Summer Race Report: A Lot of Ups and Downs

After the initial disappointment of the Ogden Marathon had washed over I was angry.  Angry at myself for not running a smarter race but mostly angry I just couldn't hold the pace I had been running through the 26.2 miles.  I was anxious to go out and redeem myself at another race but I kept reminding myself that my goal was a good race next February at the Olympic Trials and I knew the best way to achieve that was to rest up and recover.  So I backed off on my intensity and miles and enjoyed the trip with my family to Jackson. It was a good break mentally and physically.  By July I had a couple good weeks of workouts behind me and I wanted to get back out and race.  I had picked the rest of my races for the year off the USA Track and Field Utah road racing circuit.  In these races you score points based on how you place against other USAT&F members.  Murray Days 5k was on the 4th of July.  Even though there were several races closer to home we took the whole family to Murray for a traditional start to Independence Day by running a 5k.  The three oldest kids participated in the 5k and Jason pushed Skyler in the stroller and paced Kaitlyn since he was still returning from an injury.  It was a hot morning and there were several fast runners there.  I started off the race with Emily Jameson.  It felt fast and uncomfortable.  The first mile was uphill and I thought I could recover on the downhill.  My son Andrew was also running just ahead of me.  He'd never beaten me in a 5k and I knew he was getting close.  I was just trying to stay with Emily and Andrew.  But the downhill the second mile wasn't helping.  I was struggling to just maintain the pace I'd run the first mile even with the downhill.  By mile three I was done and fading fast.  Emily and Andrew had disappeared ahead of me and soon Christina Perry came flying past me and I had to settle for third.  I was disappointed.  My time was slow, but it was hot and a hard course.  I would focus on the Deseret News 10k instead.  With a few more weeks to train I would be ready to race then.

The morning of the Deseret News 10k was perfect.  It was a nice cool morning for the end of July.  At the starting line I was surprised to find that most of the faster runners has opted to run the half marathon this year.  There were a few fast women there but I was confident I could run with them.  I was extremely nervous.  I had a chance to win and this would be a fun race to win.  This might even make up for the disappointment at Ogden.  I started out the first mile in the lead with Melody Jensen.  I knew she was fast but I'd been told by several people that I could beat her.  We came through the first mile at 5:30.  It was exactly where I wanted to be and I felt great.  This would finally be a good race for me.  I started to notice that Melody was beating me on the steep downhill.  I wasn't trained well for the pounding and I was struggling to keep up.  I was afraid to let her go though.  I noticed on the flatter sections I had the advantage.  So my game plan was this: stay with her on the downhill then push the flat on the third mile and try to beat her there.  The second mile was fast.  We came through the split at 5:18.  I was hoping to keep it closer to 5:30.  The third mile flattens out with a bit of uphill.  I started pushing the pace and was able to start putting a bit of a gap between us.  My plan seemed to be working perfectly.  But just before the half way point we turned down South Temple for another downhill stretch.  Melody quickly closed the small gap I'd gained and flew past me.  My legs were dead.  I'd pushed it too hard the last two miles.  I was only half way done with the race and I felt finished.  I struggled through the rest of the race and by the last mile was really starting to fade and some of the men were passing me.  One of my friends Janae Richardson came flying past me and for the third race in a row I watched myself lose second place trying to win first place.  I finished in 3rd at 35:58.  It wasn't a bad time but I was frustrated with myself.  How could I keep making the same mistake? Why couldn't I just finish a race?  How come I couldn't handle the pressure when I felt like I had a chance to win?  Why was I falling apart right now six months away from the Olympic Marathon Trials?

