Email from Christa

Today someone asked me if I liked you. I laughed, and I said, "Ha! That's funny!! I freakin' LOVE  that chick!! She's funny, caring, crazy as heck, sweet, beautiful, she's reading this email right now & I love her!!"  Send this to ten ladies you love!! & I better be one!!!!  Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says~~"Oh Crap, She's up again!"

Running Free Report - After the Marathon

Supercino marathongrandma!
Here's your report from last week on runningfreeonline.
Forwards! Stuart @runsaturday.

Last week you did: Last week you completed: Sport # Distance Time Run 3 8.3 mi 1:55:02 Bike 4 43.3 mi 4:27:22 Total 7 51.6 mi 6:22:24

Running with Neal

Just a short run after a light breakfast to spend a few minutes alone together. We talked about the Ragnar Relay and Neal and Kristen's upcoming move to Arizona. Soon I will have 6 grandchildren living in AZ. We talked a little about a few of Neal's mission experiences since that is where he met our team captain. One other runner was one of his MTC companion.
We have a nice mixture of runners on our Ragnar team with different ages, and 4 women and 8 men. We both looked at the Lake Mead area as we came through on our way to Arizona. It will be fun to do this event with him.

Biking with Mark & Brittainy

Just a short ride with Mark & Brittainy. The hotel we are staying at has bikes that you can check out to ride. The beach type cruiser ones. So they checked out two bikes and off we went. The tires on the bikes could probably have had a bit more air. We rode from the hotel and then headed around to Nash Dr.
Mark told us about a game he use to play with friends in Pleasant Grove. You can play it on bikes or running. They called it an Indian Run. This is how you play. We all rode single file. The person who is last sprints on their bike to the front of the line. They now set the pace for the ride. They can slow it down or pick it up. Then the new person who is now last sprints to the front of the line and they now control the pace. You just keep doing this over and over. Mark and Brittainy could go pretty fast on those cruiser bikes. And they are both very competitive. We played it for a few minutes. It was a lot of fun.

Arizona Saturday Bike Ride

Some time by myself for a morning bike ride before the family was to gather for Violet's baptism. Took my bike out to ride around in housing areas down the road by Alicia's meetinghouse. It was such a nice morning. Perfect bike weather. Most of the nice housing tracts in Arizona have an HOA. So within the tracts they make walking/riding/green areas that they maintain and are pretty. I just wanted to be safe while riding and not have another Pit Bull chase me and try to bite me like what happened when I was riding in Alicia's neighborhood. She warned me.... that happened when she tried running in her neighborhood..... I didn't think  that it would be a problem on my bike. Yeah, just a bigger target to chase. Anyway, I rode on these private paths. I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't read those signs. Had a nice time. Can you see my new reflective vest?

Night Run With Alicia

Practice for Ragnar anyone? It is hot in Arizona. 99 Degrees. So for me running during the day is not an option. Alicia and I drove to a park near her house, there is a fishing lake there with sidewalks. Because of the heat people come out at night to the brightly lit park to fish, walk, play and R U N.
Alicia has been doing the run walk, her longest run: 5 miles. Tonight I wanted to see how she has been doing with my over the internet coaching and how I can help her. We decided to walk 2 run 1 to begin with. She has been busy delivering babies and so we wanted to start easy. Right off I realized that Alicia has been walking too F A S T on her walk breaks and not getting any rest. She was walking her normal speed - which is very fast. So first thing, we slowed down on the walk. It was hard for her but right away she said it was really helping her with endurance. 
Because of her broken ankle she is having a difficult time with pain and with part of her foot going to sleep soon after she starts running. I am thinking..... maybe some different shoelaces. This slower walk helped a bit with the numbness. Fun times with my daughter. She is awesome.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:36:28	2.11	17:18
1	00:16:54	1.00	16:54
2	00:17:21	1.00	17:21

Cyndie and I Ride the Dimple Dell Loop

Today was a non-run day. Also known as cross-training. Of course, now that I think of it since right now I am no longer marathon bound, I now have to do a lot of cross-training because Cyndie has me scheduled for lots of different events this summer.

