Remember I am Athlete!

I have recently found myself getting to use a new title. The title of athlete. Anyone who has ever spend time with me should know how foreign this word is in my vocabulary. However, last August (2009) two of my good friends from grad school decided it would be a good idea to start running. After laughing in their faces, I decided to try this new endeavor. Having recently finished graduate school I was looking for a new challenge in life. Charisse and I would run first thing in the morning at the slowest pace possible. We had a very slow running schedule that had us running for a minute and then walking for 2 minutes. Slowly but surely the time for running was increased. My first race was a 5K run in October 2009. Here is proof:



In December 2009 my BBF, Bekah, asked if I would be willing to train for a triathlon with her. After laughing in her face I tested the training waters. Starting in January I found myself in a bathing suit re-learning how to swim a long distance at the university pool, biking at the gym and running when I could. Unfortunately, the training also coincided with this:



I almost stopped training because I love the Winter Olympics so much. But my love of the Winter Olympics could be an entire other post. However, I persevered. In March 2010 I swam 300 meters, biked 12 miles and ran 3 miles. My final time was 1 hour 24 minutes. Here we are at the beginning of the race:




After that little endeavor my stake Relief Society President heard about how I and a few other sisters in the stake were participating in various triathlons. She decided that our stake would participate in one as well. Here is a photo of me swimming. I thought I had other pictures as proof, but alas no one has shared them with me.



Which leads me to my final thoughts on my new found athleticism . Bekah decided last summer that we should run a half marathon together. Can you see how easily I am persuaded by others. I really think Bekah is just trying to show me the wonderfulness of Utah and convince me to move there. Really, who continues to travel to Utah to put themselves through physical torture. After the half marathon.... I am not so sure.... Let's just say the very beginning and the very end of the day were awful.

The first five miles of the race is strictly downhill. You start at an elevation of about 7,000 feet and end just under 5,000 feet. Since the race was on October 30th, costumes were encouraged. Bekah and I chose AWESOME costumes. I was a "spelling" bee and she was a "thesaurus" rex. I taped winning words from past spelling bees on my shirt and we used different synonyms on Bekah's sweatshirt. After being in the freezing cold the race finally started. We started at a nice easy pace and started a wonderful conversation. Then tragedy struck at mile 1.5. Bekah stumbled and sprained her ankle and was unable to finish the race. We waited until some cars from the race came down the mountain and a very nice woman took Bekah to the finish line.

So I was on my own. I ran in Bekah's honour. The run was beautiful. I had lots of good thoughts and saw many cool costumes. I had to make one stop for a bathroom (and wait forever while a group of Goofy's went first) and then I was on my way again. The last 3 miles were pretty hard, but I made it!!!!!!!! Final time 2 hours 25 minutes. I'll take it.



I had to wait around for awhile to try and find Bekah and Linnley. Then we had to wait forever to get the bus back to our car. We chatted with people in line and I felt great. But then, tragedy struck again. As we were standing there (after about 40 minutes) I started to feel a bit lightheaded. Which for me, really isn't anything unusual. It happens sometimes. Typically if I stand still for a second I can recover. However, this time my typical plan was not working. So I put my hand on Bekah's shoulder for balance. Then I remembered that I probably shouldn't expect the girl with sprained ankle to be my support. So I switched to Linnley. As I was standing there my vision started to go a little darker. Then I heard Bekah ask if I was feeling okay, because I was looking a bit flushed. I said my vision was going darker, and Linnley started to say I should sit down. The people next to us said the same thing, so I started to sit down...and then I passed out.



Woops. Guess I didn't put enough sugar in me, even though I ate about 1400 orange slices after the races. I heard people asking me the last time I ate, and a bunch of faces hovering over me. Luckily, Linnley is a runner and had a spare goo in her pocket. She lifted my head up and put goo and some water in me, and I started to feel better. A nice man behind us put my feet up for a few minutes to get my blood re-circulating. Another guy walked by, saw how pale I was and said "you look like you need real food. Here is a granola bar. And some fruit snacks." And then he walked away. As my mother would say, guardian angels were looking out for me. Needless to say, if I ever run another half marathon again I shall now to forget my pride and eat at least 15oo orange slices :)