Been a long Time

Sorry that it has been a long time. Sometimes I just don't feel like I have too much to say. That, and I have been incredibly busy as you have probably been too this time of year.

That said, on the running front, I have been trying to increase strength and build up runs to ultimately complete the Capitol Peak Mega Fat Ass in January. Along the way towards capitol Peak, I ran in Yesterday's Pigtail's Flat Ass 50k. It was challenging, wet, and wet and wetter yet.
The day began with Rick picking me up at 5:40 and hitting Starbucks before meeting Linda at the Y and then down to the train station in Sumner to meet Rob and Steve. It wasn't raining yet. I was expecting it to be colder and was dressed for cold. I regretted not wearing shorts because it was warmer out than I had planned on (regret didn't last long). Once at the train station we learned that Steve needed to drive himself so Rob ended up with driving duties.

We checked in and made final clothing choices. I was feeling bad for Rob who didn't have a waterproof jacket and would be soaked in no time. I decided on the gortex jacket as it had begun raining steadily. We headed o the start and gathered together with all of our Y buddies, even seeing Ray who would run the marathon and start a bit later than the ultra.

We were off and when I noticed Rob was wearing a jacket and I was commenting to him on it when I ran right into a pole in the middle of the trail to keep motorized vehicles out. Let's say it left a mark. I shook it off, knowing it would hurt later and kept on going after Linda caught me from falling. A lesson to always look where you are going, especially in the dark and when in a crowded pack of runners!

The first half of the run was wet and I contemplated turning around at the marathon turn around. My hips were bothering me because the entire first half was a gradual uphill. When the trail turned from paved to gravel it became a bit more uphill. Nothing too steep, just 15 miles on a steady incline. Because of the rain, it wasn't long before the water was dripping from my pants onto my socks and into my shoes causing my feet to be waterlogged early on.

Rick decided to make that turn at the marathon mark, but I kept on. We had picked up a runner in our group who wanted to try running a 5/1 run walk ratio that I have been using to keep my ITB at bay. Her name is Vivian. I kept going with her by my side. We passed Steve and Rob on their way back down and then Linda not too far behind. I was really ready to turn around and stop going uphill. After what seemed like forever, we made it to the end of the trail and turned around.

Vivian mentioned she wanted to put on dry clothes at the bag drop area. I really didn't want to wait for her because I knew I would get cold being so wet and I just wanted to keep moving. i had decided I would tell her this once we got to the aid station, but before we arrived, she asked if I would wait for her. I said yes, I felt obliged. It took 5 minutes and I will be removing that time from my overall total. I wasn't happy about stopping. I did end up freezing for a while after that.

I felt good on the downhill and wanted to pick up my pace. I was determined to run the way I wanted to in this run. Slow if I needed to, faster I f I felt good. Now, going down, I felt good and better with a quicker pace. After a while, Vivian said she would try to keep with me until there were 6 miles left. She did, but was behind me about 15-20 feet for a mile or two before that. I was trying to keep a 8:50-9:50 minute pace on the way down between walk breaks. This lasted until I had to go to the bathroom really bad and had to slow down a bit to not wet my pants! I had to wait a while till the next porta-potty. Probably for a mile and a half I had to go and hold it in! The path here was along a main road and there was no where to go! So I suffered for a while, but made it! Best of all, I knew there were only about 3.5 miles to go after the park where the porta-potties were. I decided to skip some walk breaks just to be done quicker. I was ready to be done. I wanted dry clothes on and to eat some real food.

I finished in 6:03, but in 5:58 with the 5 minutes withdrawn for Vivian's clothing change. I am happy with that.

I feel pretty good today. Yes I have some sore muscles but I could go for a slow short run, or a long walk. I will probably run tomorrow morning with Michelle, before the hullabaloo of Christmas eve family dinner preparations begin.

I am looking forward to spending Christmas with my family, sharing time with my parents and brother and his family. I will wake up early and sit by the lit up tree in the quiet with the fire roaring and a cup of coffee in my hand. Enjoying a moment of peace and solitude before the excitement of the day begins.

