Mesquite Tri States Marathon - A PR!!!!!

This is marathon number one in my streak of two marathons in 16 days to become a MARATHON MANIAC!!! This is a quest that started out with a 3 race scenario in 90 days, but later when I realized that the last two were only 16 days apart, and this would qualify me, I dumped the first one, sized it down to a half and decided two would work for me.

Teota, Liz, Me and Cyndie.

I love girl trips and this one was bound to be fun with Cyndie, Liz, Teota and I. Teota drove us in her nice BMW, that car has all the bells and whistles. We left on Friday morning and stopped for a sandwich on our way to Nevada. The weather was nice for us and we had a nice safe trip.
Once we arrived in Mesquite we had some time before packet pickup to check into our hotel and get settled in. The packet pickup went quick and after that we went to dinner at a restaurant in the casino. Then Teota dropped us off at our hotel a short distance away and we were headed for bed.
Races are always fun, but this one will be especially fun because two of my friends, Cyndie Nell and Teota Dangle will become Marathon Maniacs today. That special day is another 2 weeks off for me.

The amount of potties for the amount of runners did not match up. 

Hangin' before the race.

Yeah, running in the middle of nowhere!

Cyndie wearing her sign. 

Entering our second state as the race officially started in Utah.

Saw someone do the snake hop dance, only when we
got up to this point in the road it was a tarantula.

Mile countdown was backwards,
17 is Jan's favorite number.

Teota wearing her sign.

Scenery along the way.

Yes, long and lonely out there.

Some parts were very pretty.

Taking a picture of myself.

Wall near the end of the 26.2 miles.

Cyndie did her marathon maniac streak of 3 marathons in 78 days by running the Pocatello Marathon, the SoJo Marathon and finally the Mesquite Marathon. She is now maniac #4557.
It is critical to know your number when you are a maniac. Everyone's number is way cool.
Then Teota went for her streak of 3 marathons in 63 days. She ran the Top of Utah Marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon and then Mesquite. Her number is #4560.

Teota crosses the finish line "I'm a maniac, maniac..."

Teota shows off the medal.

26.2 finisher, one down, one to go in 2 weeks.

Cyndie on approach to the finish line.
She's a maniac for sure.

Cyndie finishes, get her a chair this girl
has had a rough run.

After getting lost because the race directors picked
up all the signs, Liz makes it to the finish line.
It is her fault we all want to be maniacs.

I would not do this race again, lots of hills and the race directors are unfriendly. Luckily they got the best and friendliest volunteers. Those people treated us good. 

Race stats:

26.2 miles  5:50:17

My Garmin dumped all my stats, I was very disappointed in that. Since the software update I now have to push the "reset" button to save workouts.

Here I Come Mesquite Marathon

I like to look to see who is racing in my age group. It is always interesting to see who my age is running. I also look at the results from the previous year and see who is running the race for the second time. Did they like it or are they defending their title? LOL. This marathon age group is 50-59, usually it is broken down in a smaller group,55-59. Last year this race was run with the smaller age groups.  And look - my bid number is 56, my age!

