When Life Takes You Away - Come Back To The Wasatch!

Let me give you an overview of the past two years:

1.  I graduated with my MSW almost exactly two years ago.

2. My family decided to move from our home in Lindon about a month later and started renovating the Lindon house.

3. We decided to peruse building a home in Springville.

4. We couldn't sell the home in Lindon with the poor economy so we rented it out and moved into a 700 sq foot underground house while our home was under construction.

5. I started an office up in Spanish Fork during that time, and a midwifery school emerged, now known as The Community School of Midwifery.

6. What I had intended to start was a holistic mental health and birth clinic and in order to meet supervision requirements in Utah, had a supervisor who owned Trauma Recovery Center. That situation did not work out, and so I focused on midwifery education my first year out of grad school.

7. During that year I had a hysterectomy, my little sister lost her baby a few weeks after my surgery due to sudden onset pre-eclampsia at 20 weeks, and then we moved again into our new home in Springville.

8. I also attended a midwifery educators conference in Virginia while still recovering.

9. During the summer of 2012, I connected with The Healing Group and found a way to enter the mental health field again, working with the population I love, Mamas! I went to the BEST training amongst the fires of Colorado City, flew to the scorching heat of Las Vegas to attend the Postpartum Support International Conference on Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders where I was privileged to meet my new coworkers at THG and listen to Wendy Davis and Birdie Meyer for two days.

10. Upon returning home it was another office paint and move from Spanish Fork to Springville to establish a presence with THG in Utah County.

11. Learning much from teaching the first year, and knowing that I needed more business professionals in the school I took on Melissa Chappell as a business partner and we officially established the Community School of Midwifery.

12. Now in our second year running we have a home for CSM in Springville as well.

13. Conferences, meet ups with other well-qualified professionals a cross the country, and my practice with THG becoming full in less than 6 months of being established with them we took on two more therapist down at the Springville Office.

Post-surgery recovery really took a tole on my running as did life. So now I am committing to taking some pieces back for my health and wellbeing. After a miserable start at the Wasatch 100 in September 2012, my body and muscles were still too week to push my up fast enough, and I timed out before Francis peak (about 18 miles). I got into the Wasatch again for 2013, and I am making all of the necessary changes and setting boundaries on my time and demands to commit to my health, training, and wellbeing.

I am joining my sisters in supporting their Herbalife business by becoming a consumer of their produces (I am not selling them myself, I don't sell products but if you are interested I can pass your name onto my sisters). I told Claude Grant after jumping in his white truck again for the second time at Francis Peak that I never wanted to see the inside of his white truck again on that course!

And I mean it! This year is lucky 13, and Wasatch is my big obstacle of my stubborn endurance and I will conquer! Follow me to see my commitment to conquering the beast of The Wasatch 100, 2013! Also registered for Squaw Peak 50, and hoping for my 3rd finish for Squaw Peak, and Kachina Mosa 100 K driving for a finish!

Sporting Pink Mowhawk, Running Wasatch 100 for a cause this year!

Yo peeps! My friend, Carrie Ann Coomes Kemp, is training for an Iron man see https://www.facebook.com/IronCarrieAnn while also recovering from breast cancer.

I am running the Wasatch 100 in September and plan on sporting a pink mohawk to support Carrie's cancer treatment fund. I am going to finish and ask people to pledge the number of miles I finish in dollars per mile to support Carrie's cancer treatments. This is my motivation to finish Wasatch this year! I needed a cause, I will finish! Pacers welcome, no Mohawk required to pace (but if you want to sport a pink mohawk it would be an awesome time to relive your teenage wild streak that you never got to do)!

I'm out on the trails! Gone running........

Killtherun is back in action!

After a long sabbatical, fear not people, No I have not left the running world. I am back and more committed then ever.

After moving twice in the last 6-months, building a new home, starting a midwifery school, and recovering from a hysterectomy in at the same time, I have suffered a physical setback. But it is just another challenge to make this year the best running year of my life.

