My visualization exercise.

Yup. It's here friends. The big marathon. The SOLO marathon. Here's my game plan, you excited?

Mile 1: Rock on. A mile, did it in 9 flat. Woo Woo, I'm a rock star

Mile 2: Down hill ROCKS! That was eeeeasy

Mile 3: Dooo Doooo dooo.... (sung, of course)

Mile 3.1: Yesss a 5k... under 30 min, awesome!

Mile 4: Wow. This is great.

Mile 5: Hi brown cow.

Mile 6: Where's the timer thing?

Mile 6.2: Oh, there it is... my rockin' support group will get their text messages. I'm feeling GREAT.

Mile 7: This is cake.

Mile 8: Rock on, we are still in the canyon. I love mountain running.

Mile 9: Already mile 9? My legs are feeling awesome!

Mile 10: Yesss! Double digits. Could this race BE any better?

Mile 11: I heart Jeff Galloway.

Mile 12: Drat, the canyon running is almost over. But that means we get to be cheered on by random peeps.

Mile 13: Good thing I like people cheering. I wonder if I'll recognize Mel.

Mile 13.1: Giggle Giggle, I just ran a half marathon and I feel AWESOME. Text messages sent, yesss.

Mile 14: Just passed "half way" woo woo

Mile 15: Completely out of the canyon, it's getting hotter, but I'm totally channeling my inner Sue Ann.

Mile 16: Channeling my inner Amanda. I feel awesome.

Mile 17: Walk breaks are my friends, but I still feel good. Yes Yes I do.

Mile 18: Oh look the switchback Erin told me about. Mental note, I will see this mile marker again at mile 20. Don't let it deflate me. Feeling good. Loving the walk breaks.

Mile 19: Yessss only one more mile and I get to run with Amanda. I can totally push through this mile.

Mile 20: HI FRIEND. Oh, hi friend. Oh, hi. Oh... look there is the 18 miler mark. Moving on....

Mile 21: Only 5 miles left! I can do this!!!!!

Mile 22: My legs are tired, but strong. The walk breaks are helping and I'm able to keep running the full 4 minutes.

Mile 23: Almost there, only a 5k + .1 left. I can do this, I AM doing this! I am tired but feeling good, good spirits.

Mile 24: Okay. Two more miles? Good thing Amanda is telling me about last nights baby shower cause I can't talk anymore. Still feel good.

Mile 25: Only 1 mile left. YESSSSSSSSSSSS.

Mile 26: Thank heavens, I can see the finish line! Bye friend! See you at the finish line!!!

Mile 26.2: Skip across the finish line... feeling GREAT and HAPPY!!!!!

WOO WOO!!! Chat with ya'll after the marathon!!! WISH ME LUCK!

Moment of Freakout

Would you all please take this moment to FREAK OUT with me? I am now in SINGLE DIGITS until the Marathon.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!

Holy Sore Body Batman or The Warm Fuzzy Run

Ok ladies. Here it is. My summary of the half on Saturday. I know you're excited, so please go use the restroom first. ;) Let's get the back story in quickly. Ok, so since Max joined our family I have pretty much exercised like not at all. Well I think I have managed to run a total of like 8 times and lifted maybe 3 times and I haven't played soccer at all. So this week what do I do? Play soccer Thursday and lift Friday, KNOWING that I was going to run a half on Saturday. Brilliant, Manda. Brilliant. Needless to say I woke up Saturday morning already really sore. Awesome. So whilst getting ready I was giving myslef the pep talk.

"You can do it Amanda. It doesn't matter that you're body aches. You can go and run a race and not be competitive. You're not out to win any medals, just to run and spend time with your friend. No need to pass people. Just finish...just finish. You can do it."

And then I gave myself a thumbs up. Uhhhh......nerd alert!

Well we got there and had a moment of spasticness...I know...you're thinking, "Who? Mandori? Never..." But alas it tis true. But to read about that part you'll have to go to my blog to read about that. Then the race started and my body started screaming. Well my legs at least. Oh they huuuuurt, and we were only a hundred yards in! Blast. Not a good sign. Thankfully Lori is a running genius and had decided that we were going to run this half the Jeff Galloway way and run for 4 minutes and walk for 1. Well I'm pretty sure I would have walked all the minutes had Lori not been there pushing me along.
The first 5 to 6 miles of any race is the hardest for me. I never feel good until we're in about 7 miles...which ironically is when Lor starts hurting...so then it's my turn to push. But that job was ripped out from under me by some random boys CC team. They FLEW past us, not once, not twice, but three times! Talk about demoralizing. The second time they ran past us, they really ran through us, so I started dancing....tee hee...secretly hoping to hit one of them while doing so. I'll teach you to run past me like that! So when they came by the 3rd time I tried to take a pic. Well you can see how well that turned out. Blast. Foiled on all sides. ;)

