San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon 2014

Since this race happened a looooong time ago, June 1st, I'm going to do a quick recap with lots of pictures.  If you want a more detailed and entertaining recap go to Steph's blog and read her recap!

The day before the race we met up with some awesome runners for a PRO Compression shake out run.  We met some fun gals and 1 guy ;) and ran 3 miles with them along this beautiful beach!

 Sock Selfie!

 Sarah was so awesome and fun to meet, she set up a little refreshment table and raffle while we were running!

Kristin aka Stuftmama was the cutest and led the crew on a fun run and brought some goodies for us and PRO Compression swag for a raffle.

 Jump to race morning, after Steph and I wandered around and went potty a few times we needed a quick picture before the race started.  As we were getting our picture taken we got photo bombed by these two crazies... Sarah and Monica  I was trying to figure out who was creeping over my shoulder!

 Tall sock twins rocking our favorite socks as always #keepittight

 I loved this part of the race, it was through a huge park and was so pretty!

 We ran the race.... it was Hilly, Humid, and Hot as hell, is how I'd describe it! 

After the race we went into the stadium and watched the Aloe Blac concert for a few minutes!

Kaden and Kenna kicking back, watching the concert.

 After we got all showered up Jake and Steph took us to one of their favorite places to get fish n chips, it was yummy!  I never drink soda but for some reason after a marathon I have to have one, so Steph and I had a toast with our Dr Pepper :D

 We wandered and hiked around some beaches for a while, I think I was a little tired by this time!

My bib and medal, I worked hard for that thing!  I loved running this race with my best lil friend!  We finished in 3:37, it wasn't what we'd trained for but it's what we were able to do that day.  You never know what your body will give you on race day or how the weather will affect you.  It ended up being 78% humidity and 80ish degrees and sunny.  Hard conditions to run in.  I am grateful for this experience and love running and learning from each race I do!

Dino 1/2 Marathon 2014 Recap

This morning our pacing team RunYourRace Pacers got to pace the Dino 1/2 Marathon in Vernal, Utah.  Steph and I were at the front of the pack pacing the 1:40 group.  Many people thought us crazy to want to go to Vernal to run/pace a race.  Little do most people know the hidden gem that is the Dino 1/2 Marathon.  It is a small race, down the beautiful Dry Fork Canyon that's lined with sandstone cliffs and is absolutely beautiful! 

 The sun came up as we were driving up the canyon before the race. 

This crazy fella ran the entire race wearing a blow up dinosaur!

Tall sock twins getting ready to run with the Dinosaurs!

Our pacing crew, they all did awesome and had a great time!

Wait, we need to take a wesie and a sockie ;)

 I loved the scenery and had to take some pictures along the way! 

Today was one of those harder running days, there was a head wind and it heated up fast.  But, we did our pacing job and I'm proud of us for finishing strong, with our official time being 1:39:41.  We placed 3rd and 4th top females (Steph was 2 milliseconds faster then me) and I got 1st place in my age group and Steph got 2nd in her age group.  It goes to show that we worked hard on a challenging course.  We paced this great guy Chad until mile 12, then he took off and finished a minute ahead of us.  He did great and kept thanking us for helping him, that is what pacing is all about and we were so proud he surpassed his planned goal time!

  

Pacing is such a fun and rewarding way to run races.  We get to meet tons of people that share a love for running and help them reach their running goals.  We also get to represent and support some awesome companies that we love; Utah Run, PRO Compression,  Warren Orthodontics, Good2Go Bar, Yogurtland, and  Emergen-C

Our friend Chad told us about this cool hike that not many people know about, it was right off the race course.  We went back later and did the hike and I got to see petroglyphs for the first time in my life.  I was amazed at how awesome they were!  There were even some silly "twins" just like Steph and I ;) 

It was such a fun weekend and I'm so grateful for all of the memories; for Jake, Steph and their kids for being our adopted family, that I got to spend some time with just Kaden, that my parents so willingly kept my younger boys, and for all of our friends that helped us pace and went out of their way to drive to Vernal and pay for hotels to do this with us. I could go on and on but I am functioning on little sleep so I'm going to wrap it up now! Overall a great weekend doing things I love to do! 

