The Hobble Creek Half Marathon

I was talking to my friend Emilie Creswell a few weeks ago, and she told me about a half marathon she was running. Since I missed the chance to run the Provo River Half, I jumped at the chance to run this one.

Emilie and I went down the night before and stayed with her friends in Orem. We went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Provo (or is it still Orem? Who knows!) for our carbo-loading extravaganza. I ate way too much, as usual. After making a stop at Cyndi's new house we headed back to Orem to try and get some sleep.

I had a hard time sleeping. Maybe it was the anticipation of the race. Maybe other things were on my mind. The thought of being in the elite 100 Women finishers was definitely hanging over my head. Could I do it? I thought there was definitely no chance. Surely there were 100 women faster than me in this thing. But I wanted that medallion so badly.

We woke up early race morning. We had to be to Springville by 6:30 at the absolute latest--that's when the last bus was scheduled to shuttle runners up the canyon. We took the wrong exit, but eventually found the park and was on the last shuttle bus on time.

From where the shuttle bus dropped you off to the start line was about a 3/4 mile walk up the canyon. I guess you could say it was a "warm-up" before the race. It was still a little annoyed and my left ankle started hurting terribly, which I took as a bad sign. But by the time we actually started running, my ankle didn't hurt anymore. I swear my body is on crack sometimes.
This race is mostly downhill, and it's fast. It's good practice for the quads for St George. It was surprising, though, what actually hurt during this thing: my calves. Was I just trying to bust up the hills? Emilie said her calves were tight by the end too. And my right hamstring was bugging me a little bit. But not too much.

I love the race experience. I love picking people out in front of me and passing them. Each women I passed I knew I was one more closer to my goal of the elite 100. I knew this race was fast, but I didn't realize how fast. I was pushing it, sure, but not terribly hard. I've had other races where I felt like it took all I had and I still wasn't going that fast. I still had something in me for the last few miles.

I took them one at a time. I thought to myself, "if I can just coast through mile 10... then mile 11... then I thought just keep it up through mile 12 and I can start to push it a little harder..." once I got to mile 13 I knew I had it and I kept pushing. This was a good course.

I finished with a time of 1:42, gun time. Since my watch broke I couldn't keep my actual time, but it was probably a good minute or two before I crossed the start line. Needless to say, this is my best half marathon time ever. Perhaps my best race ever. I crushed my previous PR by ten minutes! I was running a 7:51 pace for over 13 miles! I never thought I could hold that! My dream of Boston has been rekindled! I need an 8:20 average pace in St George to qualify, so if I can race like I did last weekend I can do it. It's really quite exciting.

So if you must know, I was in the top 100 women finishers. I received the coveted elite 100 medallion. Now it's true: I am an elite athlete. It was a good day all around. Everyone should run this one next year. I'm quite a fan.

P.S. Emilie and I both won in the random prize drawing after the race, which is exciting. While running the race we passed the Hobble Creek Golf Course. As I was running by I thought to myself, "wow this is really beautiful! Fred should come down here and play this course!" Then I almost got hit in the head with a golf ball (actually the guy right in front of me literally almost got hit, but it startled me nonetheless). So when they were doing the random prize drawing and they were giving away the 2 passes for 9 holes at the Hobble Creek Golf Course I thought to myself, "I should win this..." And then they called my number and I did! So when I get back from Texas Freddie is going golfing with me. I'm excited to see his advanced skills on the golf course. Emilie won a prize right after me. A new pair of Mizunos at a running store in Provo. Oh, and we both got a new pair of socks with our prize. Good times!

The few days leading up to my best half marathon ever.

On Wednesday I played frisbee. It was, of course, pretty secret and not a whole lot of people came. I think we had like four on three or something. Netti and I both didn't really want to be there and were a little ornary. It was funny because Don left the full field even though we only had a few people. Netti and I kept sneaking the endzone cones up after each point. Don finally noticed and we all had a good laugh.

On Thursday I went running. It was a good break from packing up my life. I needed to get out there. I got out the door around 9 o'clock. It's probably a little late to be out there by myself because it's pretty dark at that time these days. I ran all the way out to 2100 South and stopped at Smith's to get a drink. I got sketched out by this guy sitting in his truck. I thought for sure he was going to follow me home and try and kill me or something. Don't worry, he didn't. He was probably just a nice old guy sitting in his beater truck waiting for his wife to pick up some eggs at the grocery store.