Previous to speed boys, we had the opportunity to run through a cow pasture....or at least that's what we THINK it was. Or maybe it was just a trap to catch unsuspecting runners in the deep murky waters that ran through it. Ummmm....can I say, dry shoes? I hate running in wet shoes. Luckily they'd put some rockin sprang-your-ankle boards over the waters. We were grateful we made it out alive! ;)

In the end it was a great race. The last 5 miles felt great and went by super fast. Lor and I had a great chat which really did leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy. We made each other list 5 talents that we're grateful we have. Try it sometime. It's harder than it sounds. We finished the race strong which I was super impressed with considering she's sick and deaf and I was unprepared and sore to begin with. Our finish time was even faster than the first half we ran together 2 1/2 years ago. Ahhhh....look at how far we've come! It was sooooo good to be out running long distances again and to have some great chat time (though Lor did think we'd need talking points...bah!)

Thanks Lor for such a good run! It was so fun and I was so glad to be running with you again! And no we did not plan on matching. It was fate. So yes I did it! I proved to myself that I indeed could jump into running again. So of course when I got home I had to give myself a thumbs up again....only this time a little more awake and sweaty.

And that's when the pain set in. All I have to say is Holy Sore Body Batman.

Running Through HEL (Huntsville, Eden & Liberty)

Well, well, let me tell you what Erin. You missed out on a classic Mandori* Saturday. Truly, truly, you might have disowned us as friends (til about mile 10 when we started back into “normalcy” again… or was it mile 9? Hmmmm) Nonetheless, I will leave it to Amanda to tell you the brunt of our race, because really, she’s funnier than I am. But, here are my highlights.

This is Jim. The pretty girl to his left is his wife Sue. Sue pretty much ran the entire half toggling us back and forth (in the end she finished about 30 seconds before us). Jim was a rockin’ husband and father, he and his son went to each mile marker to cheer his wife on. This meant that the ENTIRE race he’d be at every mile marker cheering us on (okay, he was really cheering his wife on but he threw us a cheering bone…) AND when he drove to the next mile marker he’d roll down his windows and cheer for us. We liked Jim. So, we asked him if we could take a picture with our cheerleader. He obliged.

Thanks Jim!!!!

Amanda and I are 100% addicted to our blackberries, if ya’ll hadn’t noticed, so it was only appropriate that we started the race blackberry’ing her husband… meaning… we had our blackberries with us the entire 13.1 miles. HAHAHAHA. We just can’t put the dang things down. We had to use them as our watches because I forgot my watch at home. Silly me. Don't you worry though, I got an email whilst running (yes, I read it) and Amanda got a phone call at 12.8 miles that she took. (yup!) We're funny.

The Jeff Galloway method? I think it was perfect for us with this half because.. 1) I was still feeling like CA-RAAP from my nice little infection. Plus, I had just been throwing up three days earlier… slightly low on fuel. 2) Amanda hasn’t run longer than 6 miles in the last two months… and pretty sure she’s only run maybe 10 times since May. Therefore, we were able to finish this race with minimal effort and not kill ourselves. However, I think for the marathon I am going to switch it up slightly. Totally going to do the JG method, but I’m going to push harder for those 4 minutes. If I don’t pick it up the extra 4 minutes I run the same pace PLUS take walk breaks… so my 9:30 mm turns into an 10:30/11:00mm which by mile 24 is going to be a 13mm…. so… that’s my thought. I figure if I can bust out the first 16 miles of the marathon I won’t be THAT far off my goal. We’ll see… really, it’s about finishing, right? Right? Keep reminding me of that friends.

New subject, oh, wait, previous subject. Tee hee. Tanget Queen, that’s me. Focus back on running through HEL. The course was GORGEOUS, flat, and soooo random (Manda has pictures) and they were kinda funny water stops. The WSU track team made me giggle…never felt more like a slug in my entire life. Listened to a dude talk to his running partner about how the bible doesn’t have any proof that salvation requires baptism. Hmmmm.

Manda’s hot.