A few weeks later I was headed to Logan for the Top of Utah Half Marathon.  It has always been a favorite race of mine.  I had a horrendously busy week trying to get my house packed up for some remodeling we are having done and getting the kids started in school.  I hadn't had a lot of time to think about the race.  But I had come up with a whole new game plan.  As much as I wanted to defend my title, I was not going to let anyone control my pace.  I wanted to come as close as I could to running the same mile splits I did last year and if that meant letting someone go ahead at the beginning that's what I was going to do.  I wanted to finish this race well.  I enjoyed a pasta dinner with some friends and felt very relaxed the night before and the morning of the race.  Jason was finally back to racing with me now that all of his injuries have healed.  At the starting line I didn't have any butterflies in my stomach.  That is really rare and I wasn't sure it was a good thing.  Was I really in the mindset to race?  At least I wasn't feeling the pressure I had been feeling at the last few races.  The race started and I was running with Tom Kuehls (a teammate from last year) and Emily Jameson.  It was almost the same group we had last year.  Emily seemed to be in control of the pace but it was the pace I wanted to run so I stayed with her.  Before long she seemed to be breathing hard and I realized she probably wasn't feeling her best.  By the third mile mark Tom and I were pulling away.  I hadn't expected to take the lead so early but I was feeling great.  We were hitting the mile splits exactly as I wanted to in the 5:50s and soon started hitting some 5:40s on the steeper downhill sections.  We got out of the canyon about halfway and I realized I had a good lead.  Chances were that no one was going to catch me.  I was starting to work a little harder to maintain my pace now that we were into the second half and the course leveled out.  I could have chosen to back off a bit but Thom was pushing the pace and I tried to stay with him and focus on a good time.  I might have a chance of breaking 1:18 again if I didn't let up.  We were still able to keep sub 6 minute miles on the flat part of the course.  Even though I was starting to tire by 9-10 miles and I knew we still had a mile and a half of uphill ahead, it felt so good to be in the lead and be running strong again.  We got to the hills and Thom started to pull away a bit.  In retrospect I wonder if I could have pushed just a little harder up the hill but I was tired, I knew I'd won and I was on pace to run a great time.  My slowest mile up the hill was a 6:24.  With the last mile, a gradual downhill to the finish I tried to catch Tom.  I caught a couple other men but Thom was maintaining the distance he had gained on me on the hill.  I looked at my watch and realized it would be close to break 1:18.  I needed a sub six minute mile.  I ran the last mile in 5:51 and broke the tape in 1:17:52!  It was just 8 seconds off my PR from last year at this race and only the second time under 1:18.  It was great to finally have a race again where it all came together.  It was a huge confidence boost for me to realize that I can still run the way I was running last summer. Click here for a link to the newspaper article.  Jason was happy to finish 5th in his age group in 1:19.  He's still trying to build up his fitness level after all the time he had to take off running in the spring and summer.  It was a good solid run for his first race back.

 

The countdown is on with just over five months until the Olympic Trials in February.  I'm getting more and more excited every day as I start to receive more information from  USAT&F and make my travel arrangements.  I have one more short race next week to finish up the road racing circuit I'm competing in and I'm planning a tune up at the Snow Canyon Half Marathon the beginning of November.  The main focus will be on continuing to improve my fitness and stay healthy between now and February.  Even now as the days are starting to get shorter I'm finding it a little harder to get out of bed in the morning early to get the training in.  I've got the darkest and hardest months to train ahead of me for my peak training season.  Yet, I am thrilled with this opportunity and can't wait to test myself against the best marathoners in the country!  162 days to go but who's counting?

Skyler's 3rd Birthday

Skyler celebrated his 3rd birthday in June.  He was finally old enough to understand that a birthday meant presents and other fun things and he was so excited.  We left for Jackson a couple days before his birthday and he saw me packing up the wrapped presents.  He couldn't wait to open them.  He kept trying to sneak into the presents once we got to the condo so I had to find a high shelf in a closet to store them.  His birthday was Sunday.  We had been up late the night before in Yellowstone so we slept in a bit then as soon as we were up left for church.  As we were leaving the church building the ward there was having an ice cream social.  Of course the kids were eyeing the ice cream but we felt a little odd joining their party so I told the kids we would go back to the condo and have a birthday party with cake and ice cream there.  The kids thought that sounded fair and rushed to the car.  I didn't really mean the second we walked in the door.  I still had to make a birthday cake.  Skyler had clearly understood me though and rushed to the closet where the presents were "hidden".  He had waited long enough and he was ready for a party.  I really couldn't tell that cute little face no so we let him open one present, a Thomas the Train bubble blower, and take it outside to play while I made a cake and dinner.

