Mission accomplished

Well we did it! Sue and I ran the 1/2 marathon in 2:35 and Sherry finished in 2:23. Curtis ran the full marathon in 4:56. And Thais ran the 5K in 43 minutes. Every one survived but we're all pretty sore this evening. I'll make a longer post w/a few pix in a day or two.

Tomorrow is the day!

We're sitting around in Thais' living room this evening. I guess we're all about as ready for the event as we can be. We had a good day today...went and picked up our race packets then did some shopping and sightseeing. Then we had our own pasta dinner which was excellent. We'll be getting up early to get going. I hope to get some photos with my phone during the race and post them here later.

We're off!!

So Curtis and I leave tomorrow for Salt Lake. We are as ready as we can be at this point. Our weather is looking better. Now weather.com says a high of 69 with 20% chance of rain. Even Thursday and Friday look pretty decent. Yay!!

Here is a quote from the high school cross country website:

People can't understand why a man runs. They don't see any sport in it. Argue that it lacks the sight and the thrill of body contact. Yet, the contact is there, more raw and challenging than any man vs man competition. For, in running, it is man against himself, the cruelest of all opponents. His adversary lies within him, in his ability, with brain and heart to master himself, his emotions and his pain.

~Glenn Cunningham

See you guys on Thursday, Thais tomorrow.

~Sherry

Life is Good

I was scheduled to work at 11:00 am Saturday but just as I was about to walk out the door, they called me and said they were really slow and I could stay home until 3:00 if I wanted to. I decided to take them up on it and go run. I went to my usual park and did 6 miles. I thought I could do more but didn't want to be sore all day at work.

Today I got up and decided to go run. I've decided I do better in the morning if I can go then. I already texted Sherry and told her but I ended up doing 8 1/2 miles!! The first half was really hard. I didn't really feel into it and my back hurt even though I had taken some Ibuprofen. I kept trying to relax my muscles in my back and after about 4 miles, it seemed easier. After 7 miles I walked up a hill that is about 1/4 mile long and then finished the last mile. It as a beautiful morning and running just put me in the best mood.

T minus 7

So I woke up Saturday to blue skies but some wind. I know, I shouldn't complain about wind, but I have gotten spoiled here in Sandpoint with our "gusts up to 20mph". Anyway, I thought I will run later today after the temps warm up some. Then I did some errands and while out bought a puzzle. Then, Syd broke out the puzzle and well, I started working on it. It got later in the afternoon and I thought I really should go run - I am running out of days. More time passed, and yes, I thought the same thing. Finally, I got myself up and went to get ready. Then I had to figure out my route, what a dilemma? I opted to drive somewhere so that I could run into the wind at the beginning. My initial idea was to go 4 or 5 miles. So after 2 miles into the wind, I got to turn. I thought well, I will go 5 more minutes and then turn around and that should give me about 5. Running along, I decided "oh I should just go all the way up this road which then required me to go on another road, and another, and one more to get back to my car. When I reached where the car was parked, I decided to go just a bit further cause I wanted to make sure I got at least 6 miles, you know after adding all those roads :)

Now that you are tired of reading this I will tell you the end result. 7 miles! Yay, I was quite pleased with myself, partly because I was by myself and because I kept really close to 10 minute miles!! Okay sorry that was long and drawn out, I think I am trying to be eloquent like everyone else ;) I am excited to see everyone.
~Sherry

blue shoes

When I ran Wednesday one of the first things I saw was a woman wearing blue toe shoes. I don't know what they are called, but they were blue. Cool or as in some books I have been reading, frosty, etc. I added some distance to my running this week. I keep adding streets to the north and am now walking to 1300 S and then running the rest of the route. We could run my route next Thursday. It will be a breeze for all of you I'm sure, except for the altitude possibly.

I have discovered the joy of zoning out. The trouble is I think about it and then I am thinking about the run. It is nice to realize that you are to such and such corner or street and you didn't even know it was there. I am also starting to like running. (Shock and amazement:0)

I am looking forward to having you here. The weather report today said it should be 60 or so with clouds. That shouldn't be too bad. Be sure and bring a jacket or similar attire.
Thais

Time to wind down?

After my struggling run on Tuesday, I ran 6 miles last nite, and it was much better. It was about as easy as running 6 miles can be and that was at a ~9:20/mile pace. I'm still debating whether to wear my "toe" shoes for the marathon. I've done a couple of 6-milers in them now and have run in them exclusively for the past three or four weeks (I think), but still worry a bit about going more than twice that distance. I'll probably end up waiting until the morning of the event to decide for sure...

I went to Sue's house at lunch today and visited with her. We looked at the 10-day forcast for SLC on her computer and saw that right now they have rain predicted for the race-day. Of course 10-day forcasts are not very accurate other than in a very general sense, so it's way too early to worry about that right now. And rain wouldn't be the worst thing as long as it's not cold too.

I never did get in a really long run (something around 10 miles) as I was hoping to do, and now I think it's getting too close to the event to do so. Still, I'm feeling pretty good about my ability to make it all 13.1 miles. I'm not going to run this evening or tomorrow, but plan on doing something Sunday, probably around 4 or 5 miles. Then probably just an easy 3-miler on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. It seems like someone mentioned it previously, but if not, I think it would be fun for us all to do a short run (like just a couple of miles) together in SLC maybe on that Thursday evening.

Another slow day at work (the printing business is not good right now), so I'm just killing time here. Really looking forward to seeing everyone next week!

A Struggle

I took off Monday then ran Tuesday. I managed to go four and a half miles, but I think I felt like Sue was feeling on our Sunday run. I was tired, my legs felt heavy and had no spring in them. The first mile wasn't too bad, but every mile after that was a struggle. Really had to push myself.