On the way back I ran into Karla Hoggard. She was running in the opposite direction, toward her house. As soon as we both realized who the other one was we stopped and chatted for a minute. She told me about the fifteen mile run her club was doing that saturday, but I was already comitted to the Hobble Creek Half Marathon.

I felt pretty strong on my run. It's always a good feeling to get a strong five mile run in.

disc at bryant; five miles on 9th east

I think I saw some kids from camp!

Now that I'm unemployed I have time to go running in the morning. I had my alarm set for 7'ish, but didn't drag my butt out of bed until nearly 8 o'clock. It wasn't too hot by the time I got out there, so I was lucky.

I only ran about 3 miles. My body was just feeling tired. Can legs feel sleepy? Well, mine did. It was good just to get out there and loosen things up, though. I'm not complaining.

My right knee hurt randomly throughout the run. And my left ankle hurt sometimes. I was a little tight in the shoulders and arms. But my hamstrings held up. I love my aging body!

~3 miles; 800 East to Kensington Ave

Frisbee

Disc was pretty good last night. I wasn't too sore and was running well. I guess the tournament motivated me to actually want to run hard, because I didn't start to get lazy until the very end when I was convincing Tori to move into the cool house with us.

My hamstrings didn't really hurt, which is good. I don't remember any other noticeable aches and pains either. My body is pretty random sometimes.

3 games; Bryant

My week:

Monday: Frisbee.

Tuesday: Running on 800 East. Four miles?

Wednesday: Secret Frisbee.

Saturday: Park City Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. Four games. Lots of running. Played some dang good teams. Played some not as good teams. Managed to lose all of them. I was a handler all day.

Sunday: Second day of the tournament. Played two games. More handling. Actually won the last game. It was Fred's first tournament win; very exciting. Had one good D, ran hard, played well both days. (Except one endzone play coming off a time-out where I was supposed to cut to the break-mark side but didn't because I confused myself) I was told that I should think about trying out for one of the club teams in Salt Lake. I'm good, I can run, and they can always use women. I'm not sure I want to get that serious about it.

I have no idea how far I ran.

I must've been feeling relatively well yesterday morning because I ran something closer to 14 miles than anything. I'm not really sure on the exact distance. But it was probably at least 13, if not more.

I felt great on the way out. It was the way back that got to me. After the turn-around my right hamstring really started bugging me. It made it pretty hard. The temperature was relatively coolish until the end when the sun finally came out behind the clouds. I had a cool breeze for most of it. Once the sun was out and things were heating up, I had to abandon all the rules to road running. I ran with the flow of traffic on the sidewalk. Sometimes the shady side of the street is more important.

I've discovered that running on 9th East is pretty nice for the only fact that there are plenty of grocery stores for water stops. It's really quite convenient. I found another stop for my Smith's-to-Smith's run.

~14 miles?; ~2 hours; 900 East to 5400 South

super secret wednesdays = throw practice

so pretty much only five people showed up on Wednesday. I actually knew a lot of people weren't going to make it so I came prepared. I didn't even bring my cleats and just went on a little run over there. I took a long route to get more of a workout in. By the time I got to the field only Shannon and Melissa were there. We started throwing a disc around.

It turned out to be a good night for the girls who came. We spent a lot of time throwing and catching. It will help their game. I think it's hard to really get the basics down in the high-pressure situation of a game. Not that disc at Bryant is that high-pressure. It's actually pretty chill and swilly, if you ask me.

But anyway, I ran home afterward.

One thing I noticed on my run over there was my throat was really dry. That's a sign that I'm maybe getting sick, because I'd been hydrating all day. I've been taking it easy these past couple days. I'm still planning on going on a long run tomorrow. I just haven't decided if it's going to be 14 or just 10. I guess we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Throw practice; Bryant

disc

I went to monday night frisbee last night and Aaron Stringer made the comment that maybe all the jerks starting playing somewhere else... maybe they've formed their own secret frisbee??? Because lately things have calmed down quite a bit. The numbers are manageable and it's really a lot of fun.

