New Years Revolution Run

This morning I got up at 7 when my alarm went off and headed out to the Olympic Oval to run the Revolution run. I was excited for this one mainly for the fact that last year it took me 3 hours to run it. I knew that I would do better this year, but I also knew that I hadn't run a real race or much running since the Saltair Half in early November. 

I met up with my friend Sonja and started running some laps. After about 3 laps we saw Becca and she started running with us. I felt pretty good for the first 20 laps and then my right thigh started aching. I have this one pair of shoes that are made for over pronating, and I don't over pronate. I think the turning of the track combined with the shoes made my thigh ache. 

I ran with Becca and Sonja for a while and then took a little break. I then ran with Shelley and Meredith for a while. They really helped me get past the mental block of running laps. Meredith was having Shelley run fast and then slow and I just followed along. I took a water break and then finished the 48 laps with Becca. I think with all the stopping and talking I did made my time 2.46. If I would have run/walked the whole thing without  all that I would have been closer to 2.30. 

All in all it was a good race. I felt good even with having not trained. I even beat last year's time. :) My next race isn't until March or April. We'll see. 

NEBO!!

Jason, the kids, and I made this race a little vacation. We went down to Provo and stayed in a hotel over night. The kids thought it was tons of fun. We ordered Pizza and had popcorn. I got up early and headed down to the race. I was planning on staying with Becca the whole time. The goal was a sub2 hour half marathon. We started the race strong. We were on goal to be way under 2 hours.... well, that was until it leveled out around mile 9. UGH! That's when your body says "Hey! wait! Where'd the momentum go??" That's when we started to crash. I ended up running it in 2.05.09! SO close!! I was SO exhausted at the end.

Temple to Temple Steeple Chase

Jason and I got up early and headed over to the church to meet up with my mom. We were about to run the 5 mile temple to temple run. It would be from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to the Jordan River Temple. I ran this one last year with my mom and we kept it at about a 15 min pace the whole time. This year I'd be running with Jason and then catching up with my mom after. 

 When I woke up I got a text from my mom that she was wearing her Return With Honor shirt. I totally forgot about that, so I went through my drawer and found the one I wore last year. Holy cow! It was HUGE on me. I went through the kids drawers and found my 8 yr old's shirt. Haha! It fit!! I was so surprised! Talk about feeling good. 

 We started out and mom said to go ahead without her. This was Jason's first 5 mile race since high school. The goal was just to run and have fun with it. He did awesome! He tends to start out too fast and then slows down towards the end. Around mile 3.5-4 he was saying sorry for slowing down and I told him we could walk if he needed to and he said "Twitchell's don't walk!" He did amazing! We ran the whole way and finished in 52.09 minutes! After we crossed the line he said his knee was bugging him so, we walked around for a minute and then walked to meet up with my mom. She wasn't very far behind us. 

 I was so impressed with her. She ran it with at a 12-13 min pace! I love that woman! She's so amazing. Go mom! Go mom! 

We all got some popsicles at the finish and took a couple pictures by the Jordan River Temple. I love being able to run with my family! I hope to be as awesome as my mom when I grow up. I'm so proud of Jason. I think he's starting to catch the running bug. :) I love it! He's such an amazing man. I'm blessed to have him as mine. 

Porter's Half

I got up at 5:30, got ready and headed up to the Porter Half finish. While waiting for the bus to come I met one of the ladies from our running group, Marisa. She's a great lady. They bused us up to the start and I met up with some other friends and started the race. 

 I started out WAAAAY too fast. My first mile was 8:59. Haha! After that mile it was all down hill. Well, kinda. When I was signing up for this race I looked at the elevation and it totally looked like a nice gradual down hill. I thought it'd be super easy and nice. Yeah... not so much...

 It was hilly and level. It was a tough course! I'd rather have all down hill or flat, but not that. Around mile 8 I was really feeling it and by mile 9 I was doing a lot of walk/running. Mile 12 was a 14:22 mile...Ugh. Oh well, I felt really good in my legs, but it was a real mental game. I need to get out of my head and just run. Anyway, I ended up finishing in 2.25.23. Not bad! That's my 3rd fastest half. It's amazing how far I've come in the past 8 months. 