 

Here's a look at Skyler at three: He's energetic, happy and always the center of attention at our house.  Things he likes: to play with toy trains, puzzles, legos (big ones and to the dismay of his older siblings occasionally getting into their little ones, especially Andrew's Hogwarts Express) watch trains when we are driving, do things by himself, count, reading books, riding his bike with training wheels, playing on Mom's phone, stalling when it is time for bed, picking vegetable out of the garden, helping me water the flowers and copying anything anyone says.
Things he doesn't like: getting left behind, going to bed, the vacuum, the lawnmower, and any other loud noise.
Things I love about Skyler:  He literally lights up the room when he walks in.  He has a fun loving personality.  He adores his siblings. I love having my little guy in tow when I go places.  I will be lost next week when he starts preschool and I have a few hours to myself.

Jackson

My grandparents owned a timeshare in Jackson so when they passed away Jason and I decided to buy it.  This was our first summer going up there.  The week fell on the same week as Jared's scout camp so he was only able to spend the weekend with us and then we dropped him off at Camp Bartlett in Idaho and went back to Jackson for the rest of the week. Our kids were dying to go to Yellowstone so we did that the Saturday Jared was still with it.  They were still just as excited about the geysers, mudpots, and animals as they were when we went five years ago.  We could have spent days just in Yellowstone so we didn't get to see everything we wanted but we enjoyed the little bit we got to see.  The highlight for the kids was the bear that we saw in Hayden Valley just across the river just before dark.  It made for a long drive back to Jackson late at night but it was worth it!

The kids were excited about hiking all 328 steps down Uncle Tom's trail to see the view of the falls.

 

Jason's dad came to spend a day in Jackson with us.  We to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park.  We took a shuttle across the lake and hiked to a waterfall and overlook on the other side of the lake.  We didn't run into any bears but we did see some moose!  It ended up being a pretty tough hike since part of the trail was closed and we had to go the long way around.

 

 

We took our bikes with us to Jackson.  Kaitlyn got to try out her new bike on some real mountain biking trails for the first time.  We also enjoyed the paved path that runs all the way from Jackson to Jenny Lake that we could take Skyler along in the bike trailer.  The weather was perfect for getting out and enjoying the beautiful scenery!

We enjoyed exploring the town of Jackson for the week.  We are excited to go back every year and do some of the things we ran out of time for.  I think the kids favorite part was swimming in the pool even though we were right in the middle of some of the wonders of the world!

Jason wanted to go fishing with a guide on the Snake River but the runoff was still too high.  So instead the guide took Jason and Andrew about an hour away to the Green River.  They had a great time fishing and caught a lot of big fish.

On the way home from Jackson we had to stop for one more fishing trip on Granite Creek.  This time Skyler got to join in on the fun.  He is always so excited for Daddy to catch fish for him.  The canyon was gorgeous with wild flowers.  The fishing was slow but finally just before we left Jason caught one big fish for Skyler!

Spring 2015

Spring flew past this year with lots of activities like it always does.  I keep waiting for life to slow down but I'm coming to the realization that it probably won't.  Here's a few highlights.

Jared went to school early a couple mornings a week all spring to attend a STEM(science, technology, engineering, and math) program.  They worked hard designing and building a robot.  They tested the robot on a course that they had to program it to get through.

Kaitlyn had her last dance recital with her teacher Brynn before she moved.  She sure has had fun taking dance from her the last five years.  It's amazing to see how much she has grown and learned!  She's a natural up on stage and doesn't have a problem performing in front of a crowd.  And she's had so much fun with her friends in the class.

Kailtyn and I enjoyed a girls day at Gardener Village with Melanie, Nancy and Brooklyn.  The girls had lots of fun making their own jewelry and going to lunch.

I volunteered to head up the elementary school 5k fundraiser this year.  I made a lot of mistakes and learned a ton about being a race director and a lot of things to do  It felt like a full time job for several weeks but it turned out to be a success with lots of people having fun and raising a lot of funds for the school.

When you live with a bunch of Star Wars fanatics Star Wars Day is a big day.  "May the 4th be with you" was a hit with Tie fighters for dinner and R2D2 treats for dessert.

