Earn Your Turkey 4 mile Run/Walk 2009

This was a fun little four mile race put on by Runner's Corner and Sojourner's Running Club. This is the first short race I have competed in since 2006. I entered it because my 7 year old daughter wanted to run a race. She entered the kids 800 meter run, and I entered the 4 mile run. I bought her a special new running suit the night before, and gave her some special running food (sports beans) to put in her pocket. She was stoked! She has been talking about running a race since spring.

The race started out very cold, but warmed up pretty fast. I had wanted to finish in under 32 minutes, but I started near the back of the start line, and trying to push through 529 people made my start slow down. I ended up finishing in 33:26, but the official time recorded was 33:37. It was not chipped, so unless I read the 3 as a 2 they or I were off by 11 seconds.

My finish place was 10 out of 65 for my age/gender group. I thought I had only seen 307 on the finish report and it has my finish as 66th out of 307, but on the email they sent out it says my place is 227 out of 569. So I am not sure was the 66th out of 307 means. Maybe that was over all women?

Helen did great for her first race she finished in 4:58, and 52 out of 71. She was 10th out of 14th in her gender/age group. She thought it was cool that we were both in 10th place. It was fun, and I ran the 800 meters with her and gave her encouragement so she would keep running and not walk. She got tired about half way and wanted to walk, but pushed through it, and she was happy at the end. I wanted her first race to be positive so that she wants to do more, and I think it was!

I am planning on doing more short races this winter and hopefully challenge my speed. I have a goal of getting a 21 minute 5 K by March.

I am planning on signing up for a 50 K Snowshoe race in January. Stay tuned..................

Odgen Valley 50- October 24th, 2009

I am finally getting around to writing this race report. I have been so busy with school and my practicum. This was my 3rd race in four weeks, and a Muay Thai fight in between. I actually did better with speed this race. I had expected to take it way easy, because I had already done so much. I had taken a blow to my left shin at the fight, and it took about 4 weeks to feel normal again. But it didn't hurt to run on it, it was just very sore, and effected my kicking more than anything.

This was my third year of OV 50. The course starts at Mountain Green, UT, and follows a road to a ski resort (Snow Basin) , goes around a reservoir, and loops back up Snow Basin and back to Mountain Green. OV was also my first ultra in 2007. The course is all pavement, but it is a lot of steep up on Snow Basin Road for 8-9 miles followed by 6-7 miles of steep down (15 miles total). Then you take a 20 mile loop around Pineview Reservoir. The loop is pretty, but flat, and it is easy to get a little bored of the flat. It is also all road, and I wasn't sure I was going to do it, because I am starting to avoid road races. But I think it is good for me to do a road race every once in a while. It is also a great race because there are less than 50 people. Striders Running in Layton sponsors the race. What I most like about it is that there is one aid station at mile 15 and 35 (the end of Snow Basin Road) and the rest of the time the folks drive around support and have trucks loaded with ultrafood, and drinks. They check on you about every 2-3 miles, and you have mobile aid! It is a great service, and I like the race just for that alone.

This year the weather was great. It was cold in the morning for the first 15 miles, but the rest of the day was not too bad except a few hours in the afternoon there was rain. I did not find the rain to bothersome, because until I got to mile 35 the temperature was fine. After I hit Snow Basin it was a little cool until I got to the top and started the downhill. Once I dropped in elevation it was great temperature again, and the rain had stopped.

I took it way easy, but I still did a PR on this course. Previously my times were around 11:45 for both years. This year it was around 11:21. Now I am wishing I had not taken it so easy because I am pretty sure I could have done under 11 hours if I would have been trying. The best thing this year was the last 7 miles, I hit it into high gear, and did a 9-9:30 pace without stopping to the finish line. That is where I made up a lot of time for my meandering around Pineview, just because I was enjoying the day and didn't care.

I think had I done this kind of back to back racing, and then had a 100 miler within a month, I could finish it now. Next year I plan on doing more back to back long runs like this, before Bear, and I am going to finish it next year! I took three weeks off, well mostly, and now I am back into full training mode.