After finishing nearly 50 miles of the first annual Running With the Buffaloes 100 miler sponsored by Lisa Smith-Batchen and Dream Chasers, I had to take a break. I suffered a run-in with frost-bite during a 17 mile mountain run, and while my feet were recovering had an unexpected pregnancy and miscarriage, followed by a hysterectomy.

During this time my organization, Birth Rite Women's Center http://www.birthritewc.com , has grown substantially in wonderful people coming in to support our innovative midwifery education and Prenatal Parenting Program.

Although I have physically been through the ringer, there are many blessings unfolding in my life right now. We have a beautiful new home located at the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon. After having to withdraw from the Wasatch 100 lottery thinking I would be having an unexpected 4th baby with my 3rd baby turning 10, I was able to be reinstated in the lottery after miscarrying. According to sources who were at the lottery for Wasatch 2012 my name was drawn out first out of the hat. I am taking that as a sign that my priority this year is to figure out my body, and to finish Wasatch. I am grateful for pacers if anyone would like to pace me this year.

Unfortunately I had to forgo running the Antelope Island 100 miler due to the surgery. Antelope Island Buffalo is my favorite run to break in for the new running season, but it was apparently meant to be as my sister Mindy, ended up losing her first baby at 21 weeks of pregnancy due to sudden onset of preeclampsia. We were also trying to move, close on our new home, and I had my friend Linda Wirth come and we presented a workshop on Prenatal Parenting.

But you can't keep an ultrarunner down forever. Two weeks ago I started officially training again, and I am now detoxing from all the drugs in my system from surgery, and I plan to finish Squaw Peak 50 miler in just over 8 weeks!

My goal this year: NO DNFS!

My Race Menu so far: Squaw Peak 50, Katchina Mosa 100K, Wasatch 100 Miler. Hoping to add in one more 100 miler or 100 K in October or November.


See you on the trails!

Running Updates.... and such

Not a lot to update! I just realized it had been a long long long time since I wrote about any adventures.

This summer started with a bummer when I completed 1/2 of the Squaw Peak 50 snow course, and then had to drop because I was having IT band issues. The snow course was much more difficult than the real course, and I am praying it is many more years before we have that much snow in June again! I decided after that run I will take Bozung Hill about 5 times before Pole Haven Hell, Rock Canyon, and the Shoreline Trail in the heat! Never-the-less, it was all the expected hell an ultrarunner can dream and more!

I was thrilled to hear that Grant Holdaway finished his 10th year at Squaw Peak, at the age of 80, and then felt like a wimp for dropping! But it was good that I did, because a few weeks later it turned into a stress point, and then I had to take 6 weeks completely off of running all together. This means I donated my race fees for Speed Goat, Deseret News Marathon, and sadly didn't even get to start the beast of Katcina Mosa! That was the saddest one for me. Katcina has beat me 2 years in a row, and I was going to conquer Katcina or die this year! Instead I listened to the advice of my doctor and gulp.... stopped running for a few weeks! I volunteered at the coral at aid station 9 (mile 56) and watched several beat up of my running friends come through!

I decided part of the cause of the stress fracture was the pair of $170 Hoka Maffetes that I purchased in May. I have been buying running shoes since 1997 and I have always needed a size 10 in a running shoe. The problem with the Hoka's is for whatever reason, despite the most common shoe size for a womens' running shoe being a 10, they only go up to a 9.5 in women's. The additional problem with the shoe is that the toe box is much smaller than other running shoes, and so a proper size for my foot would be a 10.5.

That mistake cost me 3.5 races, and having to avoid almost any impact on my foot for weeks. I sold the shoes to someone who has a smaller foot, and will go back to my tried and true trail shoes that I know work for my foot!

I started short distances this week, and so far my foot is holding up. I have been working a lot on my upper body strength with Tandi, and feel like I can start introducing Mauy Thai and running back into my life, wahoo!!!

In addition to my injury, I have been migrating Southward.

