Night out with the Girls

This is just what I needed. A night out with the girls. Tonight I met some friends up Logan Canyon, and we ran the River Trail, by the Stokes Nature Center. What a great trail. Ups and downs, fresh crisp autumn air, and a snake on the trail. Mindy thought it was a stick, I think it was a snake. mmmmm......guess we'll never know.

Met a new friend tonight, Roz. This group of ladies that I was invited to run with seem to be a really fun group! Just normal gals, all trying to achieve their best, and supporting each other along the way! What a great group of ladies!!! Way to go Northern Exposure!! And thanks for welcoming me into your group!

We met at 7 p.m. and started on the trail. On our way back, there sure were alot of people. Not sure where they all came from. I had to keep saying "excuse me" and I was coming down, getting ready to plow right into them. Instead of these people just all moving to one side, they would go on either side of the trail, so it was like an obstacle course. It got dark really fast too. I was having a hard time seeing the trail/road. Should have brought my headlamp. Tonight's run was around 3.5ish miles. Just enough. I think that I run better after my Race RX class, as my muscles are already warmed up, super good! I ended up taking a jacket with me, thinking that it might be a little chilly running by the river, but ended up tying it around my waist. Guess I was over-thinking things.

I tried one of those "performance" bars tonight. Thought I could use the extra energy as I was going to run right after my class. They are not too bad. I tried the peanut butter one. I would buy this kind again.

Oh, and yes, I did get the littlest, teeniest, tiniest of a pebble in my LEFT shoe! Why the Left??? I'll never know. I didn't even think to bring my trail gaiters! What was I thinking!

If you see me collapse, pause my Garmin!

9 Mile Maiden Voyage

This morning I had planned on getting up and out of the house by 6:30 a.m. Well, Mr. Sandman had different plans for me. Did not get going until around 8:00 a.m. I chose the 9 mile route that had water stops, (Maverik and the Providence Park). I remember the last time I did this route, it was so stinking hot, and I had to fill up my water whenever I could. Today was a little different. Still warm this morning, but when I hit Maverick, a little over 2 miles, I still had over 1/2 of my water left. So that was good. I wore my fluorescent lime green arm warmers this morning, so I wouldn't get hit by a car. Got pretty warm, so I tied them on the street sign by Maverik. I'll get them on my way back.

Through Millville I go, and into Providence. At the park, I still had water left!! MMM interesting. I did refill, just in case I needed it. I brought a protein bar with me this morning , as I did not really eat a good breakfast. (1/2 a piece of Cranberry/Orange bread toasted with some OJ.) Only took one bite of the bar as I left the Providence park.

As I am running back towards Millville, I noticed that they have fire hydrants like EVERYWHERE! Interesting. So in my head I would say, "OK, run to the next fire hydrant.....run to the next fire hydrant....run to the next fire hydrant." There are 23 fire hydrants between Providence and my house in Nibley! I have really never noticed how many there are on the streets! Am I really that non-observant?? Every block, to block and a half, I ran into a hydrant. I wonder if the highway has the same ratio. This gives me something to do on my next highway run!

I like this route. Hills, both up and down, and flat areas too. It was nice that there was shade every so often on this route. Oh ya, so, I wore the new Nike shoes today. Was a little worried about not breaking them in. But guess what? No need to worry. They worked GREAT. No rubbing on the back of my heels, toes felt good and had room to move, feet did not go numb, heels and arches ok too. All in all, my feet were HAPPY this morning. As for my knees..............well..........that's another story. They have been a little creeky this past week. Put a tiger balm patch on my right knee and shin last night, and just left it on this morning as I ran.



Getting ready for the Halloween Half Marathon on October 29th, in Provo. MMMMM I wonder if I am doing this half too close to the other half??? Not sure about the resting and recovery thing. We'll see. Today's run only took me 1 hour and 50 minutes, and I walked alot. Walked to warm up, walked when I was eating, and drinking. Walked on one of the hills. Just took it really easy. When I did the Freedom Run, which was 9.3 miles, my time was 1.43, so I must be getting stronger!

New Shoes

Well, my old Nike's are squeaking, must be time for a new pair of running shoes. My pink ones have been good, got me though many a 5k, 10k, 15k, and the goal this summer...TOU Half Marathon.

