St. George 1/2 Marathon

I feel an obligation to myself to post about the half marathon this past weekend. So I'm going to. 

I tried really hard the week before the race to take it easy so I wouldn't hurt myself more while still being active enough that my knee would be happy. I did a lot of ice/heat combinations, and leg exercises and stretching. Apparently it wasn't enough.

I felt awesome for about 1.75 miles. Then we got to the top of this hill and I was like "Crap. Here comes the knee pain." I hoped it might loosen up, but it didn't. It continuously got worse for the next 11.26 miles. In the past, whenever I have had IT band pain I reach a point where my legs will not work anymore and I have to walk for a half mile or so. I was afraid that this was going to happen. I decided to try and push through for as long as I could. We quickly got into a rhythm of running for .8 of a mile and then walking until the next mile. There were water stations every 2ish miles so we would stretch like crazy every time we got there. 

It hurt so badly. Anytime I lifted my leg off the ground and bent my knee it felt like there was a giant metal hook in my knee yanking it and tearing it. So even though we were running the majority of the time, were running super slow (like 12-13 minute miles). 

My mom was awesome. For the first 6 miles or so I kept apologizing for being so slow, for being such a mess, but she made it clear that she was here to run this with me and nothing else mattered. I really appreciate her support. 

When we hit 8 miles, we stopped and stretched, but when we started again it felt like the knee pain had tripled. This worried me a lot. We decided to walk the next mile and then see how we felt. So we literally walked an entire mile. It was beyond frustrating. Everything else on my body felt incredible and I was aching to just RUN. But I had decided that I was going to have a good attitude about this race even though it was hard. So we had a grand old time just walking away and when we finally hit 9 miles things felt a little better (about as painful as it had been earlier). 

4 miles left. We started running .75 and then walking the last quarter mile. I think we stopped stretching at this point because it was literally doing nothing anymore. Once we hit 10 mom said, "we just have a 5K left!" For some reason that kick started it for me. When we ran I was running a little faster. 

I realized toward the beginning of the race that when I was going uphill, my knee didn't hurt nearly as bad, and then the second it leveled out/started going downhill the pain increased exponentially. So the whole race we were killing those uphills and then as soon as we'd go down I would practically cry. Most of the time we walked downhills. It felt so funny and opposite because normal people walk uphills and let the downhills carry them. 

When we hit mile 11 I wanted to run the whole thing. That's what I said, "I think I can run the last two miles without walking." Not even 5 minutes later I was like "Just kidding!!" because the knee pain got way worse. So we started walking about 11.75 and decided to walk until 12.25. Right when we hit 12.25, my aunts and their friend showed up. They had finished the half something like an hour before us (I know right?) and came to see us to the finish. They helped distract me and I was able to pick up the pace more even though it hurt like heck. I just wanted to be down SO badly. My aunt Frances was coaching me through the whole time. "Okay girl, we're just going to go around this corner and then turn right and it'll be right there. Can you hear the announcer? You're almost done!" 

When we hit mile 13 and went around the corner I spanked my mom and started sprinting (a little too soon). My knee was screaming at me. I think if it could have made sound, we all would have been deaf from the noise. There was hardly anyone left at the finish line to cheer us on because we were way at the back of the pack. I saw my amazing and supportive husband with the camera, taking pictures, then running to get ahead of us again. Then we crossed the mats at 2 hours 57 minutes and I about collapsed. I instantly wanted to just sit down and never move again, but the abrupt stop made my legs start to cramp up. 

Kevin jumped the barrier and grabbed me in his arms. I cried into his neck a little bit. I drank chocolate milk and ate string cheese and fruit leather and forced myself to walk around so I wouldn't cramp. I was done. I had finished. I had pushed through even though it hurt for 2 1/2 hours straight. I felt like I could do anything. 

I'm incredibly bummed that I was injured for this race. I trained really hard all year and I wish my run could have reflected that a little bit more. But in some ways, I'm even more proud of myself for pushing through when I was in so much pain. I didn't know I was capable of that, but now I do. I really can do hard, painful things and that is an empowering thought.

So now the question is, how soon should I run another half marathon and which one should I do? :)

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far, and thanks all, for your love and support. I feel blessed to have it. 

ready or not...

I've kind of been wanting to talk about my half marathon training.
Since my race is tomorrow (!!!!)
There are a lot of words in this post, and most people probably won't care about what I have to say. But I care, because I have been thinking about running a lot over the past year.

Before the 5K, one year ago

Last January we went down to support my mom and brother running this very same race, while we did the 5K. It sparked something in me. I've done two half marathons in my life, both when I was 16, within 4 months of each other. Then I lost the spark. I had a stress fracture, or tendinitis, or something in my foot and I lost the desire to run. 1 year ago, I got it back. And I really started trying.

