Category: Marathons

Three weeks ago, Mrs. Williams said she is running the Vigor Half for her 100th marathon. 100! Today my marathon total is 14. 🙂 She is so inspiring!

She said her son and a few others are running and I should run as well. I said, if Mrs. Chappell signs up, so will I. We went up stairs to talk to Mrs. Chappell and sure enough, she was signed up.

We woke up at 3:15am to arrive at the buses at 4:30am. A short 13 mile 🙂 ride up the canyon, we arrived at Solitude around 5:00am.

Mrs. Chappell and I crossed the starting line and we were off.

The snow covered mountains made for a beautiful morning, but a bit chilly. The temperature was 33′.

I haven’t been up here in years. Big Cottonwood canyon is a beautiful canyon.

11 miles to go! Ha!

Half way!

We arrived at the S. Mrs. Chappell was fantastic. She was focused throughout the marathon and kept on running. When she was doing her recovery walking, she was power walking. I couldn’t keep up. I had to jog next to her!

We followed the river down and it was roaring!

Without cars on the road, the canyon was so quiet. All we could hear were the birds and the river. It was pretty nice.

This is the first time running down the canyon. Driving down a lot of the scenery is missed. I was able to really look at details in the mountains, the rocks, the buds on the trees. I enjoyed the 13 miles.

A cave. That was fun.

Mile 10. We finished our warm up and started our 5K. 🙂

Mile 12 we met up with Paul and Eli.

Eli was running with Mrs. Chappell. 🙂

This path was fun 🙂

And we made it! Crossing the finish line!

Mrs. Williams was there to cheer us over the line.

Mrs. Williams son taking the picture. He carries the American flag down every marathon he runs.

3:11. We would have been in earlier if we didn’t have to wait for the light to change from red to green to cross the street. 🙂

After the race we stopped at Kneaders for French toast and then WannaCinn for a cinnamon roll.

What did Paul and Eli do while we were running? They went out to breakfast. Eli was so excited to tell me about his grilled cheese sandwich and fries. The fry sauce was his favorite and I have to go back with him and try it. We will have to put this restaurant on our Monday luncheon list. 🙂

This has to be the 2nd worst marathon I have run. The first was the Las Vegas half. I don’t think any marathon will beat that one.

The day started out pretty rough. I was up at 1:15 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. When my alarm went off at 2:40 am I was starving! While Paul was making my smoothie I grabbed a granola bar. Paul handed me a banana and said the granola bar was a bad idea. I told him I was so hungry I think I will be fine.

3:10 am I left and went to mom and dad’s house to meet up with Ferelyn and Court.

4:10am we arrived at the buses. I was so tired. I was fighting sleep on the bus.

5:30am we arrived at the top of Payson canyon. Having an hour to shiver I sipped my smoothie while standing in line for the porta potties. 20 minutes before the race started I left the line and dropped my bag on the bus and got back in line. A minute after I got in line I realized I dropped my awake drug. I left it in my bag! I ran back to the bus. They let me on the bus and told me good luck finding my bag among the other 500 blue bags.

Tears, a short prayer, and 10 minutes later I found my bag! I ran back to the porta potties. While I was in the potty the horn sounded. The race began! Oh, well. Good thing for the chip and my time doesn’t start until I cross the start line.

6:40am. I let the hills take me down. So far so good until mile 4. My stomach was so heavy. I kept running. Mile 5 my stomach was hurting! I will NEVER eat a granola bar again before a marathon.

Mile 8 I was looking for a place to throw up my breakfast. I pulled off the road and into the bushes. I was able to throw up a little, but as it was coming out the top, it wanted to come out the end 🙂 So, for the last 4 miles it was a little spicy down there, ha!

Mile 9 I stopped to throw up again, but there were too many people around so I kept going.

Mile 12 I ran past several residential garbage cans and I was so nauseous I was going to use one of them. I decided to just walk the last mile.

2 hours and 9 minutes. I am so disappointed. I told Paul I wanted him to drive me back up the mountain next Saturday and I was going to run it again. I didn’t get a chance to enjoy the mountain scenery, the cool morning, or the sunrise. I was only thinking of my heavy, nauseous stomach. So disappointed. I was looking forward with a time under 2 hours!

Today we ran the Timpanogos half marathon.

We started at Tibble Fork parking lot in American Fork Canyon. The bus dropped us off at 5:00am. We froze on top for 1 hour!

