Run that ye may Obtain

After the Fast Running Blog get-together at Scott Ensign‘s house last night, we slept in his basement.  Allie came over at 6 a.m. and we all drove to the race start together.  Had a little mix-up with Scott’s neighbor whom we thought was going to give us a ride, so after waiting for him for a bit we ended up just going up in Allie’s car and parking quickly so we could pick up our race bibs and get somewhat of a warm-up.  I jogged around for about 5 minutes, did a couple of strides, and visited a tree (since the porta-pot lines were too long.)  Lined up on the start line with Paul, Allie, Scott and others.  Temp was pretty chilly since the sun was still behind the mountain but once we got running I warmed up pretty quickly.

Mile 1- 5:53 Legs were resisting the pace a bit.  Some tightness in my hips and quads.

Mile 2- 5:56 Still trying to get moving.

Mile 3- 5:50 Slight downhill helps.

Mile 4- 5:44 Okay, now the legs are submitting to my will (after that 5k warm-up).

Mile 5- 5:30 Quite a bit of dowhnill, some headwind.  I followed a guy in a blue jersey and imagined a pony tail on him to motivate me to race him. Then I looked down at his legs and the hairy poof just made it really hard to imagine him female.

Mile 6- 5:38 Still some headwind and downhill.

Mile 7- 5:50 First half of this mile was downhill, second half was pretty steep uphill

Mile 8- 5:52 Still pushing up the steep hill.  Crested the hill and had a half mile of flat brought my pace back down.

Mile 9- 5:30 Gradual downhill, one intersection with no officer directing traffic.  I was lucky there were no cars because I ran a red light.

Final .3- 5:18 pace Little more downhill and a sprint to the finish.

After I finished I drank a couple of cups of Gatorade and jogged up to run Allie and Ruth in.  Aaron was taking pictures of everyone and Scott’s wife, Karen was helping keep an eye on our kids (who kept raiding the post-race food and gatorade).  FRB-ers did really well!! Lots of PRs and overall/age group wins.  After chatting with bloggers (Paul, Jon, Cody, Scott, Allie, Ruth, Dave) for a bit Aaron left with Cody to go mountain running and Karen watched my kids so I could do a little cool down with Allie and Ruth.  I am very pleased with the race.  That was my first time racing 15K; it is such a fun distance to race!  Its just long enough to really get into a groove and feel good without getting too fatigued.  I didn’t need any liquid or gu in the race so there were no distractions and no tummy/bowel problems.  Super fun race!

The kids were enjoying themselves at the playground nearby while we waited for the awards/raffle.  After all the runners finished we sat down and listened to the awards.  Milliseconds timing group had a little confusion since they had not gotten the finish line pad down until after the first 6-8 runners had already finished so they were asking us our finish times (its a good thing most runners time themselves).  They gave fireworks to the kids and a nice pottery bowl trophy to the overall/age group placers plus lots of raffle prizes.  Just after Scott was complaining that he never wins anything in those raffles he was proven wrong when they called his name and gave him a free backpack.

After that I gave Allie and Dave S. a ride back to their car up the canyon at the race start and went back to Scott’s house to shower and get our stuff while we waited for Aaron.  Karen made some yummy sausages and hot dogs for lunch and we hung out for a couple more hours until Aaron returned and we left for our family get-togethers.

We had such a fun time in Cache Valley and are really grateful for Scott and Karen Ensign’s kind hospitality and generosity in hosting us for the night, feeding us and helping with our kids.  It was really fun to get to know lots of bloggers better and race as a way of celebrating our Freedom and this great Country in which we live.

Enjoyed camping in the canyon where todays race was held (apparently also a very busy train route).  When the 3rd train of the night woke us up around 4:30 a.m., Aaron just got up and went running.  The kids slept another couple of hours and at 6:30 a.m. we all woke up and ate breakfast.  Aaron got back 30 minutes later and we hiked around a little bit to warm up (the temp was still in the low 40s) and broke camp.  Drove the 7 miles down the canyon to the race start and I got out to get my race bib and shirt.  Saw Tony (my teammate), made a potty stop, and ran a 1 mile warm-up. Stretched for a few minutes, did one stride, and chatted with Nuta (whom I’ve now raced three times and am well aware of her speed).  I asked her if she was doing the 10 mile or the 15 mile and she said 15 (I knew from last year’s results that she had won the 10 mile course in 6:12 pace).  She asked if I had run it before and I said no, so she told me a bit about the course, warning me about the tough final two miles before the turn around and wishing me luck.  She said she has done quite a few training runs on that road because it is great for altitude training on a hilly but smooth road.  After running the race, I can attest to the fact that it is very challenging course and could be strengthening if run often.