50-59

248 ARMSTRONG SUSAN OGDEN UT 52 F Marathon

246 BLACKMORE JUDY LAVERKIN UT 58 F Marathon

2010 2nd 4:34:48 55-59

38 BOYD SHELLY SANDY UT 50 F Marathon

297 FORD KALITA SALT LAKE CITY UT 55 F Marathon

52 GOLZE SANDRA ORINDA CA 56 F Marathon

294 HARDING ALYSON SALT LAKE CITY UT 50 F Marathon

158 JOHNSON JANICE MANTUA UT 54 F Marathon

86 KERSHISNIK LYNN ROCK SPRINGS WY 54 F Marathon

291 LARSEN TERESA SALT LAKE CITY UT 51 F Marathon

351 LEW SUSANNA LEHI UT 56 F Marathon

4 MADSEN LESLIE MANHATTAN MT 53 F Marathon

212 MARTINEZ DIANA HOLLADAY UT 58 F Marathon

2010 4th 5:01:35 55-59

66 MERTEN CYNDIE CORVALLIS OR 55 F Marathon

296 MIRABELLI DONNA SALT LAKE CITY UT 59 F Marathon             

56 MONSON MARSHA RIVERTON UT 56 F Marathon

284 POMPEO CHERI WOODINVILLE WA 59 F Marathon

22 PUGH JERI NEESE SALT LAKE CITY UT 59 F Marathon

180 RAMBO ERNIE LAS VEGAS NV 54 F Marathon
2009 4th 4:50:26 50-59

362 SCHWARTZ SANDRA SANTA CRUZ CA 52 F Marathon

290 TEBBS CAROLYN SALT LAKE CITY UT 59 F Marathon

386 WILDING ELENI OREM UT 52 F Marathon

251 YAMASHITA BETTY OGDEN UT 59 F Marathon

146 ZOCKOLL DEBBRA ST GEORGE UT 56 F Marathon

2010 1st 4:16:00 50-54
2009 1st 3:55:12 50-59

Basically I must run this in 6 hours to qualify for a medal. They changed the rules after I entered. It started out as "we wait for every runner" then moved to 6:30 and now it is 6 hours. This race was stolen from Mammoth Marathons and so I am not surprised what thieves will do. This is part of my MM plan and I am going forward.

The course: The course is a rolling downhill route. The first 18 or so miles are downhill or pretty flat, while the last 8 have some fairly substantial climbs. Please train and be ready for the uphill parts! There are a few steep pitches! Elevation gain of 269 ft. I can do it.

Crazy Course Fun Run

Today I ran the Draper Crazy Course Fun Run. It is a crazier than a 5K in that it is 3.3 miles instead of 3.1 miles. I ran with Cyndie. I dressed up as Pocahontas and Cyndie was Captain John Smith.

Captain John Smith - Cyndie 

Pocahontas - Me

Perfect weather with overcast and a temperature of 46 degrees. Rain threatened and was predicted but it never happened during the race. I did this race last year with Mike Davey's family. This year they didn't run. Too bad, it was awesome. A friendly, fun crowd. It was fun to dress up again in my Indian costume. It was fun to see the few others dressed up again this year:

I ended up beating this turkey to the finish.

Another Indian and a bare legged turkey.

Back of bare legged turkey.

Turkey hat.

On my run I saw a couple of cool things.

A real Zebra.

A metal dinosaur.

My official race time:

60  9604 Marsha Monson    Riverton   F5564   39:41.1

47  9610 Cyndie Nell   West Jordan    F3544   38:40.0

Times for women my age:

1  9545 Judy Farris       Draper         F5564   27:26.4

2  9644 Wendy VanDeKamp   SLC  F5564   32:39.6

3  9622 Lori Robinson     Draper       F5564   36:06.2

4  9604 Marsha Monson   Riverton   F5564   39:41.1

5  9665 Vicki Linton      Draper          F5564   40:14.1

6  9566 Shauna Harker     WJ           F5564   42:20.8

7  9542 Brenda Eggett     Murray      F5564   48:00.5

8  9626 Janet Rogers      Murray       F5564   52:17.9

Ragnar Las Vegas

Ragnar Las Vegas was an awesome experience. I have tried 2 times to write about it and this blog has crashed twice and deleted pretty much my entire post. Now I guess just the facts for me to keep. I can't face writing it again.

My journey started out with packing and doing all the last minute errands and things before I left town. I was tired before I even started. Normal for me.
I flew into Vegas on Southwest Airlines Wednesday and stayed the night with Wanda & Marty. It was so nice to see them again. They were nice enough to take me to the grocery store and I was able to purchase the food items we needed for our relay in Van 1. Then I went and left all the water I had purchased at their house and had to purchase it again.
Neal drove in from Arizona on Thursday and he picked me up at Mestas’ and we went to meet the Shoelace Ninja’s at NY NY Hotel. The arrival of all the Ninjas was spread out over the next several hours. Some of us drove, many arrived by air. A few of us had dinner together Thursday evening and then most of us met in a room at the NY NY and had our first official team meeting… just hours before we were to run together. Larry gave us a briefing on the rules and other info to help us have a successful race.
To bed that night, many of us too excited to sleep well. We got up early the next morning to load Neal’s van, decorate it, and leave in time to arrive at the start line, about 60 miles away (1.5 hrs).
As we were driving to the start line we were driving on the course we would soon run. The red rock area was beautiful. And those little hills that showed on the Ragnar course maps, well they were bigger in life than on paper.
After arriving at the starting line we went directly to the registration area and began the process. First we go to the check-in and let them know that we have arrived. As a team we are moved to a corral to go through our safety training. This is a good training, and would work excellent but people do what they want to do. They do not follow all the safety rules.
Meet the Shoelace Ninja team:
Team 125  Average pace: 9:38  Open Division
Course overview is 187.1 miles… That is Ragnar Las Vegas. Going up 14470. Coming down 13103.
Runner 1 Neal Mestas pace: 8:30  Legs 1,13,25
Runner 2 Lance Brandow pace: 10:00  Legs 2,14,26
Runner 3 John Wollenzien pace: 8:30  Legs 3,15,27
Runner 4 Shana Wollenzien pace: 9:00  Legs 4,16,28
Runner 5 Marsha Monson pace: 13:00  Legs  5,17,19
Runner 6 Mike Sailer pace: 9:30  Legs 6,18,30

