26.2 Grandma: family

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Rock N Roll Arizona

I have been looking forward to running a Rock 'n' Roll event ever since I heard about them. Having live music along the course sounded fun. I started talking about it early, and it ended up being a family affair which made it even more special.

To start off the adventure Cyndie and I drove to Arizona together. Because of the mild winter temperatures we were experiencing we were able to take what I call the scenic route, going though the beautiful mountain town of Flagstaff. When we arrived in Surprise Cyndie dropped me off at Alicia's house and she drove on to see her parents who were vacationing in AZ.

I got some rest time in after the long drive before Alicia and the grand-kids arrived home that evening. It was fun spending time with Violet, Marley and Zeke. That evening we went for some Chinese take-out for dinner. I loaded up my container with lots of delicious food.

Violet gave up her bed for me to sleep in, she had it all nice and cozy with a cute tent around it. She was sweet and slept on the couch.

The next day was packet pickup day. Parking in downtown Phoenix is not real fun. And we were on a limited time budget because Alicia had to be at work. Even though our time at the expo was short I had a good time. While we were there Neal showed up to pick up his and Aspen's packets.

After the expo Violet and I dropped off and then we went to lunch and shopping together for the afternoon. Our first stop was Subway, where we got a sandwich. I found out that her favorite sub sandwich is the meatball one. After lunch we headed to the mall for some shoe shopping. We had a good time together.

Before leaving the shopping center we bought 3 smoothies and headed to pick up Alicia from work.

Fast forward and soon it is time for me to spend a little time with Neal and more grand-kids! How cool is that. We loaded up Alicia's family and drove to Gilbert AZ to Neal's apartment. I was sure enjoying the nice Arizona winter temperature. We needed groceries to feed this big group so Grandma Monson watched the grandchildren while Neal and Alicia went shopping and to do some errands. That was a lot of kids for me in a small area.....I had to get out my patience-o-meter but they all did great. It was fun to see them play together.

We had some nice sandwiches, chips, and cookies for lunch. And for dinner that evening we made some spaghetti and french bread. Gotta get those carb's in for race day. Our bonus of the evening was having Mark and Brittiany arrive from Florida to run with us. All my kids running a half marathon with me. I would have never guessed years ago that we would ever do something like this together. Especially since none of us were runners.

Ready to run 13.1

So here are the stats for this family half marathon:

First Half Marathon, 13.1 miles: Neal, Aspen, Mark & Brittiany

Second Half Marathon: Alicia

13th Half Marathon: Me at 56 years old

So the recap, this was going to be a special day for me. First, running with all my kids. Second, running with my granddaughter Aspen. Third, all of us running to support Alicia. And finally, running with 3 generations. How very amazing is that. Yes, it was one of those moments for me.....

Race day dawns early, and this one was no exception. We had a bit of a drive to get to the start line and we were concerned about parking and also finding Alicia before the race. Everything turned out great, we had plenty of time to get to the race start area and find our corral. We stowed some gear at the UPS truck drop (very cool). We went towards the back because we knew we'd be slow. We didn't realize we'd put ourselves back with the walkers. Oh well, it gave us lots of people to pass.

One of the fun things I like about races is dressing up to run in them. Not sure where that comes from but something about running needs to be fun, right? So I'd put a lot of planning into what I was going to wear to this Rock 'n' Roll run. I decided to go with a 50's diner look with a puffy skirt, white shirt and matching scarf around my neck. I bought a costume at Costume Craze and then modified it to run in. It worked great, no wardrobe malfunctions.

Running the half together went slow and pretty steady. We had a few extra walk breaks but not very many. Alicia was having some issues with her new seizure medication, getting it to be regulated during exercise. Since the hardware in her ankle is now out things are better, but her foot was still falling asleep. Brittiany was recovering from a broken foot. Aspen was bouncing around and having fun and got a side ache, but she worked through that. We were blessed with overcast weather, so no sun beating down on us.

Finally the moment we've all been running for, the finish line!!! Here we are all running across it together, glad to finally be done.

Coming across the finish line together.

Here we are with our medals.

Aspen & Grandma Monson

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Utah Valley Half Marathon

Utah Valley Half Marathon is a great race for a first timer. Downhill, great support.....you have to get up a really really early but if you can hack that you should run this. The theme "Pain You Enjoy" turned out to be true for us.... well at least the pain part.
Rise and shine at 2am. My body did not want to obey that alarm on my phone. I don't think I've ever set it that early. We had laid out everything the day before so it made it easier to function on auto pilot since we were so sleep deprived.
Once we were done we drove to Peterson's and picked up Cyndie. Off to Provo. On to the bus about 4:40am. Ride up Provo Canyon. Off the bus in the dark. We got on one of the first buses and once we got to the waiting area we made our way first to the Honey Bucket where there we thankfully no lines since it was so early. That taken care of we found a place near a fire pit and then begin our long wait.