I went into our local running store to have a looksy. Love going to this store! Fun to visit with the owners and the employees. Did not want to try a new brand, as I did that once before and ended up hating it. Shoes really make a difference. Oh, and so do the socks1 Planned on going w/the same brand and style, the Nike Lunar Eclipse. Well they did not have it in my size and after talking with Heather, found out that she is actually not going to be caring the Lunar Eclipse anymore, going with the new model.

The new model is the Nike Lunarglide +3. I really like them. They are so cushy!! They will be making their maiden voyage tomorrow morning. I'll report later.

Was kind of surprised that I was ready for a new pair already. Found my receipt from the last ones, and I bought them in May. So lets see, May, June, July, Aug, Sept,....about 5 months. Well, I guess that is about right. So I am thinking about 2 pairs a year. Yep, that's it.

Sundae Run

Tonight I went for a "Sundae Run." I asked Mindy if she wanted to go with me, and she met me there. This was just a fun run sponsored by Runner's North. I pulled in the parking lot just as the group was taking off.

We met at 7:00 pm at Runner's North. The group took off running up Providence Lane, then heading over to the River Heights Cemetery, and then just back tracking back to the store. About 4.4 miles. You could go as far as you wanted to. We chose to do the whole route. My calves were burning as we were going up the long gradual hill!!! It was good though. It started getting dark as we were heading back to the store. Note to self.....bring reflector vest next time.

It was a fun group of people.....moms, kids, families, teens, strollers.....a nice mix. After the run, we were treated to an ice cream sundae. This was a really fun run. Looking forward to the next one.

Northern Exposure

Tonight after my Race RX class, I met a group of ladies that get together a few times a week and run. They call themselves "Northern Exposure." I know one of the ladies, Marian, and met some of the other ones at the TOU 5k last Saturday. It was fun to run with someone tonight. Running solo is nice at times, but it is always nice to have a buddy. It sure makes the time and the distance go by quicker. We ended up doing hill work..........up one block, zig-zagging over which ended up being down hill, then back up again. It was a good route. Nice and cool. It ended up being about 2 miles. I thought it was a shorter distance! See what running and chatting will do!


Lots of smells tonight on this run; BBQ, Bon Fires, Spray Paint, kind of funny.

At my Race RX class, we bumped up our incline work to 21%, so my calves were really on fire tonight, but I stuck with it!!


The following quote is on their t-shirts. I was lucky, they had one extra. Thanks JoAnna!
"I often hear people say, 'I'm not a real runner.' We're all runners, some just faster than others, that's all. I have never met a fake runner." --Bart Yasso

TOU 5k

What a great day for a run! The weather cooperated for the 5k people, the marathon people...........well, not so much. The 5k started at 7:30 am, at Merlin Olsen Park. We ran down on the island, crossed over and up to main street to 300 North, then back to Merlin Olsen Park for a well deserved finish. It was fun to see so many friendly faces. It started to rain on us about 1.5 miles into the run. We all got soaked. Kept our bodies cool though, so no complaints.

At the start, I ran into one of my friends, Mariann. I met her this past summer at one of our local 5k's. Mariann is AWESOME!!! She was with a group of ladies that have formed a running group, Northern Exposure. Looks like a really fun group. I am going to try to run with them at least once a week. Running with friends is always more fun. You have support and giggles along the long and windy roads! And of course, there was the famous and local Julia Barrett, age 80. I am always amazed when I see her. In fact, she ran the TOU half this year as well. I see her at most of our local races. There was an 85 year old lady from Perry, UT, that ran it in 51 minutes. She was the oldest participant in the 5k. MMMMMM, mirror mirror on the wall, is this me in 40 years??? By dang, I hope so!

I was able to run the entire route! I thought that I would walk when we came to the hill on main street. I was thinking, "OK, if Mindy walks, I'll walk." After the race, Mindy and I were talking and she said, "I'm so glad that you didn't walk on that hill. I was thinking if Lori walks, then I'll walk." It was nice to have someone to run with today. Usually, I am just in my own little zone. Mindy was awesome today. At mile 2.? she got her second wind and left me. It was nice to see her finish strong today!


My time was 32.02.3, which somehow put me into 3rd place!(In my age group female 40-49. The older I get, the better placing I get because the competition is not so tough! hee hee.) I was 31st out of 118 females, 60th out of a total of 174 people. But of course, Brother Perkins (72) beat me! Coming in at a 27.17.5! He has been running for years though. Mindy took 4th in her age group (30-39) coming in at 31.19.4!!! We were both super duper excited!!!