Andrew had a successful track season running as a 9th grader with the high school.  We watched him get closer and closer to breaking the 5 minute mile in every race all season.  He ended with his best race at the region meet running the mile in 4:57!  Pretty impressive for a freshman!  We are excited to see what he does the next three years!



For the spring piano recital we were excited to finally get in the same recital as our friends the Larsens and Andrus.  It was an awesome group of piano players!  They all received their awards for the year from federation.  Here they all are with their teacher Sharyl Tucker.

Kaitlyn and her friend, Ruth Larsen, were both selected to represent their school at the district math Olympiad in Krypto.  We found out just a couple days before that they could build an egg drop.  Without much time to work on it they threw one together.  First the group at their school tested all the egg drops.  Out of all the ones that didn't break they voted on who would represent them at district and Kaitlyn and Ruth won!  They were thrilled to try it out again at district but unfortunately thunderstorms kept them from being able to test them.  They still had a great job competing at Krypto though.

I volunteered at field day and didn't I have the cutest little helper?  He was pretty wet by the end of the day!



Jason has been struggling with some injuries so he decided to just run the half marathon this year at Ogden instead of the full marathon like he had been planning.  Since Andrew had just finished track season they decided to run it together.  It was the farthest Andrew has ever run.  The weather was terrible with drenching rain and freezing cold temperatures but they finished in 1:36!

Spring also means baseball and softball season.  Jared's team struggled but he enjoyed getting to pitch a lot more this year.  Kaitlyn had fun playing on her coach pitch softball team and was really getting good at hitting the ball.  I also coached the Ogden Track club again.  Kaitlyn worked hard at practice and qualified for the district meet this year although we missed it when we went on vacation.

Kaitlyn's 9th Birthday

Kaitlyn turned nine in May.  Nine has always been a hard age for me because it's hard to believe that my kids are half way grown up.  We celebrated all the May birthdays in the family at our house on her birthday. Skyler really wanted to help her blow out her birthday candles.  We had to convince him he's get his turn in a month.  Kaitlyn's request was the raspberry white chocolate cheesecake.  It turned out tasting a lot better than it looked.  Her cousin, Winston, got to blow out the candles on his Oreo cake.

 

We took Kaitlyn shopping the weekend of her birthday for a new bike.  She picked out the perfect one but it had to be ordered in and then built.  She was very patient waiting for it but it was worth the wait!  I think it's the perfect bike for her!  She was a little scared of the bigger bike and gears at first but in no time she had it all figured out and was biking like a pro.

 

Kaitlyn chose to have her birthday party with her friends at Color Me Mine, a pottery place downtown.  The girls got to pick out a piece of pottery and paint it.  They had a great time painting, opening presents and eating cake and ice cream.  It was a fun afternoon with a cute group of giggly girls!

Here's a look at Kaitlyn at 9: She's smart, happy (most of the time), friendly, outgoing, excited about life, determined, imaginative, playful, daring, and active.  There is never any doubt about what she is feeling.  She lets everyone know!

What I love about Kaitlyn: her happy personality, her hugs (and the fact that she still likes to give them to me), her bubbly personality, and having a girl to do fun things with.  As much as I hate to see my only little girl grow up it is so fun to have her along for girls outings now.

What Kaitlyn likes at 9: Barbies, American Girl Dolls, reading (Ever After High, Gregor the Overlander, and Fabelhaven are a few recent favorites), amusement park rides (she was thrilled to be tall enough to go on all the rides at Lagoon, even the new ride Cannibal), running, biking, soccer, playing with friends, school.

What she doesn't like: practicing the piano (she really doesn't like it but she's also way too good for me to let her quit), chores, being teased by her brother, and not being able to do something (she's a bit of a perfectionist. 







A Visit from Omar

In April we were thrilled to find out that Jason's friend, Omar was coming to Salt Lake from Brazil.  Jason met Omar when he served a mission for our church in Sao Paulo, Brazil 20 years ago.  Jason had the privelege of baptizing Omar and developed a wonderful friendship with him.  Jason had to work the day Omar was arriving but the kids and I were able to pick him up at the airport and show him around Salt Lake City.  It was a beautiful sunny spring day although a little chilly for a Brazilian. Omar was pretty tired and jet lagged but had a few hours to kill before he could check into his hotel.  We went to City Creek for lunch and some shopping and then showed Omar around Temple Square and picked up his tickets for General Conference.