The only problem with last night's game was that I had eaten a lot of food at FHE, as I like to do sometimes, and it made it really hard to run. So I didn't run. Not that much anyway. I felt completely lazy and apathetic, but that's nothing new.

My legs held up well, though. We played three games and I think my team lost all of them. But I had fun and that's all that matters.

3 games of disc; Bryant

Jordan River Parkway

I did another long run with Lindsay this morning. I ran about 12 miles on the JRP and she did around 10. I always like running there. She said it reminded her of the greenway in Idaho, so I think she enjoyed it as well.

I was feeling pretty good for most of the run. My right hamstring was bothering me, but only minimally. By the end it was hot and my legs were feeling a little tight. But let's be honest, I haven't gone running the past two days because I bought new running shoes from the Salt Lake Running Company on Thursday (I knew going into it that I was going to drop a whole lotta money in there... $140 later I knew I was right)from the cutest employee I've ever seen. His name is Taylor and I'll probably have to go back and buy some more Gu's sometime soon. Good Times. But anyway, after my adventure to buy running shoes and apparrel, I went out on a hot date with Marcus Wright. So that left no time for running. And Friday is usally my designated rest day. So there ya go.

One exciting thing about the run was that I bumped into Joy Postma. She used to run with Team In Training and she is the cutest woman alive. Her cute little baby, Isabelle, has cancer in her brain and it breaks my heart every time I think about it. They are both the strongest people I know!

For a lot of the run I was holding a pretty good pace. Between 8-9 minute miles. By the end I was shot, though. A little dehydrated and really hot. I was glad when it was over. Next week I'm getting out there even earlier.

~12 miles; Jordan River Parkway Trail

Mysterious injury--gone.

Okay, so I played secret frisbee last night and my mysterious pain was gone. I have no idea what's going on with my body these days. Seriously.

SF was fun. Only about ten people showed up. We played two games. I was a little worried in the beginning that nobody would show up; Don, Shannon, Melissa, and I had to resort to playing two on two. That's not the most effective way to play ultimate. Everyone knows who you're going to throw to! Finally Freddie came and other people started showing up.

I was able to run last night with no problems. That's a good sign.

Secret Wednesday; Bryant

I'm broken.

I played frisbee monday night and everything seemed fine. Though I can't remember now what my aches and pains were, if any.

Yesterday I noticed that my right shoulder hurt. It took me a while to realize that it was from throwing a softball around with Don at FHE on Monday. It turns out I don't make that motion very often. Who knew.

I also noticed that my left leg was hurting. I don't know if it would technically be classified as my hamstring, it seems that it's too far up the leg for that. If anyone out there has taken an anatomy class recently and would know this, please drop me a comment. This has been baffling me for days now. (Two to be exact.) Basically it seems it would be the opposite of your hip flexor--your butt flexor, perhaps? It's the connector between the butt cheek and the upper thigh. I didn't even notice until I had been laying on the couch, exhausted, for hours. It felt like I had pulled it or something, but it wasn't too bad so I didn't worry too much about it.

Last night I went running. I was worried that my run was going to be wasted on dollar burgers and zuchinni fries. It had been stormy all evening--we're talking a good summer storm with hard driving rain and lightning--so the air was grey and cool. Perfect running weather. But I was still feeling the effects of my trip to B&D Burgers earlier that afternoon. Once I got into the run I started feeling better.

There was something in the air, though. Maybe it was the mood of the darkening sky, or the electricity in the air, but I was starting to get sketched out! There were too many dog walkers and people out and about. I didn't feel safe. So I turned around earlier then I probably would have and ran up to 9th East where it was better lighted. I feel like I was booking it pretty hard. It reminded me of that run I did a few years ago on Davis Boulevard. It was dark and it had been raining. As I was passing one of the reseviours there was a man walking the other direction with what looked like a big club. I thought for sure I was going to be hit to death in the darkness. It turns out it was just the guy's umbrella, but I still ran home faster than I ever had before. It was scary.

