Run, Run, and more Running

Team The Grateful Tread
Starting my last leg--hallelujah!

Pumped and ready to start leg 1-- my start song was The Eye of the Tiger!

Van #2

Me, Kristen, and Jenni!

I have always run/ jogged for my choice of exercise. I'll mix it up here and there but after Tess was born I just found it easier to run over anything else. I have also always thought it would be a fun challenge to run a marathon. So this year I talked Randy into running the St. George Marathon with me. So after training nearly all summer we got to see what we were really made of a few weeks ago. Turns out Randy is pretty descent at running and has actually caught the running bug. He ran his marathon in 3:44 and that was after keeping with me the first half. I, however, was disappointed in my time. I know-- it's awesome just to do one (at least that's what everyone says to me) but I had really been hoping for a better time then I got. I was aiming for 4 hours and actually got in with 4:29. I just way over did the first half-- in fact I was around my goal time half way with 1:59 and that was the hard, uphill half. I just had been battling a head cold and cough and couldn't get my breathing normal and started getting the most unbelievable side stitches. It was shooting to my back and almost unbearable. Anyway, needless to say, I had a horrific second half and was to the point that I was happy I even finished. So I guess I will have to run another one to prove to myself I can do better.

There are no pictures of the marathon because we didn't want to carry it with us while we ran and I didn't want to shell out the money for the ones the take of you. However, I did take some of the Ragnar I just ran with friends in Las Vegas this past weekend. This was an unplanned event that my friend Shannon asked me to fill in for one of their runners and I figured since I had been training, now was as good a time as any-- so I did it. I am super glad I did it. It was really fun and our team was super fun, funny, etc and it made it go by so fast. We did have a few snafu's throughout but we figured it out as we went. Jared got really sick and couldn't stop throwing up, I also got sick after my second leg with stomach issues but they subsided long enough for me to get in my third run-- thanks to Jenni for letting me go do her leg! And our other van had someone come down with stress fractures and major blisters! Apparently it's all part of the fun in a Ragnar. Anyway, I had a great time and will hopefully do another one another time!