12 Miles Downhill!

I got a new SD card for my camera! Yay, I can take good pictures again! Not that I have any for you today... These pictures are care of Mindy and Elle.

Here I am all ready to start my run. (Amy, do you see your boxes in the background?)

Pete and the kids took me up to Bountiful where they dropped me off at the temple, and I ran home.

Running from the top of Bountiful to Salt Lake is pretty much downhill the whole way. It's running from the mountain to the valley. On the way up I realized I had forgotten my ipod, but I decided to run without it and see how it went.

For some reason, for the first half, I had John Mellencamp's "Everything is so complete when you're walkin' out on the street, and the wind, it catches your feet and sets you flyin'. Flyin..." I don't know how I got that in my head, it must have been on the radio. Luckily Ben Queller popped in there about half-way, and I had Penny On a Train Track in my head for the rest of the time. I was happy with that, it's a great song!

The bad thing about getting dropped off for a run is that you can't go to the bathroom right before you leave, which is what I really need to do. I ended up making it for about 3 minutes, and I just couldn't take it any more so I ran off in the bushes. Then I felt much better, and got to just be excited for my downhill run!

On one of the steep downhills (where I get going 40mph on my bike), my fuel belt fell off! I was so annoyed with that thing! I was like, "That's it! I'm going to use Chicrunner's free shipping code to get an iFitness belt and just carry my water!" I think that would be good because then I could actually fit my iphone in there.

Last time my fuel belt was totally fine, but I'd only put two bottles on the front. This time I had all four bottles on the front and back, and it was really bouncing around a lot more. It also kept inching down and I'd have to pull it back up constantly. It was annoying, and I don't know why I didn't think to dump the back two bottles out until I was almost half-way done. I dumped them in the sink when I stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom again. It was much better after I did emptied them!

I hit 6 miles in 53:00! Wow, that was the fastest 6 miles ever, and It was so awesome! I felt great and had fun running fast without killing myself. I decided it would be cool if I could finish in 1:46:00, but I already had my main goal of finishing in under 2 hours. Pete was like, "If you can't do it in under 2 hours, we have a problem." Seriously, if I can't run downhill for less than 2 hours and cover 12 miles, I won't finish the marathon in 4 hours.

I took a gel at 45:00 and another serving half an hour later. I was starting to feel really tired so I had hoped that would help. I felt pretty good until I got to 9 miles, then I was back in Salt Lake. I was done with the downhill. :(

Having to run on flat after running downhill for an hour and a half was really hard! I was going really slow, and it was hard to even keep my pace at 10 min/mile. I even found myself wanting to walk at like 9.3, but I made myself keep running until I hit 10 miles. Then I let myself walk for 30 seconds. I ran another mile, and my dad called so I actually stopped to walk again while I talked to him. He told me he was bringing some of his strawberry plants for me, so I started feeling excited again and I really tried to push it hard until the end.

I got home at 1:54:07 so I didn't quite make my aggressive goal. I did make it in under 2:00, though! It was probably really close to 2 hours with all my stops. I was a little discouraged by that, but I'm hoping to have a little more energy on race day. (I've got to do something about this period...)

Here are my splits:

1. 9:49
2. 8:11
3. 8:39
4. 9:03
5. 9:03
6. 9:04
7. 9:10
8. 9:45
9. 10:11
10. 9:58
11. 10:40
12. 10:36

Total Distance: 12 miles

Totat Time: 1:54:07

Average Pace: 9:31 mile

Should I look at my trusty old marathon time calculator? (I'm nervous...)

Ah, 4:09:09. Not great. I slowed down way too much at the end! I'll give it another try. I just need to keep practicing the downhill, and the keeping going for longer than an hour.

BUT, look at the long run I did last year on Ethan's birthday. I ran 12.9 miles in 2 and a half hours with an average pace of 11.6 min/miles, and it was my first long run where I dared run up the Avenues. Look how far I've come! That makes me feel better about my run yesterday!

I was good and took a 15 minute ice bath when I got home, which was the worst part of the whole thing! It was so hard keeping my legs in that cold water! And Pete just kept bringing more ice in. Ouch. I survived, though, and had to hurry and get out to get ready for Ethan's birthday party. I didn't have nearly enough time, and I was still making the frosting for the cake when everyone got here. Luckily they were just my family and they don't care.

I made Ethan a race track cake. Not the best looking cake I've ever made, but it was fun, and all the kids got to choose a car off the top so they were all happy. He turned 6 today!

We opened presents, then went to the zoo.

After the zoo, we went to Pizza Factory for dinner. It was a really fun day, but very full!

Even after the torturous ice bath, I was still pretty sore by bed time, and I can still feel it today, but it's not bad. Who knows how much the ice helped, maybe I would have been really sore!