay, we'll walk to the next tree..." or whatever.  I was looking for Matt as we came up on the finish, but I didn't hear him until he was behind me and on the opposite side of the road from where I was looking. So glad he was there! Seeing him gave me enough gumption to sprint the last few yards. 

That last mile was rough, but we ran it in and got the exact same time. :)  A new PR for me at 2:10:57! I walked over to the finishers area and, just like Salt Lake, all I wanted was to get my stuff and find to a hot shower. The line was forever long and I had to wade through ankle deep water to get it, but I was able to get my things relatively quickly. There was a lot of good food there that I wanted to try, but I just wasn't feeling it. I was tired of being wet and cold. The only thing I grabbed was a chocolate milk.

The splits:

You can see the winding around the slow people we did in the first mile and the stop for fuel and pictures in mile 9...then the complete breakdown of mental fortitude in miles 12 and 13...

I wound around until I found Matt, then made him take the obligatory end-of-race-with-medal picture.

I had to hold the umbrella so Matt could take the picture....

After the picture, we walked back to the hotel room so I could stretch out my pesky leg and take a hot shower (bonus of being in a hotel was the endless hot water for the shower...I spent a LONG time in there). Once I was finally warm, I was HUNGRY. We packed up and checked out, then grabbed lunch at the MacCool's downstairs. After that, it was time to head home and pick up the kids. 

I had such a great time at this race. Yes...it was soggy and wet the whole time, and my IT band flared up early, but holy moly, I would jump at the chance to run this course again. The whole thing was SO well organized, fun and just pretty. I would love to see the course on a nice (dry) morning. I just might consider doing the full on this one even. It was such a great experience.

Next up - Utah Valley Half on June 8.

Leg issues...

The Ogden Half Marathon is in 2 days and I'm not sure how my leg is going to handle it. I've struggled on and off with IT band issues (more on than off...) since I started running last summer. Once I finally got my left leg figured out, the right one started in and it has been grumpy ever since.  I have been working really hard the last month on doing all the things I'm supposed to do (strength training, foam rolling, stretching, etc.). The only thing I haven't done is stop running all together.

After my 8.5 miles of hot mess last Saturday left me with some little tweaks that haven't gone away completely, I decided to stick to the elliptical on Tuesday. I was hoping the break from the impact would help, but this morning's slow and easy 3 miles still managed to induce pain in both my knee and hip.

Since it felt like my hip was rotated out again, I texted my chiropractor after the run and he was kind enough to rearrange his schedule to fit me in. He put me back together, waved some sort of laser over my leg, taped my IT band and gave me some advice about warming up the area before running. I'm really hoping that it was the hip that caused the IT band pain so quickly this morning and that some or all of what he did today will help on Saturday...especially since much of the race is downhill.  Eeeeep.

Marathon Plans

So far my training plan for all my running has been just to do what Heidi told me to do. Since she was helping her son scale up for a race as well, it has worked out just peachy. My problem now is that I need to start looking at marathon plans for the race in September. Since she isn't running it with me, I have to figure out what to do on my own.

I've looked around at several different options, but I'm not sure what is going to work best for my  often grumpy IT band. The two options I'm currently looking at are the Hal Higdon Novice 1 and the Marathonrookie.com Marathon plan. 

With the Marathonrookie version, it's not very clear where to jump in with where I'm currently running, especially since there's not a half built in. I'm thinking probably somewhere between 6 and 7 would work out if I started now, then I could build in a few step back weeks or longer runs if I felt like I needed them depending on how my body is responding.

With the Hal Higdon one, I could probably start at about week 6 this week since that would fit in with the next half I have scheduled. Then that would give me some extra time during the summer to fit in my other races and back off if the IT band needed it. I like that this one has step back weeks already built in and I could put in the additional long runs if I needed them.

For both of them I'm wondering how my body is going to respond to 4 days a week of running...might have to add that in a little at a time in order to avoid IT band catastrophe.

On an unrelated note...I had my first eye test after LASIK today. 20/15 baby! It has been amazing and I'm oh-so-glad that I went ahead with it. It sure made running that half in the rain much less annoying!

Rough Week

So many things buzzing around in my head this week. In the interest of full disclosure - this is going to be a massive brain dump...bail now if you don't want to read a wall of text.

Let me start out by saying that I have pretty much been an emotional wreck all week...only I was trying to hide it from myself so it ended up with me just being particularly grumpy and generally difficult to get along with all week. I hope my children forgive me. I think this week is always going to be a hard one...I will get to why in a minute.

