Ogden 26.2: Week THIRTEEN

It's that lovely time of the week again!  Thirteen down, five to go!  Are ya'll sick of it yet?  I kind of am.  ;)
Kidding.  I still love running!

So look at that chart.  One of those numbers is NOT like the others!

On Tuesday, I ran Bonneville.  Ashley isn't really running much anymore (and she's having a girl!), so I was a lone ranger, but that's okay.  I enjoy the solitude of the trails.  Wednesday was speedwork.  It hurt.  It usually does, which is why I rarely do it.  After Ogden, I will be focusing on getting faster, so speed work and I will need to develop a better relationship.  Blah.  I really should have run on Thursday, but I was just too tired.

So today was my first 20-miler!  Phew!  I did it.  And it wasn't that bad, really.

Originally, my plan was to meet up with the BIG group and run down a canyon in Herriman.  But then just a few days ago, my babysitting fell through.  I decided I had better run much closer to home so I could get home earlier.  Joshua, Kasie & Christy decided to join me, which was flattering, because this meant they would not be running with Robert Merriman, and that's quite a sacrifice.  ;)

Joshua and I went back and forth on where we should run.  Ten miles up Emigration and then back down?  Ten miles down Emigration, drive back up, then do another ten down?  We met up early this morning, and it turned out Kasie had gone to bed too late, and Christy wasn't feeling well, so it was just us.  Joshua made the brilliant suggestion of driving up to the top, running down 5, then up 5, and then down 10.  But when we got to the top, he then made another brilliant suggestion of leaving the car at 10, running 5 further up, then back and then the last 10 down.  (does this make sense?  It did to us....).

So that's what we did.  It turned out to be a lot hillier than I wanted, but we did it.  About a mile past the top, we got to Little Dell Reservoir.  Just past that, the road was closed off to traffic.  For the next several miles, we had the entire road to ourselves!  It was perfect.

It was UPHILL.  Oh, the uphill.

Halfway up, we came across a Mormon history site.  There was a plaque talking about how a group of pioneers had camped there on the river.  There was a quote by Orson Pratt at the bottom, and I LOVED it.  It was so fitting!

We kept trucking along.  Up and UP.  I think what made it the most bearable was how absolutely gorgeous it was.  And the stories Joshua told me....

When we hit the 5-mile mark, we sat our tired butts down right in the middle of the road (because we could!) and ate some food and let our legs rest for a few minutes.  That was lovely.  And I was FREEZING!  See that snow on the side of the road?  It was chilly.  But once we got back down a few miles, I was completely warm again.

The best part is that what goes up, must go DOWN, so we got to run back down the torturous mountain we had just climbed.  That was fun.  But still tiring.

When we got back to the reservoir, a wonderful sight was waiting there for us:  CHRISTY!!!!

We were so happy to see her!  She woke up feeling better, so she had come to run the rest of the way with us.  We dragged ourselves up the last BIG hill.  Then we had 10 miles of all downhill.  Phew!  Mentally, it was nice to just relax and not stress about hills, but my body was feeling it.  I hurt!  My feet and calves hurt the most.  But with running, you sort of reach a point of pain where you know it's not really going to hurt any worse, so you just push through it and eventually sort of become numb.  Sounds awesome, right?  ;)

Around Mile 15, I took a salted caramel Gu, and that was good!  I decided to push my pace just a tad.  I lengthened my stride, which uses different muscles.  It felt good to rest some of my other muscles and use others.  I was able to keep that up until we hit Ruth's diner, where the blessed Honey Bucket lives.  We love that porta-potty!  See?

 The last 4 miles were tough.  Painful.  But we powered through!  We had to run once around the Village to reach 20 miles.  I was SO happy to hear my watch beep at 20.  TWENTY MILES DONE!!

Here are the hills.  They don't look that steep here.  But they were.  Trust me.

It's easy to see how my mile splits where the hills were at Miles 4/5 and 9/10!  SLLOOOOWWW!!!

And of course we had to go stuff our faces at the taco stand after.  It's tradition, now.  YUM.  I love eating food after burning 2000 calories!!

So just remember.  When you are faced with a mountain that you feel like you cannot tackle, "Labor diligently upon the road."  I have felt the Lord's hand in my marathon training journey.  I am doing my part, putting in the WORK, and He is doing the rest.  It is amazing.

FOUR hours of running.  Sore legs.  Christy convinced me to take an ICE BATH when I got home.  So I went and bought a 20 lb bag of ice and dumped it in the tub.  Stepping into that bath was the worst moment of my LIFE.  The pain was so intense, I felt like I was going to pass out!  But after about two minutes, my legs were numb, and then it was fine.  Christy texted me during the whole time and got me through it!  I stayed in there for 10 minutes.  It really does help with the soreness and muscle cramping.  I don't know if I can bring myself to go through it again after my next long run, though!!

Our overall time was a little slower than I was hoping for, BUT the hills.  OH THE HILLS.  So, speaking of hills, Joshua made a little video for our sweet friend, Cindy Ford Hills.  She is awesome, and she DID help me run up some big hills a few weeks ago on our 17-miler.  You guys will perhaps think it's odd and that Joshua is crazy, but this is just so him.  Twenty miles with him was a blast.  He's freaking hilarious.  Go ahead and click on the video and meet Mr. Joshua.  He's such a goof, and we all love him for it!  (and I love how Christy and I are just standing there watching him act crazy like it doesn't even phase us.  Because it doesn't.)

Post by Joshua Snow Hansén.