Run to Utah Run and a Giveaway

As you might know Jorge, Steph and I have worked hard to put together a pacing team.  Our pacing team is called Run Your Race Pacers of Utah, our pacing blog is ryrpacers.blogspot.com.  We paced 5 half marathons last year and we are getting ready to pace our first event this year, on Saturday.  We are pacing the Dino 1/2 Marathon in Vernal, Utah.  It is a super fun race down a beautiful canyon and we are so excited to have the opportunity to pace it again this year!  At this point in time we are volunteers to the races, we don't make money of off pacing. In order to make this possible we have to go out into the community and reach out to companies to find sponsors for our team.  Jorge and I went into Utah Run a couple of weeks ago and ended up talking to the owner, Aaron, and he agreed to be our teams main sponsor!!! On Monday Steph and I went over and met with Aaron and his buyer, Sarah, and made a plan as to  how we'll work together and we are looking forward to a great relationship with them!  They are going to be providing us with some new pacing shirts and we're so grateful for that!  After we had our meeting Sarah walked us around the store and showed us all of the running gear they carry and of course the cutest and latest trends in running clothes!  She was so knowledgeable and being a runner herself, she knows what runners want and need!  After showing us around the store she told us she'd like us to do a review of some of their products and let us each choose an outfit to wear and review on our blogs!!! So exciting :) 

 This is the gear I received;  an Oakley top,  Nike shorts, Nike Pro shorts for underneath, a  Fruit Loops Bondi Bands headband, a Flip  Belt and some Shot Bloks

 They gave us each a Flip Belt to try out.  I am pretty excited about this because I need to carry my phone when running so my kidlets can call if they need anything. I can't wait to try it on my run tomorrow, the last couple of mornings have been way too cold when we started our ran so we stuck with the treadmill!  Utah Run is the only store in Utah that carries the Flip Belt or you have to order it online. They have tons of colors and sizes available to choose from!  I chose grey since it matches more of my stuff. The Flip Belt is supposed to be the best thing for carrying your phone, keys, and whatever else you need when running and doesn't jostle around. 

 The shirt I chose is an Oakley tank. It is super soft, light, and comfortable.  I love the looser fit and the colors!  I didn't get any chaffing, which is always a plus! 

 I love these headbands by Bondi Bands!  They come in so many colors and designs and are so light you don't even realize you're wearing it.  I chose this cute Fruit Loops one, it is bright and matches pretty much anything! The reason I choose Fruit Loops is because one day on a long run a guy saw me eating my Skittles and asked if I wanted milk with my Fruit Loops, silly man, although I'm sure Fruit Loops would make fine running fuel!

 Yes I am in fact headless ;)  I was looking pretty rough after a killer workout this morning so I'll spare you a shot of my sweaty mug! I love these Nike shorts, they fit well and are a good length. I also had my Nike Pro shorts under, but I'm not showing those off!  

I loved everything they had in the store and am so grateful for the new running gear, one can ever have enough running clothes! If you need anything running related and live in Utah, head over to their new location on main street in American Fork and check them out!  

Guess what!!!!!  Utah Run is letting me give one lucky person a Flip Belt of their very own!  

In order to enter leave me a comment telling me your very favorite running necessity and also like Utah Run on Facebook and let me know you did!  I will choose a winner on Tuesday May 6th! 

20 Mile Shower

On Saturday Steph and I had 20 miles on our training schedule for our San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon training.  We had been watching the weather all week and hoping the weather would cooperate so we didn't have to run the whole thing in the rain.  Between Damon Yauney's weather lies all week and my "smart phones" weather reports I was left wondering and confused as to what the morning would bring.  I woke up at 5 and from what I could see it wasn't raining, I checked my phone and it said the temp was in the 40's, so I dressed in a long sleeved shirt, running skirt and my favorite PRO Compression  socks, boy was I grateful for those later in the morning when my legs were still warm!  As soon as we got out of the car to start our run the sprinkles started. We hit the half way point and turned around, then it really seemed to come down.  

 This picture is from our pit stop around 6 miles, it was wet and raining pretty good.

