Utah Valley Marathon Part 2--Training

Marathon Training started at the beginning of February. Thankfully I don't mind running in cold weather and we for sure had some cold, snowy, sleety, wet days, but all in all it wasn't too bad.

We followed the training program from the book "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" and even thought the schedule called for running 4 days a week for 16 weeks, we reduced it to 3 days for 16 weeks, with our long runs being on Saturday. Both Lindsay and I were so excited to start training and before I knew it our long runs went from 5 miles to 10 miles to 16 miles to 18 miles! It seemed to go so fast and each and every Saturday was so fun and challenging. Keep in mind that I only really want to write about the long Saturday runs, even though there were 2 other runs each week, because I feel like each Saturday was a milestone!

Up until this point the farthest I had run was 8.5 miles so I was very excited to get to the point in my training where I was running farther then that! That point came in the 5th week of training when the schedule called for 10 miles. Unfortunately Lindsay wasn't able to run with me that day due to an injury so I was off on my own! It was sooooooooo incredibly hard but sooooooooo incredibly satisfying! I remember really struggling from about mile 5 to mile 7 and then again between mile 9 and 10 and when I talked to Lindsay after my run the first thing out of my mouth was 'I don't know how I'll EVER be able to run 16 more!'

The week after the 10 mile was an 11 mile run which seemed to go well. And then a few days later we did a 12 miler which was by far the most difficult run for me. I struggled through most of it while Lindsay rocked it! The next week was 14, which I ended up missing due to being out of town for spring break so I was really nervous for the week after that...our first 16 miler!

For those who run you know its important to map out your route. For whatever reason I had mapped out our 16 mile route at like week 2 so I was really looking forward to it, and it was so fun! I started to struggle at about mile 10 and had to fight hard between 10 and 13. It was at 13.1 that Lindsay, who was ahead of me, stopped and said, 'You just ran a half marathon.' Then we took a few pictures, walked a little bit more and then ran the last 2 miles without stopping. I really couldn't believe I had run 16 miles! It was crazy!

The next Saturday was another 16, which we ran part of in frozen snow, and then the next week was another 16, which I only ended up running about 13 of. I was in Hawaii and I just got bored and hot so I stopped! Then came our first 18 which was AWESOME!!!!! We both felt so amazing, and even though I had a KILLER blister, I powered through and we finished in record time! The week after that, week 13 was another 18, which I don't want to discuss in too much detail...let's just say we called for a rescue party at mile 15! Then we started to taper.

The taper weeks were by far the hardest for me mentally. I think I thought since the longest run of the week was only 9 miles it would be easy. I was wrong. It was at this point that I really started to worry about actually being able to run the full 26.2! Lindsay was also getting concerned at this point but we both just tried to remember that we were prepared, we were strong, we were trained and we would finish!

Finally, after 16 weeks of running, 301 miles of running, talking about running, planning our running, talking more about running, running more, talking about running and planning more running, Marathon week arrived!

This sign advertising the marathon happened to be on our 16 mile course so of course we had to take a picture during our first 16 mile run.

There I am, being a fool of course!

My NASTY blister after the first 18 mile run. This thing caused me trouble the rest of the training but was okay during the marathon. It still hasn't fully healed though!

Utah Valley Marathon-Part 1-The History of My Running

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!!!!!

So here goes...Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not a runner. Ever since I was a kid I've never loved running. In fact I remember in Jr. High I thought Cross Country sounded cruel and unusual so I played basketball instead. Sure, that involves some running but you get lots of breaks in between! Fast forward my Jr. High days to freshman year in college and the fitness class I was required to take. It required every student to walk or run a mile. I tried to run a mile, quit after about a quarter of a mile and lied to say I had run it in 7:00 minutes. Knowing what I know now about distance running looking back at that makes me die laughing! I was a total idiot!!!!!

I always admired people who could run long distances. My dad ran the St. George Marathon when I was about 13 and I thought that was pretty cool and my sister in law Lindsay ran cross country in High School and ran a marathon 6 years ago! Even though it was something I had thought I'd liked to do, I would always dismiss it because I couldn't even go a mere mile without DYING! Even when I was in good shape, running was just hard!

