2 PRs- 30 miles and 4015 miles

Today is the last of the year, so I ran 30 mile time trial and finished my goal of running 4015 miles this year. (11/day, 77/week) Considering I was only at 3460 a month ago it was a pretty tough month.
I ran about 3 130 mile weeks, and in the middle of one week ran 160 miles when I had seven hard days in a row. ( 12/17-12/23) This week I had a hard Monday and Tuesday, 28 and 25 miles before three easy days of 10-6-6 before today.
Today I ran my PR for 30 miles in 3:46:08, about 9 minutes faster than last year. I ran pretty consintely too, starting off only one quick mile in about 7:00 and then running 7:20-40 for pretty much the rest of the way. My slowest mile being 7:49, up the big hill in Birch Bay and once after the marathon. The course I ran was the Birch Bay marathon plus 3.8 miles back around the water. I was at 3:17:30 or 40 for the marathon which was only a minute and a half slower than when I raced the marathon last month on a faster course. I could tell the higher mileage was helping me because there was never a point in the race where I died, I could keep running sub 8s even when I was tired and even sub 7:30s, and I didn't even need help climbing up the steps to my house when I got home.
Joel was actually pretty nice to me today, I know that may disappoint you because I can not really say anything too snarky, he even bought me lunch! He did agree that he was only 98% nice though, as in 98% of the things he yelled at me were nice. That is probably a record too, so 3 PR day.
Jessica and her family were nice too, coming by when I was at about 22 miles and cheering the rest of the way. Jessica's sister Cody made me a peanut butter chocolate (high protein) cake for hitting 4000 miles!  I had to wait until I was done to have any even though I hit 4000 in the middle of my run.
A month ago I would have said it was almost impossible for me to get 4000 miles this year but I did it! And then I found I can run faster. I hope this new year will bring lots more impossible things.

24 hour run

On May 5 and 6th I am doing the 24 hour race. In the 24 hour race you see how far you can go in 24 hours and even if that is only a mile you would still have technically finished the race. My goal is more around 120- 145 miles. 120 being the standard for the World team and 145 the American record.
When Joel told me about this I originally thought it sounded just terrible. I already feel like I run all day sometimes when I don't get up until 9:30, don't make it out the door till 10:15 because I am looking for my watch or my keys or my shoes and then don't get back from running until 2 pm, and spend the next few hours eating before running again. Well this would be literally running all day.
But then I thought about it and it actually sounded easier than the 50k. Running 7:24 pace is hard. But running all day, like today, isn't really for me. It's hard because it takes so much time and sometimes I get bored, but it's not hard for me to run 25 miles is the morning and then 4-10 more. It is supposed to be- my schedule this month with all the double runs and tons of mileage is supposed to be quite challenging and it is- because it gets so boring. But I had to chide Joel about why I even had to do it. Isn't this supposed to be hard? Why do I have to do it if it isn't even hard? Not that I want to run more! I ran 160 miles in 7 days! I need time in the day to eat, and write this blog, and well, not work at petsmart anymore (wahoo!)
I'm sure it would get very hard after like 8-12 hours or so but keeping going is something I always do, even if it is not quite 7:24 pace.

my other car is my feet

I'm just going to cut right to the chase. I'm kind of tired, just a little bit. It takes a lot of energy for me to write my blog and the last two weeks I have run 264 miles.
For awhile it was kind of necessary because my car wasn't running, it needs breaks and has broken parts way more often than I do. It wasn't really a big deal for me because I would just run to work, and home, and wherever else I need to go and then some, and then a LOT. And time tends to go by when you're running late to work quite fast unlike some long runs, which shall remain anonymous.
My car is running now but that doesn't mean I'm not. Easy days are now days when you only have to run 15 miles. A day when you get done running and it is still daylight- that's a rarity. I used to think that Bellingham had lots of trails but not anymore, Bellingham is not big enough for me.
One day a week I do hills. Usually whatever day I have to work all daylight hours. Sounds like a good day for a 3 and 1/2 hour run up Galbraith! Since I refuse to run on Galbraith in the dark, because it is creepy!, we had to improvise a route that was close to my work and not creepy. And we got the James St hill which if you want a description of just scroll down to my blog about the 15k Trail Championships in May and you'll get a nice visual too. After running up that 5 or 6 times I am pretty hilled out and run home, the long way home, the very long way, the so far out of your way you might not even be able to call it running home way home.
Last Wednesday I got lost. It was around 4:30 in the afternoon so pitch black and I ended up on some dark shoulderless road that didn't turn into the nice sidewalked, street lamped street near my house as I thought but instead ran into Canada or something. I had my phone since I was running from work so I called Jim and asked him how I should run home but got some unintentional misdirections, which was ok, I figured it out, but Jim didnt know that so he drove around looking for me for an hour trying to save me from running till morning. Something Joel probably wouldn't do, and probably would encourage actually now that I think about it. (Mental note- be mad at Joel about last Wednesday.)
The bright side was I only had to do one "workout" last week. The down side was that since I only did one workout I had to suffer enough for three, or seven. Starting with a 25k on the track at goal 50k pace. Ok, I told myself, this wont be so hard because you are doing the easy part of the 50k- the beginning, before you die! Uh oh, because nothing over a few laps is ever easy for me on the track, how bout 62.5 laps, hello, so I got to suffer a good long time and be reminded every single second just how far I had left to run, and fell off pace a little bit. Still ran 1:57, goal- 1:55. Afterward I got to walk half a lap! Such fun, (but apparently I walk too slow according to someone with a stopwatch who wishes he had a megaphone.)
Then I only had to run 3 mile repeats in 6:58-7 minutes. Ahh, remember when 3 mile repeats was my entire workout? Awww. Sorry, just having nostalgia for Evergreen. Euw, did I really just type that? Well not for the learning obviously, shudder. Anyway it's not all bad now. Like that evening on the day I ran 18.5 miles of workout, I only had to run 55 minutes after work, yay!
The next day's run was 26 miles, or about 3 hours and 45 minutes. My hamstring was tight and I was so tired the whole time, kept having to lie to myself over and over how much I love running ( which gets exhausting. The lying I mean, for 3 hours and 45 minutes!) it was such great practice for the 24 hour run!
Now as I write this I am only 211 miles away from running 4000 miles this year and I have 12 days left. A few weeks ago I wouldn't think I could do it but now it's in the bag!

Girls on the run

We just finished up Girls on the Run this fall with the Girls on the run 5k. I love being around the girls. They are all so full of positive energy that it makes my day better and they have such an innocent, refreshing perspective on all things. I like every one of the girls very much and I would be hard pressed to find 14 adults that I like.
The girls learn more than just about running- they learn about confidence and just being good people and also they learn through running. Like learning to have goals and how to achieve them and believe in yourself and your friends. How to work together and how to get along.
When you are nine years old a 5k probably seems as long as the 50k seems to me now. They run the 5k at the end of the program and they spray paint their hair and wear stickers and get prizes at halfway and finishing. All of our girls had running buddies so I headed up front and found some girls who didn't have anyone and ran with them. They were two best friends and I was surprised by how fast they were running as they were both very short and tiny. They sprinted and walked, but only for a little bit as they were very competitive and as soon as anyone caught up with them they'd be off sprinting again. On the way back one of the girls was feeling better than her friend and would sprint while the other walked, then walk while the other sprinted to catch up with her, usually getting so tired in the process that she'd have to walk again. I tried to suggest that they run a slow pace together but they were too competitive for that! They held hands though and the girl in front encouraged her friend not to walk anymore until they were done. They were tough girls and ran the rest of the way and finished together holding hands, then said to me- we would have been lost without you.
You do a lot for the girls when you volunteer with them but they do a lot for me. If the kids are around I know I have to be in good role model mode. But it is not like a hardship- they make me want to be better. I know what I would say to any of their problems and it is what I should say to myself about my own problems too, and when I'm around them it's so much easier too. You can learn best by teaching and I can learn to be a good role model for myself when I have to be for others.