Jason and Jared were able to get tickets to the Priesthood Session on Saturday night and met Omar there.  It was Jared's first time attending Priesthood Session since he turned 12.  They didn't have a ticket for Andrew so he went with his grandpa to watch the satallite broadcast of the meeting instead.

The next week we took Omar to Antelope Island.  Unfortunately it was a cold and very windy day.  We had hoped to hike around the island some but instead had to do most of the sight seeing from the car.  Omar was also introduced to snow that day for the first time in his life!  The next weekend we drove to Moab to show Omar some of our favorite sights.  We spent a lot of time in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  We introduced Omar to Delicate Arch, 'smores, waffle cones at the Moab Diner and star gazing away from the city lights in the Northern Hemisphere. We enjoyed spending so much time with Omar and showing him the beautiful part of the world we live in.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Cold, wet, relief, exhaustion, defeat, dissapointment, finished, comfort, love, compassion, safe, hard work, dedication...  The list goes on and on and this picture says it all to me.  I think you can see exactly how I felt at this moment.  Saturday was the hardest race I have ever run and not one that I want to look back on.

The day started with such high hopes.  I had trained all winter for this.  This was the only marathon I was planning on running this year and I had picked Ogden for one reason.  I wanted a win at home.  I poured my heart into training this winter all with this goal in mind, and a second goal or running 2:45 or faster to break the course record.  I felt like I was in the best shape I had ever been in and capable of achieving both of these goals.  Over the past few weeks I had a lot of people say to me that Ogden should be an "easy" win for me.  My response was always the same.  There is nothing easy about a marathon.  I felt confident that I had as good of a chance as anyone at breaking the tape but I knew that there would be a few women there with the ability to challenge me.  The weather forecast was looking terrible.  Heavy rain just like two years ago, the last time I ran Ogden, only colder.  I tried to prepare for the worst and hoped for the best.

At 5:40 a.m. the buses dropped us off at the start up near Causey Reservoir it was chilly but no rain or snow was falling yet.  I went across the street from the start area to a friend's house and took advantage of a warm place to sit and rest.  This was a huge help since there was still an hour and a half until the start of the race.  While I was waiting for the start a few snow flurries started to fall but there were still patches of blue sky above us.  However to the west ominous black clouds were looming.  We were headed straight into the storm.  7:15 was start time and it was still dry where we were.  The first couple miles felt great.  I warmed up quickly and started discarding some of my warmer clothes that I had been wearing over my uniform at the side of the road.  A couple miles into the race a light rain started to fall but it felt nice.  I started thinking that this was a storm that I could handle.  I shouldn't have ignored the black clouds that were up ahead.  Cynthia Fowler and Jasmine Sessions were in the lead with me.  I was grateful for some company and felt fantastic.  I was hitting the mile splits exactly as I planned between 6:10 and 6:15 while we were running the gradual downhill through South Fork Canyon.  Jasmine dropped back a few miles in feeling the pace was too fast for her but Cynthia stayed right with me.  Up to mile nine the race was going exactly how I wanted it to.  By now the rain was coming down heavy and I was getting soaked through.   At mile nine the course turns north and heads through Eden around Pineview reservoir. My race plan was to slow these miles down to about 6:30 pace and save something for Ogden Canyon later in the race since this is the hilly part of the course.  Cynthia was feeling good though and started pushing the pace.  We were hitting miles around 6:07.  It was too fast and I knew it.  I had a debate going on in my head the next few miles about what to do.  I was afraid if I slowed down and let Cynthia go I would never see her again.  How could I give up my hope of winning so early in the race?  I had heard from Cynthia herself and several others that she wasn't nearly as prepared as I was for the marathon distance.  Maybe if I could just stay with her I would outlast her when it got to the later miles in the race.  In hindsight this was my biggest mistake.  I ignored the warning signs my body was giving me that I was expending too much energy on the hills.  I convinced myself that the one who was mentally tough would win this race and I had to find that strength so I stayed with her.

