The Next Big Event

I've done 2 1/2 marathons in the last 6 weeks. One was 1:28, good enough for 4th in my division; and last week, 1:44 for 1st in my division (it was a small race). 

And now I'm taking a break until my next big event: Baby #4 due May 17. 

Of course, I may still try to fit in another 1/2 marathon or two before then. I'll probably be a lot slower by that point, though. :)

Drop 13 Race Report

I ran the Drop 13 1/2 marathon a few weeks ago. LOVED it. The whole race is down Big Cottonwood Canyon and is beautiful. I had been training hard and was ready to run my best race. I even lost 13 lbs, so I could get an extra medal.  And then the week of the race, my knee and leg started to hurt...an injury was coming on. So I took the week mostly off, and figured I'd power through, take some ibuprofen, and hope for the best. 

I wanted to be conservative, so I started off relatively slowly (6:45 min/mile), and sped up after the halfway point to closer to 6 min/miles. 

Miles 6-11 were between 6:15 and 5:56, and I felt awesome. My fastest mile of all time (in high school track) is 5:52, so to come that close in a 1/2 marathon felt fantastic. I also shattered my previous 2-mile (12:45) and 5k (20:00) and 10k (40:14) records; replacing them with 11:57, 18:54, and 37:40, respectively. I didn't know I could go that fast! Sure, it was downhill, but still, I was thrilled with the results. The last couple of miles slowed down a bit because it flattened out a bit, a set of stairs, a near miss when a car ran the red light, and a poorly marked end of the course. I finished in 1:23:44, my fastest time ever (by 5 minutes!). And my first negative split! Definitely trying that strategy again. It was the best I've felt during and after a race.  I just needed to prove to myself that I could get fast again after twins, and I'm proud to say that I did it!

My time was good enough for a 2nd place overall trophy. I put the trophy on the mantle, so William decided to put his tball trophy up there, too. :)  

Assuming I heal from this injury soon (2 weeks without running and still no end in sight), I have some lofty goals this season. I've been pool running and biking to maintain fitness, so between that and losing my love handles this summer (hoping for another 5-10 lbs of fat loss to get back to pre-pregnancy racing weight and speed me up a tad), I should hopefully manage ok.

My next goal is to best my all-time marathon time of 3:22 (shooting for a 3:10-3:15, I had a 3:32 last year with only half-hearted training), and hopefully break 1:20 in the 1/2. I had a decent amount of spunk left at the end, so I probably should have pushed harder. And I race a lot smarter now that I'm older...we'll see what happens come fall. 

6 months and 13.1 miles Later...

William is now officially a 6 month old baby! 15 lbs, 2 oz; 26 inches long, with a 17-inch head circumference. Still our little 10-25% guy. Where did all that time go? In celebration of his half-year birthday, we gave him a fancy lunch of solid foods. He'd been begging for food for months so we figured now was a good time to start. He LOVED rice cereal! The video is kinda long, don't feel obligated to watch it; it was mostly for the grandparents, anyway.

Yum, yum, yum!

Also to celebrate making it through the first 6 months of being a mom, I ran the Fontana Days 1/2 Marathon. It claims to be the fastest half in the world. At least that's what the t-shirt says.

1 hour, 36 minutes, and 18 seconds later, it proved that way for me despite the 90* heat. This put me in 8th place for my age group (would have been 4th for my old age group; how I miss 19-24!). Another 10 minutes and I would have won. Not bad for still trying to get back into shape! Makes me want to do more of them to see how well I'd do with peak training. Liam and Steve even came out to see me at mile 10. Liam had to fight away the paparazzi (sorry, but they didn't get a picture of me running).

Post Baby Marathon Madness

Liam and I went up to Salt Lake City for almost a week so I could run the SLC Marathon. Training for the marathon was good motivation to get back into shape (though I can't really say that I'm back in shape...yet). We chose this marathon because of the proximity to babysitters (thanks Karen, Mom, and the Irwins!).

Liam loved looking out the window, but unfortunately for everyone who sat next to us, he did not enjoy the plane ride experience. Luckily for us, we sat next to nice grandmas who understood.

It was nice to see family and friends again. Since the Irwins couldn't get back home to the UK due to the airport closures, I got extra time with them! Though we missed Steve (who had to work) we got to do (almost) everything and see everyone we wanted to. This included Stacy's baby shower, my cute new nephew Daniel, the teacher I student taught for, and of course lots of family time.

My brother-in-law, Mike, and I ran the first few miles together and split up where the 1/2 splits from the marathon course since Mike was running the half marathon. I felt good until about mile 16 or so, when I started to slow down and wear out. After mile 20, it was slow going. I was chugging along at a snail-like pace of 9:00-9:30 per mile. This is compared to the 7:00-8:00 minute miles I used to do pre-pregnancy.

Thanks, Leslie for snapping this great picture during the race! Leslie is a tough triathlete who was nice enough to bike along to cheer me on for a bit during the late teen miles. I was tired and it gave me some motivation to keep going.

I finished in 4:01, which was right about target (I was planning a 4 hour race). Overall, I'm glad I did it, but might give myself more time to train post-baby than 4 months so I could do a better job next baby. I started running again yesterday, and felt pretty good. I want to try to do a few more races this summer to get back into racing shape. Got to get that PR in St. George this fall!

Though it was nice to get away, it's always nice to come back home to a sweet husband who shows up with flowers.