"If we don't suffer enough we won't remember it."

10 miles up/down Provo Canyon with my daughter in the stroller. We didn't see any animals this time, and made it all the way to the water fall. I was thinking about only going 8, but my daughter wanted to see Bridal Vail Falls and that is a 10 mile run. Nice weather today. Avg 7:52 pace.

Didn't run on Friday. I started feeling a litte sick again. Nothing too terrible, but my throat hurt, so I slept as long as I could, which still wasn't long enough.This was the last day of school and the kids only went for 1 hr 45 min.  How rediculous is that!  I hurried to the grocery store while they were gone. 

The afternoon was crazy!  Our cul-de-sac was full of kids all day, in and out of the house, coming and going etc.  About 15 kids at all times.  And they were supper hyped up because school was out.  Had to take my son to two parties.  Napping was not possible.  I think I will make a sign to put on my door to keep people out when I want to take a nap in the summer.

10 miles up/down Provo Canyon with my husband.  I woke up at 5:00 a.m. because I had a dream that my mom was telling me I should have another baby, that I was going to be one of those people who have a kid 10 years younger than the others etc.  That's always been a fear of mine.  I laid in bed thinking about that for over an hour before getting up at 6:15 a.m.  I have 4 sisters/sister-in-laws that are pregnant, one's having twins.  I had difficult pregnancies, throw-up/dry-heave the whole 9 months etc.  I still think I'm done having kids. 

In the afternoon we had an awesome party for my son's 8th birthday. We borrowed a big blow-up water slide and made a huge slip'n slide out of tarps.  The chocolate cake I made from scratch was sooo yumy!  It was 2 hours of preparation and clean up for a two hour party though. 

In the evening my husband and I went to the temple to do sealings.  Sitting in the sealing room I realized how tired I was and wished I could go to a room in the temple to take a nap.  Wouldn't that be nice? 

Didn't run today.  Sunday I woke up with a supper sore throat and realized my sinuses were draining back there causing the problem.  The flap that hangs down from the top of your mouth in the back was swollen up like it had a blister on it.  I felt like I had something in my throat every time I swollowed.  I've never had that before.  It was very strange.  Fortunately it's better now.  I had a little nap in the afternoon and took a sleep aid when I went to bed at 10:30 a.m. 

I got up at 6:20 a.m. this morning to pack lunches and send my boys off to a scout day camp.  At 6:50 I got back in bed and didn't get up until 9:45 a.m.  After almost 11 hours in bed I felt significantly better.  I took a decongestnat on Sunday, but today I don't feel like I need one.

4 miles easy.  I feel like I don't know how to run after taking three days off and spending so much time in bed.  I was breathing harder than I usually do for the pace I was running.  I'm still not healthy.  My throat really hurts.

I went to the doctor and got on an antibiotic for a sinus infection.  It wasn't my typical sinus problem.  I wasn't very stuffy and my nose didn't run,  but my sinuses kept draining down the back of my throat making it sore.  I just feel off.

It must have been a sinus infection because after taking an antibiotic my sinuses are improving and my throat hurt a lot less this morning.  I hope I feel good tomorrow for the Utah Valley Marathon.  There's one thing I know and that is I certainly didn't train too much this week.  4 pitiful miles!  I feel like I don't know how to run anymore.  Running across the park at my son's baseball game the other night made me tired.  I thought, "How can I expect to run 26 miles on Saturday when I'm breathing this hard running across the park!"  I will definately be starting out slow.

I ran the Utah Valley Marathon this morning.  I think I was in shape to run around 3 hours, so 3:12 was a disappointment. 

Last night my 5 year old daughter started throwing up at 9:00 p.m.  She threw up about every 30 or 40 min  until 2:30 a.m.  We had her on the floor in our room so we could help her and my husband got up with her, but I couldn't sleep.  At 11:30 p.m. I went into her room, but still couldn't sleep.  I could hear her from upstairs.  At 1:30 a.m. he went to the store for medicine and I got back in my bed.  Her last throw-up/dry heave was at 2:35 a.m.  I was able to doze for about 20 min somewhere between then and 3:20 a.m. when I got out of bed.

I thought of my dad who had a difficult time sleeping before a marathon once and thought someone will ask him how the race went and he'd say, "I lost."  He imagined them asking "when?" and his reponse would be, "In bed the night before!"

I seriously considered not running, but thought, "I'm not sleeping anyway so I might as well go run."

I wasn't breathing hard, but my body was so tired.  At mile 13 I thought, "I'm running slower than my 20 mile training runs and I feel worse at mile 13 than I ever did at mile 20."  At mile 15 I stopped to stretch and contemplated quitting when I saw my husband with my kids.  But did I want to send a message to my kids that it's ok to quit?  I was also in 6th place and who ever quits when they're in the top ten?  My time wasn't that bad, it just wasn't what I wanted.  At that point I had about a 7 min avg going, but it was just so painful!