Tuesday was a roller coaster. I ended up working from home so I could do Lyssa's hair for her school program and then attend it. She was dead set that her hair had to be curled that day and it was heartily agreed upon by all that having Matt attempt to wield the flat iron was a bad idea. After getting her out the door I used my 'lunch break' time to go on a run with Heidi. It was lovely and therapeutic and just generally a good time. She was patient with my wimpy-ness on the hills. (No stretching after the race on Saturday made for sore legs on Monday!)

Fast forward to a few hours later. As I was working through a bunch of e-mails, I got word of some org changes at work...with some possible GRAND benefits to my current workload. A quick phone call with the boss and Hallelujah! I think I might actually be able to breathe at work again. We will have some transition time, but holy Hannah that will greatly reduce my stress levels! Jumping for joy!

Fast forward again and I get to go to dinner with my awesome friend. The first thing she does when we get seated is hand me a tiny box with a tiny bow. Inside is one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received - a beautiful tree pendant with my parents' birthstones dangling from the top.

Why so significant? This week was the second anniversary of my dad's death...She remembered and that means the WORLD to me. I have worn the necklace every day and, strange as it may sound, it has helped me through the ups and downs that have come as the week progressed.

Wednesday was date night with Matt. It was so nice to have a couple of hours of time together. I'm trying to enjoy every single minute of the time we have together until he switches schedules. This is going to be a big craptacular change come the start of the new bid. Now we know what we are missing on this whole semi-normal family schedule business, going back to the old passing each other in the night schedule is going to be even worse.

I managed to squeeze in another run with Heidi on Thursday morning. My whole day went so much better and I know it is because I got to run.

Friday...ah Friday. The official anniversary of Dad's passing. One of these days I need to write down everything that happened that day, but I can't quite bring myself to it yet. It stings too much. I thought all day about him...different things, memories, fun times, the day he died, just a big jumble. I know I was extra somber at work and got more than one strange look. Several times during the day I just sat and stared into space or rested my head in my hands. The emotions are so close to the surface, sometimes it is really hard to keep it in.

I stopped to get some flowers for my mom on the way to pick up the kids. The girls had mentioned wanting to get some for her as we were getting ready that morning. I found some that were blue - Dad's favorite color - and knew that they were there just for me. We decided to go to find the waffle truck this year instead of IHOP. (Dad loved breakfast food!) and had a nice, yummy dinner.

I'm trying to make the day a day to remember the fun things and reminisce instead of being sad. I really hope that it is sinking in for my kids. It's still hard for me, but I think over time it will get better.

Even though we got home late, I decided to go for a run. I didn't leave the house until 8ish and had been planning on making it my longer run for the week, but it didn't quite work out that way. I was so preoccupied with all the stuff jumbling around in my brain that about half way through I managed to turn my ankle on a good sized rock running down one of the bigger hills. Fortunately I didn't biff it, but I came close. I was still able to run on it, but it felt funny and sort of out of whack. Because of that and the fact that it was getting really dark, I cut the run close and didn't quite get 5 miles out of it. Bah.

Saturday was my niece's wedding. Busy, busy day. We had to be at the temple by 7:30 which meant waking up the kids super early. All I wanted to do was sleep... but It turned out to be a beautiful day (especially in contrast to the crazy weather last Saturday). The ceremony was lovely, the bride was lovely and I was happy to be there supporting my family. I really struggled at the end of the day though. There were too many parallels between what was going on and my own experience with my dad. When they had their father/daughter dance at the end of the night, I finally lost it. My poor brother (not the one dancing with his newly married daughter!) was stuck with me when it happened. I could not stop crying. Emotional basketcase right here! We left late, but saw this on the way out the door...

I vented like crazy when I got home. Poor Matt. But he was patient and kind and listened to all my crazy talk that probably made zero sense. I had really wanted to run, and probably needed to, but ended up calling it a night.

Salt Lake City Half - Race Recap

This race was sort of a last minute thing...if signing up two weeks before the race can be considered last minute. Since I was pretty bummed about our Riverton Half being cancelled, Matt suggested I look at this one since a co-worker of his was doing it. I was able to con convince Dave to sign up as well since he also had the cancelled race blues (he was supposed to run Riverton with us).

Once we worked out the logistics of getting downtown by 7:00 am, I was really excited about getting a chance to run my first 'official' half.

I watched the weather all week...which was probably my first mistake. At the beginning of the week, the forecast was 60* and sunny. By the time Friday night rolled around it was raining and in the 40s. When I set out for Dave's house at 5:15 on Saturday morning I still had high hopes that it would clear up before we started the race. 