Runner 7 Bobby Briggs pace: 7:15  Legs 7,19,31
Runner 8 Randall Ryan Jr. pace: 11:00  Legs 8,20,32
Runner 9 Randall Ryan Sr. pace: 9:30  Legs 9,21,33
Runner 10 Larry Keister pace: 8:00  Legs 10,22,34
Runner 11 Paul Dickinson pace: 11:00  Legs 11,23,35
Runner 12 Brian McCullough pace: 10:00  Legs 12,24,36


Van 1 Legs 1-6. We need to cover 32.7 miles. Our total elevation gain is 2697, our elevation loss will be 2707. Those hills we drove over on the way into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area – well many will be run by us.


First to run is Neal. He is ready, had some Ipod technical difficulties but he got those figured out.  His leg is


Larry has Leg 10 a 3.2 miles Ragnar easy to run for his first leg. He has a climb in about one mile of 271 ft. then downhill running with a loss of 367 ft or so.


Brian runs his first leg. This is a 6.5 mile Ragnar hard, with a gain of 387 ft, loss of 607 ft. He runs into the Lowes Lake Las Vegas major Exchange 12.


Brian has his easy leg of this Ragnar journey into Exchange 24 where he will hand off the slap baton to us. Leg 24 is a 2.7 mile Ragnar easy downhill with an elevation loss of 161 ft.

Team 125  Average pace: 9:38  Open Division

Course overview is 187.1 miles… That is Ragnar Las Vegas. Going up 14470. Coming down 13103.

Runner 1 Neal Mestas pace: 8:30  Legs 1,13,25

Runner 2 Lance Brandow pace: 10:00  Legs 2,14,26

Runner 3 John Wollenzien pace: 8:30  Legs 3,15,27

Runner 4 Shana Wollenzien pace: 9:00  Legs 4,16,28

Runner 5 Marsha Monson pace: 13:00  Legs  5,17,19

Runner 6 Mike Sailer pace: 9:30  Legs 6,18,30

Runner 7 Bobby Briggs pace: 7:15  Legs 7,19,31

Runner 8 Randall Ryan Jr. pace: 11:00  Legs 8,20,32

Runner 9 Randall Ryan Sr. pace: 9:30  Legs 9,21,33

Runner 10 Larry Keister pace: 8:00  Legs 10,22,34

Runner 11 Paul Dickinson pace: 11:00  Legs 11,23,35

Runner 12 Brian McCullough pace: 10:00  Legs 12,24,36

Van 1 has legs 1-6. We need to cover 32.7 miles. Our total elevation gain is 2697, our elevation loss will be 2707. Those hills we drove over on the way into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area – well many will be run by us.

First to run is Neal. He is ready, had some Ipod technical difficulties but he got those figured out.  His leg is

Larry has Leg 10 a 3.2 miles Ragnar easy to run for his first leg. He has a climb in about one mile of 271 ft. then downhill running with a loss of 367 ft or so.

Brian runs his first leg. This is a 6.5 mile Ragnar hard, with a gain of 387 ft, loss of 607 ft. He runs into the Lowes Lake Las Vegas major Exchange 12.

Brian has his easy leg of this Ragnar journey into Exchange 24 where he will hand off the slap baton to us. Leg 24 is a 2.7 mile Ragnar easy downhill with an elevation loss of 161 ft.

Leg 28 a 6.8 mile Ragnar very hard is run by Shana. Pahrump Road, which 3 of us will be running along is a rocky, uneven dirt road. We can already see the dust. Shana has a smaller elevation gain of 259 ft., but she still running in this dust cloud for 6.8 miles. This couldn’t be fun. Her elevation loss is 114 ft.

Lance is driving at this point and chooses that our van will support her. We stay with her so long that when we arrive at Exchange 28 the line for the restroom is so long that I have no time to go and must head out on my run with a full bladder.

My last run of the relay, Leg 29 a 4.2 Ragnar hard still on this miserable dirt road. Still very dusty, the drivers are not being very courteous, they have created a dust storm for us to all run through. I have no elevation loss in my run, I gained 534 ft. I am not use to running on dirt with uneven ground and large rocks. This leg kicks my butt. Yeah it hurts too along with my legs. I really slow down.