By the half marathon I was starting to get cold.  My arm warmers and gloves were soaked and not doing anything for me anymore.  I was hoping to come through the half at 1:23 then have enough left to negative split and run the second half faster.  We came through the half at 1:21 (average 6:12 mile pace).  Shortly after the half is the biggest hill in the course.  I worked hard to stay right with Cynthia up the hill but by about mile 16 she was starting to pull away.  I was freezing cold and my legs were tired.  She didn't have much of a lead and we were almost to the canyon.  If I could just use the downhill to recover maybe I could catch up to her.  I hadn't slowed down much yet.  And maybe it would warm up a bit as we dropped altitude.  Mile 18 should have been one of my fastest.  It's a steep downhill dropoff at the top of Ogden Canyon.  I ran it in 6:30.  Instead of finding relief in the canyon it was just colder.  The rain was coming down relentlessly and the wind had picked up.  The road was flooded with puddles that were impossible to avoid.  My feet were soaked and heavy.  Cynthia disappeared ahead of me and mile 19 was another one in the 6:30s.  I was fading fast and I still had a long way to run.  I tried to focus on the canyon, one of the most scenic parts of the course to take my mind off what I was feeling.  I knew I'd lost the race but I could still finish in a really good time if I could stick with a 6:30 pace.

Over the past couple days I've tried to figure out what hurt me the most.  Was it the cold or pushing myself too hard through Huntsville?  I've decided it's impossible to separate the two factors but it was a bad combination.  I was slowing down so much that I stopped taking mile splits.  In fact I was hardly even seeing mile markers anymore.  I was just trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  My body temperature was dropping and for the first time ever I really didn't know if I would make it to the finish line.  I was catching up to the half marathon walkers.  I could hardly weave my way in and out of them.  I had planned on the lead bike to get me through this section but it had disappeared with Cynthia.  The last four miles were the most miserable miles I have ever run.  I knew I was going to start getting passed as I kept slowing down. A few men passed me in the canyon and on the parkway.  I made the final turn onto Grant and there was a mile left to go.  I wanted to cry and was so scared I was going to collapse on the road.  I was running so slow that I was barely passing the half marathon walkers.  With two blocks to go Jasmine caught up to me.  I was really surprised she hadn't caught me earlier.  She tried to encourage me to stay with her but all I could get out is that I didn't know if I could even make it.  Somehow I managed to cross the finish line in 3rd place in 2:49:59.  Two years ago I was thrilled with a 3rd place finish in 2:55.  This year I ran over 5 minutes faster, finished in the same place and I cried.  And they weren't happy tears.

Jason was helping in the medical tent and waiting for me as I crossed the finish line.  I literally collapsed into his arms.  Of all the questions I've asked myself since then I've never questioned if I gave it everything I had Saturday.  There was simply nothing left when I got to the finish line.  I was so grateful that Jason was there waiting for me.  He understands better than anyone how I'm feeling and everything that I have poured into this race.  I have always managed to avoid the medical tent but I spent the next hour in there recovering from hypothermia.  I have never been so cold in my life.  It was a heartbreaking race for me.  I was frustrated with myself for making  a mistake that an experienced marathon runner should never make.  I cost myself 2nd place, not that it mattered because I didn't want 2nd any more than I wanted 3rd.  And I don't say that to take away from Jasmine.  She ran a much smarter race than I did Saturday and earned 2nd place.  I didn't.  But I do know that I lost several minutes off my finish time by pushing myself too hard early in the race.  I could have avoided a lot of the trouble I had at the end of the race if I had slowed down earlier.  Could I have caught Cynthia if I had run a smarter race?  Probably not.  She had an outstanding race.  It just wasn't my day.  I do know that I was in shape to run a much faster marathon than I did.  I'm a fiercely competitive person.  I think it suits me well most of the time and gives me the drive to achieve a lot of the things I have accomplished.  Yet it also means I am really hard on myself when I don't perform well.  I know I was capable of running a better race on Saturday.  There are a lot of what ifs.  What if the weather had been better?  What if I had run my race instead of following Cynthia?  I'll never know but I learned some valuable lessons the hard way.