On Sunday, Sue was telling me how sometimes she gets discouraged because she feels like she's not improving...like it should be getting easier. She ran 7.5 miles on Friday and did fine, then had to work hard to run the 5 miles or so that we ran on Sunday. That's how I felt after my run on Tuesday. On Sunday I had a lot of energy and the run seemed easy and effortless. I definitely could have run further/longer than we did. Then Tuesday I felt discouraged as I struggled along. I guess you need to keep the "good" runs at the front of your mind and accept that some days it's going to feel more like work. My biggest worry is that I'll have "one of those days" on the day of the marathon. I suppose getting good rest and eating well leading up to it is the best thing you can do to make it a good day.

It was very windy yesterday once again, and then it clouded up in the late afternoon and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees from an already relatively cool day. That seemed like a good enough excuse to me to skip the evening. The high today is still only supposed to be in the upper 60's, with quite a bit less wind, so it should be really nice for a run this evening.

One week from today, Sue and I will be flying to Utah!

Rain, rain, go away...

So after having this dry, mild and even fairly sunny winter, spring has decided to bring rain with snow (nothing sticking) but not pleasant for running. It isn't helping me want to get out but today I went to the health club with my friend Suzy. So 3 miles on the treadmill and 4-5 on the bike so that is better than nothing, right? Hopefully it will dry up some later this week.

I sure hope our weather is decent in Salt Lake. Maybe we should all start praying for that :) Of course, I guess little or no wind is good for the Okies ;)

~Sherry

The Short, Long Run

I'm sorry to report that the long run Sue and I were going to do yesterday ended up getting abbreviated. We ended up going to the park where Sue usually runs because it was quite windy and we figured it would be even worse out at Hefner. I must say I really liked the trail where Sue runs. It's 2.75 miles around and goes thru open fields and pretty heavily wooded areas. And there are quite a few hills. The three places I've run around Moore are quite different. The park near my house is the only one of those with any "hills" at all, and I have to put that in quote marks, as it's probably a stretch to call them hills.

Unfortunately, Sue was having one of those days, where you just can't seem to get into a groove while running. I know I've had them and I'm sure everyone else has too. It was quite hot once you started running and her legs were bothering her too. We went around three times which is 8.25 miles, but we probably only ran about 5 miles of that and walked the rest of it. I worried a bit about how I would like running with someone else since all my running to this point has been solo. I let Sue set the pace when we took off and it turned out that it was a great pace. Our first mile was just over 10 minutes, and I feel like I can go quite a while at that pace. We both listened to our iPods while we ran, the took our earphones out talked while we were walking.

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't run the distance we were planning on, but all in all I enjoyed going around with Sue and having some good conversation, and we still got some good work in, so it was definitely a worthwhile afternoon.

running in Oklahoma

I ran four times while in Oklahoma. Three times on the streets and once in the park where Dad paces. I walked from the house to Henney to "warm up" and then ran on Henney to Reno, turned around, ran to NE 10th and up to Thomas lane and home. Then I walked around the block with Nick to cool off. It rained on Friday so I didn't run first thing in the morning, but the sun came out later and I went with Dad to the park. I haven't run in a park, so that was different. I must say that Henney was busier with traffic than I expected. I tried to move onto the grass, if there was any when the cars passed me be. Henney is also pretty hilly. Actually it is pretty hilly everywhere in Choctaw. "Good workout".

I arrived home in SLC to much cooler weather than in Oklahoma. This morning it was snowing when I got up. It is mostly gone now.

See you soon.

How are the shorts Jay?

Run, Run, Run

So I haven't posted because I really had nothing interesting to say. But even before I read Jay's post I thought I would report my week. I ran ~12.5 miles for the week. 7ish one day and 5ish the other day. Both felt good, other than the 7 was quite slow. I was with a friend and as hard as it may be to believe, I am faster than her. I probably should have ran today, but the silly sky decided to snow. Go figure - we haven't had snow for 2 months. Oh well, I am hoping that the weather cooperates with us in Salt Lake.

Here is a sidenote. Syd had her mile timed in track practice this week and finished in 7:02. Her PR is 6:27 so she is off a little but she was happy with it. Mason had a meet on Thursday and ran his 3200 (2 miles) in 11:35; his 800 (2 laps) in 2:23 and a 400 (in a relay) in 1:00 minute. I can only dream of being that fast :)

Good luck with your guys run tomorrow!
~Sherry

Weekend Update

Since there hasn't been a new post since Curtis' post on Monday, I thought I'd give a little update for the week. Thais was in town this week and even ran a couple of times while here. Go Thais! Since she was in town, we all got together yesterday evening at Ross' house and had some pizza and a nice visit.

I ran a couple of times this week. After my "long" 6 mile run on Sunday, I did 4 miles on Monday. I can really feel my endurance getting better. The 4 miles seemed pretty easy whereas a month ago, 4 miles was a big run for me. And I ran sub-9 minute miles! Barely...8:57 average. Still, I was impressed w/myself. I don't intend to run the half-marathon at that pace as I'd never make it 13 miles, but I think it's definitely helping build up my stamina and endurance.

Then I ran 5 miles on Wednesday. At this point the 15 miles for the week began catching up with me and my calves were pretty sore by the time I finished. So I decided I should give it a rest until the weekend.

So Sue (who ran 7.5 miles yesterday!) and I are going to do a long run together tomorrow. I hope we can do 10 miles. We were planning on going to Hefner which has an 11 mile track around the lake, but it's looking like it's going to be pretty windy (again) and that would make it especially windy around the lake. So we may just end up going to the park where Sue usually runs. She said it has a 2.5 mile trail so we can do a few laps there.

Two weeks from today! It's coming up quick!