As I am writing this I am listening to the song “The Climb.” Well, that is what today on the bike was all about. I was able to get off work for a couple of hours to join Canyon Bicycles all girl Tuesday ride. I looked the map over, the email said just one good short climb. I thought as we went up the hill on 12600 that I had it in the bag, soon after leaving the store and the climb was done.

Cyndie and I can laugh now, but there were several short steep climbs during the ride and several long gradual climbs. I was at the tail end of the riders, yeah just me and the second ride leader who stays at the back with the slow person. Like having my own bike tour guide. But it was meant to be. On places where I rode slow (remember I just did a marathon 3 days ago) she rode along side of me and we talked. We got on the subject of triathlons. She was talking about her and Sharma’s experience in running and swimming. Said she couldn’t figure out why the swimming wasn’t going so good, she had done some swimming in college. I said, “Are you holding your breath or blowing out the air in the water.” You must have guessed, she was holding it. Wrong. That is what I paid $50 to learn I was doing incorrectly. Anyway, she was very happy. Like I mentioned, meant to be. Actually that is what she said. I was feeling bad she had to go so slow with me, but happy not to be left behind.

And where was Cyndie? Well, she wasn’t at the front of the group, but she does have very strong leg muscles and can bike faster than me. Plus she has a lot of mountain bike riding experience - thus the stronger legs and more bike smarts. She was still extremely sore from the Ogden Half Marathon on Saturday - she’d run most of it at quite a quick pace and because of having a chest cold for two weeks and still under its influence she was just plain worn out. Hopefully soon she will be back to full health.

The “Dimple Dell Loop” as they call it, when you come to the top guess what is after going up? Yes, the downhill. Now we get to my fear of biking, going fast. Well, maybe not fast....but fast and downhill. I fell as a teen on a bike going down a steep hill in Thousand Oaks, CA. I can’t remember the exact circumstances, but I don’t think it was my bike and we were visiting some former neighbors. Loose gravel caused the fall. Dang if it didn’t leave me with a little fear. Anyway, later that day Cyndie sent me a text “There was a downhill section that I was going 37 miles and hour that was scary fast.” I think I will be needing brakes more often than most riders. I was using them like crazy.

It was a nice fun hard ride, here are the stats:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Speed
Summary	01:22:00	13.94	10.2
1	00:08:29	1.00	7.1
2	00:05:41	1.00	10.5
3	00:07:53	1.00	7.6
4	00:05:44	1.00	10.4
5	00:05:47	1.00	10.4
6	00:06:30	1.00	9.2
7	00:09:46	1.00	6.1
8	00:05:39	1.00	10.6
9	00:04:42	1.00	12.7
10	00:05:51	1.00	10.2
11	00:03:22	1.00	17.8
12	00:04:09	1.00	14.4
13	00:03:48	1.00	15.7
14	00:04:31	0.94	12.4

Running Free Report - Marathon Week 25

This was my marathon week. What a great accomplishment.

Bravo marathongrandma!  Have an amazing week.

Last week you completed: Sport # Distance Time Run 3 30.6 mi 6:37:49 Total 3 30.6 mi 6:37:49

Ogden Marathon

What a fun day. A day to always remember. Marathon morning came early with a 4:15am wakeup alarm on Liz's phone. Liz, Angie and I got up and dressed, then packed our stuff. We ended up finding out that we had a late check-out at 2pm so we took all our stuff back to the room.

Waiting for the race to start.

The race weather: ideal. I’ve been running in similar weather all year. Liz and I met her Marathon Maniac friends for the bus ride to the start. We just talked and visited on the ride up. I ate my two eggs and piece of bread for breakfast. I was excited but no nerves, I knew I had done my best to be prepared. If you know me well, you know I have struggled with competition nerves. Running doesn't do that to me. The start line area was in a wet cow pasture, complete with all the trimmings! Plus long rows of potties and lots of fire pits to keep runners warm. A news helicopter circled overhead.

When all the buses cleared out the the start line it filled up quickly. Liz and I wanted to be near the back where the 5:30 pace group was so we politely pushed our way through the middle of the crowd trying to get through. Ready. Set. Go. and the race is on! Before we made it back - so we moved to the side of the road. When the 5:30 pace group came by we fell in after them.