(No, really, she was hot. She'd just taken her long sleeve off)

Manda’s ALWAYS faster than me, even with walking breaks. Yes, this is a walk break.. and she’s what 20 meters ahead? Dang her and her genetics.

But, really, here we go. Erin we’ve told you about him… but here he is. Mr. Underwear Man:
He’s ran both Ogden Marathons with me and was in another random Ogden race too. Always wears this same outfit. What you say? Boxers and a wife beater? Why, yes, that’s what I thought too….but he got up close to me at one point during the race and those shorts really ARE running shorts (what a let down) but it is a 100% wife beater. That didn’t stop me from singing this is in my head everytime I saw him (tuned to Spiderman..)

“Underwearman, Underwearman wears his panties cause that’s what Underwearman does…”
This biggest highlight, however, was running a race with YOU manda. I feel really blessed that I've been able to run a race with each of you, by ourselves, this summer. Erin, because we've never done it! A first memory!! Amanda, it’s been a long time and I loved every second. I especially liked how the race ended. We made each other say 5 things we liked about ourselves and talk about it and then gave each other pep talks. Very happy way to end the race. It was nice to run a race when our lives are pretty even-keeled. YAY! (yes, we're THAT cool...)
Good times, folks. Get excited for Amanda’s post. I’m pretty much waiting with baited breath. Just start laughing now…..

*Mandori's definition: Manda/Lori moments that really no one else would be able to fabricate.

I HOPE THE RACE WENT WELL LADIES!

Declaration of Running for Running

Preamble of declaration: SAFETY

Lady's! Lori and I had a intense conversation about running safety and being accountable while we are running on our own. The bases of our conversation can be summed up in three points: (1) Since the weather is changing and we all love our fall it means the easy summer mornings of running when its light outside is over for yet another year. (2)Especially now that all our lives/scheduled and where we live is changing. (3)Have you tried to tell your husband where you are going when they are half asleep and have no reason to be awake until its too late? Well, it doesn't work out great if you have given it a try. So because of these three reason, we are going to use the buddy system the night before your lonely workout, either call, text or post if you plan on running in the morning and when you will be back. Then when you return call, text, post (whatever form of communication you have chosen from the night before) and simply say "I AM ALIVE"...if you forget to notify the others- it will only happen once because of embarrassment of having the troops called out to find you will help your remember real quick. Obviously the first step would to call the husband of the missing runner and say, "hey remember that hot girl you love and call wife have you seen her?" and then proceed through the appropriate order of finding one another. COOL! Ya I thought so!
I also think after two or more years of running we pretty much know the drill, but lets take a second and formalize our running declaration, by adding amendments through posts.

Amendments

*I run because my legs and heart are strong enough for me to push through
*I run to be at my psychical best
*I run because it clears my mind and organizes my troubles
*It's not cool to back out of races,(especially when others have already signed up) or training unless a dump truck hits you or something to that affect
*Running is not easy, there may be a million reasons not to go, but the feeling of and satisfaction upon completion out weighs every single one of those reasons
*CUTTING RUNS SHORT DO YOU NO GOOD
*Never walk longer than a minute
*Push through hills, and then they are over

hi friends

i never got around to blogging about our long run Erin... it was fabulous. thank you for being my therapist. i took a lot of what you said to heart and tried to apply it. you're going to be an excellent therapist, i hope you know that! i loved running in uintah (despite the ONE gory hill), i loved each time my watch beeped you'd say "ahh hell," i loved that starbucks gave us free cold water..yumm... and i especially loved that we went into smiths. haha. thanks for sharing that long run with me erin, it meant a lot.

this week's long run was pretty darn awesome. i ran up in the mountains (8000 feet ladies... your lungs DIIIEEEE) and was able to clear my head. what is it about the mountains? nature? i don't know but it's so much easier to open up my heart when i'm out away from it all. i was able to work through the crap i've talked to you both about and feel like i'm on the right track. i feel emotionally ready for the marathon, even if i don't feel quite positive about how physically ready i am to tackle the marathon. but, as we know, running is 90% mental 10% physical... so...hopefully that bodes well for me. :) i'm beyond excited that the weather has started to turn colder...yes yes i am. that means that the marathon MIGHT be manageable weather. yessssss. no sunburn or heat exhaustion. i'm ALL about that.

this week is going to be pretty chill in the running department. tomorrow morning manda and i are going to run 3-4 miles, on thursday morning i'm doing a speed workout and then running the Huntsville Half Marathon on Saturday with Alli and Amanda. should be good times had by all. what are your plans this week, friends?