Just signed up...

I've been thinking a lot about running and whether or not I wanted to sign up for a race this year. After a lot of thought I decided...why not??? I went online and found one that I have not done before, something new and something different. I picked the Timp Trail 1/2 Marathon. It will be on May 26th which means my training will start tomorrow. Here is the information about it....

"This is a very challenging course. This course is all run on mountain trail and fire road. There are sections of accent and decent that are very technical; possible snow, possible stream crossings, and rocky/steep areas with exposed cliffs. This is a trail marathon that is set up like an ultra marathon. There will not be aid stations and porta-johns every mile or two. Also, there will not be volunteers at every turn showing you which way to go. the course will be marked with orange and blue flagging. Orange will mark the way and orange and blue together will signal up-coming turns and turn offs. The course will be marked well but you must pay attention to the flagging."

This will be the first race where I will need to carry my own water! Wish me luck, I will be using the same training that Annie and I did for the previous 1/2 which worked out well. I'm excited to do this!

PINK

Annie and I ran in the all women's pink 1/2 marathon. We had a great time despite the snowy weather. It's been great weather and the day before we had a really cold and snowy storm come in so we knew it was going to be cold and so Annie went to savers and bought long heavy coats for us to wear while we were waiting for the race to begin. We left home at 5am and drove up to Park City, we picked up our packets got all decked out in our pick attire and climb onto the bus. Luckily, at the top the buses stayed around so we were able to sit on them instead of stand in the freezing weather. Once the race started Annie and I followed our training schedule and it was great. We ran in our coats until around mile 5, they really did keep us warm and it was a very smart idea - thanks Annie for getting those! At the end Jon, Kyle and our parents were there cheering us on. We are grateful for them for standing in that cold weather to support us - it always makes a difference when loved ones are at the end. We had a great time during the race and it was fun to start and finish a race together. Here are a bunch of pictures before the race, during and after. We were laughing pretty hard at how funny we looked in those big coats and our fun pink socks and pompoms on our shoes. But at least we were warm! :)

The Dirty Dash cont...

Here are just 2 more pictures of Sam and I at the Dirty Dash! These pictures were taken by The Dirty Dash crew as we were running it and at the end.

THE DIRTY DASH

Sam and I ran in the dirty dash. Well I don’t actually know if I’d consider it running. It was a 3 mile obstacle course. It was at Soldier Hollow which is in Midway. We started by running up steep muddy hill. I nearly fell several times. By the time we got to the top we were both covered in mud and out of breath. After the hill there were 6 or 7 bails of hay spread over a good distance and we had to jump over them, or rather climb, they were big bails of hay. After that we came to some more mud pits and had to crawl through some big pipes through the water and the mud there were three sections of this. After that came the wood walls that we had to climb over or go in between them. The mud was super thick and almost took our shoes off. At one point Sam fell and was completely covered in mud. A few more obstacles they had were a rope/net wall that we had to climb up and then climb down. It was painful! We had to run next to the lake in the stinky fish-poo filled mud where we almost stepped on a giant dead fish that was missing it’s eye. That was definitely the grossest part. Then we ran back up the mountain to get to the top of the giant water slide. This part was the best, Sam and I ran as fast as we could and dove head first down the slide. I made it ½ way and had to get up and run and dive again and finished the slide really fast. Sam took a few more runs to get down the entire slide. At the end was a giant mud pit. We jumped in, Sam doing a cannon ball into the water/mud and I jumped in feet first then dove in head first. The water was freezing and both Sam and I thought we were going to drowned right then and there. We got through the mud and finished the race. We had a great time. Here are a bunch of pictures of that day.

PINK

Today Annie and I ran in a 5K. The race was in Alpine and we had to be there at 7:30 to pick up our packets. We put on our timing chips and climbed onto the bus. While sitting on the bus we were thinking that it is a bit odd that this race was bussing us to the start line when it was only a 3 mile run, typically in smaller races the course is set as an out and back or around several blocks to make up the miles. We sat on the bus for several minutes until the bus was full with girls and then it drove us a little bit up the canyon. We got off the bus and we were waiting for the race to start when we heard another runner telling her friend the time. It was only 8:20 and the race didn't start until 9. We were shocked because we thought that we would get off the bus and start the race with in a few minutes, but nope! we had 40 minutes of standing 3 miles from the finish line and waiting. So what we decided to do was to just start running and finish the race before it even started. So we started that we started running on our own, we ran almost the entire way, it was an easy downhill course and had a great time just running together and talking. We followed the signs and markers for the race so we would be able to make it to the finish line. We ran it in 30 minutes and finished it before it actually began.

But the problem was that we had the chips still on our shoes and we had to turn them in so we wouldn't get charged the fee for keeping it. We went to the finish line and found some volunteers and told them we just needed to turn in the chips. They didn't know what to do with them and directed us to the girl in charge. We were able to turn them into her and told her that we had just run the race course on our own. They gave us the small little ribbon medallion for finishing and when we crossed the finish line to get it the time said 1 minute 39 seconds. They had just started the race. We got in the car and headed home - we stopped at Gandolfo's ate breakfast and then headed back home and at that time the we figured the runners were just about to cross the finish line!! We were both glad we did that- it just seems a little silly to wait 1 1/2 hours just to run 3 miles which only take 30 minutes. We figured we ran the course, got our packets, our shirt, and supported the cause by paying the money to do so and we can call it good. Thanks Annie for running it with me today, now on to training for the 1/2.

Beginner's course???

Today Annie, Kyle and myself ran in a 5K up Provo Canyon. It was really cold and windy but we stuck with it and waited out the extra 30 minutes after the race was suppose to start. The people in charge let us know what the course was going to be like and what to expect they told everyone that it was a beginners course and not that challenging, However after the 15 minute hike up the mountain to get to the start line we probably should have realized he had no idea what he was talking about. I'll let you decide, look at the pictures below and tell me if you think this course is beginners or just absolutely crazy. Oh and the reason the picture of me is so blurry is because Annie was trying to not slip and slide right off the mountain.

This part of the trail was 1 1/2 miles in. After we got off of the mountain we finished the run on the Provo River trail. We all had fun despite how miserable and cold we were before we started the race. Gotta love running!!! :)

1 year later

The other day I was thinking about running and all the races I did last year when I realized that it has been exactly one year since signing up for the Goofy Challenge and the start of my training for that race. I knew after running a 1/2 and a full marathon back to back that I was going to need a break from running because it was so intense, but I did not think that I would go an entire year without running in one race. I got just a little lazy and used my sore knee as an excuse. I haven't felt to bad about it though because I have kept the weight off by doing a little bit of running and other types of excersing throughout the year but I have now created a new workout chart for the rest of the year that will slowly build my miles back up and hopefully by that time I will be ready to sign up and run another race and when I do I will have a new post to add to this running blog, until then.....