Through it all, we will take time to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ. Who was born to take my sins upon him and pay a debt I could never pay and be my savior. Thank you.

Grace and peace to you this Christmas.

Turkeys, Ghosts and Birthdays

What a fun title. Sums up my long weekend. What a great weekend it was.

With my parents in France, In-laws in Texas, Local Brother in Eugene and Older brother in Atlanta, I was left to fend for my own family this Thanksgiving. It was wonderful.
I woke up to a very cold morning and went off to run with the Y group over at the track and park. It was a nice, pokey run.

Then it was home to start cooking. My husband Paul took our 8 year old son Michael and went off to meet another dad and son for a 9 hole round of golf. 5 year old daughter, Annika, stayed home and we watched Sleeping Beauty while preparing dinner. It was good bonding time. Dinner was ready by 3pm and we sat down and gave thanks. As we do at every meal together we share our blessings of the day. This time though we tried to go a bit deeper and share bigger things in life that we are thankful for. It went well! Ya never quite know what an 8 and 5 year old will come up with, but they did well. Later we went over to the family that Paul and Michael had golfed with's home for pie and conversation. It was a great day. Both families called it an early evening in order for some of us to prepare for an early morning of shopping!

I woke up at 5am and didn't really hurry out the door. I brewed some coffee while the car defrosted and left about 5:30am. I didn't think I'd ever hit Toys R Us on Black Friday again, but there I was. It makes a huge difference in attitude and demeanor when you are not shopping for electronics the day after Thanksgiving! I found a few of the items on my list and patiently waited my 40 minutes in line. I only got after one small group of people who were trying to merge into our line. I said," You know, there are going to be some very angry people if you try to get into this line when these people have been waiting over a half an hour and started at the end of the line." They replied that they had been waiting a long time too. This was not true, they just kinda made their own line where there wasn't one. They did merge, but they made sure they waited till I was past them and then merged! Then it was on to Target and a few other stores. I was pretty successful and only have a bit of shopping left to do. I am trying to get less "stuff" this year and focus on experiences together. So I did purchase a few more board games than I might otherwise have.

Anyway, on to the Ghost of Seattle Marathon. It was awesome. I loved it. Again I wasn't trying to go for any speed as my ITB is still on the mend. In fact, according to my therapist, I am supposed to be on a hiatus and focusing on strength training. She is unaware of my recent 50k and marathon! Sssshhhhh! Don't get me into trouble! I am taking it easy and am running less than I would like to be and still using the 5/1 ratio for run walk. I'll send you over to Michelle's blog for her detailed report that included photos. It was a great day. Thanks for the great report Michelle!

Sunday the 25th was my 34th birthday. I spent it with the kids and the going out to dinner as a family. It was low key and restful. A good day. I made sure I spoke with my brother after I figured he made it home from Eugene. He spent the day driving, Yuck! It was a good year and I look forward to an even better one, God willing.

Grace and Peace to you this Christmas season.

Turkey Trot 5k..... and I was Tagged

Sorry that it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy with school and family.

I decided for my run today, that I would go to a local race. The last time I ran it, it was a five miler. Today though, it was only a 5k. I decided I would take part of the loop again after I finished to make it at least 5 miles.

This is a small race put on by the Fort Steilacoom Running Club and was held at Fort Steilacoom Park on mostly gravel, grass and dirt trail with a little bit of asphalt thrown in. It happened to be the High school Cross country district championships course. I opted for my trail shoes as it had been fairly rainy this week. It is a great park for running. The problem was, it is a small race and the course wasn't clearly marked. If no one was ahead of me I didn't always know where to go. I literally stopped twice to ask people behind me which way to go! Once a volunteer made sure you made a turn to go up a steep hill, he said to turn left 2/3 of the way up and go down, problem was I had no idea if I was 2/3 of the way up! I just chose a path and went down. I could hear people follow me a ways back. Finally I came out and found a marker. People could have come down a different way, but I think I had the correct trail. I also stopped close to the finish, I could see a volunteer, but there was about three different paths I could take to get to him. He yelled and waved which way to go and I made it. So overall, it was a confusing race, but it was a good run. I ended up with first place for my age group and a 17 lb. turkey from the drawing! I'll save it for Christmas. I already bought a much smaller one for my family of 4.