I like being sore

I really enjoyed my easy week the week after the marathon and my medium easy week this week. So much so that they made the whole marathon worth it! I mean it only last 3 hours and 15 minutes and then you get to be sore and run easy for the next week and not feel guilty about it. But today I was back up to 2 hours and 15 minutes so I guess all good things must come to an end. Even as I'm writing this I'm reminded that I have to go do push ups and crunches and planks and all that stuff, though no wall sit thank goodness, so hold on.

After the marathon I was too sore to do push ups and crunches and planks, and jumps, and definitely burpees, shudder. I like being sore because I earned it. Being sore says- I worked really really hard, so hard that I can't work hard anymore. Sore means yesterday was hard and today will have to be easy because of it.  Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to make me sore. Back in high school doing six miles could make me sore, or a workout at the  beginning of the season. My first 10k made me sore and after my first steeplechase I could hardly even walk. Now the half marathon doesn't make me sore not even a tiny bit. The marathon still does but less than last year. At least a good 30 mile time trial should do the job nicely. I'm looking forward to that in December. The being sore afterwards, though not the ice bath.

First Call Marathon

Once again I ran at the First Call Veteran's Day marathon, where I ran my first marathon and PR last year. It's a good marathon to do because the people who put it on are very nice and easy going and it's free which is always good when you are a runner as poor as I am as most marathons cost around seventy dollars at least.
I ran 3:15:58 and won overall for men and women which is a plus because when I run by a woman they will all cheer for me. Actually most everyone cheers for you and since the course is a double out and back I saw other racers pretty much the whole way. Last year I ran my half PR for the first half of the marathon- 91:30, this year I went out a little more conservatively - 94:20, though still quick but that was pretty much the difference between those two races as I ran the second half about the same on both this year and last year, 1:40-1:41. It was a good pacer for my 50k in March.
This year I was helped a lot by my friend Eric. I was surprised that after he decided not to run in the half marathon race at the same time he still wanted to come out just to watch me run at 8 am on a Saturday morning for 3+ hours. He not only watched my whole race but even got there early to warm up with me. Then ran about 7 miles of the race with me, carrying my water bottle and waiting around at a water stop for me while I did my out and backs to give me more water. Then he waited with me while I recovered enough to walk to the parking lot, not a short length of time, and let me sit in his car with a working heater for 40 minutes until my parents came to pick me up, only eating 3/4 of my chocolate muffin. There was a lot of free food there. I have a hard time eating after running even though you are supposed to but I ate a grilled cheese sandwich, fritos, a red vine, an orange, and 1/4 of a muffin. Eric was impressed with the buffet of food and expressed regret at not having raced the half after all. Will run for food!
I feel more sore than after the trail 50k. Maybe because I actually ran fast?
I am proud of my race and my running performances this far in my life but of course every runner wants to get faster over the year. I have a good future though because marathoners and 50kers are usually even older than me. I feel stronger and more experienced so even though it might look like I haven't improved I think I have. Now I just will convince the clock.

2 workouts

On Saturday I did a very hard workout at Lake Padden where I was supposed to run 13x 7 minute miles with a 2 minute 400 in between each one as the "rest". It was harder running at Lake Padden than I thought. I only did the flat side of the lake but there were still a few little hills including one right as I finished the mile and one side and started my rest, if you count running 8 minute mile pace up a hill resting. I don't! I thought that I would have an easy time of this workout for awhile but I was wrong. As the first mile I ran was already 7:05, I told myself that maybe that was the harder mile. Then I turned around and ran a 6:30 mile- or so I thought but it was really 7:04. And that direction was definitely the harder mile the rest of the workout. It even got as bad as 7:30 something before I stopped timing myself so I wouldn't cry. I was not feeling very positive at all. I was thinking about everything that was wrong with my life and making it everything that was wrong with my running. Thinking- not only am I lonely, and poor, and my coach has abandoned me ( whether true or not is up for debate,  but something I think a lot, especially when I am running), but I'm also freakin SLOW! 
The workout I did on Wednesday I tried not to think about all day but of course I did anyway. I ran it with Jessica at Cornwall park. We ran a 15k on the 1k trail loop there, so 15 trail loops each one supposed to be around 5 seconds faster than the loop before it. We got to start off slow, about my rest pace from above so the first loop was fun in 5 minutes, talking and giggly. Then I suck as a pacer because I make us run 4:46, and then go back up 4:48, then drop too much to 4:34 or something then into the 4:20s and then just stick to 4:17 s for a while. Basically I'm fired :D I tried not to think about anything when I was running, just let the laps flow by and only be semiconscious of them. And it sort of worked. I finished with a 4:12 and then a 4:11.

Plank off

I did a plank off the other night, which is where you hold your plank position for as long as you can, basically until you collapse and die. It's fun in a gross unfun way. Fun if you like shaking and aching and collapsing on the ground. I got 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Plank makes you hurt everywhere- arms, abs, back, legs. Everything was sore. Then for fun and because I couldn't move anymore, I looked up the plank world record and found some 70 ish year old guy who can do it for 33 minutes or something like that! Then just for fun I looked up the wall sit world record. Wall sitting is, in my opinion, one of the few things more horrific than running 13 mile repeats in 5:30 with one minute rest between them. Anyway the world record is by a woman who did the wall sit for 11:51, GROSS! then I realized that was 11 hours and 51 minutes, not 11 minutes and 51 seconds. Okay, considering I scream in pain after about 3 minutes suddenly the 100k doesn't sound that bad after all. I wonder if she just fell asleep  like that, then woke up, realized her legs had fallen off and collapsed on the floor. That is what I did after 5 minutes and 20 seconds of the plank, which I can hold for longer than I can do a wall sit. 11 hour and 51 minute wall site- that is probably the scariest thing I have ever heard- happy halloween!

I run too much

I run too much, way too much, this can't be good for me! Yet no matter how long I run it is never quite long enough because there are races that last 24 hours, and probably ones that last 48 hours, 72 hours, 168 hours, 3 years. A lifetime. In fact why spend anytime not running at all?
That is hard to do when you have a job, and a cat that likes to bite holes through your thumb, but off topic, anyway, last week I had to spend a lot of time not running. First at work and also at watching other girls run, or talking about running and stuff at Girls on the Run where I am a coach. By the time I got to run it was only 5 but because it is October now that means that at the end of my two hour workout it is already getting pretty dark. I ran 4 times 3k at Cornwall park at goal pace of 12 minutes each but with 15 minutes of slow jogging between which is nice but also uses up lots of daylight. I did pretty well though running 11:58, 11:57, 12:05, and 12:17, finishing up while I could barely still see then hurrying home before the creepos in the park get even more creepy when the moon comes out.
That workout suprisingly left me tired, and kind of injured so I only had to run 3 and a 1/2 mile repeats on Saturday and only an hour an forty minutes on Sunday.
Feeling like the slacker I am I headed into another week. This time there was no injuries to save me and so I got to do 13 mile repeats. They started out not too bad in around 6:55- 7:00 even though my hamstring felt tighter than it should have. Then because I know am supposed to be in pain I started running 6:44 and then 6:35 and I sure was. Like cooling down is hard type of pain, like this hill in the parking lot where I am cooling down that probably goes up 2 feet a mile feels like a mountain type pain. 13 mile repeats plus warm up and cool down is a lot of miles. But not enough because I could have run later in the evening again but I had to work. I could have run after I got off work at 9 o clock and then again in the morning before work at 8 am (which I did), but only forty minutes so that means I have three hours and fifteen minutes left when I get off work.
I want to see sometime how fat these audiobooks are that I go through. I listened to the Hunger Games, as recommended to me by Jessica which says on the back that it has 11 hours of tracks but it only lasted five days. Good thing it is a trilogy I guess though it seemed annoying yesterday when I didn't have the second book. I mean I ran for 11 hours and I still don't get to find out what happens? Great, I'm going to have to run 11 more, then 11 more after that. Never mind that I am tired, or have to work, or am sore and have this tight hamstring that doesn't go away for three hours.  Never mind anything else, I have to run more. "I need to work you harder," Joel says the night of my four hour run when I'm lying on the floor too beat to want to get up even to take a shower.
I guess I don't run enough.