This morning as I was walking from the train to work I noticed that the pain in my leg had gotten worse. It feels like a totally new pain. It has moved from a pain in the muscle to the feeling of bone rubbing out of socket, or something like that. It hurts to walk. That's all I know. So now I'm gimping around, wondering what happened. Hopefully I'll be better by tonight to play some secret, or unsecret as some might say, frisbee. Everybody pray for me and my mysterious injuries.

A beautiful summer morning

I went on a long run with Lindsay Gardner this morning. This time she didn't stand me up. But Karla Hogard did. Okay, so we got there a little late and they had already left, but it was okay because Lindsay only needed to run about 8 miles anyway.

So we parked at the Einstein's Bagels on 3900 South and Wasatch. We ran north to the bike path near Parley's then out on Foothill. It was a good eight miles. The run had some definate downhill running for our quads and in return, some dang good hills to climb. It's all about the effort miles, really.

I felt pretty good. We started out at a pretty good pace for me--not too fast at all. I think Lindsay was still pushing it pretty hard, though. I could hear it in her breathing. She was a rockstar, though, and did well. My body held up. My ankles hurt a bit. I think that roll from the other night is affecting me a little bit. That tendon just feels tight. My hamstring held up well. On the last push home I had to kind of hold back a bit and not attack the last hill quite as hard. It's just not worth repulling.

It was a beautiful morning for a run. It wasn't even hot. I'm glad I finally have people to run with again. I'm a lot more motivated now. And it just feels so good to get it done.

~8 Miles; Wasatch Blvd to Foothill

Unsecret frisbee

We had a good turnout for secret frisbee last night. I quite enjoyed myself. My hamstring didn't hurt, though I did tank my right ankle on one run. At least it didn't take me out of the game or anything. I just tried to shake it off and stretch it a bit between points. I feel like I played well last night. It was just fun. I think we played three games--two with the same teams and then the last one we switched things up a bit. Or was it four games? I think I was on the winning team for all of them, though. I had some nice grabs. I'm going to miss this crowd when I'm gone.

Tonight's probably the last night of league for Team America as well. We start the tournament and we'll probably lose two straight games. Too bad we probably wont get to play our rivals. I'm going to miss that crowd too.

~2 hours; Bryant

Cross-training

I went for a ride last night. My foot has been hurting so I knew I needed to do something other than running. When I got home from running some errands around 7:30'ish I lamented to my roommate how I didn't want to go on a ride, how I hate riding in the city because I fear for my life, how running is so much easier because you just put on your shoes and go--no flat tires or other equipment worries, how it would be getting dark soon so I wouldn't even be able to go that far. After I was done telling her all these things I knew I hadn't talked myself out of it. I had to go. So I went in my room, pulled on some spandex, put on my cycling cleats and helmet and I was out the door.

The ride was nice. I guess it's a nice change from running. It's easier on my joints and hamstrings. Though, my right knee was bugging me a bit. I only went about ten miles. I felt like my bike was making weird noises (like something--the tire--was about to fall off or something) but maybe the chain just needs to be greesed up a bit? And I'm always paranoid about the inflation level of my tires. I sure do like running...

Maybe next time I'll try riding up a canyon. Emigration, perhaps?

~10 miles; 9th East

Running on vacation

Sure, it only took about five minutes to cover the main strip of the whole town, but it's Idaho and what can you really expect? This was my first run in Lava Hot Springs and I only saw two dog walkers and one other runner. It was eight o'clock in the morning. I did see some front porch sitters, though. Good times.

The unsettling thing was the pain in my left foot. That recurrent pain from my surfing injury two summers ago. I thought I was maybe done with this and I had new chronic injuries to worry about. I guess not. It would come and go, but it still worries me.

At least the temperature was cool. I was worried when I finally got out of bed at 8am that it would be too hot already. It was a pleasant surprise. I was still half asleep, though, and I might have looked a little drunk out there for the first half mile. I guess I was still rubbing the sleep away from my eyes. It ended up being a nice little run; a good stretch for the legs.

~2.5-3 miles; Main Street and beyond, Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

Yes, it's true...