2 years ago, after moving to Utah, a friend and I started to walk in the mornings. My motivation was to get in shape so eventually it turned to walk/running. Then I heard about these crazy relay races called Ragnar and thought that sounded like fun. By this time Lindsay had completed several 1/2 marathons and my sister Marilee had run a 1/2 marathon and I was beginning to think that maybe I'd do a 1/2 marathon. Then on Mother's Day in 1999, I was invited to be an alternate on a Ragnar Wasatch Back Team. I knew I wasn't even close to being able to do that but decided I would make sure I was ready to do it the next year if the opportunity arose!

That July I ran the Freedom Festival 5K in Provo. My first race! I loved it! Even though I had to walk a bit I had the race bug. I was excited!

A few months later, after several of my friends ran the Provo River Trail 1/2 Marathon, another friend invited me to run the Provo Halloween 1/2 Marathon. I was in! It was finally time to commit and train for something. I downloaded a training schedule from the internet and huffed and puffed and struggled through my training runs. Every step was challenging and every mile was grueling but I was having fun competing with myself. Would I do better the next time I ran? Would I be able to run the entire distance without having to walk? I realized I was beginning to look forward to each run!

A few weeks before my 1/2, my friend Katie called me. She said that her and some other friends were running the Las Vegas Ragnar and that someone had dropped out last minute. She remembered that I had been training for a 1/2 and asked if I could fill in on their Vegas team. After looking at the legs, and discussing it with TJ I decided to do it. They gave me the easiest legs on the team and I was excited! At this point I hadn't ever run more then 7 miles, and I still had to walk almost every training run! Honestly, even though I knew I had improved over the last 6 months, I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

Even though I totally sucked, I had an absolute blast running the Las Vegas Ragnar! I also learned a ton! From watching the other ladies I realized that they were all really strong runners because they were overall really strong women! I came home, joined a gym and began to get really serious about running! (Even though I skipped out on the Halloween 1/2.)

That Thanksgiving I ran another 5K and then that Christmas I signed up to run the Moab 1/2 marathon the following March with my sister and brother in law. I was also asked to be in charge of van #1 for June 2010 Wasatch Back Ragnar. By this point I was feeling pretty hard core, even though I was still really slow! And then I was sidelined by a deep bone bruise in my foot 3 weeks before Moab. I was disappointed but also kind of relieved. Even though I had been running and training I still felt like 13.1 miles was completely out the realm of possibility for me and I felt really unprepared.

Fortunately my foot healed well and I was able to start training for the WBR. I also did something kid of crazy...I volunteered to take the leg with the most miles...a total of 21.2 over 3 runs. I was absolutely TERRIFIED!!!!!! I was also absolutely DETERMINED to run every step of the way...and I did! This is when I felt like I could legitimately tell people that I am a runner!

After the WBR I took a little break from consistent running. But in September I needed to start training for the second Las Vegas Ragnar! After the WBR I knew I could do anything so I wasn't too stressed about it. The weekend before the race we went to Denver and ran in the Denver Rock N Roll Marathon Relay!

Alison, Lindsay, Taylor and I ran on a team together while Phil ran the 1/2. Taylor was our last runner and we all gathered to wait for him at the 26 mile marker! As we stood there and watched people run in I was so inspired! There were the people who were obviously very seasoned runners, there were those who were obviously very knew runners. There were those who made it look effortless and those who made it look painful and those in between! But there were 2 people in particular that I watched and thought...I could do this!

The first was a man in his mid thirties who was running with a smile on his face. When he saw his wife standing there holding his baby he grabbed the baby and ran the last .2 miles holding her. For some reason I thought he looked like a more experienced runner but who knows for sure. Then there was the Mom who I identified with the most. She was probably a bit older then me and if I had to guess I would say it was her first full marathon. As she saw her family she held out her hand for her daughter, who looked to be about Natalie's age, and ran the rest of the way with her. As I stood there watching, choking back tears, I decided that I would run a marathon!!!! That if all these people I was watching could do it, then so could I!

I can't remember what exactly happened after that but all of a sudden I was registering for the 2011 Utah Valley Marathon along with Lindsay, Alison, Phil, John and Adam and our friends Perry and Maleah Atkin. Lindsay bought me a training book for my birthday, The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer, and we both worked on getting ourselves in shape to start the 16 week training program. Mid-February came and we started!