I opened a new office in Spanish Fork in May. I am building a house in Springville, and trying to rent out my Lindon home and rent a house in Springville in the meantime while our home is being built!

My kids have started school at Springville schools, and I am scoping out some of my old running routes from my hometown of Mapleton! Thinking I might use that Pole Haven Hell road for hill training, because if I can take that a few times, Windy Pass will be a breeze next year! LOL

Graduate school is over, I am anxious to get back to being an ultrarunnerboxer maniac!

Happy Trails! Hopefully my updates and races will start becoming more frequent again!

Snow Shoe Festival 50K and update

It has been a very busy year, so I haven't been updating much.

But I am doing much better. Through lots of sleep, time management, and Nutritional Support I completed 45 miles of the 100K on Antelope Island in November. My first test run and I had no hydration issues.

I climbed Kilimanjaro in January.

I completed the Katoohla Winter Snow Shoe 50K and was the only woman who finished. So despite my slow time due to not having much time to train this year, I got a first place trophy, and came in last! It was awesome!

I have been spending more time on conditioning, and will pick up more on boxing and my miles once I graduate in about 8 weeks. But my body is working better, and my POTS symptoms have not been bothering me. They are almost not noticeable.

Lots of emotional support, nutritional help from Elena, and rest, and supplements to help my adrenal glands have seemed to help. I am now needing a close to normal amount of salt that you would expect, and not the super high amounts.

This has been encouraging news!

Killimanjaro

Update on Running and Life

I just realized I never wrote a Wasatch report. Because I had to DNF at Francis Peak, and determine my body is still healing.

However, after taking quite a bit of a break, and doing some "easy" workouts, I am feeling better, my energy is returning, and I am not having the same hydration issues I was having with POTS.

I am starting to think my main problem can be attributed to my adrenal glands having been very stressed out from my first year of grad school having very little sleep, maintaining a full race/boxing schedule, practicum, classes, etc. Basically burning the candle on 5 different ends.

I have had to be very careful in getting a lot of sleep since my body just seemed to stop working for a couple of weeks in July, and my energy has been very low ever since then.

I was sleeping for 10-12 hours on most nights for a couple of months, and still feeling tired. But now, I am finally starting to feel a bit more normal, although I have to be careful and make sure I get no less than 7 hours of sleep a night, so I am in bed by 9-10 pm nearly every night.

But I have started picking up my training again, not back up to quite normal for me, but it is getting up there and running is starting to feel like something I remember that I like doing again, I am training 2 x per week with Tandi, the boxing queen, and she is pushing me a lot, and has recommended some supplements to me that are making a huge difference, and I am not needing abnormal amounts of sodium and potassium to stay alive! This is good news! This means my body is tolerating activity more normally, I am not requiring super high amounts of hydration anymore, this is also good news, and I believe having my adrenal glands starting to work more normally, is controlling some of the POTS symptoms, and even eliminating the need for higher amounts of salt than normal, or at least reducing the crazy amounts that I was having to take.

I pretty much have had to take a position for the moment of doing only what is necessary for my school, practicum, research assistant job, and then doing some physical activity as my body will allow and I have time for, and increasing the amount and intensity at a rate that will not stress my adrenal glands. But right now, sleep is still more of a priority than physical activity in the order of what my body needs, so if there is a choice, sleep is still winning out in importance.

That is starting to shift and balance out. To my friends I have not seen in a while, I am still here, but I am being pretty low-key in life as my body heals. I am happy to say, I am seeing a beginning of a return to my normal self, and ultimately I think my performance is going to be much better than it was before all this stuff occurred, because it has been affecting my abilities to perform, and my speed during endurance events had been losing ground even though my abilities in shorter runs had been improving, and my intensity increasing, but that all was affected as well, when my body seemed to shut down in July.