After finishing, I went back out to make my run 5 miles total. I went back up to the trails and down around a small lake. Here, on the asphalt my trail shoes felt slippery. The path is an old road and was trying to grow moss.

I'll slow down for the rest of the week. I am running The Ghost of Seattle Marathon on Saturday and need to rest up! It should be another great run with Michelle!

Now, on to the tagging business....

Michelle tagged me. Here's the deal:

Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 3 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am half a set of fraternal twins. I have a twin brother who also lives nearby. We have only spent one school year apart our freshman year of college. He stayed home, then joined me at Pacific Lutheran University, Go Lutes!
2. I love the fall. The colors, the smells, the falling leaves, running through the fallen leaves, the weather, wearing cozy clothes and pumpkin spice lattes return to Starbucks and egg nog coming soon!
3. I am not a morning person, I enjoy getting up early, but leave me alone. I will most likely be grumpy.
4. I cannot wink. I think I deserve a special parking permit. It is a handicap.
5. I love creating. From painting, or photography, to clay, to sewing to cooking. Anything that involves making something. I don't get to be crafty too much, but I do love it!

There's so much more I could say, glad I only had to choose 5 things...I 'll save the others for long car rides and long runs, so come along for the ride!

I tag: Rob, Wendy and Joe. Have fun!

Grace and peace to you.

Autumn Leaves 50K

What an awesome day.

First of all Michelle, Eric,( see Eric and Michelle for photos of the event) Steve and I had a great drive to Portland where we were able to stay at my parent's house the night before the race. They have been gracious enough to host us three times now, from 4 people to 11. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Photos courtesy of Tom Riley

The day began quite early with wake up at 4:00am. We left the house by 5am for the 19 mile drive to Champoeg State park where the race was being held. I grew up going to this park nestled along the Willamette River. It has wide open fields and forested areas for day and overnight use. It was as beautiful as I remembered.

Michelle, Steve, Rob and I took the early start, with Rob and Steve running the 50 miles and Michelle and I the 50K. The first loop and out and back were pitch black. I decided to wear my headlamp like Eric did for the CCC, around my waist as I had on both a baseball cap and wool ski hat. It was COLD! It was very cool to look up and see the crescent moon and a sky full of stars as you ran along and had bobbing headlamps coming towards you. It was hard to distinguish lamp from star. We could also tell that parts of the course were quite foggy. Aside from tripping over the roots that had pushed up the asphalt, running in the dark, having no clue of your surroundings was very cool.

During the first loop as we encountered the single track trail portion we noticed what we thought were giant piles of leaves along the side of the trail. Now, one thing about me, I love Fall and running through leaves. It is my absolute favorite. I wanted to jump into the pile of leaves, but was afraid there was tree branches or other hard things under the leaves. I joked about getting impaled by a branch. Michelle told me it would ruin her race if I got impaled and couldn't continue. So I told her we'd have to check out the pile in the light to determine it's level of softness for jumping in. Then we proceeded to the potion of the trail where we ended up taking a wrong turn twice. The trail just led right into a wooded section, so we went. Then there was Michelle, stopping right in front of me with her arms out wide. I ran into her laughing because it looked like she had run into a bush. Apparently at this point the trail took a turn to the left and Michelle didn't notice, she just saw a drop off to the river ahead and didn't want me to fall. It was very funny though and I enjoyed imitating her for a while, just randomly stopping in front of her with my arms out wide.

My favorite part of the entire course was a section in the out and back of the main loop. We would cross this wood bridge and meander along the trail where the trees turned from mostly oaks, to mostly maples. The trail was covered, ankle high with gigantic yellow and brown leaves. It felt like running in snow, only much louder and crunchier, because it was so deep and you couldn't see what was underneath. This section just didn't last long enough for me and I was always surprised to see the turn around cones.