When we started all I could think about is why am I running 13 miles. Why? Then I had to stop thinking about the miles and listen to the quiet canyon. No cars. Beautiful canyon.

Took our picture at Timpanogos Cave. This wasn’t a resting picture 🙂 I ran this race at a comfortable pace and it was a very enjoyable race.

I didn’t look at my watch. The drink stations kept me in check of the mileage and I just kept my pace and kept going. Even up the hill!!

I finished feeling really good! I was in need of food and all they had was chocolate milk and tangerines. I grabbed all I could, sat down and enjoyed my tangerine, 3 cups of chocolate milk, and 2 cups of water.

Look at my time!!! I am very pleased! All my marathons I finished between 2:15-2:20. This time 2:07! Paul missed me coming across the finish line because he wasn’t expecting me to finish this early.

Little Pea ran his fun run. He said he wants to start training for 5k’s. I can start running 5k’s 🙂

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After the race Paul wanted to go for a hike. I did NOT want to go. Neither did Eli. I pushed my sore feet into my hiking boots, packed some muffins, cheetos, bottled water and off we went.

We drove to Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway Trailhead and started our 2 mile hike to the reservoir.

To mark the trail they painted dinosaur foot prints on the rocks. I told Eli they were real to motivate him to keep hiking to the next print. How else do you motivate a 7 year old to keep walking?

Those tracks kept him busy for the full 2 miles!

A few wild flowers along the way.

The cactus in this area was different. Little circle clumps.

Vernal is very beautiful.

Love the rocks.

Making our way to the reservoir.

If I had known it was going to be two miles of stair stepping, I would have kept my knee braces on. This trail was NOT flat. Lots of rocks and boulders. My knees were crying.

When we came to the reservoir we walked across a large flat rock that sloped into the water. We started searching for prints.

What to look for? We thought every little crack was a track and then we found one. Dilophosarus track!

And then many. Some were indented in the rock.

About six tracks walking toward the reservoir. When the sun went behind the clouds, the tracks illuminated and we saw many!

Look Eli! Dinosaur tracks!!

Look, Mommy! I’m on an Island!!

Little boys and water. It didn’t take him long before he lost interest in finding tracks and made his way into the water.

After running 13 miles and then hiking 4 more miles a few hours later was not fun. While searching for tracks and walking in the Mesozoic era just as the dinosaurs walked, I forgot about my feet and knees. It was pretty cool. I’m glad we did it.

After the bees were taken care of, we jumped in the car and headed to Vernal!

When we arrived we were hungry and needed to find something that wasn’t too greasy. Not a lot of restaurants to choose from, we ended up at Denny’s. Salmon, mashed potatoes, and broccoli to go. We grabbed food and went to the hotel to check in and eat. Either I was starving, or we ended up with someone who cooked a great salmon. It was surprisingly very good. Paul was delightfully surprised with his dinner as well.

The next morning we were at the bus at 6:00am. On top of Dry Fork Canyon by 6:20am. We had an hour to freeze before the race started. I drank my peach smoothie Paul made for me. I wasn’t going to have him make it due to us being out of town, but I couldn’t risk not having it. I packed the nutriBullet and Paul blended my smoothie this morning at 5:30am.

Mile 1! Lots to go.

Mile 5. The missionaries were there handing out water and powerade. I choked down powerade at each station so I could ration my bottle of pedialyte/ gatorade mixture to make it to the end of the race.

Want a picture with these beautiful mountains? Yes, I need a rest…er, I mean, Yes. I would like a picture with this nice back drop. 🙂

Next water stop. The sister missionaries.

Can’t forget this sister 🙂

Our cheering section. Blurry, but on the left is Dad, Lulu, Mom, Paul, Gage, Rin, and Eli. Court left us long ago. He was waiting for us at the finish line for a while now 🙂

I was almost walking at this point. Mile 1o was brutal with another gradual hill and then the wind! I wanted to give in. Then Eagle Mountain guy (20 years older than me!) showed me up by passing me, and saying hello. I sped up just a little bit, but I didn’t have anything left to give. If I push it, I will not finish. Ferelyn encouraged me the whole way. If she wasn’t running with me, I would have stopped to walk miles ago. She said this is going to be her last year running. Now what am I going to do? I’m not strong enough to motivate myself during races.

I finished 2:20. I am very pleased with my time. This was a challenging race. Lots of rolling hills. Not many consecutive down hills. Again, this was another canyon that went up instead of down!!