The race started around 9 a.m. and I felt pretty comfortable with Nuta for a couple of miles.

Mile 1 – 6:19 Little bit rolling, net uphill though

Mile 2 – 6:31 Little more uphill

My heart rate started to go up and my respiratory rate was obviously faster than Nuta’s so I decided I’d better be smart and not kill myself in the first quarter of the race.  Slowly let Nuta go.  After all, I had a lot of climbing to do and I’m not exactly “hill trained.”

Mile 3 – 6:37 more climbing

Mile 4 – 6:44 still climbing, took a gu at the aid station right before mile 5

Mile 5 – 6:37 seems to be a theme here…climbing, climbing, climbing

Mile 6- 6:23 little less climbing

Mile 7 – 7:30 serious climbing (200 ft gain in this mile) respiratory rate shot through the roof

Mile 8 – 6:33 the mild climb equalled itself out because 7.5 mile point was the turn-around.  Nuta had a solid minute on me at the turn-around but I still wanted to give a good effort in catching her and I knew I had a steep downhill mile ahead of me so I tried to use the momentum to see if I could reel her in a bit.

Mile 9 – 5:37 (200 ft drop) At the end of this mile my legs were really throbbing from the pace change and hammering down the hill.  Nuta seemed to be just as far ahead of me, if not farther and I decided again to just run my own race and not kill myself to try and catch her.  I could have decided to run beyond my pain threshold and blow my quads out trying to catch her and then probably still fallen short.

Mile 10 – 6:11 What goes up must come down and I’m really appreciating the downhill at this point.  Took another gu at mile 10 aid station.

Mile 11 - 6:10 more down

Mile 12 - 6:26 starting to feel pretty fatigued here.  My quads were pretty much screaming at me and my head was starting to feel a little dizzy with the heat and sun, so I pulled back on the throttle a bit.

Mile 13 - 6:23 ran by the river and enjoyed the cool air coming off the water totally unaware of anyone else around me and just enjoying the beauty of the canyon

Mile 14 - 6:18 just keep moving forward.  Tired though.

Mile 15 - 6:30 rolling but net downhill.  I’m completely spent. Apparently I went out a little too fast because this mile was faster going up the hill than coming back down at the end.  Oh well.  I’m just glad to be finished.

Total time – 1:36:53 (6:30 AP) with around 800 ft elevation gain/loss

Saw Bean and Dianne (more teammates) at the finish.  Dianne had run the 10 miler and Bean is injured but came up to hike around and cheer.  Tony came in around 1:50 and we whined together about the intense 7th mile heartbreak hill.

Nuta finished about 2 minutes ahead of me, so she had put another minute on me on the downhill. Overall I was very pleased with my effort considering my lack of hill training.  It was also the longest run I have done in a couple of months, so I’m pretty happy with how my body held up.

About 15 minutes after I finished, Aaron and I grabbed the kids and did the family fun run together (1 mile).  Aaron ran with Abe and Breanne and I walked, ran with, and carried Ali.  Ali and I actually turned around at the quarter mile check-point just as Abe passed us at his 3/4 mile check-point.  We did our half mile in about the same time as Breanne and Aaron finished their 1 mile.  Abe ran the whole way and finished strong.

Breanne ran with Aaron and kept telling him how much fun she was having and how cool it was to run her first “race.”  The kids all got little finisher’s medals and toy prizes, which they loved.  We ate some post-race grub and stayed for the awards ceremony (I got a $25 gift card to Boulder Running Company and a Timex watch).  Fun day!

Finished 2nd place female in the Citizen’s race with a time of 35:50.  This is my 10K PR!!  Well, actually I may have run faster than that in a Deseret News 10K back in high school or college but that doesn’t count since that race is super downhill.  The Bolder Boulder is much more legit.  The finish is actually higher elevation than the start.  Not to mention the whole thing is over a Mile High elevation.

Picked up the babysitter at 5:50 a.m. (what a Saint she was to wake up so early on her holiday).  Drove to Boulder and parked at Scott Carpenter Park in between the Start and Finish lines.  Jogged 2 miles with Aaron and wiggled our way through the crowds to the start.  Didn’t have time or space to run strides but stretched out a little as we waited 5 minutes for the start.  The race went out fast since the first three quarters of a mile is downhill.  I had to restrain myself to not go faster because I really wanted to run even splits (the most efficient way to run).