The 7 hours passed by quickly with many minutes filled with laughter. Michelle would imitate someone and we'd both crack up beyond control. After 20 miles it becomes hard to stop laughing! I'd imitate Michelle and we'd crack up laughing again. Then there was the 10 miles with Rob and Steve! Whew! It was a wonder we made it! Rob was as entertaining as ever and he needed our company. He'd say he was being nice and doing us a favor by keeping us company for our last tough 10 miles, but it was really us who saved him by giving him a fairly easy 1o miles in the middle of his 50! Love ya Rob, just had to set everything straight! During the second loop, when we passed the big pile of leaves, we decided the big one was safe for jumping in, but only on the last loop, in case of accidental impalement by hidden objects. I swore I would still run the last 1.5 miles if I did get impaled. So during the last loop I jumped right in, made some leaf angels,tossed some leaves and rolled around a bit before getting out. I had been worried that getting out would be tough after running 30 miles, but it wasn't. The pile was high enough that I wasn't actually on the ground, so getting out wasn't too bad! It was great fun too! What would a race called Autumn Leaves be without some rolling around in them? It made my day. Sorry, no photos.

After Michelle and I completed the 50k, we changed and ate and rested while we waited for Rob and Steve. After they came in again we went to Starbucks in nearby Newberg. We also got Rob some Doubleshots as we knew he would need the pick me up of some good caffeine. We arrived just in time to give Rob the coffee and hang out for their last loop. We hung out and chatted with other racers and volunteers and ate more food. The atmosphere at ultras is vastly different from traditional marathons. Some of the best camaraderie around.

When Rob and Steve came in we cheered and cheered! They ate some food and gathered their things and we were off. Back to my parent's house for a shower and to load up for home. A not so quick dinner at the packed California Pizza Kitchen with all the high school kids before the big homecoming dance ( Steve freaked some girls out here, telling them how nice they looked) and we were off, back to Puyallup. We dropped off Steve in Longview at his in-laws home and we made it back to my house at 11:30. I dropped off my things beside the door, changed my alarm clock and went to bed. Everyone was already asleep. I was thankful for the extra hour of sleep that daylight savings would bring.

I woke up and headed to church by 7:40am so I could stop at Starbucks before my volunteer nursery duty began at 8am. I got to play with the little ones for an hour and a half before I decided to head home instead of go to Sunday School. I forgot to bring advil. Not for my aching body, but for the abscessed tooth I have been fighting for the last couple of weeks. I opted for a stronger drug the dentist prescribed, which due to my fatigued state, totally knocked me out! I slept for a couple of hours. Besides a tight hamstring which I can only feel when I walk up my hilly driveway, I feel great. No painful spots, not really tight, my hips even feel good. I didn't try to run of course. I'll wait till Tuesday or Wednesday. I don't want to push it. The last time I ran two marathons in two weeks I ended up with a very bad case of ITB. I think I have been wise to take it slow and easy the last 6 months. I have been consistently using the run/walk method and have been stretching and strengthening. I will continue this as I want to get stronger, not let up.

To the future: I am seriously considering the Ghost of Seattle Marathon on the 24th as a birthday present to myself(birthday is the 25th). I didn't sign up for the Seattle Marathon and don't really want to for over $100.00. So this one will be smaller and cheaper. I like that! Besides, I bet there will be some good company out there to run with!

Grace and Peace to you.

Long Awaited San Francisco (short) Report

Photo Version, Text coming as soon as life calms down! Oh, I forgot to add a link to my favorite race photo!

Hipster

Well, my hips have had quite the week.

I was very sore on Monday after the 5 miler at the Portland Marathon and took both Monday and Tuesday off to recuperate. I decided I needed to run on Wednesday and ran an easy 5 at the Y indoor track. I again always run too fast at the track. It is hard to judge my pace when you have to go around 6 times to make a mile. I tried to lose count and go by time as I did not have my lap counter.