It was a battle the whole year. I have ITBS, (IT band syndrome) which means that the outside of my knee hurts WAY bad when I run. I've literally spent all year getting it under control. When I started last January, I literally could not even run 1/2 of a mile. I worked SO hard to stay positive, and I ran every day, even when it less than half a mile. I got super good at stretching and foam rolling.

First 5 mile run in years

Things slowly started to improve. I think it took me 4 months before I could finally do a 3 mile run. That was my long run. And I stayed at 3 miles for a couple of months. I hit a wall and could not seem to get past it. Finally one day I said, "I'm running 4 miles." And I did! And then the next week we did 5. I took it super slow. I didn't add mileage every week. I stayed in the 5-6 range for a couple of months, then finally hit 7. I felt this incredible sense of accomplishment. Look at what I was accomplishing! at the beginning of the year, I pretty much couldn't run at all. And now I could consistently do 3 and 4 miles with a 6 or 7 mile long run every week.

Then the IT band started hurting again. I had gotten lazy with stretching because my knee wasn't hurting anymore. Boy do I want to go back in time and slap myself in the face because the past 5 months have been so rough when it comes to running. So I slowed down again, iced like crazy, got into a good stretching and roam rolling routine and just worked through it.

I am SO proud of myself that I didn't give up at this point. Because it would have been really easy to! I had a lot of really hard runs. I texted Kevin a lot of "thumbs down" pictures afterward. But he always encouraged me and helped me work through it. My wonderful husband has been the greatest support system ever.

Finally I got to 8 miles. I started feeling really confident. Then it got really cold, really fast. Running outside was miserable, no matter how much I bundled up. I always carried water until it started freezing. And once my eyelashes froze I knew it was time to run inside.

 I did my 9 mile long run and my 10 mile long run inside at the BYU track. I would run 2 miles on the track and then 1 mile on the treadmill until I was done. Those were hard long runs. I usually would cry in relief when I finished. But I knew I was going to get there.

The weather warmed up a bit and I decided to do my 11 mile long run inside. This was three weeks ago. The weather was perfect for running. I had ZERO IT band pain which was amazing. I felt incredible. I wanted to run forever. For the last three miles I noticed a pain in the back of my knee/top of my calf. I could still run through it so I just kept on running (with IT band pain, you can't run through it no matter how bad you want to. Your body won't let you).

I think I ended up pulling a muscle in my leg that day on my run because for the next two weeks I couldn't run at all. Not even a little bit. It was the most frustrating thing in the world. I would go out, run hardly at all and then walk home, in shame. I cried a lot. I got so frustrated. I decided to take a week off.

The week off saved my strained muscle, but it introduced another problem. Now my IT went crazy. With my IT band, it's so counter intuitive because resting does not help, running consistently does. So this past week has been interesting. I never ran more than 3 miles, and actually I only did that once. Every other day has been the elliptical.

The moral of the story is, I'm running a half marathon tomorrow. And I have no idea how it's going to go. More than likely, I will have to walk a lot of it. More than likely, I will be in a lot of the pain the entire time. But you know what? I am going to FINISH gosh dang it! I have worked so hard all year, and it's time to prove myself. Even if I'm slower than molasses the entire time.

Prayers will be appreciated friends!

Playing catch up

There is a really big part of me that wants to blog regularly. I love reading blogs, especially blogs that are updated frequently. I'm not entirely sure what's been holding me back lately on blogging. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that we don't have internet at our apartment. I don't know.
So this post will be all about catching up. This summer has been so much fun. It's been busy and hard sometimes, but we've really packed in a lot of awesome things.

We've been camping three times and we are looking forward to another couple of camping trips before it gets too cold.

We've hiked a lot (obviously!)

Stewart Falls

Squaw Peak

Angel's Landing

Mount Timpanogos! 

Biggest hike of the year!

Kevin turned 24!!

We've enjoyed the bounty of Grandma's garden and fruit trees and we've done a lot of experimenting with using those fruits and veggies (smoothies, homemade salsa, fruit leather, stir fry)

We've been to Seven Peaks a handful of times

We've read a lot of great books

I got to go on the annual girls trip with my sister, mom and all of her sisters down in St. George!

We (and by that I mean me) have been running a lot! (Kevin has been running too, but I have been a machine lately. It's awesome!)

Pioneer Day 5K

After an awesome 5 mile run on the Provo River Trail

 We've been going to the temple as much as we could! And speaking of the temple, we just got set apart to be temple workers starting in September! We are so excited.

