Wascally Wabbit 5k

So, this was supposed to be half marathon 6, and my last double digit run before St. George marathon.

However, after my 18 mile run I had some issues, and went to the doctor. I pulled some muscles and had some core issues (which is as specific as I would like to be), so while waiting for an appointment with the physical therapist I should not be running long distances. As this happened the week I was supposed to run 40 miles (5, 10, 5, and 20 miles respectively), I knew I would not be able to make the marathon.

It was a huge disappointment, but I know it's more important to listen to my body.

BUT, since I had already paid for my half marathon I asked if I could downgrade to the 5k. I figured I would run what I could and walk the rest.

Around mile 2, a few other runners and I noticed a woman staggering toward us. Initially my thought was that it was a drunk person walking one off. Then I noticed blood all down her shirt, and I was a little alarmed. Then I noticed the zombie face paint. PHEW! A few more people jumped out at us, which was totally unexpected. They didn't mention that when we were signing up!

I did it in 41:20, which is a pretty good pace for me doing the walk/run pace!

Now to get stronger and (hopefully) faster!1+++++

Bad Bass Half Marathon.

I'm training for the St. George marathon, and the weekend of my training to run a half marathon there was a half in Castro Valley (about 45 minutes from the Giullian's house). So I signed up for it! Sight unseen.

The good news is, I got a tough training run in for my marathon.

The bad news is nothing else went right. It was a HILLY course. Mile 1 was a nice paved trail. I was so glad they had so many photographers there, because we got some happy pictures.

But from then on, it was basically uphill. The hill was so steep from miles 2-4 that I literally couldn't run it for more than 5 feet at a time. Once we got to the top the volunteer said "It's all downhill from here!" FALSE. From then on it was rolling hills. It was basically a 13 mile hike. I didn't see another runner for the last half of the race, which is mentally draining. Then my headphones died 10 miles in, and my phone was just about dead so I couldn't listen to music for the last little bit.

 So this was a mental victory for me! It was the slowest race time that I've ever had, but it was the most difficult terrain I've run on by far. About half a mile from the finish line, I saw a pink shirt throwing rocks into the water. Seeing Cora helped me find some energy in my legs. And I made it! Look at my cute cheering squad. I also had Dallin and Krystel and Steve and Karen. So much love!

Yosemite Half Marathon.

Since I can't sleep, might as well catch up on blogging right?

To back up, I heard about this cool company called Vacation Races about a year and a half ago. I saw they had a new half marathon through the Everglades, and signed up. But then that was when we went to Ecuador, so I decided to change it to the Miami Halloween Half instead. 

However, since I was following the page on Facebook and still got emails from them, I saw that they had a lot of interesting races. When we moved here, I saw the Yosemite half marathon. It was the same day as Ashlee and Luis' wedding (and I was 8 months pregnant), so it wasn't going to work that year. But I decided that would be my comeback race in 2018. This was before I signed up for the End of the Trail half that I did in February.

So when the price opened up in August, I told Brandon I wanted to do this and he agreed that it would be fun. So I signed up, then he said "Hey, I think I want to run this too!" Obviously the only way that would work was if we had someone else to watch the kids, so we invited the Giullians and made it a 5 day family trip. Megan and Luis wanted to run it (Ashlee initially considered it then got pregnant.) Then the craziest thing happened! I was telling a few friends about it one day at lunch, and THEY said they wanted to do it! Then Dallin and Krystel decided to take us up on our invitation to come since they have an internship out here and Dallin signed up! By the time everyone who wanted to signed up, we had 12 people!

I was hoping to be done with WGU by now, but it obviously wasn't in the cards with everything that has happened. So it was a little stressful training for a half while student teaching. But I got the long runs in and a few runs during the weeks leading up to the race.

The night before, I made sure to designate one person to be in front of each child, and gave them instructions. Moms are still moms, even when they are running half marathons at unholy hours of the night. We had to get up at 3:30 for the race. I ate a little bit of bread, but was overall too nervous. They had hot chocolate at the start of the run, which was AMAZING because it was freezing.

Here was our crew! 

These were the girls I ran with. They would always be able to find me in a crowd with this jacket. 

