Tuesday, October 20, 2015

running the REVEL big cottonwood half marathon.

so humans are weird.
i don't know if it's because we are so removed from danger and physical labor that our predecessors dealt with on the daily- finding food, surviving wild animals, cold, heat, dehydration, starvation, enemies with weapons, etc., that our lives are kind of boring and safe, but we do weird things to feel alive.

in april or may, my sister in law and bff, liana, asked me if i wanted to run a half marathon with her. ever since my pregnancy and being bedridden and sick for the better part of a year, i promised myself i would try every opportunity that came my way, and never take my health for granted, and that was a big part of why i said, yes, i'd love to torture myself on purpose.

i started training slow, one mile increments. i'd never run more than three miles in a row before, and getting past that three mile mark was tough. to be honest, i only did it several times before the race. i ran four miles, then five, then six. and then i never trained past six miles, because i hate training, and i didn't want to sacrifice the time i usually use for climbing.

luckily climbing is a really intense cardio workout, and i think my regular climbing schedule is the only reason i was able to run the half without really training very hard.

those runs i did force myself to do though, they were amazing. some felt incredible, like i was flying. others, every single step took convincing. i even took chocolate with me and every time i wanted to quit, i ate a piece. so pretty much i ate the whole bag. also, most of the three mile runs i had to take remy in the stroller, so that was an extra 40 pounds to push. (travis's work schedule isn't really conducive to training for a half marathon.)

and like i said, i didn't even register until we hiked those 15 miles up and down mt timp the week before the race, and then i was like, okay, i can run 13 miles.

anyway, running this half was a great triumph for a person who has only ever been a sprinter. i really did enjoy learning to force myself to run. really! plus it was fun to train with liana and keep each other in check all summer. she's a rockstar. (she has run 16 or 17 halfs and two fulls! and one of each while pregnant! damn!)

so the night before the race, i decided we needed to go carb load at stoneground, and i inhaled an entire lasagna plate all to myself and looked 4 months pregnant.



then after 4 hours of sleep, because i suck at going to bed before 1am, liana and i headed out with all the other runner weirdos and caught a bus up big cottonwood canyon. it was pretty chilly, but we all had our flashy aluminum space blankets to keep us warm. hilarious to see hundreds of adults standing around in tin foil wraps.



i forced myself to poo, because i was freaked out about having to do it on the run. so many portapotties. then we were all headed toward the start line and off we went!





oh it was an indescribable high! surrounded by the clomp clomp of the runners' feet, everyone laughing and smiling at the beginning. the sun rising over the mountains of a canyon i'd grown up hiking, stargazing, and recently, climbing in. the brisk morning air filling our lungs and sunlight filtering through the trees.

i immediately set my pace several minutes faster than i'd ever trained, wondering if i should conserve energy, but being fueled by my upbeat misterwives pandora station. they insisted i shouldn't slow down, so i went with it. that unspoken competition with all those strangers didn't hurt either. looking forward, all i could see were runners. looking behind me, all i could see were runners filling the canyon.

miles two to nine were bliss. really, bliss. i listened to misterwives, jenny lewis, a zumba mix, the B52s, gin wigmore, kate nash, beyonce, brandi carlile, tegan and sara, ingrid michaelson, zz ward, hozier, disclosure, coleman hell, and intoxicated by martin solveig and GTA about a thousand times. i was high as a kite on runner's high and competition and distracted myself with trying to figure out the ratings of all the climbs i passed. and pretending i was climbing all the climbs i passed and picturing where my hands and feet would go as they scaled up the wall. so yeah, i would have rather been climbing, but it really was so much fun.

then mile nine. i started to notice my toes throbbing from running downhill, and that my legs were getting reeeeally tired of moving. also around mile ten, the downhill was over and we were running on mostly flat ground, which after running for so long downhill, anything else felt like uphill. my pace slowed here. plus i needed to poo again, and i didn't want to stop.

thing i learned: just stop and poo. you'll feel better. at mile 11 i stopped at a portapotty and it was a strange feeling to go from non stop running for 11 miles to dead stop and crouch over a hole in a bucket. burst from the pooping box feeling ready to slay the last couple miles.

i drank a lot of blue gatorade, didn't eat any oranges or that horrible looking goo.

that last mile was pure torture, everything burning and begging to stop. the people cheering on the side of the road helped a little, and seeing the finish line helped a lot. also planning all the delicious food i would eat all day guilt free, that helped.



my parents were there cheering with a sign, which meant the world. after seeing them, i sprinted as fast as my dead legs would allow, crossed the finish line, and had a medal placed around my neck and a wet washcloth on my head.




i had hoped to finish in two hours, and my finish time was 1:56, so i was really really really happy.
also i was really really happy to take my shoes off, as my feet were huge and swollen and my toenails felt ready to rip off. (they didn't, my feet are so dramatic.)






remy was almost as excited about my medal as i was. almost.





i know you just ran a race and i'ma let you finish mom, but SPRING BREAK


how i love this lady! thank you for convincing me to run with you!




first item of business was to eat this s'mores donut.


 and then we went to breakfast and i got sick and almost threw up, and didn't really get to enjoy the food because i felt so awful. apparently you should train for half marathons.



luckily i had a personal paramedic who started an IV and gave me a liter of fluids and an ice bath.



next summer i'm going to run the full marathon. and i'm going to train this time. really. well, maybe.

xo.

hiking mt. timp

i guess it's been a few months, but when ting was staying with us in august, we were invited to hike mt. timpanogos with my friend roxanne for her birthday. the night before the hike, ting convinced me to go and i found a last minute babysitter. (thanks grandma julie!) we were kind of expecting a 4 or 5 hour hike, and only packed light clothing, because it was hot in the valley and we were dumb. luckily ting packed a shit ton of snacks, because i didn't. (sorry about eating all your gummibears there ting.)

we woke up at the crack of dawn, after going to bed really really late. seriously, your late twenties are not as forgiving as your early twenties. i'm soooooo old. we drove to murray really fast, like i may have made it there in 9 minutes... to drop remy off, and then we raced down to provo. stopped for coffee though.

look at that gorgeous sunrise!



we got there, waited around for our group, figured they left us in the dust because we were a few minutes late, waited for ting to pee 120000 times, and started up the mountain. well, the first mountain.







 turns out mt timp is actually a really long hike.
we hiked 15 miles. oops.













i have to admit, we didn't make it to the top. it was REALLY cold and we were already way later than i thought we would be, needed to make it home to the babysitter. so lame, we only made it this high. (it was still really high. we could see the top from here.)









oh and then we ran into our group coming up the mountain as we were coming down!


amazingly beautiful and had a great time talking with ting about serious things, silly things, waiting for him to pee another 200000 times. love you ting. 





thanks for the photo ting 

 this is how we felt when we finally got down.
and then we had to walk another mile to our car.
of course we drove straight to mi la cai, my favorite vietnamese place, and gorged ourselves on egg rolls, curry, and flat noodles.



our legs were jelly the rest of the weekend, but it was glorious to go have an outdoor adventure with my dear friend.


and then remy and i got milkshakes, something i do maybe three times a year! neither of us could finish, which was okay.




glorious day, and it gave me the courage to register for my half marathon. (which was the next saturday, oops, cut that one close.)

never pass up the chance to do anything! even if it means losing sleep and making yourself sick.

xo.

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