blah-og

Jessica's mom complained that I don't update my blog enough which I said was because nothing interesting ever happens. Trust me, you guys aren't missing anything! But to please her I guess I'll try to make something interesting out of all the uninteresting things that happen while running and running and running.
I got two weeks easy after the 50k, that is if your definition of easy is running 60-80 minutes everyday with a couple of workouts, it is? Then great! Why aren't you running with me?
The day after my race I didn't want to run 60 minutes,  I wanted to run 6 but I ran about 40 and walked about 25 so I thought that was close enough. But then I told Joel that I have to make my own decision at times  and he said- well if you don't like what I tell you to do you can find another coach! Okay- how about my runner's world running journal? It tells me to take 1 week off after the half marathon, two weeks off after the full marathon, what would that be for the 50k? 2.2 weeks? Of course it also says things like "hot weather affects front runners more than the rest, use that to your advantage." Huh, what are you saying exactly?? Maybe not. Ooh and it also says somewhere that it is good to run naked. Yeah ok perv who wrote this, you are not fooling us girls. This isn't the Evergreen state college. Sigh, i guess I'll stick with Joel after all.
One of the workouts was at Lake Padden with Jessica because she was running a race there. We ran 800s around the whole lake in preparation for the WWU invite. Although I wasn't very prepared because I ran the actual workout and during the race I just stood around and watched. I love Lake Padden- I once ran around it ten times just for fun but for some reason a top 75% finish at the Lake Padden Invite has always eluded  me. Jessica had a good time and I had a good time watching. It is a rare feeling for me- to go to a race and not be so nervous I might loose my energy bar, it was nice. I was also nice out, which probably only happens at the Western invite about once every fifteen years. Not nice enough for Jessica to go swimming with me though :( though I did ask!
The next day I ran for an hour and forty eight minutes and Joel asks if I want to start training again. I guess I had 2.2 weeks "off" after all. I'm still not running naked though.
Now don't complain that this was boring cuz I warned you! I will try to think of more uninteresting things to tell you. Blah, blah, blahg

USA 50k trail champs

This weekend I raced at the 50k National trail championships in Bend OR. I would call this blog 'abandoned in Bend' but Jim came with me so I guess I wont, even though no one else did, not to name names...
Bend took slightly longer to drive to than the race, about seven and a half hours, one way, or about 2 tanks of gas. After entering the race at another seventy bucks and finding a cheap hotel at 50 dollars I was feeling overwhelmed with stress and the pressure of how well I would have to race to make it worth 200 dollars.
I'd been studying the elevation map and had it memorized so I knew that it started at 6400 feet ( Joel assured me this was no big deal and will continue to assure me of this fact to this day), then went downhill mostly for 4 miles, then sharp up for one, mostly down till 8, up gradually till 13, down till 15, up till 18, down till 21.5, up to 24.5, then mostly down with a few spikes until the last mile. The strategy was that if I knew what was coming next I would not be so frustrated at having to run up hill for half an hour, like will it ever end?? The real course looked very different than the map.
When we got to the starting line I noticed that everyone, everyone else, not just being paranoid, everyone was carrying a water bottle. That was a little troubling but how thirsty can you get right? It's only 31 miles. It was a little bit cool when we started at 8 am and there was even some shade on the course. They had managed to find some trees in Eastern Oregon, quite a few actually, that was a pleasant surprise. I was practicing being positive so I had to remember that when we went up when we were supposed to go down that meant that the opposite was also true. There was a little hill in the first mile but nothing like Galbraith that I run up over and over for like 6 miles! It felt harder than Galbraith though- they all did. I was preparing for the steep hill at mile four, knowing I would know it right away but it never came. I looked at my watch and it was 50 minutes, oh dear I hope I already went up it! Then I felt a little better about the shallow hill I went up a while ago- had that been it? It must have been? A little better because that thing was not a short steep monster but also a little worse because that shallow hill had felt a lot harder than it looked.
The first aid station was not until 6 or 7 miles then Jim gave me some at ten. I had been fourth place all of the race, fourth for USATF and fourth overall. I hoped I could maybe catch someone as I have a lot of endurance. The next aid station was at 15 miles, that uphill section had been all shallow but very long, around 5 miles and was pretty tough. The short steep part i was expecting never came either even though it was so distinctive on the map. The next section was not as hilly as I was expecting and the next aid station came quickly at 17.5 miles. Then we went downhill until 21.5. I was running with a guy from Bend and he agreed that the altitude felt very high. At 21.5 it went back up as promised and up and up and up. I ran hard but it was hard just to run. It was about 88 degrees now at around 11 o'clock. I ran for ten minutes up the hill and I was just going to walk for a minute but my legs became cramped from dehydration and wouldn't run anymore. I barely made it to the next aid station at 24.5 walking but not very many people passed me then, even though it felt like it took forever and did.
They thought I looked really bad and because I threw up when I finally got water and too much of it they made me stay at the rest station and sit down and that was when a lot of people passed me. Though a lot of them sat down too! They gave me salt tablets and sports beans and made me eat pretzels when I asked if I could go now. They said they were worried about that, but I said I can run 30 miles, I do it all the time so I know I can make it. Then I walked down the hill. Right as I was leaving I heard a guy come up to the aid station and ask how much farther to the finish.
"6.5 miles." "Oh God!"
And you would have to be a runner to understand how you can go 24.5 miles but 6.5 miles is Oh God! 
I knew if I finished I would be All American and as I walked down the hill I was real frustrated that I had to walk, knowing that if I could run at all I could stop most people from passing me. So I started running to see if I could for a few minutes and it turned into the rest of the way. I knew Jim would be wondering if I was dead or what. But if he was expecting me to be dead at least he wouldn't be disappointed. When I came out of the trail and had a mile left he was there and I was a few hundred feet behind fifth place in my race. I tried to pick it up but it looked like I would run out of time. Then we turned the corner and I could see the finish line and I caught her, picking up 5th place in the USATF and my third national medal. It only took five hours and thirty minutes to get it and that is definitely longer than I wanted to be running. But at least I am the only one on my team who can say I ran five and half megas, though I don't know if the sitting at the aid station counts, so maybe only five megas. By the way, Joel said time doesn't matter on the trail course but he meant- time doesn't matter as long as you don't run 5:32! Time doesn't matter as long as you run 4:18.
So it did not go like I wanted but I'm glad I finished. My cat ran away because I was gone. I guess he was mad at me or something or maybe trying to find me. I guess I can understand his perspective- why does my person get to leave and not come back and not tell me where she is going for several days? I was worried. He came back a couple hours ago so I could write my blog instead of look for him- yay!