The first 5 miles were rocky trail on a fire road. Lots of hills, and you couldn't move too fast because you would turn your ankle. Someone actually did sprain their ankle, apparently. That was kind of tough, but then the next 5 miles were all downhill. We FLEW through that portion! Ran it in less than an hour, which was 2-3 minutes per mile faster than normal. I had a goal of running it in less than 3 hours, and a stretch goal of less than 2:45. I felt AWESOME after mile 10 so I decided to run ahead to try to make that stretch goal. 

That did not last long. My body was like a car out of gas. I was literally just lurching along trying to get to the finish line. My friends eventually caught up, and weren't even mad that I tried to beat them. 

Those last 3 miles were BRUTAL. There were rolling hills the entire time, and everyone I talked to said they were awful. Brandon even said it was more mentally taxing than his 2 a day football practices in high school. Having friends there pushed me through to the end!

 When we crossed, we checked our time. 2:57:55! We DID IT!

So proud of all of us. Dallin ran his first half in 2:02 which is AMAZING considering he signed up a month ago, Brandon beat the elusive 2 hour spot, Megan did 2:19 on an upset stomach, and Luis did 2:28 4 weeks after Ashlee had baby Charlotte.

Just before this picture, I started feeling REALLY sick. I forced my way through a smile (Because YAY we actually ran the same half marathon!), then ran to the bathroom. 

I tried eating 3 goldfish and had to spit them on the ground because they were not going to go down. When I got back to Brandon he said I looked like death and was severely hypoglycemic. I needed sugar, and thankfully he had an apple in his bag.  Instead of taking the shuttle back to the car, I walked very very very very very slowly back to the car that Ashlee and Krystel drove over. After an apple, a hamburger and Coke from McDonald's, and some Scotcheroos I was on the mend. But that was kind of scary since it's never happened before, and embarrassing since I had just run one! What the heck happened??

We figured out that there were a few things. 1) I didn't eat much before the run. Not even a whole piece of bread. and 2) since this race company is cup free I already had water in my water bottle belt. So I didn't get any Gatorade. Normally I'll have a little Gatorade in my halfs, but I didn't think I'd miss it! And finally 3) It was a big change. 5,500 feet elevation at the beginning, 2,000 feet elevation drop, and lots of hills. Nothing I was used to.

So future Camille, just so you know- Take the Gatorade, eat beforehand, and for the love of Pete FIND PANTS THAT WON'T ALLOW CHAFING! Holy Hannah. It was a tough half, but we are hooked. Next up, St. George Marathon in October! Unless I am crazy enough to sign up for something else first.

Sanger Blossom Trail 10k

I signed up for a 10k to run with my friend who is training for the Yosemite half as her first half marathon. But then her back hurt, so I figured I'd run it since I already paid.

It was the same place that we went to last year to see the Blossom Trail.

Remember this? So cute.

So the 10K starts the blossom festival that we attended, and since it was a cheap run it was good since everything went wrong. Everyone has been praying for rain, and every one of those prayers was answered between Thursday and Saturday morning. The mountains supposedly got 5 or 6 FEET of snow. Which is great, except when you're trying to drive. I don't know how we drove in 6 Rexburg winters without getting in an accident.

So once I got there, I got my packet and dropped it off at the car. Which I hoped wouldn't be towed (the race director said I was fine parked where I was buuuuuut you never know). I decided to leave my phone in the car since it was raining so much. As I was getting ready, I heard an air horn blast. I booked it over there, and thankfully I didn't miss the start. The rain slowed down, and I realized I wouldn't need my jacket but it was too late to bring it back. So i tried to start my headphones... dead. The portable charger I should have been using the whole drive up was in the car. So, that was the longest I've run without music!

At first I thought the Blossom Trail was going to be in name only, since we kept moving through these neighborhoods with big barking dogs. But we finally made it out to the fields. It smells AMAZING. Almond trees, apple trees, orange trees, etc. But all the rain came with a ton of mud. I almost lost a shoe in it. Thankfully not! 

