Shameless Horn Tooting

Don't you hate it when people just brag about how awesome they are? Especially when they show you evidence of their awesome-ness as if you really needed to see it?
Yeah, me too.

Hey, guys! Guess how awesome I am!

Last weekend Jim and I ran a Shamrock Half Marathon in Saratoga Springs. We were really excited for this race not because it was anything special or a big race. In fact, it was pretty small and in the middle of freakin' nowhere. But we haven't ran a race since December in Vegas so we were both a little anxious to get to a starting line--and even more important, a finish line.
The race started out at a steady incline and quickly transitioned into a decent climb only about 2 miles in.
It didn't stop there. If we weren't running up a significant hill on the side of a highway, we were running through rolling hills of neighborhoods and unfinished subdivisions.
The wind was pretty intense in some parts. We were lucky in the sense that we eventually got the wind behind us and I'm pretty sure that mile 11-12 was as fast as it was because we had a little assistance.
As we ran down our last hill at mile 12, I took a glance at my Garmin and started crunching some numbers. At the pace I was running, I was really really close to my time for the Provo Halloween Half Marathon-- which was almost entirely downhill! There was a guy up ahead of us that Jim and I wanted to pass and that made me kick up the pace just a little more. I can keep this pace! I can seriously keep this pace!
There's a couple up ahead of us. Maybe we can pass them. I'm not going to speed up. Maybe I will just lucky and pass them.
Yep, passed them. We picked it up in high gear the last .2 miles and as I crossed the finish line I checked my time. 2:32!! And what was my time at the Provo Halloween Half? 2:32!!
Damn straight. I just ran a mostly uphill course in the same amount of time it took me to run a downhill course last year. I felt amazing. I was on a runner's high all day.

Shamrock Half Marathon - Saratoga Springs, UT 

On a separate but equally awesome note - we finally organized our race bibs. We made racks a little while ago to hang our medals but our bibs were just kind of hanging on the end.
We found a post on Pinterest (yes, Pinterest. I'm obsessed. Don't judge. Most of you are, too) where someone displayed their bibs in a collage.
So we did it! And they turned out awesome!

The board on the far left and the medals on the white board are mine. It's a work in progress!
Jim had enough bibs to fill one and a half boards which is awesome. Looking at the blank spots on our boards made us more excited to get some races done this summer. Good thing we're coming up on racing season! Woo Hoo!

Only 6 weeks away from the marathon now. (eeeek!)
We have an 18-mile and a 20-mile run on the schedule in the next few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes

Or brag about it. Whatever.

Excess Amounts of Ketchup

Sorry!!! I know..It's been foooooorrreeeeevvvvv-er. We are in full-blown marathon training mode and it's time that I finally let you guys in our progress.

Because it's been so long, there's a ton of stuff that we've done that I can't remember.
In my last post I told you guys that we were getting ready to run the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in December.
Well, we did! There were pros and cons to that race which I'll tell you about but let me preface this list by saying that we will probably never run that race again. OK...

Pro 1:. I got to see Vegas for the first time. Seriously. I finally saw Sin City at 25 years old. I was excited to see all the lights and sounds that Vegas has to offer and it was everything I thought it would be.

At the starting line outside of Mandalay Bay

Pro 2: My sister and John came to Vegas to hang out / support us in the race. I was really happy that the first time I got to play in Vegas, I had my little sister and bro-in-law along with me. Plus it's convenient that John is Jim's best friend so double win for us.

Pro 3: We got a medal. And it glows in the dark.

Blue medal for the half marathon, pink for the full. Which some people complained about but we found later that we had a ton of respect for the people wearing the pink medals that weekend.

Con 1: There were WAY too many people at that race. They should have capped that race way before they actually did. When you have over 20 different corrals of people to start the race and it takes you 40 minutes just to get the start line once the race begins, that's just TOO many runners.

Con 2: It was ridiculously cold for Vegas! I know it was December but DAMN! I might have had a little bit of a skewed idea of what Vegas weather is like but even Jim said it was unusually cold. Add that to the fact that we had to stand around in a crowd for 40 minutes before we could even move and that made for a very uncomfortable start. 

Con 3: I bought new shoes and they hurt my feet. All I wanted at the end of that race was to be out of the cold and rain (oh yeah...it started raining the last mile) and off my swollen feet. And thank goodness we didn't end up trying to take the light rail back to the hotel because that would have required us to go into Mandalay Bay which apparently turned into a news-worthy nightmare. An insane amount of people rushed into the hotel to get out of the crazy cold rain and literally got stuck in the hallways. Too many people in one place at one time led to reports of runners vomiting, fainting and not receiving medical attention due to overcrowding. We avoided it but it was kind of crazy to be part of something that runners were talking about for weeks later. 

Con 4: The race was at night so we could experience the lights of Vegas but because of that we couldn't really "play" Friday night and all Saturday afternoon. Which doesn't seem so bad but in the end we decided that races done of out of town need to be planned better because waiting around to enjoy our vacation until the last day didn't really work out in the end. Now we now. 

OK....so now we are up to the point where we get into full marathon training mode. Jim made up a calendar with all the training runs he did to train for his marathons last year. We've been following a set schedule of long and short runs that vary locations which also mean a variation in elevation. 

Last week we ran 16 miles from Sugarhouse Park, through the avenues, up to the capital and back to the park. Which meant ridiculous amounts of hill climbing including..........Virginia Street. The worst uphill climb I've ever done. After that street we had only run 8 miles and I was exhausted. I told Jim I was feeling a little emotional and if I cried at the end of the run to not be surprised. By the time I got to the 13 mile mark, I took a peek at my Garmin and found that I had ran the 13 miles in the same amount of time that it took me to run my first half marathon which was completely flat. 

So basically, I was able to climb several hills and run the same distance in the same amount of time. 

I had a moment when I was actually pretty proud of myself. I've come a long way since July when I almost died in the Legacy Half Marathon. 

Now I just have to add on an additional 10 miles to the run I did last week to finally complete a full marathon. 

I'm getting more and more anxious / excited for California. We've bought our plane tickets, hotel and registration. 

No turning back now!! We're 9 weeks away from the hardest physical accomplishment I will have completed to date. 

More blog posts to come, I promise. This was way too much ketchup. 

But you guys ordered it! So eat up! :)