Positively charging up the mountain

This week I had to try something new called being positive while running up Galbraith 12 times, or with a positive spin- only 6 times twice. 6 times on Wednesday and 6 times today. Here's another positive spin- I only fell down once and only almost fell- well who needs to really keep track of that? But I could have got horribly injured, I could have fallen off the top of the mountain and landed in downtown Bellingham but I didn't! Plus I passed so many bikers I felt like a car, except allowed to hit them.
But really, if you practice being positive when you are doing workouts you are more likely to be positive during your race and then you are more likely to beat people, which is the point of being positive right? Part of being positive means you lie to yourself, like when you are repeat one and you tell yourself- I'm almost done! And part of it means telling yourself the truth like- you run 30 miles sometimes, with lots of hills, so if you really were going to drop dead it would take a lot longer than this workout.
This workout on Wednesday was really tough for me, I was tougher but still, was very sore afterwards and needed a cane to do my cool down. Plus you know you are getting tired when you trip uphill! Today I thought I was still a little tired from Wednesday when I started but when I finished I felt a whole lot better than on Wednesday when everything was shaking. Even after climbing the stairs I am not dead, and better- I don't even want to be!
One thing worries me though- is being positive funny?

Labory Day half, new shoes, day off running

How long should you wear your shoes? My running journal made by Runner's World says 200 miles, the guy at the shoe store said about 400, (wow weird- the running journal is trying to sell even more shoes than the shoe salesman) and I say about 1200. I know because I wore my current pair about 1250 miles and then my feet started to hurt at around 1230 ish, when I was running the Labor Day half marathon which was laborfull! My advice- don't listen to any of those people, just wear your shoes until right before your feet hurt.

Old shoes

my pumped up kicks

At the labor day half I did not do great, which is great because I was not supposed to do great, it was also however not supposed to be the most horrible thing you'd do in along time which it was. ( or maybe it was supposed to be?) Joel said to run a relaxedish 1:29-1:33, which by the way if 1:29 was relaxed I should have a new PR by now! but anyway, you know hard, but not hard. Somehow I managed to get even slower than those times and it was hard. I'm going to blame the sun, which was out, clearly not what the course designers had in mind as they designed this 0% shaded course. It was probably in the upper 70s out when I finished and to me that felt like running through hell. After the race Joel made me do a tempo for 10-40 minutes, but ideally he wanted me to pick the 40 option which I only picked the 15. But it was HARD to run a tempo after that slurpee they gave me at the finish line which after running through hell there was no way in hell I was going to turn down, haha, sorry. I felt a little better when I saw all the results and they were all much slower than last years. Also they break it down into age groups but way more than the average race does. They let you see results by just 17 yr olds, just 18 yr olds, 22 yr olds, 39 yr olds, 40,41, etc. I was second for all 25 yr olds and first woman and only one girl had beat me who was younger than me, 24, even though I ran a kinda sucko 1:35:03. It was just an old person's race. Not that there weren't kids, especially at the beginning, like the little boy I passed at four miles who turned to confide in me "I am sooo dead!" Aww, I hope he finished, good luck little boy, may you have many, many half marathons before you!

Yesterday my foot and calf were hurting from my 1250 miles old shoes so Joel told me to take the day off! Since I didn't have to work either there were suddenly hours in the day. I could have fun! Except for push up sit up time of course. ( why don't abs ever get injured?) It was a strange experience but one I'd like to repeat again sometime. But not soon, because as soon as I take even like 3 days off my body gets all rusty and acts like it doesn't run very well for weeks and weeks! And that's just what I need in the 50k to make it even harder. It seems like if I work very hard 95% of the time and 5% of the time am injured and not running my body will only remember the 5%. Anyone else feel like that?

I am forgotten

How strange that Joel forgot how he was going to torture me today. Last night he was skyping me about this run. 15 minutes easy, 2 and a half hours hard up a mountain, 15 minutes easy. I don't remember how many times he said the exact same thing over and over, "don't know how fast you are going!" "Just run as hard as you can for 2 and 1/2 hours!" Me: "What pace is that?" Joel: "Did I say anything about pace, Gawd! Just run as fast as you can for 2 and a 1/2 hours! Call me!"
Boy I did not want to get out of bed this morning. It sounded even worse than work, maybe. A lot shorter though I guess, ok, a little shorter, not much sometimes, meh, but at least I wont have to be nice to people that are annoying!
After procrastinating for a while I was off, a little after 9 am, figuring if it got hot that would just help me prepare even more for the 50k in Bend. I mean how much more miserable can you get than running your guts up a mountain with the sun frying your back? Well, it could be worse, at least around here there are trees.
I ran fast for about half an hour at a slight uphill before I hit Galbraith mountain and the real fun. The nice thing about running up a mountain is even if you are trying to slack off you can't. It hurts no matter what pace you are running up it just more if you are running faster. I ran up some sections twice so I could turn around and run downhill in between steep uphill sections, 5 minutes uphill this way, turn around, three minutes down, back uphill another way type of thing. Before I ran along the main road all the way to the end, almost to Lake Padden. But to my relief I didn't have enough time to run there! Who would have thought I wouldn't have enough time to run anywhere in Bellingham? Good thing it wasn't a thirty mile day. I made it through the steep hill back, somehow there were uphills both ways- that was not fair! I only cried once and I kept running through it, consoling myself that I couldn't possibly feel any worse than I did right now so the rest of my run would be easy! I ran past all the blackberries I wanted to stop and eat. A slight downhill for the last half hour home which I was glad wasn't the other way around because it hurt enough as is. Joel had told me just to run hard, as hard as I could, which is always hard to know but I felt pretty awful when my watch hit 2:45 and I collapsed on a rock, finally picking some blackberries. I was so tired I walked for a couple minutes, thinking at least Joel would be proud of me because I felt so bad.
When I called when I got home and had made it up the stairs to where I left the phone (seemed like an ok idea at the time) he asked how I was, I said tired, he asked if I had already gone running. "Yes." "Oh, shoot I thought you were going to go run with Jessica today." "What? You told me to do a 3 hour hard run up Galbraith!" "Oh, was that today?"
I can't believe he forgot. He forgot all about me and my suffering meant nothing to him, nothing! He wondered why I was tired! The nerve. I shouldn't be too surprised- if I was surrounded by the grandeur of Iowa City I would forget all about you little people in Bellingham too, hahaha! This means tho- I didn't even have to do it! He never never forgets to torture me, ever! I wish I could forget, how awesome would that be? Hey Joel I forgot to do my workout today- that's ok right? Were you supposed to do a workout today? Oh, uh, no! Look on the bright side, I have been forgotten, probably replaced, maybe recycled or tossed into a garbage can, but maybe he will forget about the 50k too!

I just finished my fifth 100+ mile week in a row but got to have two easy days the past two days so I could run the all comer's 5k today. We thought we might be able to get my PR since I was so close last time but I was a little off, but still ran 18:59, my fifth best ever. I am fairly certain I did run 18:59 and not 19:00 like Jim thought because I looked at the clock right when I was flying through the finish line and I swear that's what it said, not just what I wanted it to say.  I'm worried though because I lost 10 seconds somewhere in the last few laps. I was quite surprised when I came around the last time and I was going to barely break it if at all, I thought I had been doing about the same as last time from. Was I delusional and saw the time not as it was or did I really just loose that many seconds in only a few laps? I was probably delusional! Right! 
I have a new teammate to run with sometimes, Jessica, who just moved here with her family from Oklahoma. Her family is all into running, her dad just having completed a 100 mile race and they all turned out to the all comer's meet. Her younger brother and sister doing throwing, jumping and shorter running events and her dad and her also running the 5k. It's fun to have someone to run with sometimes even if she runs a lot less than the 20 and 30 mile runs I have to do. Someday...