This was a hard race to prepare for and I was NOT ready for it. You name it, it stopped me from running. It was either the snow, cold weather, ankle issues, sinus infections, vertigo, or insomnia. I’m thrilled to just make it to the finish line.

Almost time for the kids fun run to begin.

I asked Gage to stay with the two littles and he said, “No. I’m out to win it!”

This little boy in front of Eli was crying the whole race. Eli helped him during the race and now at the end. I felt like that little boy crying during my race, ha!

Finished! Gage took 3rd!

After the race we drove by our old house. The neighborhood has grown, but it’s still the cute, quite street I remember.

Crazy enough, I’m thinking of running this one again.

I came back to Vegas for another attempt at the half marathon. I wanted my time to be 10 minutes faster than last year. This is an easy marathon. Flat, no hills, no sun, cooler temperatures, live bands keep me running, and I ran 6 other marathons this year, I was ready!

Paul and Eli dropped me off at the waiting area and then went to the M&M store to wait until the race started.

Look at all the runners! This was behind me and it curved around the building and went for another block.

Almost at the starting line!

One of the live bands that played.

Kiss.

This is a horrible picture, but this is Elvis. You can’t have bands playing in Vegas and not have Elvis!

I was running along thinking of when/if I was going to see Paul and Eli. Thousands of people along each side of the street and and 40,000 runners, I didn’t think I would see them, and then I heard this…

I totally heard my little Pea from across the street and through all the noise!

I ran a pretty good race. I liked my pace until mile 10. I wasn’t feeling so well so I slowed down a bit. Through the full race I only drank the gatorade I was carring and the gatorade at the drink stops. I didn’t dilute my salts with water like the mistake last year. I ended up alternating walking and running till mile 11.

Mile 11, things were not going well at all so I walked the rest of the mile.

Mile 12 I was really nauseous and now trying to find a place to throw up, but I couldn’t do it. There were too many people around me and no garbage cans. I kept walking and soon I was soooo tired. I wanted to just stop and sit on the curb and go to sleep. I knew if I stopped, I wouldn’t get up.

Mile 12.5 The strip started to sway, and I couldn’t hear anything around me. I pulled out my phone and was going to call Paul and have him hop the fence and get me.

Mile 13.1! I didn’t think it would come. I WALKED across the finish line and walked right into the med tent.

I looked out this tent door for almost 1/2 hour. I was so dehydrated, they gave me a cup of something that was supposed to be extremely salty, but tasted refreshing, so they gave me another one.

After a few of those drinks, I wasn’t able to keep any fluids down, I started dreading the walk back to our hotel. I didn’t think I could make it. I had to call Paul. He came shortly after having a police escort down the strip to the finish line. 🙂 Things didn’t improve.

I ended the night with an IV. 🙂

I was so disappointed with this race. I was prepared with gatorade, and prepared with training of previous races. This ending was a surprise to me.

At the beginning of the race I told Paul this was my last Las Vegas run, but now I want to run it again, to not only beat my time, but now finish without an IV 🙂

My sister and I have been running 1/2 marathons together this year, but this month it was hard to get together.

I still wanted to run a marathon this month so while she ran her race in Colorado, I ran a virtual marathon.

Sounds pretty crazy, I know. Is a virtual race is the same as a “real” marathon? I say, yes!

I ran the distance.

I even brought my after race snacks.

I didn’t have any wheat bread in the house, but I found wheat chex cereal. 🙂 Counts as wheat, right? Nutri-grain bar, raisins, a chocolate muffin, and a half eaten pumpkin muffin.

I did have to stop 1/2 way through to switch out my Gatorade and get some water.

Mile 8, I had my cheering crowd!

I ran an easy route where it was pretty flat and only a few small hills. With all the easy marathons I ran this year, I needed something in my favor 🙂

Paul thought it was funny I purchased a medal for running. I thought it was a huge accomplishment and needed a reward at the end.

This was another challenging run. I had to keep talking myself into running. 1/2 way through I was wondering why I’m doing this and no one would know if I stopped. But, I kept going! I may have cried half way through mile 11, but I did it. 4th marathon of the year. 3 more to go…

Third marathon of the year. The Georgetown to Idaho Spring marathon in Colorado.

When I signed up for this race, my sister said it was just like the Heber half. A fast race down hill in a beautiful canyon. Fantastic! I will do it. I need another 7 miles of easy running to help me get to the finish line 🙂

Again, it was an early start. We needed to get to the bus by 6am so they can get us up to the starting line by 7am. This race had a late start of 8am.