As we went around a turn, I saw flashing lights behind me. There was a police car that seemed to be picking up the people who were falling too far behind. (The walkers started earlier) I had a handful of people behind me, but every time I looked back there were fewer people behind me and the car was getting closer. So I tried to run a little faster, just ahead of the car. By the time I finished, there were only 2 other people behind me. But I didn't get picked up by the street sweeper!

My time was 1:21:30. 10k is a struggle distance for me, because since the groups are always so small I am usually one of the last few people to come in. It makes it hard to stay motivated.

Now it's time to get ready for the Yosemite half! My goal is to beat my best time of 2:49.

End of the Trail Half Marathon

Completed half marathon 3 today!

In order to explain how it was training, you need to realize what has happened since I started attempting to train in October. We had: sinus infections, colds, traveling, teething, pink eye, chronic ear infections, sleep training, potty training, enterovirus, many many nights of waking up too many times with sick kids, fevers, a flu scare, etc. The kids and I have been sick no less than 15 times. Soooo, needless to say it's been rough!

I did not prepare enough for this. Not at all. But there was nothing I could do about it. So when race day came around I just wanted to finish in less time than my running playlist, and to finish without injury. A secondary goal was to finish in under 3 hours.

The course was pretty flat. The best part was when we ran past a giant apple orchard which is blossoming, because it smelled amazing. The worst part was when we immediately ran past a dairy farm afterwards and it smelled HORRIBLE. I was about to throw up.

Since I just used my Apple watch, I had to pick my playlist carefully. I picked "From Now On" and "This is Me" from Greatest Showman to be the last songs to get me through the finish line. It was pretty inspiring.

 I had the cutest cheering section! 

 I was so happy that Amanda came too, that was so nice of her! Here they are playing Ring around the Rosie with Cora waiting for me to show up.

 

 This melted my heart! 

 Yeesh.

 

Brandon came up to me and the first thing he said is "Man, you look rough!" Yup!

 Meg and Ash brought me flowers, and Cora pulled one out to give to me. 

  

 

 "Oh Mom, can I have an orange?? Oh thank you Mom!"

 

 I've been trying to French braid my hair before long runs since it doesn't fall out as fast as a ponytail, but clearly I need to work on it. 

  

 

  

    

   

 Glad Meg and Ash (and baby Charlotte!) came down early this morning for this! 

My official time is 3:02:49. So close to my secondary goal! But I didn't injure myself and I got to skip 3 songs on my playlist. So there's that!

We have another half marathon in mid May, in Yosemite. So I need to strength train and do some speed workouts. Hopefully since we have an ENT appointment for Cora's ears, and since it's not the dead of winter and flu season, we will not have so much sickness. But I was grateful to everyone who came out and supported me! It feels good to be a three time half marathoner!

Random February 2017 Happenings

Since I've been neglecting the blog, here is a quick catchup of February!

Cora LOVED her first Clif bar. She pounded that thing down.. probably helped that it was chocolate.

 We took Cora to get her first haircut! She tried to hide her hair under a hat.

 

 We will need to find a cute haircut place in Visalia like this. Cora loved sitting in the cars.

 "Can I help you?"

 So many heart eyes right now!

 We took her to In-N-Out to celebrate. She loved her shake.

 Cora made me laugh super hard at her faces one night. She loves getting her pictures taken, especially with the flash on.

 Seriously, the flash. 

 19 weeks and still running. Cora and I are starting to look like each other in the middle area.

 I LOVE how clear the view of the mountains can be!

 First week of 1:00 church. She lasted about 30 seconds in the car on the way home.

 Yep, both my hands. I woke up so swollen one day. Luckily, it went away quickly and I won't have that problem if I don't sleep on my right side or have a hair tie around my wrist.

 Cora is so cool.

 She loves to rock her babies all the time.

 Story time is so cute here! They actually like kids running around and being normal toddlers. Which is so unlike Miami.

 Cora will sit on the swings for hours if we let her!

 World's biggest chicharron!

 This is what happens when I tell Cora "no Elmo"...

 The children's museum here is really cute! And pretty well priced for the year.

 Cora LOVES getting her "nay-ohs" painted and I love it too. It makes everything so cute when she flashes the nails around.

 Cora got to hold her first real baby. She was obviously thrilled.

 Brandon had his first day of work on the 20th! We're so proud of all his hard work for us.