Abandoned in Bellingham

I moved to Bellingham because my coach lives up here, I came to run, train, no other reason. I had to come up here because I was already 24 and getting old fast but not getting fast old. So what does my coach do as soon as I get here? He moves to freaking Iowa!!!! (and okay I realize that it has been a little over a year since I moved here but I think he had been planning it that long) I have been abandoned in Bellingham.
He went away to be a director of track and field operations at the University of Iowa where they have more than seven girls who can run 16:45 for the 5k. Sure I get it, I would leave me too, I could never run 16:45 for a 5k if you shoved a rocket up my butt. Now Joel will say, "Yeah, well you got fourth in the country in the 50k, they couldn't do that, stop being so insecure, blah blah blah." Yeah well everyone only cares about the 5k! Really you're supposed to be secure at the old age of twenty five but I don't feel twenty five, I feel exactly like I did when I was twenty and I still get lots of acne so obviously my body doesn't think I'm 25 either.
Joel will come back in May to coach us again but that seems like a really long time away. How many miles is that? Like 3000? 3000 is a lot of miles to run all alone. It is easy for me to run sometimes. Sometimes I can run for 30 miles and not feel so tired. I ran a 26 mile run a few weeks ago and then went to work, it was no big deal. I wish other things were easy for me though like making friends. Why is it easier to run thirty miles than find someone to hang out with after? I think I am probably the only person in the world like that.
Since I dont have anyone to go with I've been running with audiobooks. Over the last couple weeks I finished Uglies, Pretties and Specials- about 33 hours of books I think. Of course I ran 101 miles in one week, then a 105, a 100 and this past week another 101. Pretties helped me through a 20 mile run that might have been an eleven otherwise. I told myself I couldn't listen to it unless I was running so I kept running until I had finished it.  I've done two 30 mile runs, one 26,  three 20s, a 17, a 16, and had two slow workouts that were supposed to be a lot faster. Joel decides what my times should be over the phone now. Joel holds me in higher esteem than I have for myself, almost as if he does think I am as important as a girl who runs a 16:45. I want to prove him right but I get frustrated when i am tired and can't. It's frustrating being by yourself, being tired all the time, knowing that your coach is somewhere else coaching girls that you want to be like but can't. Even if deep down you know that you are good at different things and your coach does like you and think you are a good runner it's hard to remember in the midst of a 105 mile week, running a 12:45 3k that was supposed to be an 11:40 and feeling like your legs fell off miles ago. You want someone to yell at but all you have is yourself.

Not so long anymore

I got a break this week. Instead of running a 20 and 30 mile like last week I only had to do 17 and 26. That meant I started out on my usual route this morning, after sleeping in for an extra thirty four minutes, and got to skip parts of it, like the loop around Cornwall park and the usual brief visit to Galbraith Mountain. I've changed a lot in a couple weeks, like for instance running for three hours and forty minutes just doesn't even seem that long, it's like I'm taking a shortcut. And my two hours twenty three minute run on Tuesday? Dang, should I even go anywhere? It'll be over like in no time, maybe I should just run circles in my back yard. It is a long time if you think about it, but so people who think so have no problem working eight or nine hours a day, five days in a row at jobs they often hate. I think it is much better running for four hours one day a week, and two the rest of the days, than working eight hours a day, five days in a row! And most people I meet think you're crazy if you want to work any less. If that's normal then I'm just fine being crazy, thank you.
When I run on a Lakeway I pass a street called Raymond and then I turn the corner, go up Yew street (up and up and up) and pass Alvarado street. Dang, am I the only one who remembers the Secret World of Alex Mack? Probably. Who else remembers the 90s? I ran back then but back then running two miles was a real long ways, no joke. See it's all in how you perceive things. Last year I dropped out of my first marathon because I couldn't imagine being able to run that far. And now I do a marathon or longer every week and it doesn't seem like a big deal. That's why I wanted to do this. So when I go run the 50k it won't be that big a deal. Just another Saturday- weee! this time I have company!

I'm tired now, it's mile 1:(

So much for all that bragging about not being tired- today was the sorriest, draggiest two hours and fifty two minutes ever.
Yesterday I went to Cornwall park to run my workout by myself- something I hate! I hate it because I am a weird person who thinks that everyone in the park will look at me and smoke and jump in front of me- which they would not do if I had a teammate or a coach! Ahh, screw that next time I'll just bring my cat, Sneakers. My workout was 2 times the 3k, 2k, 1k and I was supposed to run around 12:18 for the 3ks, 8 minutes for the 2ks and 3:50 for the 1ks. The loop I run them at Cornwall is 1k and it goes by way faster than the track to me and always will no matter what Joel says- "it's the same distance!" yeah, yeah, yeah, in reality, but not to me. Running the 3k at the park means only having to do 3 laps instead of 7 and 1/2. I ran the whole workout faster than my goal times, probably because I couldn't wait to get done with it. My times were 12:13, 7:59, 3:44, 12:03, 7:50, 3:41. That was no problem. I went home and despite the horrible pain of going up the stairs (typical for me, really, usually I just get on all fours like a dog) I was fine.
Fourteen hours later I had to run twenty miles. We were working around my work schedule so I had to do it today as my "medium long run." Two days off from work meant workout and medium long run. On Saturday I would do another 30 mile long run. To me this doesn't seem like days off. My running takes hours and then I am so tired from running I can't do anything but eat and be tired for hours afterward. And man was I tired, from step one, I knew this was going to be a long one.
I do not like the term medium long run to describe my run today. I call it really long run. Runs like last Saturday and next Saturday are really really really long runs and this one today was a really long run.
Every step seemed more tiring than the one before it. I'm really glad I don't have to go to work because I don't think I could stand for five hours to save my life but I wish I could do something fun with my day off too. Right now sleeping is the only thing that sounds fun.
Joel says this is why most people don't make it to being a great runner. I hope I make it.

Am I tired yet?

Yesterday was the longest run of my life! Quite literally at 4 hours and 15 minutes. My run took me through many of the parks around Bellingham; from the nearby Cornwall Park where I run most days, to Whatcom Falls, up Galbraith mountain, then down the road to Lake Padden, couple times around the lake, over to the Interurban trail, then home via Boulevard Park. Usually I pick one or two of these places to run, not all of them! on the same day!
I confess I was not alone- I was listening to a book on a tape, or a book on mp3 ( don't ask how long it took to transfer to my mp3 player! nearly as long as my run....) I was listening to the Princess Diaries 5 because that was the best thing I could find at the library, don't judge me! It was actually very entertaining and kept my thoughts away from depressing things like: I'm lonely, or I'm tired, or I'm bored! or dear God why am I still running? Instead I got to laugh at funny things like 20 reasons why horror movies mess up your life, ( couldn't agree more!) And it was nice to be able to laugh after three hours and twenty minutes.
Still it took awhile. I didn't finish the whole book though I came close. I also felt older at the end of the run, kind of like I couldn't believe it was the same day. My legs started to ache around three hours and by three and half hours they hurt a good amount. All I was thinking about the last hour besides the story was otter pops! Mmmm otter pops, otter pops are the greatest invention ever! I want to marry otter pops! The Blue one, maybe the pink one too. I am a polygamist.  I walked five minutes home to my house where I realized I had forgotten my key and my roommate not being home I had to break in through a window. Note to self- close windows! Then I had three otter pops which pretty much tasted like heaven and made the last four hours and fifteen minutes worth it.
After a nap and a really bad nights sleep ( I can't sleep, too jazzed from otter pops maybe?) and then eight hours of work I think I'm a little bit tired. My bones ache a little. I want to run seven miles today though so I can be at 100 for the week. But when I start running it is so easy and I realize I am not tired after all and I run 8! So 101! 50 K here I come, watch out, you're not so far no more

