Surf City Half Marathon Race Recap

I haven't done a race since the Snow Canyon half in Nov. 2013.  Not one race last year.  Crazy.  I wasn't sure what goals to set for this race or really what to expect at all.  I wanted to finish the race and that was all I was willing to say about it.  But really that's not me at all - I need goals.  I finished under 2:00 hours and am happy about that.  And now I am totally motivated to run more.  Apparently, running one day a week isn't great training for feeling good while racing.  The main thing that I am struggling with the most these days in all my workouts is my mental edge.  I am so not mentally strong right now and that needs to end.  One thing I've always been good at is pushing through things and staying tough.  Right now instead I seem to find every excuse in the book for why I can't do things instead of just powering through it. 

The race was so much fun and so pretty.  But, it was a little hot and muggy for me (I got chaffed so bad - maybe my worst ever).   At one point when I was starting to go to the ugly place in my head (around 9.5 miles) I looked over and the waves were coming in and the beach was just beautiful.  Right then Happy came on my iPod and I remembered how awesome it is that I can run and how beautiful this earth is.  I wore my back brace for extra support and it was driving me crazy - luckily I saw Laurie and Suzette at mile 12 so I took it off and threw it at them.  Poor girls had to pick that nasty sweaty thing up but it made my last mile so much more enjoyable :)

A few things I loved about this race:  no busing to the start.  We just headed over to the start at 7:30 and ran.  It was so well organized with 20,000 runners that can't be easy to do.  The scenery was amazing.  Plenty of porta-potties and water stations with amazing volunteers.  Cute surfboard medals.  The expo was 3 days long and had lots of great vendors.  Shirts are cute and fit right.  Did I mention how pretty it was?

 Post race smiles

This cute gal Nana is 81 years old and set a course record for her age group. 
She ran it in like 2:10 is was so awesome!!

Best support team around

 

After the race we did a quick epson salt/ice bath. 
I mean we frolicked in the ocean :)

 

Snow Canyon Race Recap

I ran my last race of 2013 and I must say I am glad to be done racing for a little while.  Snow Canyon is a great half-marathon.  It's far enough away to make a girls trip of it and hit some warm weather but not too far.  It's a nice fast course and Snow Canyon is simply gorgeous.  The race was great and I got a new PR of 1:40:08 (7:38 pace) - supah fast for me!  I ran every step of the way with my girl Laurie and we chatted for 10 miles until I felt like shutting down then I had to listen to music to get me through the last few miles of neighborhood running.  I love having training partners who challenge me and entertain me all at once.  It was perfect weather 40's - 50's too.  I did a GU at mile 9 - which is the only way I made it through the last few miles.  

You really can't go wrong with this race.  It's not very expensive and never sells out.  There were about 2000 runners of all levels and it's well organized.  Good amount of water stations, lots of porta potties, areas to cheer on your runners throughout the course and lots of food and drinks at the end. 

Laurie and I at mile 12.5

All the Housewives - 6 of us ran the half, 1 the 5K and everyone else ran for fun on their own :)

Ragnar Recap

Season 4 of Ragnar was awesome.  I think my favorite year so far.  I love being part of the Housewives of the UC team (like us on our facebook page).  We have fun, we run hard and most of all we all get along great.  

As always the party starts the night before with van decorating.  We had lots of fancy pictures on magnets for our vans this year which made decorating and clean up faster.  I love how pro we're getting :)

Our start time was 8:45 am - so we met at 5:30 am and were on the road at 5:45.  We got there with the perfect amount of time to go through the safety briefing and relax a few minutes before the start.  Since I was runner 1 this year I got to do the starting line.  

On the ride up to Logan (about 2 hours) the girls were looking at the pace calculator sheet that I brought and were getting on my case because I changed a few of their times without asking.  You are supposed to use your 10K race pace and I know some of the girls are faster than they said.....so I took the liberty of changing it :)  

I was taking some serious heat - but luckily I can hold my own.  Ha.  Anyway I had put that my pace would be 8:00 (which I actually think I will beat next week in my 10K....so stay tuned).  My first leg was tough with some good uphill and some trail in the first few miles.  So when I finished I was sure I was way off my time.  I finished my first leg of 7.7 miles at an 8:17 pace in 1:03:37 - my estimated time was supposed to be 1:03 so I guess I was right on target. 