Yep, this summer has been pretty fantastic. But we are dang excited for what is in store for us! Next week we are heading on a cruise which we are very excited about. We didn't take a honeymoon after our wedding so that's what we are calling this trip. :) Then school starts and with it a new job for me (today was my last day at Wavetronix!), and totally different schedules. We have a lot of exciting things in our future and we are just loving our little life together!

busy bees

My poor little blog has been neglected. We have been participating in other interesting pursuits such as:
Spending a short weekend down in not-so-sunny St. George for the Dixie Red Rock Relay.
Having a combined FHE with some of our favorite people.
Accepting a speaking assignment in church.
Reading, reading reading. I am on a reading binge right now. It's insane.
Watching LOST. We are addicts.
Running. Every day. All of my runs since the race have been pretty much terrible. But at least I'm getting out there.
Experimenting with food-stuffs for dinner. Last night it was stuffed peppers. Next time I'll do it a little differently.
Staying on campus way later than we want to.
Ecclesiastical endorsement interviews.

Oh yeah, and school and work and stuff. We are busy people. Trying to maintain balance.

i am crushing this battle

Did you know that I've been running a lot lately?
There was a time in my life when I was an awesome runner. I did two half marathons my sophmore year of high school. I was so fit and healthy. Unfortunately, since then running has been a constant trial and I go through phases all the time where I try super hard to get back into running, and then fail.
Mostly it's because I struggle with tight hips and IT band issues which make my knee hurt every time I run.
But this was my year apparently. I ran a 5K in January and it gave me that spark of motivation to try again.
This time I haven't been moaning about how I used to run 6 miles every day and now I can't even do a half mile.
I've been celebrating all of those half mile runs.
Which turned into one mile runs.
Which turned into two mile runs.
Then three.
Then four.
Which is where I'm at right now. I usually stick to 2-3 miles, but once a week I'll bust out 4.
That's happened for a few weeks in a row, and I know that soon I'll hit 5 again, and then 6.
My attitude toward running and exercise is totally different than it's ever been.
It's the whole celebrating achievements thing. I think it helps that I have the most amazing, celebratory husband. I text him after every run, and after each one, no matter how far, he responds with great enthusiasm. He helps me feel enthusiastic about myself too.

This weekend we are going to St. George with some of my family to run the Red Rock Relay. I am so excited. I know that I won't be able to go as far or as fast as my brother, my aunt, my husband, or heck, even my mom. But I feel so great about where I am at with running and I'm so proud of what I've accomplished. I'll be happy to run my legs. They will be some of the shortest legs, and I'll run them the slowest.
But the important thing is that I am DOING it.
:)
Here's to running!

why did we pick such expensive resolutions?

Okay friends, we've got a dilemma.
It's called, we are poor newlywed college students and our income is very small, but we love eating well.
Not even eating OUT, just eating WELL.
We have our reasonable grocery budget.
And have gone to the grocery store a few times since we've been married.
And we've looked for the sales, and we always buy cheaper.
But the fact of the matter is, we love fruit and vegetables. We love salmon. We love salads and smoothies and healthy foods. We hate Raman. We can't do Mac&Cheese. We desperately want to eat whole grains.
We aren't into the whole "organic, save the planet, go green, crunchy" thing, but we really want to put good things into our bodies.
So the moral of the story is, our grocery bill has been well exceeding what we have budgeted.
"We are investing in our bodies." we say.
"It will save us money later if we are healthy now." we say.
"We really really really really want to get back into running and that requires that we eat more, better, healther." we say.

Any recommendations out there? Any cool coupon sites? Any advice?
How can we have our cake (actually fruit and veggies) and eat it too??

Sunny St. Geezy

We had an awesome weekend in St. George with my family (minus my daddy) and my aunt Frances and her fam for the St. George half marathon and 5K. My mom, brother and Frances all ran the half and did awesome, and the rest of us did the 5K. It was so much fun! I haven't really been able to run for the past couple of years because I have knee issues but I've been babying it like crazy lately and trying to get back into it. I did the 5K in 37 minutes which I was super happy about all things considered. Kevin ran it in 27 minutes. He's so awesome. :) I loved running across the finish line and seeing his handsome face cheering me on.
Besides running the race, we went to a funeral for my grandpa's twin brother which was really beautiful and sweet, ad we spent a lot of time in the pool/hot tub, ate out, went to the temple and enjoyed a lot of family time. We had so much fun! I think the best part was escaping frigid Utah county for a while. The temperatures were in the fifties for most of the weekend. So wonderful! We are looking forward to another race in march! We love bonding with family with exercise.