All Comer's Meet

Today I am happy because I finally broke 19 in the 5k again, my fourth time ever and my second best time, 18:51. It was also my best time of the season by quite a lot, better than 19:12 at Haggen to Haggen and only 19:18 on the track.
This was not my first 5k of the week. On Wednesday I started three of them though I only finished one, which was actually a 3 mile because Joel didnt want to run across the track to finish me. For once I am glad that Joel is being lazy! I finished the three mile there in 19:12 and then ran 7 laps of another 5k before I fell off of 20 minute 5k pace and 5 laps of a third one before I fell off the pace again. When you are alone at practice 20 minutes feels like the fastest thing you could do. When I ran a 5:58 mile I almost died, but in a race like today I ran a 5:57 mile and then 8 and a half more laps!
Even though the 5k isn't my event when I run in the 18s I feel like I could tell a fast girl my time and not be completely embarrassed.
And because I ran so well I had to do, I mean got to do, 6 200 meters strides right after my race. Well I say right after but it was probably at least 5 minutes. I know because Joel didnt even want to give me long enough to explain what I was doing. "Go run now!" Impatient toss of hands, "hurry up!"
It's my fault because I told him not to go easy on me. I should be grateful. k

Today hurts

It is very hard for me to write this now because this morning I slammed my left pointer finger in a window and it is swollen and black and blue and normally that would be because of my nail polish but that's not true this time. Also because I might fall asleep at 9 pm, which was two minutes ago.
Why am I so tired? Well when I got to practice today Joel told me that my workout would be a mile in six minutes, 5 1ks in 3:50-4 minutes and then another mile in six minutes. So I said, okay bring it on! or let's get this over with! Good thing I don't run on my fingers.
The first mile I ran in 5:58 and because I didn't fall to the ground or complain about it I was told that I was going to get less rest. How's that for good behavior huh? I thought 3:50ishes for the 1ks should be easy- wrong! Apparently after running a mile in less than six minutes nothing is easy. Ever. Again. I got to walk 100 meters after each one and then jog 100 meters back to the far side of the track to start again. If I wanted to do anything like take a drink out of my water bottle or stretch Joel would flail his arms in frustration and maybe yell something that I couldn't make out from the other side of the track. Lucky!
I was nervous for the other six minute mile. I knew it was going to hurt a whole lot- like jamming your finger in a window hurt, like swollen turning different colors hurt, but at least I didn't have to see the window one coming. I was so nervous for it that I started even faster than I had too, I was running 85 like I was on fire but really just my legs were. They kind of burned up but still I ran 6:03 which was close enough. Then Joel said, like he always does, let's do more! or maybe it was- you do more! Must have been you, not let's which would imply us. HaHa, you're so funny, I tried to kick his shoe but it was too far away, don't want to move! So then Joel pulls me off the ground and makes me run 2 more 1ks and some hill sprints- which he promised not to time, see look I'll even put my watch in my pocket. I wonder why he has his hand in his pocket then and keeps looking in there? Must be some interesting lint. "You ran 4:02!" Huh, maybe it was easier when you were pretending you weren't getting timed and could run slower and no one would know. Or maybe it was easier knowing there was no six minute mile coming up because those two felt like 4:12s and they were really faster. I like that much better than the other way around.
Yay for hill sprints! Right now I want to push Joel down it. But they are more like hill strides, only 15- 20 seconds. I can do anything for 15- 20 seconds, even if I have to do it six times. Except for maybe jamming my finger into the window. I wouldn't ever wish to do that even for only 15 seconds, and definitely not six times. So today was a good day- I have found something more painful than running! And I still got to have a lot of running pain too,

Chuckanut Foot Race

On Saturday I ran the Chuckanut 7 mile foot race and finished sixth for women in 49:18. The course was the Interurban trail where I run all the time though they skipped my favorite part down Arroyo Park and back up. Instead they opted to have us run around and just up- California hill, which got it's name from resembling Mt Shasta maybe?
I was supposed to start out nice and easy but maybe 7:14 mile was a little too easy? I felt like I did when I run 6:40 on the track so I was a little dissapointed at first. But at the top of Mt  California I felt better than I thought I did ( well about half a mile after that thing really cuz no one was feeling good at the top of that thing.) so I got to take off and race a few people, a couple of who didn't go down without a fight! After hitting four miles in 29:06 I was glad to finish in 49:18.
I blame the slowness on the gravel which is everywhere- starting sooner and ending  later each time I run that trail.
Congrats to Kiersten who ran her first seven mile race in around 53 minutes, she is a sprinter!

PS. One of my managers at work asked if I had run any marathons lately, I said no, but I had run a seven mile race. He wanted to know how long it had taken me. When I said 49 minutes he scrunched up his nose and said, "I thought you could run faster than that!" 

I turned 25

I know I should have written this a long time ago.
I'm sorry. Here is what happened.
I turned 25 on June 11 and as if that wasn't bad enough I got to spend my entire birthday in a car driving to Bend OR. The drive took about seven hours. Then we got to go running. We were in Bend to run the USATF Half Marathon Trail Championships. Trail races are always run in the desert, where it is hot and dry and there are no trees or anything to give you shade. They are never run in the northwest where there are lots of trees, it is cooler and oh yeah, close by. 
Since I had just turned 25 I had to move up an age group. 25-29 usually has lots more people since no one is in college anymore. Most people think I am like in high school and even I got a shock when I got my race number and it said Emily Uhlig F25. I had to call up my coach, who wasn't there, and berate- "why does it say I am 25??"
"Emily, you are 25."
yeah, but barely. A lady at work thought I was turning 19!
Yeah, no one cares.
No one cares it's my birthday either. Especially not the race. I think I got last. Maybe I beat one person.
Cory did really good and got fourth.
Then I had to sit in the car for another seven hours while we experienced some of the country's finest scenery. I thought Joel was mad at me so I was sad and decided to never race again. The trip cost one hundred dollars.  Oh and I got a laptop for my birthday- yay!
That's all I have to say about that. Now that I've blogged about it can I forget it ever happened?

1/2 Marathon on the track

That doesn't sound very good does it? Everyone I told I was doing this to had the same reaction- "Why?" "That sounds boring!" To which I replied: "I don't need your negative attitude- I have enough of my own!"
Don't get me wrong, I like the half marathon, it's so, what's the word?...short! But it is not when I'm on the track for some reason, it's very very long. Maybe something about 52 laps. 52 laps no matter how short they are is still a lot of laps.
I was stressed out by the pace that I was running after about the second lap. I don't know why the first lap is always fast and feels good and the rest are always slow and feel bad. I really want to run under 1:30 which is 6:52 per mile and 1:43 per lap. I ran 1:40 the first lap and boy was that easy, but the second lap is 1:46 so I pick it up and run 1:43 again and then 1:41 to go through the mile in 6:50 but that aint easy. Why? I could run 6:50 easy if I knew I wasn't running the half marathon on the track. Around 4 miles I started to think that maybe if I ran myself into the ground I could quit- I would have to quit if I literally couldn't run anymore right? So I tried to pick it up so maybe I could die. But this is a hopeless idea because running myself into the ground literally takes a really really long time, much longer than a half marathon, because I run the stupid 50k. But the thought of doing 37 or something more laps I can't even imagine. I try to keep it up for awhile in hopes that I will die or maybe that the world really will come to end- hopefully soon. After 26 laps I am halfway and okay maybe I will actually make it. I like to pretend that I am running a different race than the one I am doing sometimes. Like I pretended that I was running the 2 mile and that I was really fast! I had imaginary splits and everyone was cheering.
Now only four miles to go.
I don't know why this half marathon was so brutal to my mind. Maybe it was the track. This was the first time I was able to finish a half marathon on the track so I'm proud of that, especially since my teammates seem to have no trouble- is that true guys? You look like you don't anyway!
I ran 92:49 which is two minutes slower than my PR but for as worried as I was at one mile I think that is good.