I skipped out on the Ogden Valley 50 mile run last week, and that was a difficult decision. I had been planning on running it even up through about 8 pm the night before, but I changed my mind after I realized how far behind I was in completing some school work, some stuff for my job, and just that I had been so busy all week, that I was not even ready in having my drop bags and would have been leaving my house after hurrying to pack, and driving the 1:45 hours to Mountain Green, and then running on little sleep, and expecting myself to then make up for the time I spent running by losing more rest on Sunday to catch up with my life.

So instead, being very tired at that point, I decided to go to bed, forget about the 4th year of the streak I was on with that race, and it having been my very first ultra 3 years ago, that was a bit emotional to give up, however, I decided I need to instead focus on healing, and doing what is best for my physical and mental health, and in being able to graduate with my Master's Degree in May and still be alive when I am done.

So instead I realized, that for this year, if I am planning on actually being able to run any races, and survive the demands of my extra clinical hours I have to put in for my practicum, get my course work done, attend to my family's needs as much as I am able to so that my children don't feel abandoned, I have to make an effort to zone in on actually prioritizing and planning so that I can get the work done before hand, without losing sleep, so that if I run a long race, and lose a whole weekend in racing, and sleeping after a race to allow my body to recover properly, and not stress out about having to then catch up on the other obligations I have to get my work done for school, and risk losing ground with my health that is now returning. I need to protect the healing space that I have found.

This has been a mental shift for me, to allow myself to be OK with deciding, even last minute, if a race is going to jeopardize my health and my ability to complete the other demands I have for this year. I used to feel like a failure if I had to DNF, or if I had to decide to not start a race I had committed to run. But I have come to the conclusion, that the only person who really cares if I finish a race, or start a race is myself, and I am holding a measure of importance on something that in the long run, is expendable and will not negatively affect myself or others in how successful I am with life.

On the other hand, if I do not complete my coursework, or meet my obligations to my family, or RA job, or I sacrifice sleep because I am trying to do everything, including a race that I can skip for now, and run next year, than those consequences are actually of significance, and my priorities are not in the right place if that is so.

So, now, I have compromised. I was very sad to miss the OV 50 last week, but it was horrible weather in the end anyway, and I can start over with a streak of 1 next year, and that is that. But not running that race, has allowed me space to get enough things in order, to plan for being completely free to run the new Antelope Island 100K on November 6th, and have any work that I need to have done complete before Friday night, so that when I run Saturday, I can come home, and sleep as much as I need to on Sunday, and wake up ready to do the work I need to on Monday, without scrambling to play the catch up game, and being over tired, and putting myself in a risk for getting sick or moody as a result.

So next up is the 100K, and I mentally preparing and trying to get enough of life in order to not lose sleep over it, plus have my race stuff ready a couple of days before, so I can just drive to the start line and have fun!

I am also working closely with Elena on having a mostly wholefood diet, which is helping my GI problems go way by eliminating anything with Corn Syrup, or refined carbohydrates.... since that seems to be part of my absorption issues.... and that is making a difference big time!

I am taking a new supplement from Nu Skin/Pharmanex, called Vitality, that is making the biggest difference in my energy, endurance, and recovery that I have ever seen with any product! Tandi got me on it, and I was skeptical, but it is making a huge huge difference! I am not needing more than a normal nights sleep, I am tolerating physical activity more normally now, and things are getting much better. I am also on an adrenal supplement with adrenal tissue and b-vitamins, some digestive enzymes, and probiotics.

These have all eliminated my need to have higher amounts of sodium, and my weight is starting to slowly return to normal as well, as at the adrenal problems caused my weight to jump by about 15 lbs, and had caused a 10 lb weight gain during the whole year before, so now I am trying to slowly get my body to drop those 25 lbs, which is a slow process to figure out with dietary adjustments, and just getting my body systems working normally, and getting rid of the fluid retention that has been problematic with all my fluctuating hydration needs.

So, it is quite an interesting process, and things are looking like they are finally staying in a positive upward direction, and leveling out slowly.

I will update on what happens with the Antelope Island 100K next week, and see how my body responds to my first real attempt at a race, with a more positive chance at being successful since my Katcina Mosa DNF.