...I woke up at 6 o'clock on a Saturday morning for a long run. Can I even remember the last time I did that? It was probably the beginning of May. I only ran ten miles. I suppose I should ease back into this long distance running thing. It's time to start, though. I only have two months until St George, and for one of those months I'll be on sabbatical in the high plains. Maybe I need more hill training now? I'll figure something out for the month of September. Over-passes, maybe?

So my long run was relatively coolish. It was a little cloudy, so even when the sun came up it still wasn't as hot as it could have been. But to be honest I was a little uncomfortable with the heat and had to run on the shadiest side of the street. My body held up pretty well. I'd go through phases of feeling really great and feeling like crap. Sometimes running makes you feel a little sick. Oh, I did have that random pain in my foot. This happened in my last pair of Aasics--after about eight miles I would get a pain in the ball of my foot. This pain kind of came and went, so it wasn't too bad. Overall it was a nice run.

10'ish miles; 9th East to 39th South; 1:30:00'ish

Still tied for worst team in the league

Last night we played the last games of regular season play for Summer League. We lost both games. But so did our rivals, the Blue team. I guess that means we're still tied.

Yesterday was interesting. I was already exhausted from a hard day at Club Ute, and playing in the extreme evening heat did me in. I could barely function! I still tried to play my best and run hard. I did get an awesome D in the first game. That made me feel better. We played our second game right afterward and I feel we played a little better. Suddenly some wind picked up and it forced an occasional zone defense. I played in the cup for one point and was so exhausted from all the running that I wanted to die. It felt like a long point. When I was handling on the zone offense, though I feel I was getting some good throws off. I was complimented by Arie afterward, she told my I was really handling well. That made me feel better about the game.

I think I was just tired and a little grumpy. Mostly just tired. We got to sit and watch Don, Shannon and Fred's game and then went out to dinner. I was hungry, but honestly too tired to eat all my food. I went home and practically fell asleep on the couch while talking to my roommates, Tori and Rhonda. Overall, the night was still fun. I just can't take this heat anymore!

2 games of Summer League

Secrets...

So Wednesday was a lot of fun. I think we had enough for 5 on 5 or so. I made sure I ran pretty slowly in the beginning as to not injur my hamstring anymore than I already have. I think it held up pretty well. It was my IT Band that was bothering me this time. We played two good games to 7 and then one quick one to 3. We had popsicles at Christian Sabey's afterwards. It was fun.

A couple of hours of good ultimate; Bryant

A hamstring update

I played Monday night and to my surprise and astonishment my right hamstring didn't really bother me. Maybe it was because I started out pretty mellow without any real hard cutting, but as the night progressed my hammy didn't get any worse either. Maybe it was a Monday night miracle! My hamstring didn't hurt last thursday either, and I was running pretty hard and cutting a lot. Maybe things are on the up and up? I guess as long as I give myself a little time to warm-up before I play things could actually start to heal. I'm playing secret frisbee tonight so we'll see how it holds up.

It's gotta be the rally headband!

City league was so much stinkin' fun last night! It was so bloody hot and we had the first game. Luckily we were on the first field and it was a little shaded by the ice skating rink. Okay, so the first game was horrible. Our team could not catch or throw. We had a few moments of flow, but basically it was just really embarrassing. I guess that's what you get when you're tied for worst team in the league.

The second game was a lot of fun. We played Don and Shannon's team (there's only five teams in the league, so we play the same teams a lot) and our record was 1-1 against them. They claim the reason they lost the last game to us was because their "advanced" player wasn't there. Well, he was there last night, skirt and all (it's a frisbee thing) and we still beat them! It was amazing!!

We went into it losing. They got up a few points on us until we started scoring. I think the game really turned around when Aaron the dream Weaver started making some hot D's and our team just came alive. I made some sweet points. One was beautiful. The point started out with some sweet flow down the field. Cuts timed perfectly. This one guy on my team (I still don't know have of their names--how sad is that?!) caught the frisbee, we made eye contact, and I took off for the endzone totally blowing off my defender, Shannon. He hucked it and it was a beautiful disc to run down for the score. I love moments like that. I also had some good D's. It was just fun.

The end of the game was pretty intense too. The score was very close when the time cap was called. They scored again to finish off that point making the game tied. The next point won. Luckily, it was us.

2 games of city league fun!