 One of my running friends, Robert, was getting pictures of people from the group crossing the finish line. That's my picture. I look SO much different from the start of the year. It's really amazing how far you can come when you work hard. 

 It was a tough race, but it was great to be there with friends. :) Next weekend I'm running The Nebo half. I'm really hoping for a sub 2 hr half. We'll see what I can do. There's going to be a lot of us from the group running that one and a few of us aiming for a sub 2. 

 After the race I thought it would be a good idea to have fresh legs for Nebo, so I picked up a bag of ice from the store on the way home and took an ice bath. Sooo cold, but it really helped! 

My calves are a little sore, but I think they'll feel good on Saturday. 

Fastest mile

On Friday I decided to run fast. I ran the first 2 miles around a 12 minute pace and then decided to run my 3rd mile as fast as I could. My fastest miles have been going down the canyons during a race and they have been in the low 9's and I really wanted to prove to myself that I could run a mile on a normal course (not down hill) in the same pace. I really surprised myself! 

 I ran it in 8:44!!!! What?! I haven't run a mile that fast since elementary school when they had us run the mile for the presidential fitness test. I even felt like I had some gas left in the tank to keep going. This week I'm going to go farther. I'm thinking a mile and a half. I really want to get stronger and faster and to do that I have to practice going fast. This course even had a couple up hill spots! 

Don't worry about a thing.

This mornings' run was about telling myself that it's ok to run after a bad race. Yesterday I tried to run. I took about 10 steps and said, "Nope... not today..." I kept telling myself that I didn't want what happened on Saturday to happen again. I didn't want to get sick and I didn't want to run sick, but I wasn't sick on Monday. I was fine. I rested the rest of the day Saturday and all day on Sunday. I felt fine. I felt like I was recovered, but mentally I still had that half weighing on me. 

So, this morning I got up and saw how beautiful the sunrise would be and got out the door. I walked down towards the temple and the skies were almost purple. It was so pretty! I told myself I'd walk the first bit and then start running. I wasn't aiming to run any particular amount of miles. I just wanted to get my legs going. I started out after I got some pictures of the sunrise and the temple. There was a lady walking behind me and I didn't want to do the whole walk and her catch up to me and then I'd pass her and she'd pass me and all that, so I ran. Those first 10 steps almost made me stop, but I kept going. I don't care what the pace was and it wasn't going to bother me that I wasn't listening to any music. I just wanted to move. The first mile came pretty easy actually. I just trotted along. Then the second mile came and I felt stronger and mentally I thought, "I can do this... What was I worried about?" The 3rd mile felt great! I was running laps around a little section until my mom came, but I didn't see her so I went off looking for her. I was a half mile in and thought that maybe I'd just run the full 5 miles. I was almost at 4, so what's another mile? I was feeling great. Then I saw my mom and finished the last 1.4 miles with her. 

My goal every day is to get 5 miles in. It doesn't really matter to me the walk to run ratio as long as I get those 5 miles and hit my 10,000 steps on my Fitbit early. Haha! This morning when I got home, Jason and I got to work on our 30 day challenge workout.  

Last month we did a 30 day ab challenge and it REALLY helped with my running. I could really tell that I was becoming a stronger runner because of it. So, when our friend told us what the new 30 day challenge was we were all on board. This month's challenge includes squats, planks, push ups and crunches/sit ups. I can do all of them easy except the sit ups. I know it says crunches, but they do nothing for me. I've challenged myself this month to do sit ups instead and the goal is to do them with elementary school standards. Haha! You know, when you were in elementary school and everyone had to do the Presidential Fitness Test. That one... No using your arms to help with sit ups and no bouncing off the floor for momentum. That kind of sit up. It's not easy not using your arms to give you a little boost. I'm the one who usually starts with my hands behind my head and then ends up using them to get up. Haha! Not this time though! I'm on day 6 so far and I did all 45 sit ups today without using my arms. 