For our first legs I managed to go opposite of these 2 beauties.

At the first major exchange right after van 2 left someone came up to me and asked how far into the race we were when I told him we were van 1 and had just finished our first legs he asked if we wanted some water for our van.  He gave us a big old box of pop-top water bottles.  Of course I got a little silly and said "wow, you're our first sponsor" - he thought I was full-blown crazy but he still gave us the water.  We had some fun posting our "sponsor" on Instagram.

Right before my 2nd leg we had a delicious picnic lunch and rested up at Snowbasin. Could our matching pink blankets be any cuter?  I have no pictures of my 2nd leg but it was 8.2 with most of it being a very steep downhill.  I ran it at a 7:44 pace and because of traffic the van finally caught me and passed me with less than a mile to go. 

Heather made these pretty signs for us to use at the exchanges and then my brother Steve added LED lights to them for the night.  They were so awesome and made it so easy to find each other.

My last leg was a bit cold and was first thing in the morning.  But the good news is that I actually had a good solid 3 hours of sleep in the van.  Best sleep I've ever gotten at Ragnar so I felt like a new woman.  It was a flat 5 mile run and I finished it just under 40 minutes at an 8:04 pace.  

My bubble face that was on the side of the van.....and then my team threw me under the van at the end!

After our van finished we went to Kneaders for breakfast and big old diet coke.  It was heaven.  Then we changed into our finish line outfits, organized and cleaned the van and then headed over to the finish area.

Van 2 kicked serious butt and we finished in 30:51.  In women's submasters we were 5/23.  Overall women's 11/101 and overall 256/1390.  We were 2 hours faster this year than last year with almost the exact same team.  We all trained hard and raced hard and even though it's not about our time or place it feels great to do so well.

Our sweet Higgy was runner #9 and she had some seriously hard legs to run.  Her 2nd leg was over 11 miles during the middle of the night (3:00 am) and she got really sick and dehydrated.  She finished that leg and still ran her last leg which was 4.4 miles straight up the steepest mountain in the course.  She is AMAZING!!  She was so sick by the end she couldn't get out of the van to cross the finish line with us.  She is a serious rock star!

I love my team and I can't wait to see what 2014 brings!

2013 Housewives of the UC

Ready or not here we come.

We are so ready for Ragnar this year.  I couldn't be happier about the team I run on - I love these crazy, sassy, fun, running girls.  In 2 days I will be spending a couple of days running and partying with these gals in the mountains. 

In preparation for the race I have my nails painted bright pink, pulled out my pink sparkle skirt, purchased a few new pink running items and of course run a lot of miles.  Yes we take our team very seriously - ha ha!

Boston Strong

I'm not sure that I've talked enough about my Boston support group.  These girls ran miles and miles and miles with me training ran marathons with me. And helped me get my goal so there was no way I was going to run Boston without my girls there.  I am so glad I had them there.  On Saturday after we finished the Pink Series 5K we all put on our Boston support shirts.  We weren't together we were all being busy mom's - working in the garden, attending kids sporting events, cleaning, shopping, running errands and much more.  But when I texted the picture of me in my Boston shirt to them I quickly got pictures from them wearing their shirts too.  I love it. Running has always been a bond for us but now we have Boston too and it has tied us closer together as friends, runners and HUGE fans of Boston. We are Boston Strong. I have found that all of this has  made me love running even more than I did before.  I read this article today and absolutely loved it.  Thanks Runner's world for inspiring me daily.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the 4 of us partying it up in Boston. 

Having way too many cannoli's

Waiting for me while I was running - with a few other friends joining the party!

The subway with an awesome photo bomber

At the airport

Running along the Charles river

Today's workout:  6 mile run with 4 at 8:20 pace and crossfit