Mile 1 in 5:42

I had no idea how many women were ahead of me at this point but I assumed it was a good handful and I didn’t really care either because I was just running my race at my pace.

Mile 2 in 5:46

Felt pretty good, starting to get into a rhythm running with all men around me. Passed one gal that obviously went out too fast.

Mile 3 in 5:54

Some elevation gain in this mile.  Just trying to keep my effort even.  Passed another woman.

Mile 4 in 5:43

Coach D caught me near the beginning of this mile and seeing him motivated me to keep pushing forward.  Passed another woman somewhere in here.  The elevation went up some and down some. The elevation profile for this course is pretty much never flat.

Mile 5 in 5:41

Caught another woman just as we reached the highest point of the course but she did her best to stick to my tail.  I visualized this mile in my head last night as I was falling to sleep because I really wanted to push through this part and knew the downhill could help me, so it ended up being my fastest mile at 5:41.

Mile 6 in 5:52

The girl I caught is still hanging on to me for dear life and at one point someone yelled to us, “Good Job!  You’re the 2nd and 3rd women!”  I was pleasantly surprised because I didn’t know we were that high up.  The 1st place woman was nowhere in sight, but I just kept pushing to the finish giving it all I had.

Final .2 in 1:12 (6:00 pace)

Just trying to hang on at this point.  One last steep hill up to the stadium pretty much wipes out my legs and a dying sprint to the finish on the track is all I have left.  Whew!

Found out that the leader came through in 35:12 and 3rd place was 36:02, all three of us local Coloradoans!  Touched base with Coach D (35:20, 1st in AG) and Jeff (35:37) while I waited for Aaron.  I’m super happy with that time considering it is a PR for me and it was a challenging course at altitude.  I gave it all I had and feel really grateful that it went so well.  Aaron had a great race too, finishing under 40 minutes with basically no road training for this race (and running in his VFF sprints!)  We saw Scott afterwards too, and Aaron took this pic on his cell phone.  Now I’m looking forward to the team BBQ this evening at the De Reuck’s to share race stories and hear how all the RRBs did.  Good times!

5.6 miles -2.5 easy, 3.1 race in 5:45 pace

Ran in the Beat the New Year 5k at 11:30 p.m. in Sugarhouse park in Salt Lake City.  Before the race Aaron and I played games with his sisters and their husbands, Ashley and Matt and Emily and Adam.   I fueled up on pizza, peanut M&Ms, soda, raspberry sticks, and apples.  At least I resisted the pie and other sweets I could have been puking at the race.  And I resisted eating after 9 pm so as to have a chance at a settled stomach for the race.  Aaron and I talked Ashley, Emily and Adam into coming to the race with us even though they weren’t registered; we figured they could just bandit run it and enjoy the unique exercise of racing to the New Year.  Matt volunteered to stay home with the sleeping kids in the home.

We all left for the race at 10:45ish and got to Sugarhouse park around 11:10.  20 minutes to race start.  Jogged to the race number pick-up and were handed some nice long sleeve tech t-shirts and a race number the same as everyone else: 2010.  Upon learning that everyone had the same race number and there were no more race pins so the volunteer handing out numbers just told us to put it in our pocket, I knew it was not really a “timed” race but more of just a low budget fun run.  All the better! No pressure!  They did claim to give a prize for overall winner and COLDEST runner though, so of course I was after the win and Aaron was after the coldest runner award.  We jogged the 1.25 mile lap of the course together to warm up, took our outer layers off (which included everything except short running shorts for Aaron), and jogged the other half mile to where the race start was. The race was basically two and a half laps around Sugarhouse park.  Aaron looked AWESOME in his bare feet, bare chested outfit in the 20 degree darkness.  He got lots of comments about how crazy/awesome he is.

Right as the race was about to start, my Garmin froze.  Aaron quickly took his Garmin off and gave it to me but when the race started I pushed the wrong button anyway and didn’t start the timer until about a quarter of a mile in when I realized I had pushed the wrong button.  So I just forgot about the pace and time anyway and just ran.

There were 4 or 5 men that went out ahead of me, most of them shirtless.  I settled into a comfy pace and really enjoyed the energy and uniqueness of the event.  Finished the race with 12:12 to spare before the New Year which means I ran a 17:48 for the 5k.  Grabbed our camera and took a pic of Aaron finishing.  I got the overall female trophy and he got the Coldest runner trophy!  We celebrated for a couple of minutes and I jogged back to run in with my sister-in-laws, Ashley and Emily.  We hooted and hollered our way into the New Year while running in together.  Such a FUN way to bring in the New Year!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!