All in all today I'm feeling really good about everything. :) I just can't let a bad run keep me down. 

Timp Half Marathon

I woke up at 3 AM with a major headache and thought nothing much of it besides a bad nights sleep or something. I took some Motrin and I ate some banana bread cause I was out of my normal oatmeal that I have before a race. I had my normal race morning nervousness.  I met up with Joy at about 4:15 at the school where the buses were to take us up to the start. On the bus ride up my headache felt like it was getting worse, so I kept my eyes closed the whole ride up. 

We met up with some great running friends at the start and hung around until the race started. 

Me and Joy at the start. She was freezing and I was trying not to puke. My nausea just kept getting worse. Joy's first thought was "maybe you're pregnant..." NO! I am not... hahaha. I just chocked it up to having a root beer float the night before. 

There were a good amount of people there today. It was really great. They also had an early start for walkers and the marathoners. I love it when races have an early start! I didn't take it this time just cause I figured I would be fast and would make it in 2 hours 10 min or so. 

We got in line behind the 2.10 pacer, Sonja. I really was hoping to hang out with her for a good part of the race. My goal was anything under 2.16 (my last PR). 

I started out great with Joy and she left me around mile 4 to use the Honey Bucket, and I kept going. I knew she'd catch up with me some time, but I didn't know when. Each aid station I'd get some water, but didn't drink much of it because of my stomach. I ate a couple chomps at mile 5 and mile 8, but I couldn't take as many as I wanted. I got to mile 8 before I started crashing. My stomach was KILLING me. I seriously felt like I was going to puke my guts out. My miles dropped from the 9's...

Joy caught up with me around mile 8 or 9 in the neighborhoods and passed me up. She was on track for a 2.10 half. I kept wishing I could stay up with her. I saw the 2.20 pacers pass me and I could only stick with them for a couple hundred yards before I had to walk. Then towards the end in the last mile the 2.30 pacer, Susette caught up to me and I tried running with her for a half mile or so, but I just couldn't do it for the full mile. It was so great to see her though, she's always a big encourager. I finally made it to the track where we finished the last quarter mile. I walked in and finished the last .10 running. I was so out of it. My stomach was killing me. I just kept thinking "I shouldn't have had that root beer float!" Joy got a video of me crossing the line. I was pretty amazed how strong I looked considering how I felt. 

Joy kept telling me to get something to eat, but the smell of the Chick-fil-A at the finish and the sight of the food just made me want to throw up even more. We picked up her drop bag and I got my Run The Slam medal for the race. I made it to the parking lot and had to sit down for a second. 

Joy got to her car and I sat in mine for a minute or two before I started to drive. I just wasn't sure if I would make it home without throwing up. I got out of the parking lot and to the stop sign where I pulled over and waited a minute before driving across the street to the gas station. I found an empty spot by the grass and dry heaved a few times before I felt like I could drive home. 

I ended up getting about 5 miles from home when I had to pull over and throw up. I felt SOOOOOOO much better after that, but I still had a pounding head ache and I think I even had a bit of a fever. I came home and slept for 3 hours off and on. My Annabelle brought me this bell when I was laying in bed and said "Ring this if you need me, ok?" She's such a great kid. I ended up eating some chicken noodle soup for dinner and went to bed by 10. 

I slept for 10 and a half hours last night. I think I had heat exhaustion on top of the whole root beer float and stuff. Next time I'm going to get a LOT more rest and drink a LOT more water the week leading up to my race. I don't want that to happen again. 

The awesome thing about this race though is the fact that even with crashing like this I was able to still run it in a GREAT time! I remember this year when running a 2.30 was HARD and today I was able to do it on a really rough day. Earlier this year I would have easily done it in over 3 hours if the same thing happened. I've really reached a new level and I love it! 

I think the nervousness I get before races is that when I bonk like this that I'll end up falling back to the 3+ hour races, but yesterday proves that I won't. I'm doing good and I just have to trust in my ability.