A Marathon For Boston

Run one for Boston, and help out a good cause! 

Saturday was significant for many reasons. One, was for the cause I was running for. Many of my ultra-friends ran three marathons back-to-back this weekend, or will be sometime this week. They put in 78.6 miles each, or one marathon for each of the 3 victims who died at the tragic bombing of the 2013 Boston marathon. 

Why was this significant when their are bombing, killings, and terrorists attacks everyday all over the world? Well for one, runners are loyal to each other, and distance runners support each other as family. So it seems natural that the running community would band together to help out the family of Richard Martin, the 8-year old boy who was killed while watching his father finish the Boston marathon. 

But for me this marathon was doubly significant. Since having some major setbacks with being diagnosed with POTS in 2010, and having major life events and moves, and then a hysterectomy  in February of 2012, this was a breakthrough for my running recovery. 

The last successful marathon or greater distance I have run was running 50 miles of the Buffalo 100 miler starting at Yellowstone National Park, running near the Grand Tetons and ending in Driggs, Idaho in October 2011. At that time my running was starting to come back to more normal, but still not quite there and we had just moved to an apartment in Springville and broken ground on our new home in Springville, Utah. 

A few months after that among starting a midwifery school, moving into our new home, and other major life changes I had a hysterectomy. That surgery left me barely able to run as it took my muscles per 8 months  to be able to show some speed! It really weakened my core and upper body. It was a frustrating and demotivating 8 months and I was feeling pretty discouraged about my running life. 

Many other great things have happened during that recovery time, but I put on about 25 lbs after my surgery and then decided to sign up for a fitness challenge with Lisa Smith-Batchen and Julie Bryan because I needed a coach coming into my email box to remind me to get moving and to stop focusing on how out of shape I was feeling. Tandi Ogden Suitter, my mean trainer has kept on top of me, and suddenly things began working again. Then I started a local community ladies fitness group, and helping other people helps me to feel accountable to work on myself. 

That helped kick me into gear. Then my sisters Alyssa Workman and Katrina Bishop, got me hooked up on Herbalife. Suddenly I have a ton of energy, where I was dragging all the time before. After committing to run 26.2 on Saturday, and not knowing how my body would handle it since it has been so long since I was in gear I woke up to a downpour of trenchel rain, and on a cold morning begin my race at 3:15 am. 

I kept a slow and steady pace, wanting to make sure I finished my first recovery marathon of about an average of 5-4.5mph, for the first 17 miles. And then I had to take a 20 minute break to change my clothes because I was getting hypothermic and ran down to a local 5k keeping about the same pace. After the 5 k with about 4.56 miles to go, I had to take a break to eat breakfast because in all of my excitement to finish I had gone too long without nutrition. 

But after two pieces of toast with butter and my mom, Ange' Workman's, homemade Peach/Loganberry Jam, and two eggs. I headed out in the cold again. By this time it had stopped raining and was just overcast. I finished the last 4.56 at a slower 4.5-4mph pace, and then finished. 

I was tired from the cold, wet, and early morning, but felt great. I was very surprised when I woke up Sunday morning and had no tightness in my muscles, in fact my hips are looser than before I ran on Saturday! I was not sore, and didn't feel like I had run more than 5 miles! Today I feel like I could run another 26.2! I may, and maybe I will completed 2 more marathons this week for the victims of Boston! 

Glad to be back into action and I am feeling hopeful about being able to complete the Squaw Peak 50 on June 2nd, and Wasatch 100 in September! 

Donate to this great cause: 

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/EnduranceTrust/westandunitedwerununited?utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=share&utm_source=at-email&utm_content=mainpage#.UW3FTQjFfbI.email