 We hit 14 miles and were freezing and needed to fuel up so we stopped in the heated bathroom along the Murdock Canal Trail and maybe spent a "few" minutes in there drying off and warming up.  I've never been so grateful for a hand dryer until Saturday!  Except maybe the one time in the bathroom in New York when we got a little silly and had some fun with the high powered dryer, lets just say I lost my gum ;) 

 Yup, we finished all 20 miles and took a wet picture of our soggy shoes and always amazing PRO Compression socks!

 Steph looked at me and started laughing and asked what the heck was on my face!  As we were running along I got slapped in the face by a branch and was sporting some petals on my face for a few miles!

Many people would think running 20 miles is a crazy, horrible endeavor and why would anyone do such a thing to themselves.  I'm not going to lie and say its all Skittles and rainbows and easy peasy, but it is my favorite run of the week and I love a good challenge!  A long run is where you push your mind and body to a different extreme then your daily runs.  I feel such a sense of accomplishment in myself that I can truly do hard things.  It is really hard, at times I wonder if I can really get all the way back to the car when its freezing and raining and I'm 10 miles from getting warm.  Or when I run out of energy and my legs feel like dead weight and I don't know why in the heck I do this to myself.  There are great runs and pretty craptastic ones but us crazy runners always come back for more!  I love getting to run with my RBFF Steph, we can laugh and be silly, we can talk about anything and help each other through lifes ups and downs, we can run in silence and our own thoughts when we have nothing to say or we're struggling and its okay.  Its not very often you find a friend that's more like a sister that loves to run as much as I do and also do other fun things together and with our families!  We also love to organize group runs when it works out.  I have met some of the most amazing people through running and pacing and look forward to this pacing season and all of the adventures to come! 

I love SPRING

 I absolutely love Spring time every year!  After a very long, cold winter its so nice to see the world come back to life again, to be able to go outside without 5 layers on, for the kids to get outside and play, and my most favorite thing is to finally get a break from the treadmill and run outside!  I LOVE running in the spring!

Yesterday Steph and I had 20 miles on our training plan for Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon.  We drove up to Provo and parked and ran up to our favorite running trail, The Murdock Canal Trail. This is one of my favorite views from our run   

 

Pretending that we were "trail" running.  Running on a paved trail is trail running right!?

 

 On a little refueling stop Steph was feeling her jams and I snuck a picture of her getting her groove on!

 

 Of course the #tallsocktwins have to get a foot selfie in!  I love my PRO Compression marathon socks.  I'll post a link below for a discount code on the Sock of the Month!

 

 

 We saw some interesting things on the trail, including a huge group of almost naked men running real fast in only shorty shorts.  I need to learn to not be so self conscious if my running skirt feels to short ;)

 

Selfies aren't my favorite so when we finished I asked a nice fella to take a picture of us.  I should of taken my juice pouch off!  It was funny, as we were running along and chatting with a couple different groups people we talked about how far we were going and they assumed we were going far, is a fuel belt a dead giveaway that you're doing a long run?

 Its amazing what our bodies can do, we pushed ourselves hard and finished our big 20 mile run.  It wasn't easy but its such an accomplishing feeling to put in the work and finish such a long run!

 

 DONE!!!!

 

 

All winter long, except for most Saturdays, Steph and I have been running on the treadmill at the gym.  We are at the gym every morning at 5 and do an hour of weights and then run 8 or so miles on the treadmill in the cardio cinema room.  While I'm grateful to have the treadmill to get my runs done, it starts to get very monotonous and I start dreaming of running outside every day!  We're thinking that its getting light enough that we'll start doing our daily runs OUTSIDE this week, YAY!!! I'm so excited and love running and chatting with my RBFF :)   

 

As you know I love PRO Compression and am an Ambassador for them.  Every month they have a sock of the month special that is 40% off and free shipping.  This month they are doing something pretty awesome! They are helping 2 amazing organizations...

 

How great is that, you get to help a good cause and get some cool socks for you!!! I'd have to say that's a pretty good deal! 

Choose anything purple and a donation will be made to Team in Training.  Choose anything powder blue and a donation will be made to Train 4 Autism.

Use promo code SOM4 to get 40% off and FREE shipping.

You can also choose to get the brand new red, white and blue marathon "tube sock."

Go to PRO Compression and order your socks or sleeves and you'll have them in a few days, they ship fast!