My hips paid for it as soon as I stopped running. I knew right away I was in trouble. It hurt to go down the stairs. I made sure I did all of my stretching and strengthening exercises before picking up the kids from the nursery and games room, but I hurt.

All I could do was take Advil and look forward to my appointment with my Doctor/therapist on Friday. It could not come too soon. Friday I left a bit early and arrived a bit early to my appointment and had to wait a bit. That was okay. I knew relief was on the way. Dr. Doyle is a chiropractic sports physician. I told her how things have been going. She had me lay on my side with my top leg hanging back and my top arm stretched out over my head. She used her Graston tools ( I call this torture therapy) from my ribs to my knee. It hurt really bad in places and I knew I'd be very bruised, but I knew it was going to help tremendously. Same for the other side. Then a little A.R.T or Active Release Therapy (which can also be torturous) and an adjustment of the hips and I was done. I could already fell the difference of not being so tight, and quite sore. The bruises were already forming.

Saturday I was quite tender, but I slept so much better and after a warm up period I felt pretty good on my run. The true test came after the run. I felt good still. That afternoon, during my daughter's gymnastics class I went and did some strength exercises for my glutes, quads, hams, lower back, and core. Still felt good.

Sunday came and I knew the therapy was working. I woke up feeling great. After church I went for a short run and felt great. Things are looking up in my hip world.

I have a massage scheduled for Monday and another Doctor/therapist session on Wednesday. Then it is off to San Francisco on Thursday night. I'll run a little this week, stretch and continue my strengthening exercises and take it easy during the marathon on Sunday. I think the worst part will be the long drive down and especially home on Monday. Keep us in your prayers!

I am looking forward to this trip and pray that all of the ladies will have a fantastic and safe time.

Grace and peace to you.

Portland Adventure

So this weekend I was in Portland to run the 5 miler that coincided with the Portland Marathon. It was really hard not to register for the marathon during the expo. It was a fun weekend that included trips to and from Protland with my Y running buddies Michelle, Eric and Rick. What entertaining rides we had!

The 5 miler was really fun. I felt kinda dorky just doing the 5 miler, but Ireally did enjoy myself. Portland is my hometown, well, I grew up 15 minutes south of downtown, so it feels like home. I loved getting to watch the marathoners and even caught Michelle and Rick at their 5 mile point. I decided I'd stick to my own recovery regime of 5 minutes run 1 minute walk intervals. It was tough to do this for a five mile race, but I wanted to continue to give my ITB the breaks it was used to. I finished in 45:30. 11th in the 30-34 age group. It was too fast and my hips paid for it. I hurt the rest of the day. I had planned on at least 50 minutes but Igot caught up in the excitement andrace atmosphere. I did have fun and thats what counts.

I had a blast watching the marathoners finish with Sonja and Patch. So, no regrets for not registering for the marathon, yet anyway.

The reason I registered earlier for the 5 miler was due to the fact that I am Runnning the Nike Women's Marathon in San Fransisco on the 21st. The last time I ran two marathons in two weeks I ended up with super duper IT Band issues. It felt like a burning hot knife was sticking out the side of my knee. Funny, It didn't bother me until a week after the marathon though. Needless to say, I did not want the same thing to occur, so I opted for the 5 miler. I know it still sounds weird, but I wanted to be able to have fun in San Fransisco and then be able to run the Autumn Leaves 50k two weeks after the Nike. I realize this sounds wacko, but it makes sense to me. I am not going for a certain time at either, but if I would have run in Portland, I would have really wanted to best my time from last year and I know my IT and hips would have paid dearly for the run.

So, as I just said, my hips would pay. I am having pain after running and for the next day at the top front crest of my hips. I can tell it is muscular and not the joint. I am told to stretch my quads, hamstrings, and IT and to strengthen my glutes. I am using the big white foam roller which is quite painful as well as the Tiger Tail hand roller. Any more suggestions? I have been trying to cross train more, doing hour long spin classes and run slower. I find that the faster I try to run, the more my hips hurt. So, slow and steady for SF and Autumn Leaves.

Grace and peace to you.