Waiting for buses to move off the start line.

A big part of a marathon is waiting. Waiting for the day to come. Waiting in line to get your bib. Waiting in line at the porta potties. Waiting for the race to start. If you are good at waiting you are halfway there.

Waiting.

At top of hill.

The hardest thing about the run/walk is that when everyone is in the big group at the start, after 2 minutes we walk. It looks to others like we have already quit. But if we don't walk early, the whole plan doesn't work. I had programmed my ipod for my more mellow run music so we wouldn’t tear out and get tired fast. In the marathon it is all about what pace can you endure for 26 miles or 6 hours! Cyndie laid out a pace plan for me, basically the first few miles were the fastest pace of the race, when fresh and excited! then the middle add about another minute to pace, leaving the last few tired miles for the slowest pace.

Me with Marathon Maniacs
L-R: Angie, Liz, Marsha, Teresa and Karen.

Happy marathoner.

Another happy marathoner.

Well the first ten miles I was able to spend with Liz. What a delight. She is very easy to run with. We seem to set the pace together. This was her 6th marathon. Being with her gave me confidence. A marathon is a heck of a long way. I trained for it, but now I had to actually test that training - trust what the schedule said - run 20 miles and you can run 26.2. It was so nice to have a friend to run with. When I started out on this whole marathon journey I was going to be running alone. Making such good friends along the way has been such an added bonus to this whole adventure.

Making it to mile 1. Only 25.2 to go.

Liz listened to me talk about my dedication list as we ran the miles. I was with her when I did the “coat toss.” I had bought it at DI and when I got too warm I threw it by the side of the road. $5 of fun. Doesn’t take much to entertain me. We were running 5 and then 6 minutes ahead of her virtual partner on her watch. I was concerned about being on time to the dam - cut off 4.5 hours. For several miles we kept the Clif 5:30 pace group in sight. The pace setter was carrying a stick with balloons and a sign on it so they were easy to spot.

Marathon fun with the hippies.

While we were running together I knocked off my Gymboss, it hit the ground and out rolled the battery. Liz put it back together and reprogramed it for me during the walk break. In the meantime we turned hers on. I also dropped a GU & one of my arm warmers. 3 things. I was done with dropping stuff, geez. We went through the “hippie” aid station together. Stopped for some pictures. Liz looks pretty in the pictures - she doesn’t need makeup like me.

Well organized aid station.

When Liz started to get a bit tired and was struggling to maintain my pace she told me it was time to leave her. I asked her if she was kicking me out? We were going up a gentle slope and so I turned on my Gymboss again and went on ahead. Still doing the running with walk breaks. I was sad to leave Liz but I had to run my race. And I was running it like I had trained.

Beautiful scenery.

Me during a walk break.

I got lots of attention and encouragement from others because of the sign on my back. Some people encouraged, some told me it was their first marathon. Thanks to Cyndie for making that sign, it was like having some built in company. 

Crossing the Ogden Half Marathon start line, lots and lots of Johns. I took the opportunity to stop again. I also had a banana piece.

Waterfall in the canyon.

The last 6 miles. My PR for distance. Running a little slower, leg muscles getting pretty tight. At this point I thought, I can do 6 miles. That is a short run to me now. The run through the Ogden River Parkway was beautiful. Shady. No head wind. I was sure glad to have that gone. Mile 23 & 24 my legs were complaining - pretty tight muscles. They were telling me that it was more than a 10% increase to my run. Anyway, some of my special people and a dog that were on these last few miles gave me some good times to think about. It made these miles special. Memorable.

Run into finish line.

When I finally hit the city streets it was just a short distance and I made the turn onto Historic 25th street and saw the finish line in the distance. What a cool experience. I decided to just run. As I got going I picked up speed and power. It felt good to have energy in the last few minutes of the marathon. It was fun to run a few "red lights." Came into the finish line running strong. What a great feeling of accomplishment - I finished a marathon. In less than 6 hours was my goal. 5 hours 57 minutes 53 seconds. And I thought when I finished I would know if I would ever want to do one again. I do. Want to do one again. I just don't know when.

Coming into the finish line you could see the temple.