Lauren is getting me out on the hills again. There is a road that we used to run, and it starts at the very base by the river and then climbs up 350ft in one mile. The burn you experience on this hill deserves a reward, and usually, that reward is the cars that go by and yell out ‘good job’ because the hill is so steep.
My sister planned yesterday’s spring break activities; while random, it was a huge success.
At the Shri Shri Radha Krishna Temple, you can rent llamas. The llamas were there before the temple and they help to fund the temple and grounds now. Our guide taught us all about the llamas and took us out for a walk with them.
We finished up with a picnic next to the llamas while watching The Emperor’s New Groove.
These kids grow up so fast.
I’m proud of Curly overcoming her llama fear.
The other night, I was wide awake at about 2 am, and I came up with the idea of compiling a list of races that did not go my way. If this is a bad idea and boring, then I can blame it on the fact that I came up with it in the middle of the night. If it is a good idea and helps anyone out there who has had a lousy race recently and it inspires them to try again, then I can call it inspiration because I thought of it in the middle of the night;)
Whenever I am going through something hard or fail, I love to remind myself that without discomfort and pain, we would never know what it feels like to feel good. If we succeeded in running more than we failed, I don’t think the chase for the PRs would be as fun or as satisfying.
So, here is a list of some of my races that went sideways. I either didn’t start or finished far away from my goals (I’m not including all of the mediocre races or medium bad races, just the worst ones I can remember):
*Dogtown 1/2 Marathon 2011-> My goal was to run under 90 minutes, but I had started experiencing a bit of pain in my quads leading up to the race. I popped some ibuprofen the morning of so that I could run the race, and not only did I not hit my goal that day, but I made my injuries much worse.
*Boston 2011-> I never made it to the starting line due to the injuries mentioned above, aka what turned into femoral stress fractures. I was not giving my body the nutrition it needed and putting too much stress on it. The body kept score, and I lost that game.
*CIM 2013-> I had PRs left and right in my fall half-marathons leading up to CIM, but as I got closer to the race, I mentally could not continue marathon training. I was going through my divorce and in the thick of it with lawyers and tension and never made it to that starting line.
*Utah Valley Marathon 2014-> Still a mess from my divorce, and Brooke was also picked up for one of the first times since I had her ON THE COURSE. I was a wreck. Oh, and I also had been injured and took five weeks off and only did pool running to train for those five weeks leading up to the race. I definitely should NOT have started that day, but at least this race gave me plenty of pictures to use where I look like I am dying from pain. Remember how my sister ran 6 miles in her flip-flops and jeans to help me get to the finish line that day?
She has worn running shoes to every race she has spectated at since then in case she is called in again.
*CIM 2019-> This one stung. I dreamed about an Olympic Trials Qualifying time (when it was 2:45 and below). Emilee and I thought we had it. We worked our buns off to get faster. I knew a mile in that it would be a battle out there, and I finished 13 minutes slower than I had wanted.
*Boston 2023-> I trained probably harder than I ever have for this race and made a goal to finish in the 2:40s—> but instead, I hit up the porta potties a few times, felt horrible, and finished in 3:02.
Don’t let the failures and bad days stop you. We learn so much from these bad days; they make the good days feel better when we get there! I’ll be chasing PRs my whole life, which may mean I have to create races for random distances and make you all come out and do them with me, but I’ll be chasing them.
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Where have you had your hardest races? What did those races teach to you?
Any random activities that you have done recently?
Is anyone headed somewhere this month?
-We are leaving to chase the sun down in Southern Utah today!
Tell me what your workout is today!
