12 Weeks To Marathon

Monday, February 15th 2010: 30 minutes on exercise bike.

Tuesday, February 16th 2010: Walking 43 minutes with Jackson. It's a good thing I didn't have my wallet with me. We walked past the Maverik gas station and I heard the frozen yogurt inside begging to get in my belly.

Wednesday, February 17th 2010: 8.6 miles @ 10:08/mile pace. I headed out to the Desert Reserve to do trail running hoping that my knee would cooperate better with the softer surface. Thankfully.....it did!

I took lots of walk breaks and had a few times where my knee really started to hurt, but not to the point where I absolutely could not run. I felt proud of myself for the distance since I haven't been able to go very far for a few weeks.

I had one potential "wet your pants" moment when I came around a turn and saw two big dogs coming from the other direction. One resembled a pit bull and the other one looked like a mutt. They were BIG. I prayed that their owner would come around the bend but nobody ever showed up. I feared that they may want some Cory Rump Roast for dinner.

I didn't want to run the other way because I knew they would chase me. I didn't know what else to do, so I tried some canine reverse psychology. I squatted down and called the dogs over to me. I prayed that if I looked confident, they wouldn't take a chunk out of my femur.

So the dogs ran up to me and I cautiously petted them. They seemed to mellow out. So I headed back up the trail and called the dogs to follow me. They stayed with me up and down the trail for a few times but then got bored and went their own way. I'm thankful no blood was shed that day.



Thursday, February 18th 2010: 30 minutes on exercise bike. This is surely the most mindless activity ever invented.

Friday, February 19th 2010: Rest. Carbo-loading included lasagna. And ice cream.

Saturday, February 20th 2010: Dam To Dam race!!! 5 miles @ 9:22/mile pace.

Every once in a while when I'm feeling adventurous, I pull out the orange trucker hat with an orange pom pom on the top. It always makes me laugh when I wonder who had the brilliant idea to make a hat for a construction company with an orange pom pom on top. Saturday morning I was feeling adventurous. I decided I'd wear the hat during the Dam To Dam race.


As usual, we had a big group of friends that ran the race also. This is a large part of what makes running fun.


Compared with some of my friends who actually look athletic, I'd say I look more like a parakeet (sporting an orange pom pom trucker hat).


The race starts at one side of the dam at Sand Hollow Reservoir, goes around the whole lake, then finishes at the other end of the dam for a total of five miles. I loved the course because half of it was on softer cinder or dirt.

I stayed with friends Elizabeth, Cherie, and Renee for the first mile or so but they were doing an 8:30 pace which was a bit too quick for me. Over the course of every single race, I question my sanity. Races hurt. My body is very predictable when telling me I'm going too fast. My arms get sore and tingly, and my back feels like it is being squeezed by a boa constrictor. Both of those happened during this race.

When I neared the finish line Renee was waiting to bring people in. She ran with me and yelled to pick it up and I was almost there. That was awesome of her. It helped. I finished in 46 minutes 50 seconds and averaged a 9:22 per minute pace. I was really happy with how the race went. Mel also ran the race and finished in 52 minutes which was a great time.

We did recieve a Dam shirt, but unfortunately I wasn't quite fast enough to earn a Dam medal.


The runs seemed to go better this week. I am happy. (Insert fist bump.)