The May race report!

I'm so proactive on this race report that I'm doing it before the end of the month. So basically, I am winning at life. I do have one more race for this month, but it's just a free little local 10K for Memorial Day. I don't know that anything crazy will happen during it, but I'll be sure to report on it if I find a dead body or something else runners are known to do.

I took a break for the first weekend of May so that I could support Scott in running a half marathon at his pace instead of mine. As his significant coacher, I was very curious to know what he could really do. It turns out, he can run a half marathon roughly an hour faster than I can. It was most impressive.

Coming in at a speedy 1:43 and change.

The next weekend, we headed down to Vernal for my favorite half marathon, the Dino Half. I've run this race every year since it began. I have a three minute window of time that I finish this race in every year, too. I was happy to keep that trend going this year.

The weather was perfect, which was a nice change from all of the stormy races I'd been having. The hotel catered to their running guests by serving breakfast earlier than usual. It was nice to have an actual breakfasty breakfast before a race for once. Most of the time I'm eating a package of Poptarts or a peanut butter sandwich in the car on the way to the start.

I got these for the mornings when I can't choose between one or the other. 

The race started and we were off. Scott made a habit of jumping over the cones along the race course. There were an awful lot of cones along this course, so by the end he was starting to regret his life choices. I was just trying to keep moving forward, neglecting the up and down jumping motion. We finished up the race and got a little fuel to head back out on the race course. We had told our friend, Cevan, that we'd come back up to keep him company while he swept the course.

Photo credit: Cevan Skinner.

We ended up with an extra 3.5 miles for the day. In my mind, that little extra is TOTALLY going to help me survive Bear Lake.

Half marathon rock stars. 

The medals for this race are always incredible.

Swag from the race. As always, great stuff!

I was feeling pretty ready to run the Ogden Marathon the next weekend. And then I got sick. Throat burning, fever and sniffles, sick. I left work early on Wednesday to try and get over the worst of it. And by Friday, I was thinking that I was feeling well enough to tackle the race without much difficulty. I am so funny sometimes.

So I meet Jamie at the bus loading area and we head up to the start. Last year, it poured rain the entire race. I figured there was no way that it could do that two years in a row, but I made myself a trash bag poncho just in case. And it's a goof thing, too, because when we got off of the bus, the rain was already coming down.

Trying to be marathon mermaids in our space blankets and trash bags. Photo credit Jamie Eckles. 

We sat around getting rained on for over an hour and a half waiting for the race to start. I was doing my best to try and stay positive about running in the rain. After all, I had my trusty trash bag. Sure, I was starting to feel sniffley again, and my throat was starting to feel raw again. But I had my trash bag! My head was soaked. But I had my trash bag!

The race started and right away, I could tell that things felt weird. My body was really struggling, my breathing wouldn't settle. But I had my trash bag, so I just kept going. I actually HAD to keep going so that I didn't freeze to death. The trash bag was keeping the rain off of most of me, but my jacket collar was wicking water down onto the rest of me. So I was plenty wet. At least it helped keep the wind from cutting through too badly.

I couldn't see my watch because it was buried under my jacket sleeve. So I just tried to run by feel, and my feel wasn't good. I was only walking through the aid stations because if I tried walking at any other point, I would start to shiver. I hit the half mark at about 3:02, which seemed too slow for how nice the course is. It's a lot of downhill so I knew that something was not quite right. There were people dropping out at various aid stations due to the weather. But I am a stubborn gal, so I just kept slogging along.

I thought I was doing much better than I was. I didn't feel that I had slowed as much as I had. I was just pushing the best that I could, to keep warm. The weather finally did break and I was able to feel some sunshine warming my black plastic trash bag. I kept it on for a few miles, not trusting that the sun would stick around. But after I started steaming in my trash bag, I decided to let it go.

I was happy to feel some warmth finally, but I was really feeling drained. Since I didn't have to keep running to keep from freezing, I ended up walking much of those last 4 miles. My breathing felt rough and my heart rate was not where I wanted it. By the time I came into the finish, a new storm cell was rolling in and I got pelted by a little more rain before making it to the end.

Not feeling fine, at all. At least it looks like I'm moving alright. 

Scott, his son, and my mom were all waiting at the finish so that we could go have our celebratory meal at Rovali's Italian restaurant. As we sat down and began to eat, I could barely get anything down. My body wasn't having it. It let me sip on my hot chocolate and eat my minestone soup, but I had to do it slow. I haven't had eating issues after a race since my first few marathons. I tried to eat my lasagna but I could only get a few bites in.

The rain ate my race bib.

By the time we made it home from the race, it was clear to me that I was still sick. Really sick. I had developed a wicked cough that is still with me as I write this. But I had another marathon to run, and so I did!

The Jordan River marathon was yesterday. I had been out late the night before, watching Scott's band play a rockin' show.

If we're not running, we're rocking.

I managed to get three and a half hours of sleep before the race. No big deal, right? I had gotten decent sleep the whole week before, so I should have been fine. But, surprise surprise, I wasn't! I am playing a game right now that I call "sick or allergies?".  Basically, it's me trying to figure out if I am still sick or if my allergies are so bad that I feel like I'm dying.

The race had 86 people in in. That means that when it started, everyone else took off at break-neck speed and left me plodding along behind. No big deal, it's not the first time and it won't be the last. I tried to keep a positive attitude, but I felt horrible, physically, so it wasn't easy. I spent most of this race all by myself. One lone girl, race bib pinned on, zombie shuffling her way down the trail. I hoped that there were still racers up ahead of me, so that the regular trail users would know I was actually in a race and not just playing dress up.

Scott had driven to the finish and was going to get his miles in for the day by running up the trail to meet me and then running with me until the end. He ended up with 2 more miles than he needed because of how far behind I was. I was 16 minutes behind where I should have been when he caught up to me, and it got worse from there. I was only able to shuffle out 15-16 minute miles. Everything in my body was rebelling. My stomach was resisting my attempts to eat my gels. My lungs were resisting attempts to breathe. It ended up taking me 6:32:39 to finish. By some miracle, I beat two people. Don't ask me how it happened, because I honestly don't know.

Smiling because I am done and don't have to run anymore. Photo credit Scott M. Stringham.

We went out for our post race meal, and I had the same stomach issues that I had after Ogden. I kept feeling nauseous. I would eat a couple of bites and have to stop so that it didn't come back up. I was completely and utterly exhausted and even my beloved queso and chips couldn't save me. If I could have gotten more of it in me, maybe it could have.

Two shirts from this race, the bottom one is amazing. The running party is the best party. 

So after weeks of feeling like I'm going to die while running, I should really find out which ailment it is I am suffering from. Allergies? Possibly. Sick? Possibly. My cough isn't going away, so it may be time for a trip to the doctor. But we all know that runners are no good at going to the doctor when something is wrong.

If I don't go, I don't have to ignore them when they say "no running allowed".

So that brings y'all up to speed on my month of "racing". It's a loose term at this point. June is going to be nuts, so hold on for that train wreck. Until next time, happy running!