We made a stop on the way downtown to pick up "Run for Boston" shirts that the Altra folks were giving out. With all the happenings in Boston on Monday, I wanted to do whatever I could to show support of the Race and the running community in general.

After parking at Dave's brother's house, we hitched a ride to the start line with them. It was still raining, but warm-ish so I debated for a few minutes on whether to ditch my windbreaker or not. My drop bag was already pretty full with my sweatshirt, so I elected to keep the windbreaker just in case.

Dave caught this as I was trying to get everything arranged in my belt.

We lined up toward the back of the pack and tried to warm up as they counted down to the start. They played "Sweet Caroline" as a tribute to Boston and passed out "Run for Boston" wristbands to all the runners. Just before the race started, they had everyone hold up their arms with the wristbands on as a show of solidarity and support. I LOVE the running community.

They counted down the race start and off we went. It was a solid and giant mass of humanity running down the street, but the race vibe was amazing with so many people there.

The first few miles were fairly uneventful...still drizzling, but I felt great and was keeping a good pace even with dodging around a lot of slower people. There were spectators out in front of their homes and businesses all around the course cheering and ringing cow bells. I was having a great time!

There were a few more hills than I had been led to believe, but it wasn't too bad. There was one guy yelling/chanting, "Make this hill your B*#&$!!" all the way up the steeper hill in Sugarhouse Park that got me chuckling and helped keep me motivated to get up it without slowing down.

I walked for a minute or two at mile 5 to get my pills out and refuel, then it was another hill to get out of the park and up around the corner. Still more spectators...standing out in the rain, cheering and offering things to the runners.

Around mile 7 or 8 I stopped to use the restroom. Dave kept running and I didn't see him again after that. It was probably for the best since I felt like I was slowing him down. The pit stop took about 5-7 minutes (I wasn't even thinking about it when I stopped my watch :S) because the line was pretty long and people were having a hard time getting their wet spandex pants back on, lol.

I was feeling good at that point...wet, but it wasn't unbearable. Around mile 9 it started raining harder and getting windy. The temperature felt like it dropped quite a bit. I ended up giving out some of my ibuprofen to a girl that was stretching out her IT band and just couldn't keep running. It felt good to help a fellow IT band problem sufferer. :) Since I was already walking to get those out for her, I decided to go ahead and fuel a little early.

Mile 10 I walked just long enough to text Matt and tell him where I was. There was a lady in front of her house handing out orange slices. I think she made many friends.

And then at mile 11...things started getting ugly. By that time it was raining even harder and the cold wind was a bit more persistent. I couldn't feel my face...or my fingers...and my legs were going numb from the cold. The puddles were too big to avoid, but my shoes and socks were soaked through anyway. I could feel a blister forming in the underside bend of my big toe. It was generally just getting miserable.

My legs weren't particularly tired, they were just so cold that they were hard to move. I ended up walking a bit here and there, but it was worse when I walked and I knew that would just make it take longer. I walked through an aid station that was under a bridge solely to have a break from the wind and rain for a minute.

I plodded along, definitely slower than the first miles, but managed to keep going. Once I got to the park and the home stretch of the race I wanted to stop and walk SO BAD. I had my arms almost curled up into my chest trying to stay a little warmer and block the wind and my legs were heavy and cold. But I didn't stop...There were so many people out there in the wind and rain to support the runners.

A photographer took a picture of me just after I got my medal. As I tried to smile for the picture, I realized I couldn't feel my face enough to make a normal smile. Matt got the same effect in the picture he took once I was able to find him and the kids in the sea of people. 

I look like a dork, but I finished!

My splits (keeping in mind that I paused my watch during the potty break):

My official time was 2:15:27. Yay PR!

Matt and the kids gave me hugs, then I went off to grab some food and pick up my drop bag. I was shivering so bad I couldn't open my drop bag to get my sweatshirt out. It didn't really matter though because it had been sitting on the ground and wasn't waterproof. 

After I managed to find them again, we decided to get to the car as soon as possible. All of us were soaked. Matt gave me his coat while we were walking to the car, bless him! He also stopped at 7-11 and bought me a giant cup of hot chocolate. 

He also informed me on the way home that there were people that had been taken out of the medical tent on stretchers with IVs and heat blankets on them. Not sure what was going on there, but I'm glad I escaped without a ride in an ambulance!

Weather aside, it really was a great race and I had a great time. I loved the feel of the big crowd and listening to all the conversations and personalities along the way. It was so much fun! I would do it again in a heartbeat. Maybe next time just without the rain...