Utah

John was gracious enough to allow me to ditch out on my responsibilities at home so I could attend Women Conference at BYU again this year.  He does such a great job taking care of the kids and the house while I am gone.  He never complains that I leave him for 4 days.  (Unlike I do when he leaves me when he goes out of town).

Women Conference this year was great.  However, I did not take one single picture.  I had a great time.  All the classes I went to were fantastic. I had fun being with all my friends.  This year our group was really big.  It was fun meeting new people as well since I shared my room with a group from Arizona.  They were really good roommates.

After Women Conference was over Shannon picked me up and brought me back to her house.  Janeen, Shannon and I decided to run the Provo Half Marathon on the Saturday after Women Conference.

I had trained for 12 weeks. While training I had some good runs and some not so great ones.  But I had been able to run all the long runs that was on the training schedule I was following. I was super nervous for the race. I just wanted to do well.  I had trained at 12 minute mile pace.  However, I really wanted to be able to come in under 2:30.  I was pretty sure that was impossible.

Well, race day arrived and it was a cold morning up the canyon where we had to wait an hour and a half for the race began.  Janeen had been sick for two days before and was still running it. I was super impressed with that.  She wasn’t sure she could make it but she was going to try.

Luckily for Shannon, Janeen and I we all ended up doing really well.  Shannon ran much faster than Janeen and I and accomplished her personal best time.  Janeen and I ran together for the first 10 miles.  Then Janeen hit a wall. It was so sudden.  She was running and then all of a sudden stopped. I think she ran out of fuel.  Her poor body hadn’t had enough food or substance in it since she had been pucking and pooping so much.  (Janeen aren’t you glad I included all of this in my blog post?).  I ran on a head and was able to run all of it. The last mile I was so weepy. I was just so happy that I was actually able to run the whole thing.  I passed the first apartment John and I lived and I burst into tears.  I them composed myself.  Then I saw a young man who was running the race being greeted my his parents.  Their smiles were so big.  You could tell they were so proud of him. I burst into tears again. I came into the finish and I saw my nieces, Kenzie and Ellie and I cried again as they ran the last part of the race with me.  I was just so happy that I ran a half marathon (without getting lost and without stopping). I was even more thrilled when I came in at 2:26.  It was a full 13 minutes faster than I trained at.  Janeen came in just two minutes after me.  She was able to finish nice and strong too and under the 2:30.

It really was such a big accomplishment for me. It may not be the best time for some people but it seriously was the best I could do.  There is absolutely nothing I could have done differently to have made it any more successful for me.  I felt so proud of myself. I had done it.  It was so great that I was able to do it with my sisters too.  They were great cheerleaders.  While training I would call them cursing their names for getting me into this mess.

After the race I went to call John. I saw I had three text messages.  One from John asking how I had done.  The others were from my good friends, Jenny and Christine wishing me well. I burst into tears again.  How did I get to so lucky to have such supportive friends and family.  Even my friend Terry Bennett stayed in Utah and watched me cross the finish line.

After the race Terry and I decided that instead of staying in Utah one more night that we would just head home. I drove from Provo to Cedar. When I got out of the car and went to walk I couldn’t without being in pain.  Luckily, Terry drove the rest of the way home for me.  It took me three days to not feel pain in my legs.  However, it took me much longer to get over the physical exhaustion. I was so beat.  I was pretty sure that my thyroid levels were messed up. I googled it to see if long distance running can mess with your thyroid levels and it can. In fact it said that a person with the thyroid disease has a much harder time running long distances than the average person. It said it was a really hard thing to do.  This made me feel even better about myself. I try not to let this stupid thyroid disease determine how active I am or how much weight I gain.  But the truth is it does affect it.  I was just happy that I was able to complete this half marathon with this little extra hurdle in my way.  Today I went to the doctor and sure enough my levels were too low so my meds have been up-ed.  I am hoping to get back some of my energy again.  It will be nice to start to feel normal again.  I have started back to my regular running again too.  And while it makes me tired to run it also gives me the oomph I need to get through my day. Usually it doesn’t take too long though for the new meds to start working so I am sure I will be back to my regular pace soon.

Since January I have been watching what I eat really closely. I am not always the best at sticking to what I should eat but I try to do good.   With the new diet as well as running and walking I have lost 20lbs. It feels good to be 20lbs lighter. And I am happy I have lost it. Now if I could just lose 20 more.  One day at a time.

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My cute nieces, Kenzie and Ellie

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Freezing before the race

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After the race

We Did It!

 

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