We stuck around for a bit to cheer on our old friends, and new ones met that day. The hand pedal bike guy came in at 1.17.21 minutes, for the marathon! We were also able to see the 1st marathon finisher, Paul Anderson clocking a 2.20.30! He looked so smooth crossing the finish line. This year he was the 3rd American male to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. His closest competitor trailing 10 minutes behind him.

When I got home around 10:00 a.m., the weather really took a change for the worse. Lightning, Thunder, and Pouring Rain!!! The cut off was 6 hours for the marathon. MC Swim Team was in charge of rinsing out all of the water and Gatorade jugs. I went to the finish line about 1:30 to pick up the last of the jugs, and there were just a few stragglers still out on the course. Pretty inspirational seeing some of those people. One gentleman in particular caught my eye. He had on bright lime green shoes, and was walking with kind of a "hunched back/shoulder" I looked up on the milliseconds site to find his name: Eugene Rockwell from Chesire, CT, age 75, time... 7.09.17! I honked and cheered him on. It was kind of sad to see that things at the finish line were being taken down, the coned off path that you run through to the finish line, the "hoopla" atmosphere was gone. After all that effort, strength, and courage to finish, and not having the excitement at the finish line............kind of made me sad. I have to admit, I am kind of a sappy person here. As I was driving from the finish line, back-tracking to mile 25 & 24, I saw the final people completing their last miles. I honked and waved and cheered them on, and got tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat knowing how hard they had worked for this moment. The courage and mental strength it takes to complete this journey! It doesn't matter how fast you are, it's that you had the courage to start!

The oldest participant in the TOU Marathon was 80 year old Woody Whitlock, from Farmington, UT, with a time of 5.09.09. I hope when I get that old, my health will sustain me to be that active!

So .....Recap of the days events:
5:30 wake up to daughter telling me she is going up the canyon to film the TOU marathon runners. Wander outside to find her a camping chair to take up the canyon.
6:00 I get out bed, shower, make my morning fruit smoothie with protein powder. Get ready to RACE.
6:45 Mindy picks me up and we are off to the starting line
7:00 Arrive and was amazed at all the open parking spots! All the marathoner's loaded buses at the park to take them up to the starting line, so we thought that parking would be an issue. Not a problem. We parked really close to the starting line!
7:15 Mingle.....Mingle.....Mingle......
7:30 Gun start and we are off.
Race, finish, cheer on fellow runners, photo fun, and just have fun.
11:30 Go to Hyrum to help Swim Team rinse water and Gatorade jugs.
1:30 get choked up watching the final competitors come into the finish area.
2:30 Arrive at home.

Next event: Wasatch Woman 6k on October 8th.

I think I am becoming a Race Junkie!

Testing Results

What I learned today, I partially already knew. I have a balance issue. I think this is probably genetic, as Grandma A was wobbly.
My calves seem to be a little over-developed thus the fat calve issue when I try on pants.
I have a strong right arm. I can only do 16 push-ups in 1 minute, and 10 sit-ups in 1 minute.
I am at 20% body fat.

Huh. So what does this all mean? I'll let you know in 8 weeks!

It kicked my **********

So I got this wild hair that I would go try Race RX. I figured, hey, I just did a half marathon.....I'll be ok. Well, needless to say, I am not in as good of shape as I thought! Isn't that the story of our lives. We think we are doing pretty good, then BAM... Reality hits you in the face, or in my case tonight, whipped my butt!

For the next 8 weeks, I have volunteered to participate in a research study of a new exercise program. From what I did tonight, it is like p90x on steroids! There are about 11 of us in the group. Tonights routine started with killer warm-ups. Spider man crawls across the floor, push up walks, this twisty dragon walk thing, and others that I can't even remember what I did. Balance was an issue with some of them. After warm-ups we did 11 different stations, 1 minute each station. You don't realize how long 60 seconds is until you are about ready to pass out! So...11 stations, then a couple of minutes to get a drink, then back at it. After the first set, I got really dizzy. I sat down, trying to control my breathing. The second set I didn't push myself as hard. After this set, the dizziness came back, along with feelings of nausea and passing out! Do you think I over did it? DUH!! What was I thinking? As I said, "I did the half, I will be ok."

