It's John's turn now!

This year John wanted to run the NYC marathon. He decided almost immediately after I finished last year. I had been torn whether to run again or not. It's such a big commitment that I was honored to participate in, but I didn't know if I could do it again.

Then, tragedy struck my life. My brother passed away shortly after he was diagnosed with Leukemia. This tragedy shook me up quite a bit. I knew that I would have to run again. This time, I will run for Scott. I will be running for Team LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong foundation.

So, John and I will be running together this year! Well, John will be done hours before me I'm sure... none the less, we will be in the same race.

Updates?

So, since we're into off season now...... there isn't much to say. But stay tuned in a few months. I'm pretty sure training will start up again for one of us...... or maybe both John and I. We'll see!

I FINISHED!!!!!

This was such an awesome opportunity. I was honestly terrified up until the day before. Then I had a calm come over me, and I just felt OK about it. I decided to leave behind any thoughts of making a certain time, and just go slow and make sure I finish without killing myself or getting hurt. It took me a lot longer than I had planned, but that didn't matter to me at all. I felt pretty good for almost the whole race.... The last two miles were seriously painful.... But, I finished. That's all that matters....

New York was so good to me. Thousands of people yelled my name the whole way. I had no need for headphones and music. I was carried the whole way by spectators showing their support and cheering me on. That felt fantastic! After I finished, I was in so much pain that it took me almost an hour to walk the half mile from the finish to the exit. My mom kept calling me thinking that I had passed right by them, or gone the wrong way. No, I was just walking REALLY slow. I was amazed when the next morning, I woke up and only had pain in my quads. I'm happy to say, that it's stayed that way. I'm pretty tired... but I'm not too sore, and that makes me happy.

One really cool experience about the race was the opportunity to be on a billboard in Times Square. Crazy, I know.... It was an Asics ad. I could send a text whenever I wanted it to pop up on the jumbo screen... So, I just kept texting, and I kept popping up. :)

AHHHHHH!!!!

Less than 24 hrs....

I'm not insane, I'm HARDCORE.....

At least that's what I kept telling myself as I ran 7.5 miles straight uphill.

Today I did my furthest run yet, 15 miles. It's not the 20 that I should be up to by this weekend.... due to a few set backs during training, I was not able to make it that far. I figured that if I wasn't going to make it the full 20, I might as well kick my butt and do half of my 15 straight uphill. Those of you who know the neighborhood know that running from my house to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon is not just a slight grade... It's killer. At least it was for me....

OK, I just found a website that tells you exact elevation. I climbed a total of 750 feet in 7.5 miles. So my average climb was 100 feet per mile.... That sounds insane to me. But, it's not insane, it's HARDCORE!!! Right?

Highlights

Just about every run I see something that makes the whole run worth it. Sometimes I'm shocked, or surprised. Sometimes I'll see or hear something that just makes me smile.
Here are a few experiences that I've had while running....
- When I first started running, I think it was maybe my 2nd week of training. I ran past a house with an old man out weeding his yard. He looked up at me and said "here comes the marathoner!" He obviously had no idea that I had just signed up for the NYC marathon.... but it was still nice to hear it.
- There was a house that I ran passed about a month ago. They had a patch in the front yard that was about 20ft by 40ft. There were fake flowers planted throughout the whole space. I wish I had taken a picture. When I went back last week, they were all gone....boo!
- During one run, I was almost hit by the same car, twice. It was an old white haired granny in her green civic. The first time, I was running on the left side of the road into oncoming traffic. She wanted to make a right hand turn, and pulled onto the shoulder right in front of me. I jumped pretty quickly to get out of the way. The second time was about twenty minutes later, I was running on the right had of the road with traffic. She did the same exact thing, except she came up behind me, and missed me by about 6 inches. I was so mad, I hit her car with my fist as she passed. She didn't seem to notice.
- Speaking of Granny.... yesterday I ran passed a house where there was a REALLY old granny. She had to be in her late 90's. She was walking back and forth in her driveway waving her hands up and down. When I saw her in the distance, I thought she was crazy. As I got closer, I realized that she was exercising. Good for her!
- Today I ran passed a baseball field. There was a man carrying his one year old as he walked around the field. I'm positive that he was talking to his son about America's Greatest Past Time. I thought it was really sweet that he spent his Friday morning teaching his son about something that he obviously loved.

number one....

John and I ran the Inter FC 5K this morning. I took first in the Women's 25-29 and John took 2nd in the Men 30-34. I'm pretty sure that my division was the smallest. The majority of runners were the kids on the soccer teams, and their parents... so there weren't many 20 somethings there. While it's nice to be first in something, it's probably the last time I'll ever get a first place ribbon in a running event. John smoked me of course. He ran it in 22:39. I was thrilled with my time of 31:42. I've been running 11.5-12 min miles so, this was a good run for speed training.