Mike has his leg after mine on dirt. With more dust. He is running Leg 30 6.1 miles Ragnar very hard. He will gain 909 ft. And have a small elevation loss of 56 ft. He runs into the major Exchange 30 in the Dirt Pit where we turn over the baton to Van 2 and we are Done!

Run October

October, a training month to prepare for my upcoming Marathon Maniac goal, had 2 scheduled races: SoJo Marathon & Ragnar. And what did it morph into? Well when it was over I thought to myself wow, in October I ran 3 half marathons and the Ragnar Relay. I might have laughed until I peed my pants if a year ago you would have told me that I would do this.
Here is what happened. I realized that to become a MM I only had to run the last 2 marathons I signed up for because they are so close together. Sooooooo I wimped out of SoJo marathon and took it down to a half.

Cyndie was doing a triathlon the first weekend so when the Pink Series Park City Half Marathon website came back up with openings I decided to sign up. Training and all girl and Park City.... it had all the right ingredients. What I did not count on was the extreme exposure to cold before the race. My legs were cold and stinging for the first 4 miles. Slowed me down. Almost stopped me.  Time: 3:02:09

Next up was the SoJo which I had cut back to a half. Beautiful October day, cool but since I was dropped off at the start there was no time for my legs to get cold. Running good. Hill work paid off. I got a PR this race. I was happy with my performance. Time:  2:30:27


I was so excited about the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay. No sleep. Running in the heat. Running with a great team. More hills than I thought possible. But I completed it. Running with Neal. Saints & Sinners medal. Very cool.

Finally my fourth race was last minute sign up because who doesn't want to dress up in a costume and run the Provo Halloween Half Marathon. A totally cool event. Extreme downhill, I took it easy. So it wasn't my best time....but this was for training and fun. Time:  2:40:10


It was a running month to be proud of. I am a runner.

Coming up: Mesquite Tri States Marathon

November 19, 2011

Marathon Course: Based on runner comments and suggestions, we’re changing the route to remove the “junk” miles through the neighborhoods of Mesquite and will take a more direct route through town directly to the finish line. This means additional downhill miles at the start! 

The course is a rolling downhill route. The first 18 or so miles are downhill or pretty flat, while the last 8 have some fairly substantial climbs. Please train and be ready for the uphill parts! There are a few steep pitches!

This race starts at an elevation of 3,918 feet and ends at 1,605 feet. There will be a gain 272 feet during the marathon. That doesn't seem too drastic. I've done hill work around my house so I know I can get this done. I will be more tired before I get to the hills, but the uphill should go good I think. 

Packet Pickup/Packet Expo: Located at the CasaBlanca Event Center Friday evening from 4pm until 8pm.

Buses: Buses will leave from the CasaBlanca Event Center. Expected boarding time: 5:30am. We expect to start the marathon at 6:30am. To be considered an official finisher: 6.5 hours.

Timing: State-of-the-art chip Jaguar Chip Timing will be provided by Race Day Timing. Your race bib will have a disposable timing chip attached to it. Please leave the chip on the bib, and wear your bib pinned to the front of your shirt so it’s visible. Results will be available in real-time and we’ll have touch-screen kiosks where runners may check their results and print out a receipt with their time and current standing. Finisher medals will be awarded to all who finish the Mesquite Tri States Marathon.

Clothing Drop-Off: You may drop clothing off in designated areas at the start lines, by putting your belongings in the bag you’ll receive at packet pickup, and writing your name on that.

Aid Stations: Beginning at mile 3, aid stations will be located about every other mile. Water will be available at every aid station. Energy drinks, and additional surprise snacks and goodies will be available at every other aid station. Chocolate milk, bananas, and other snacks and drinks will be available at the finish line.
So who was running in 2010? There were 5 women in my age group, all of whom finished in less time then I am planning on running it in. 1st place was 4:27:03 & 5th place was 5:14:00. It will be interesting to see how many compete in my age group this year. I am hoping for a time under 6:00:00.
Who am I running with? Cyndie Nell & Liz Gotter. Should be fun.
Where am I staying?

Falcon Ridge Hotel
1030 W Pioneer Blvd

RunningFree Report November 7

This week you completed:

Sport	#	Distance	Time
Run	2	13.1 mi	2:58:22
Total	2	13.1 mi	2:58:22

The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.     Barbara Hall

What Matters Most

Need to choose the best things in life although there are many good things.

If my relationship is there with Christ he will let me know what matters most.

Need to submit and trust the Lord.

"Hit my knees" and talk to the Lord

The key is prayer & scripture.

Focus on the Spirit.

Helaman 5:12

Alma 32:34

1. Relationship with God

2. Relationship with family

3. Relationship with fellowman

4. Relationship with self