15k Trail Champs

This weekend Joel, his dad Jim, my teammates Oli and Cory and I took a trip to Spokane to run the USA championship 15k trail run. We started out at 11 am on Friday and after a brief snowball fight on the freeway we got to Spokane at around 5. We checked in and got a goody bag which included a pen, some hammer gel, and a cool water bag.
 Next we were going to run the course, we made it there after only another hour and a half of driving around Spokane in circles. Once we found what looked like a starting line we ran around in circles for a few minutes while we figured out which way to go. The course map said up and so up we went. The course starts with a hill that is sort of steep but just an ordinary hill, and then you turn the corner. The next half mile is like scaling a wall, with loose bricks in it that fall off and take you down with them (rocks, lots of them!) We walked up it, waiting to kill ourselves until the next day. Even so at the top my calves felt like they were filled with tennis balls. We ran the rest of the course which is 4.66 miles (during the race we would run it twice, and it turns out it was actually long by about .15 miles or .3 miles for the whole race) and after that first half mile everything else seemed pretty tame. We finally got to eat dinner at 9 o'clock and then drive around Spokane for another hour looking for the motel. Our trip cost about a thousand dollars in gas in case you were wondering.
Luckily the race didn't start until 10:45 the next morning but that also meant it was hot! At least by my western Washington standards, probably around 75 degrees! I was not looking forward to the hill. The announcers who kept a countdown for us till race time also liked to throw in little tidbits like "30 minutes till the start of the 15k, that means if you've seen the hill and changed your mind you have 30 minutes to get the bleep out of here!"
It is a very strange experience to start on a hill. You are just starting your race and you are fresh and have all this adrenaline but in about 10 seconds it is gone. You have just begun the race so of course you want to do well and that is still possible but one minute later you are scaling a mountain and every torturous step you manage is rebuked by the tumbling rocks so for all your efforts you are almost going backwards. When I realized I was running slower than I could walk about halfway up the beast ( I could not look up because I could still not see the top!) I did walk. I tried to walk very fast and no one passed me because everyone else was walking or running slower than walking pace too. Still I felt very guilty for walking in a race- especially in the first three minutes! I mean I ran a 50k and I didn't even walk then! When I finally got to the top I thought I'd feel better, we went flat for a while then down on some more rocks. I did but not all the way. The hill stayed with my legs the rest of the race. Terrain that had seemed flat the day before now felt slightly inclined. The couple of other hills, baby monsters, seemed to have grown. My legs felt that running slow was about as fast as they could move and I couldn't even think about going up that monster again! I guess this was trail running.
The second time I think I walked most of it. I walked very fast and passed lots of guys. I had my hands on my knees and almost crawled but I crawled really fast! I reached the top and instead of running right away I kind of stumbled and wanted to lie on the ground. I made myself run again and tried to tell myself that at least I would not feel that bad for the rest of the race, the worst part was over! Now I just had to hang on and get 6th place, which I did!
My teammates Oliver Bear Don't Walk placed 5th and Cory Jenkins placed 9th.We all won prize money and placed All American. It was my very first time earning prize money, I got 100$! But I think you should get paid to run that race- it makes sense. Lots more sense than paying for a race anyway, that's just crazy, yeah...

 Photos: up top- me with my water bag; our snowball fight
Me at the start; a very small portion of THE hill (it is impossible to fit in one photo, would need full screen!); Oli, Cory, and I with our new friend we met running the course the day before

Haggen to Haggen

Haggen to Haggen was last week but I wasn't going to write about it because it was boring- but Joel is making me so, I ran 19:12 with lots of downhill, yawn. I do not like the 5k much anymore. It is very short, over almost before it starts and I do not have enough time to beat anyone. The prizes at Haggen to Haggen went to the top three men and women- gift certificates to Haggen grocery store. They mostly went to the high schoolers who beat me and my teammate Oliver who won, ( good job Oli) which is funny since what high schooler would want a gift certificate to a grocery store? Not that I'm bitter anything! I just wish they would give away free groceries for a 50k or something, instead of nothing.
 It was pouring down rain so after the race we were freezing cold in our jerseys and shorts. I was lucky because the race ended about a quarter mile from my house so I got to go home while my teammates got to run back to their cars at the starting line in their jerseys and shorts. Nah, I lent them clothing from my house, and sat on the heat vent for the next hour and a half!

There's another girl here...

After a year of being the only girl on my team I finally have a teammate! Her name is Anna Leigh and she’s very talented, and speedy!

            Last Saturday we did a workout together where we were supposed to run 4 times the mile in around 5:45. “Don’t go out too fast,” Joel said, “so you won’t get too fatigued.” But I knew that at 5:45 pace I was going to be fatigued the entire workout, especially since my mile PR is only about 5:35. But at least that is less scary- you’re not afraid of when the pain will come, you know it will be there with you always.

            The first two Anna Leigh beat me by a couple seconds and I ran 5:51 and 5:49, the third one we ran together and when we got to the last lap she started really moving and even though she was fighting for air as much as me she found some to encourage me to go with her. So I had to run the last lap faster than I thought my legs could ever go and into more pain than I thought possible. We finished in 5:51-52, probably 4-5 seconds faster than I would have done on my own. Joel only wanted her to do three but he still wanted me to do four so I ran the next one on my own after only five minutes ( I felt like I needed 10 minutes! or an hour.) By myself my legs felt so heavy and I ran 6:07 despite best efforts. Still it was definitely the fastest mile repeats workout I have ever done and I’m glad to have a new teammate to share the pain with! After practice we went to Robeks for a nice protein smoothie- yum! They make then a lot tastier than I do at home.

            Yesterday I ran a 1k all out in 3:21 and then 3 400s in 77-78. We had a push up contest at practice because none of the boys thought I would be able to do a push up because I am a girl. I did 47 and beat Joel and Mark and Cory only beat me by one. The next day Mark did 50 just to beat me, but I'm pretty sure I can do 51. Analeigh has yet to do the push up challenge, but I think girls can be good at pushups. It is not just about your arm strength but your core strength as well, and even if we have less to push up with we also less to push up so it is pretty proportionate. Proud to push up for girls in the push up war!

Eating protein is like my full time job!