I'm anxious to leave this race behind me but the soreness in my legs is a constant reminder.  I wish I could head out tomorrow and start training for the next race but I know my body needs time to recover.  I ran 18 miles really fast on Saturday and pushed myself through the next 8 when there was nothing left and that takes a toll.  So I'll rest of a bit. The sting of this race will fade over time.  I have the Olympic Trials to look forward to in February. Hopefully this has made me a wiser and better runner.

Spring (I Mean Winter) Race Report

This has to be the mildest winter I've ever spent in Utah.  It made for a terrible ski season with the warm temperatures and lack of snow.  So since we didn't do much skiing I took advantage of the nice weather for running instead.  I feel like I'm coming out of winter in great shape after a lot of good workouts.  I've mostly focused on training this winter rather than racing but I did run a 5k in January that was part of the Salt Lake Track Club's winter series.  The night before the race I received news that my grandpa was doing poorly and we didn't expect him to live much longer.  I made a late visit to the assisted living center that night thinking it might be my last time to see him.  It made for a stressful night with not much sleep.  I woke up the next morning not feeling like I was in the mindset to race.  We were fortunate with a warm January morning although there was a strong wind coming from the west.  The course was out and back so we would have to come back into the wind.  I was surprised to take the lead from the first with no one even challenging me.  I had a few men to race with but my heart wasn't really in it and when we got to the turn around and had to come back into the wind I was disappointed that I just got through to the finish strong enough to maintain my lead but not really pushing myself as hard as I could.  I finished in an 18:21, a decent time considering the wind but nothing I was thrilled about.  I was happy to take the win though for the first race on the USA Track and Field race circuit for the year.  My race kit hadn't arrived yet from Brooks but I loved trying out some of my other new gear and loved my racing flats.

The end of March I ran the Striders Winter Race Circuit half marathon.  This time I was ready to race hard.  After a couple more months of solid training I was ready to race again and was hoping to really test my fitness level before the Ogden Marathon coming up in May.  Jason wasn't able to run because he hurt his achilles but he drove me to the start.  It was nice not to have to ride the bus to the start and get a few more minutes of sleep.  Again we were fortunate with a mild early spring day.  The race course was the first half of the marathon course, starting about a mile further up South Fork Canyon than it has other years.  It was chilly at the start with the temperature in the low 30s.  I knew it would warm up a lot once we were in the valley though so I decided to run in shorts.  My legs were cold the first couple miles but soon I'd warmed up and was comfortable.  This race usually attracts a lot of fast runners and I was hoping for some women to push me to run a fast time.  There were some fast women there but they let me take the lead from the start and didn't stay with me.  I was alone all the way down the canyon.  There was a group of men up ahead but I felt like I couldn't stay with them without going a little harder than I wanted to that early in the race.  Jason stopped several places down the canyon to cheer me on.  It was nice to have him there cheering for me, especially since I was running alone.  I was able to keep my pace slightly under six minute miles down the canyon.  By mile five we were out of the canyon but still had a few miles of slight downhill on our way into Huntsville.  These were some of my fastest miles.  I was finally able to start cutting into the distance between me and the men who were in front of me.  Once I started catching some of them it made it gave me a reason to keep pushing the pace.  At one point Jason told me I had about a 400 meter lead on the next woman.  I knew there were some fast women behind me and I couldn't let up at all or I would be in danger of getting caught.  I also wanted a fast time so I tried to keep focusing on the men in front of me.  By about mile eight the course gets a lot harder.  We wound our way around the lake through Huntsville and Eden.  Instead of the nice gradual downhill we were running up and down rolling hills.  They also had us run on the path that was next to the road.  The path had a lot of steep dips in it that made it more challenging than the road.  I slowed down a bit but that was part of the plan.  I was still able to keep my mile pace at 6:10.  The last two miles flattened out a bit more.  I was able to pick the pace up again to around six minute pace.  There was one more runner in my sight and I was catching him the last two miles.  I caught up to him on the final stretch but in the end he out kicked me.  I was happy to finish in 1:18:33 with an average pace of 5:59.  It was a fun win and a great confidence booster.  I feel like I'm ready to run the Ogden Marathon just the way I want to.  My Brooks teammate Riley Cook won the men's race.  It was fun to get a team win.