Fortunately, at mile 16 or so, my friend Rebecca came by on her bike and stayed with me for about 5 miles.  She talked to me and that really helped get my mind off the pain.  I also saw my husband with my kids around mile 18 and again around mile 20.  I stopped to say hi and stretch for a few seconds when I saw them. At this point I also walked pretty slowly and stretched at every water stop.  Rebecca left me around mile 21 and my husband drove by again with the kids.  At mile 22 my brother Mark jumped out of his car and ran with me for 2 miles.  That really helped also.  His wife drove down the street and picked him up.  When I left him I had only 2 miles to go. 

So I finished, but it wasn't pretty.  I'm running St. George because I'm already registered and that might be it.  I'll start and end my marathon days with St. George.  It seems like I only enjoy 1 out of every 3 marathons and I'm just not sure the 1 I really like is worth the 2 I hate.  When my kids want to run them, I'll rethink my position.

Splits: 7:13 (mile 1), 6:32 (mile 2), 6:32 (mile 3), 6:49 (mile 4), 6:47 (mile 5), 6:45 (mile 6), 6:44 (mile 7), 7:17 (mile 8), 7:18 (mile 9), 6:39 (mile 10), 6:51 (mile 11), 7:18 (mile 12), 7:02 (mile 13), 6:55 (mile 14), 6:50 (mile 15), 8:13 (mile 16 - stretch), 7:04 (mile 17), 7:00 (mile 18), 6:57 (mile 19), 7:43 (mile 20), 7:23 (mile 21), 8:20 (mile 22), 8:52 (mile 23), 8:45 (mile 24), 8:34 (mile 25), 7:43 (mile 26), 7:21 pace (last .33).

Ran about 1 mile with my son through Riverside Park in New York City.  We were there on vacation staying with family in New Jersey.  I was surprised by how good I felt in that I wasn't sore from my race.  I know I didn't go out too fast because when I do that I'm really sore afterwards.  Or could it be that I never rested long enough for the soreness to set in.  I only got 5 hrs of sleep Sat before getting up at 3:00 a.m. to fly to New York.  Sunday, the day after my race I was the tiredest (is that a word?) I've ever been in my life!  Sunday night I slept 12 hrs straight and felt like I could have slept more.  I woke up Monday feeling like a new person though and we had a great day seeing the Statue of Liberty! 

6 miles through my sister-in-law's neighborhood with my husband on a bike.  The humidity reminded me of when I lived in Kansas.  I wanted to go earlier in the week, but we were so busy doing so many fun things!  My husband and I left our kids with my sister-in-law while we saw Wicked, we all went to the Jersey Shore, saw the Today Show, the view from Rockefeller Building, Times Square, etc.  We also took a day trip to Phillidelphia to see the Liberty Bell, US Mint, the building/room where the Declaration of Independance and US Constitution were signed, and of course the famous stairs from the Rocky movies.  My 5 year old daughter's favorite part of the Phillidelphia trip was seeing the racoon run away from the garbage can as we pulled into my sister-in-law's driveway when we got home.  All she could talk about was how she saw a racoon.

4 miles up/down Provo Canyon.  It was nice to be home and after my Saturday run in humid New Jersey I really appreciated the dry Utah air.

8 miles @ 7:07 pace.  Got up at 4:45 a.m. to get in a run before heading to our church Young Women's Girl's Camp for the rest of the week.  I'm the Laurel's advisor and on the camp committee.  When I got home after my 8 miles I said to my husband, "I really needed that."  It was such a good run for me mentally.  To be away by myself for a few minutes, breath fresh air, and listen to the silence, or rather the wind in the trees.  I just wish I would have had time to go longer.  

10 miles through Orem and up Provo Canyon and back home, 7:07 pace.  I was too tired to get up early, but it was so hot when I went at 10:00 a.m. that I wished I would have anyway.  I slept pretty good the first two nights at Girls Camp, but the last night I stayed up past midnight cleaning up, and then a train came through right next to our camp ground waking me up every two hours, until I got up at 6:30 a.m. 

4 miles avg 7:11 pace. 

10 miles avg 7:16 pace.  I ran into Marie, Melody, Rebecca, Desiree, and Josse as I was starting and they were finishing.  I was just thinking yesterday how much I miss running with my friends.  I'm going to get up early to run with them later in the week.

Met Marie, Rebecca, Melody and Josse for a run.  It was so fun to visit with them again.  I ran from my house to meet up, did about 7 with them and ran back.  Marie and I ran a little faster than the others for part.  Avg 7: 20.

I felt like I was going to have a heart attack at my son's championship baseball game that night.  Tie game, extra innings, etc.  We were the home team and only needed one point to win for about three innings.  Finally bases loaded and my son's up to bat.  Thankfully only 1 out at this point or I would have really been a mess.  Well he got a hit, ran to base holding the bat over his head cheering, our man ran in and game over, his team took the championship!  My blood pressure was probably through the roof, my chest literally hurt afterwards.