This past week we've been trying to figure out why I have so many split ends, or actually,
why I suck!
Just kidding, I don't suck.
Really what we've been trying to figure out is why I run so great in workouts but less so in races. I went through another three weeks of very good workouts: 6 times the mile at 6:12-6:17, 10x1000 at 3:51-4:00, and then two more races with only medium results- 10k at the Vancouver Sun Run in 41:08, 5k at Western Washington in 19:18. My 10k was actually a PR by 5 seconds but Joel thinks I can run in the 39s to the 37s so it was not a smashing success.  I'm so glad he believes in me because sometimes- how I run it feels like, how could anyone? But he always does.
One problem I have is insomnia. I always take a long time to fall asleep but some nights it takes more like 3 hours, then to wake up again another 2 hours later and stay awake until it is time to get up. Joel thinks that I don't have a lot of muscle mass for how much I work out and because I am a vegetarian that I don't eat enough protein. Symptoms of protein deficiency can include less defined muscle and not performing well athletics. I should, he says, eat 1 gram of protein for every pound I weigh, about 135-140 grams a day. I can only eat 30 grams per meal so when I take into account times I am running the figuring out what I am going to eat and monitoring the protein in it seems like it takes the rest of the day!
It turns out that 2 other symptoms of protein deficiency include "night blindness" (insomnia), and split ends- of which I have thousands!So after he'd been badgering me for months I ate a bit of salmon. It was gross! I haaaated it, I never want to eat meat, ever! I will never ever ever eat a cow or a pig if I can at all help it. I don't understand fully why I cant get protein through vegetarian sources. I know it is a lot harder, but like everything in running is hard. But Joel tells me there is something in meat that you need that you cant get through other sources. So in order to help my running I would even eat a little bit of fish. I'm really hoping this will help. Mostly I have just been eating veggie burgers, tofu, protein powder, eggs and dairy.  I want to become the runner Joel sees me as. One who runs fast because she deserves to.
Most runners I know don't know what "slow" means. I say I used to run slow and they say "oh me too, I used to run 20 minutes." (for the 5k) "My very first year of running."ever.  My very first year of running ever I didnt run the 5k, I was in middle school and we ran 3ks and I had to walk ( that's beside the point, we were 11, and actually everyone walked!) When I was in 9th grade I ran my very first 5k ever and I ran 26:42. I'm not even going to pretend that I was the slowest one. It was high school and there are a lot of high schoolers who run  slower than that, but very few of them go on to run in college. I am the only college runner I know of who ran four years in high school and never made it to state, (I didn't even make it to districts.) I heard Olympic 3000 m Steeplechaser Anna Willard as quoting that she too used to be slow, "I ran 10:35." This doesn't hurt my feelings that she thinks this time, a good minute faster than I've ever run it is slow. She simply has no perspective and I don't find her very relatable or inspiring.  She has no story, just- I was born, I ran fast, then I ran faster. I run for the underdog. The one no one ever paid attention too, ones who have all the drive but are just missing an ingredient. Running is hard for us but because we are so used to that we never quit when things don't go our way. We are used to them not going our way. I feel great after I have talked to a high school girl who runs 22 minutes in the 5k about running in college running. She doesn't think she can do it and I tell her- hey you run faster than I did when I was your age. I used to get last in almost every track race I used to do. I had teammates who would say to my face, what's the point of running if you get last every race? Most runners I race against don't know what's it like to walk up to the starting line of every race, expecting to get last place,the only thing you are hoping is that the second to last girl won't lap you. It's a hard feeling to shake off even though I do not usually get last anymore.  I never made it to league in high school track but I made it to the NAIA nationals my senior year which I am really proud of.  I always wanted to be fast since I was a scrawny 11 year old walking through the 3k. I will never quit even if I have to die running. The fight will be worth it someday!

Track Season!

Track Season: For the last thirteen years this is what running was all about but the last six months of marathon- 50k training have changed everything. I don't know what I'm doing when I put on spikes and step onto this red circle. I trip over the teeth in my shoes- what is this? This is track season!
I love track. You can hang out with your team from six in the morning until seven at night and only have to run for about nineteen minutes somewhere in there. Only sometimes is it raining, cold, or windy ( or if you're really lucky all three!)
It was raining when we left Bellingham and we passed through bits of freeway where it would pelt water bullets at us but by the time we got to Tacoma it was sunny and only slightly cold and fairly windy.
I was running the 5k. My training had been going great- a couple medium long runs a week( 14-18 miles) mixed with fast stuff like 3:37 1ks. Maybe I would finally beat my PR of 18:48 from three years ago!
Or not. I started out on pace for a great time- for the first two laps! Then for some reason it felt windier and my legs thought it was normal to run laps so slow that I had to stop calculating them in my head to continue. 19:40 was not what I wanted to run. I'm disappointed but I have a whole track season to hopefully go downhill from here. (that's a good thing!)

USA 50k Championships

March 6, 2011 USA 50k Championships New York

 I just ran my first 50k. I wish I could say it was my last too, haha just kidding.

My transformation to an ultra runner started only recently and not easily. Six months ago I was on a run with my coach Joel when he said I had to run a 50k, well not ‘had to’, ‘get to!’ and not ‘a’ 50k, ‘the’ 50k, over and over and over. I cried. The 3k steeplechase was my favorite race. I thought the 10k was kind of long to be honest.

Last Friday, the 4^th, we- Joel, his dad Jim, my teammate Cory and I, left for New York to run the USA 50k Championships. I was excited because at least I had finally gotten my uniform the was promised to me in June the night before.

I can't sleep when I’m nervous or excited or in a strange place or all three, so that night didn’t go so well nor the next night. But that’s okay- I have replaced sleep with running.
      

The 50k course at Caumsett Park is a 2.4ish mile loop with two out and back straight aways that add up to a 5k and you do it ten times. I like the 5k so I should like the idea of running it ten times in a row. It should be 10x the fun right?

Waiting at the starting line is the worst torture there is. They say we have three minutes, then two minutes, one minute, 15 seconds, 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and bang! Finally free to run off the tension that has been building up for well, months, but has been unbearable the last three minutes I run the first mile- which is a nice sloping downhill way too fast- oops. Aw, if only they all felt like that. The next mile already seems longer as it goes back up and then out and back down a pothole ridden trail that as the hours pass as the rain starts slowing starts morphing into one giant puddle.

The next out and back I like. You go around the finish line and a roundabout and a magnetic strip that beeps when the chip in your shoe runs over it- counting up your 5ks done. Each one of those beeps is like a mini finish except you have to finish them all for any of them to count.

The second loop starts with the nice downhill mile again, then up again but trying not to think about that. It shouldn’t feel steep already should it?

Beep- beep

The downhill mile saves me again, every lap. I try to think about it along the up which gets steeper and through the potholes which get wetter. My coach gives me FRS and a Gu that is not my favorite flavor but stops my tummy from eating me! That was nice of him- I will try to fight this urge to run bad to show that I should not be a 50ker, haha.

“Two to go,” the officials say when I go past this time. Yes- only a 10 k left! Who knew that that a 10k would mean almost done now? My teammate Cory is done which I take as a sign that I will finish soon now too.

One to go. I‘m going to finish! I’m going to be an All American! My time is not what our best dreams were but it will be good enough that I shouldn’t have to run home- ha, that was a joke right Joel? Oh well, now I wont have to find out.

Beep- Beep!

Can I stop running now?

For the time being. As soon as I stop running my legs realize what I have been doing to them the last four hours. Why if I’m done do I still want to cry? I’m standing in the rain, soaked through the skin, every muscle in my legs aching- muscles that I did not know until this moment were even there, thinking about every 50k yet to be finished. But this is a good thing- hundreds more chances, more opportunities. I’m a runner for life, I guess this 50 k thing is just something I will have to get used to.

After spending the rest of the day lost in New York, trying to catch our plane (not hard to catch actually, late in fact, sitting on the ground not moving in fact) (and dang who knew airplanes were soooo uncomfortable, I just want to be lying on the floor), I finally get to sleep the next morning at 5 am, 8am NY time. Sleep should come easily after you’ve spent the last 26 hours awake where 4 of them you ran 31.07 miles in right? Answer: not if you’re thinking about the 100k which my coach tells me I have to, I mean, I get to run now.

Dang it.