It’s an hour drive from my sisters house to the buses to bus us to to the starting line, so I arrived at her house at 4am. Look at the bunnies! Apparently, they are everywhere! I think they are cute, Ferelyn thinks they are annoying because they leave droppings and eat everything.

At the starting line.

This race was a beautiful race. It started at a lake and ran past an old mine.

I wore a running jacket because it was cold out, with a short sleeved shirt. I want to do this marathon again, so next time, I will drop my jacket and run in a short sleeved shirt at the start.

So this was NOTHING like the Heber half. First difference: The first 2 miles were UP HILL! I was dying. as you can see above.

Lots of entertainment during this race.

The river was beautiful.

Ferelyn: ” want a picture by the river?”

Me: “Yeah, I could use a break…er… I mean, yes, let’s take a picture :)”

I was dying! This race had more hills to run up than down. And we were supposedly dropping in elevation every mile we ran.

The lady on the right had to be in her 70’s and I couldn’t keep up with her! I had to print this picture and hang it in my kitchen as a reminder to get stronger!!!

Brutal.

Another band. I found out the high school seniors need 40 hours of volunteer hours to graduate. Apparently, this counts as their hours. They were enjoyable to listen to.

This the old mine. Georgetown and Idaho Springs are old mining towns.

We made it. Ferelyn couldn’t get a picture of us at the finish line. I needed food! I was already in line for my bagel and chocolate milks. Yes, I had several chocolate milks.

This race was very challenging for me. I want to run it again next year and I will be ready for it!

Well, the second marathon has arrived. Ferelyn and her kids came out for the race.

We arrived at the buses at 4:00am. It started to rain 🙂

We made it to the start line at 5:00am. We grabbed space blankets and tried to keep warm. It poured rain for about 1/2 hour.

In our rain gear ready to go! We couldn’t decide if we should drop our rain coats or not. The clouds were looking like it wanted to rain again so we made the decision to run with them on. I also ran in a long sleeve shirt because of the cold.

I’m definitely going to run this next year. It was so cold up top, I will bring my rain jacket and drop it before the race starts. I will also run in a short sleeved shirt as well. Just like the Heber half, it got hot after leaving the canyon.

It was a very beautiful race. Not as steep as the Heber half.

Ferelyn running backward trying to keep me running. She is a strong runner. I strive to be her while I train.

Fun trail.

At the finish line!

I finished 2:19. Again, the 7 miles of hills helped my time.

It was a fabulous race and I will be doing it next year. I just hope Ferelyn runs next year with me. I think that was why it was so fun.

Ferelyn and Court arrived at the campground to pick me ut at 4:00am so we could get to the buses by 4:30.

We made it to the starting line at 5:00am. It was VERY cold. I wore my running jacket and long-sleeved shirt. Ferelyn and Court dropped their jacket before the run, and I will do the same if I run this race again. I will also run in a short-sleeved shirt. It was VERY hot for the last 7 miles in the valley.

We were standing in front of the fire trying to keep warm.

No pictures during this race. Court ran ahead of us and Ferelyn said she would run with me and wouldn’t leave me behind.

They advertise this as a fast marathon, and it was fast! Two miles into the race, Ferelyn said, “see you at the bottom.” 🙂 And ran ahead to finish the race with her personal record of an hour and a half, something crazy like that. They are both great runners!

At the finish line.

I finished 2:15. Not bad for having a food injury and only being able to run for a month before this race. The 7 miles down hill didn’t hurt my time either. 🙂

We moved out of the Lodgepole campground and drove further up the canyon to Strawberry Reservoir and stayed in Soldier Creek campground. This is our favorite campground to stay in. Trees, shade, and close to the water.

Back at the trailer, my muscles were getting VERY tight and stiff. This blue roller was the only thing I brought with me. Every hour I rolled every hurty muscle. 🙂

That’s my boy!

I was starving after my run. Grilled tuna sandwich, grapes, chips, and avocado with everything bagel seasoning. Lots of protein to help with my achy muscles.

Mountains and trees are for little boys.

Lots of playing and riding the scooter.

That night for dinner: Salmon, squash, and corn on the cob in foil packets.

After dinner we had smores. This is how I like smores. Chocolate, marshmallow, and another piece of chocolate. Who needs graham crackers?