Tomorrow I am going to do a fitness test, which ought to be interesting. I better eat better tomorrow, as today all I had was a fruit smoothie with protein powder, lunch consisted of 1/4 cup peaches with about 1/2 cup cottage cheese, then a double mocha and a couple of bites of Jacque's subway sandwich. Not many calories to help me for the workout. The Double Mocha was sooooooooo good, but probably not the best to have on killer work out day.

Ibuprofen is my friend.

Man vs Mud

Team Girly Whirlies was "da bomb" during Man vs Mud. Our first obstacle was a "red neck waterslide." This was actually right at the starting line. It consisted of an enormous tarp on a really steep and bumpy hill with someone squirting water down it. Well, off I went. I had ZERO control of where I was sliding! I was aimed right for the volunteer at the bottom of the hill. Luckily, I was able to stop about 1 foot before I took her down. One down, 26 to go. 2nd....we ran through these giant air bags, they looked like punching bags but about 7 feet long and filled with air. They were suspended on a PVC frame, and it was a blast punching and running through them. Our next stop was the first "mud" we encountered. It was a pit with a net above it. We were to army crawl through the mud of course.

The first major obstacle was the "ditch." This was anywhere from 1 foot to 4 feet deep. It was just that, a ditch....sticky muddy bottom, filled with water, that was so muddy that you could not see the bottom. My shoes kept making that slurpping sound like they were going to come off, as they would stick in the bottom of the ditch as I was walking through it. It got so deep at one place that Jacque went in up to her arm pits!! And cold, cold, cold water here!!! Wow, that was unexpected! Next time I will swim through it. Probably doggy paddle though, as I'm not sure I really want to put my face in THAT1



We had a few easy peasy things after that, just running through a grassy, wet trail, and tackling giant hay bales. There were more slides, I was amazed at how many slides they put in this course. My butt needed some extra padding on these, as they were really bumpy. At times I would get stuck going down.....we thought that maybe the tu-tu's were not allowing us to slide as well. I did go backwards on one of them, and went really fast.....blindly down the hill. There was a set of tires that we ran through too.



They had water/gatorade stations set up along the route. Another fun and unusual obstacle was this spider web thing. Bungee cords were randomly stretched around a frame and we made our way through. As we approached the "tunnels" (really big pipes that you ran through), there was this team of guys that were wearing suit jackets. As we went through the tunnels, they were traveling over them. They stopped, 2 of them laid down and "planked" as the other one blew his "trumpet" of victory. Pretty random and funny!


As we were getting closer to the finish, I could see that we were to cross the river. There was a set of air pillows that we had to use to cross. These "air pillows" were just that, a big pillow looking thing that had air in it. They were about 4x4 in size, and maybe 11 of them all tied together in a line from bank to bank. Jacque made it farther than me, but we both sucummed to the river! Mindy and Aubeny chose a different set to cross on, and they made it across.

Upon climbing out of the river we embarked on our next obstacle....mud, mud, and more mud. I think that they put some soap in this mud pit because it was so stinkin slippery!!! Just walking through it gave your inner thighs a workout, trying to keep your balance. And then the slosh pit took me down, along with my side-kick, Jacque.

Over the pipes and through the woods to the finish line we go. Right before the finish line we were greeted by one of the local fire departments and their mighty water hoses! To get to the finish line there was just one more killer slide from you know where. Only this time, at the end of the slide you fell into a mud/water pit, and had to climb out of it and army crawl to the end. Sliding down this slide I was laughing so hard, that as I fell into the pit.....smiling. Teeth are now muddy. Instinctively I grabbed my shirt to wipe off my teeth, only to realize that my shirt was just as bad! Ha Ha, whoever planned this last adventure was right on the money.

We had a team photo at the end, and then there was the final aid station, offering drinks, oranges, and bananas. What were they thinking here? How were we supposed to eat food with our hands filthier than whatever and our mouths and faces full of mud!? I chose just to take the gatorade and rinse, spit, and repeat.


Lessons learned:
1. Duct tape shoes to legs.
2. Swim through the ditches to keep shoes on feet, and not twist ankles.
3. Expect war wounds and bruises the next few days in odd places.
4. Do not take your car keys with you!!! DUH what was I thinking???
5. Tu-Tu's "were" a good idea at the time, but in the mud, they are NOT.
6. Perhaps wearing a big green garbage in the car for the ride home.
7. Expect the unexpected.
8. Have a BLAST!!

Would I do it again???? MMMMMM........... I'll let you know as soon as my butt bruises heal. But I think it is safe to say.....yes.