Cyndie rocks the morning.

We can smile before 5am.

Finally it was 6am, the sun was up, all the runners had arrived, and it was time to run! Alicia and I were both excited and we started off at a fairly fast pace. We had decided on a run walk pace of 45 sec / 60 sec, which we planned should give us a 15 minute mile.

Making our way to the starting line.

The weather was beautiful. Cool and very calm with little air movement first thing in the morning. As it got a little later the canyon gave us a tail wind for the trip down. Alicia and I just ran the Galloway method. Our first mile was with the large crowd - that is always fun. The first 5 miles of this race is where you encounter most of the small hills in this course. You can see Alicia knocked these out with no problem.

You go girl!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
	1:12:45	5 miles
1	00:14:21	1.00	14:21
2	00:12:34	1.00	12:34
3	00:15:31	1.00	15:32
4	00:15:26	1.00	15:26
5	00:14:53	1.00	14:53

Mother & Daughter, happy walk break.

A couple of things starting happening at the beginning of this race for Alicia. First, her foot with all the hardware in it went numb. Running can be difficult when you can't feel one of your feet. The second thing was related to the road. Of course it is slanted on the edge so that water will run off it. Well because the race allowed some type of a scooter bike in it, we had to stay over to the right in order to avoid being hit by the bikers who came speeding down the road - they had been up higher in the canyon at the marathon start line. This road shoulder slant, plus Alicia compensating for her numb foot caused her to start to get a blister on the side of her foot. Actually, it ended up happening to both feet.

Alicia running down Provo Canyon.

6	00:16:17	1.00	16:17
7	00:16:58	1.00	16:59
8	00:16:20	1.00	16:20

Miles 6, 7 and 8 were a little slower because now the blister problem was starting to cause pain. But Alicia hung in there and we just kept going. There were a many half marathon runners behind us and as they passed they offered her encouraging words. I had made her a sign to wear that said, "Hi my name is Alicia. This is my first half marathon. Tell me how great I am doing." Like me, she wasn't too thrilled about wearing a sign, but it turned out to be a great blessing later in the race.

Two blisters....pain you enjoy.
I don't think this is what they meant.

Soon it was the time I was excited for, when the marathon racers started passing us. I know, we were just a few miles out and they had already run 13.1 miles plus, but the fun part is getting to see how fast these talented runners are.

First and second place as they ran by us.

Cool rock formation.

Talked with these ladies, they both lost children to an early death and had their children's names on the back of their shirts.

As time went on it became more and more painful for Alicia. She really hung in there and kept going. We started stopping every once in awhile for her to rotate her foot, trying to get some of the feeling back into it. When she got some it didn't last too long.

Spectators holding up encouraging signs.
And yes, If it was EASY Everyone would do it!

9	00:17:18	1.00	17:18
10	00:17:11	1.00	17:12

One other problem developed as if we didn't already have enough going on. Alicia forgot her medication in the van. It was too early to take it when we got up so she'd brought it with her.

Alicia's sign... and she is singing and arm dancing.

Still running through the pain. Amazing. Crazy? LOL

Alicia and the EMT who doctored up the blister.

After the blister fix, too bad it didn't stop hurting.

We did stop and get Alicia some blister help, but really, it still hurt very bad. By this time she was having a lot of seizures, which she didn't really realize. Because of the great time we made early in the course she was still going to make the 4 hour cut off if I could keep her going.
Here is where the sign came in as a lifesaver. Marathon runners passing us noticed her. And the sign on her back. They were encouraging her, calling her by name, a huge amount touched her shoulder and told her how great she was doing and that she was almost finished. Now this wasn't only your slow runners, or just females. Too many runners to count took time to get near her and offer some special words. It was a blessing. Just what she needed. Actually what we both needed. It helped me to do my job of keeping her going.

11	00:17:22	1.00	17:22
12	00:18:14	1.00	18:15
13	00:18:42	1.00	18:42
14	00:04:40	0.31	14:51


Walking the last 3 miles, running at the intersection.

We could see the finish line for quite a distance. I know Alicia wanted to stop and rest but the mean mamma kept her going. I knew if we stopped we might not get started again. Alicia sang to try to take her mind off the pain. She thought about how much she loved her kids. The seizures were constant and this probably helped her to miss part of the pain, but it sure made it hard for me to want to keep pushing her. I kept having her look at it and how it was getting closer and closer. And she kept going. What determination this took. And a high pain tolerance.

Hot guy in hot pursuit!

Coming into the finish line he is gaining on her.

At the finish line. Under 4 hours! Way to run.

Once Alicia got over the finish line and realized that she didn't have to walk or run anymore her legs just quit working. She was done moving on her own power. She did make it over to the first aid tent with my help where we sat for a bit hoping she would be able to walk to the bus that takes you back to the car.