The Best Six Weeks of Quarantine, EVER

We just finished 6 wonderful "stay home-stay healthy" weeks. Yes, we are still under the stay home order and that doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon (which is sad and frustrating), but the last 6 weeks were delightful. But I need to tell you what happened on September 10, 2019 and then on March 5, 2020 for you to understand why these last 6 weeks were so special.

On September 10th, David and I became known as Papa and Nonni and we welcomed sweet little Alice into the world (well, we weren't exactly there at the time she was born, but we met her shortly thereafter)

We had the best time getting to know Alice and helping Katelyn and Michael adjust to parenthood. Unfortunately, our time with them was way too short and before we knew it, it was time to head back to Spokane and leave them in Logan. Of course, we were grateful for technology and enjoyed FaceTiming and Marco Poloing, but nothing is as good as being with them in person.

Then on March 5th, Katelyn called and said she needed to come home for awhile. There were some problems in her marriage and she needed some time and space away from Logan. So David and I headed to Logan that weekend and picked up our sweet Kate and little Alice Babes.

I used to think that once the children were grown and independent, having them return to the home would be less than ideal. Looking back on that, I realize how selfish that thinking was. In fact, having Katelyn and Alice living with us for six weeks felt just about perfect--like the little family David and I have created was complete once again (because Carson had also returned from Mobile during this time).

You would think that being on lock down would have created some tension (and I suppose if I'm honest I would have to say that there were occasional moments of strife), but Alice brought so much joy to the house. Even Kid loved having Alice around (so many toys to choose from and extra treats to lick up. LOL). We had time for lots of baby snuggles, family walks outside, and having Alice attend virtual work meeting with us. Carson loved making her giggle and Alice loved letting Uncle Carson make her giggle. She was so much fun to get out of her crib after a nap because she woke up happy and always had the biggest grin when someone went to get her out of her crib.

And now, Alice, her mama and her daddy are reunited and living in their own apartment. The apartment is only a couple of miles from our house and we are still helping with child care, but it's not quite the same. The day after Katelyn and Alice moved into the new apartment, Carson said it felt like there was a black cloud hanging over our house. We've rebounded (because of several Alice/Kate visits), but it still isn't quite the same. We are so grateful for the past 6 weeks and the opportunity we had to spend time with Alice and Kate.

The Time the Stores Ran Out of Toilet Paper!

Not only were stores out of toilet paper, they were out of rice, beans, eggs, milk, flour, bread, cereal, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes. Oh yeah and this also happened...

• Schools were closed
• Non-essential businesses were closed
• Churches were closed
• Temples were closed
• Missionaries serving abroad were called home
• Hospitals ran out of PPE and respirators
• Races were canceled or postponed, including the Boston Marathon
• Some national parks were closed
• Theme parks like Disneyland and DisneyWorld were closed
• Hunting and fishing seasons were delayed or closed
• People were told to stay home and limit contact with people
• There were no large gatherings. No celebrations. No weddings (although some places did allow funerals).
• If you went out in public, it was recommended that you wear a mask
• Some states monitored your entry by having you fill out a travel declaration
• Airlines canceled flights

What in the world caused such a disruption to "normal"? A virus called the Novel Coronavirus (COVID 19). It was first noticed in China late in 2019 (I think it was November). But China, being China, hid the infection from the world, under-reported their numbers of affected, and tried haphazardly to contain it. It wasn't long before the virus migrated out of China into other parts of the world. It took the governments of the WHO about 2 1/2 months before they finally said that COVID 19 had reached a pandemic level. And then everything shut down.

COVID-19 hit the elderly and immunocompromised hard! Those populations got very, very sick and overwhelmed the health care systems. In Italy it got so bad that they started rationing health care in such a way that if you were elderly and very sick with COVID-19, you were treated with paliative measures only. In the United States, our hospitals didn't ration care, but they did ration tests and PPE for health care workers. It was a scary time for a lot of people.

So what did it look like to be infected with COVID-19? Well, that's the hard part and what made this social distancing so frustrating. For some, there were high fevers, compromised lung function, kidney failure, cough. For others, it was like having the flu with body aches, fever, and cough. And yet others were completely asymptomatic. For those that did have symptoms, they were sick for about 14 days.

Of course the media didn't help the situation at all. Always one for grandstanding, they highlighted the cases and deaths, but didn't really talk much about the numbers of people whose tests came back negative or who recovered. It was hard to maintain a sense of perspective and not get caught up in the hype. It was also hard to feel like our economy will ever recover from this shutdown. Currently, 10% of the United States' population is unemployed! Even with the $3 TRILLION stimulus package that was passed (completely with small business loans, bailouts for the airline industries, and checks for people making less the $75k or $200k depending on filing status), people are hurting and our economy is at a standstill. Plus, how in the world will we ever be able to repay $3 trillion?

I feel like this was God's way of sending us a practice drill before the Second Coming. It allowed us to see where the holes where in many different systems. It gave families more time to reconnect without all of the distractions. It helped identify what was essential and what could be lived without (apparently, TP is essential). It gave us all an opportunity to live with more grace and understanding for each other. For many people of faith, it was a time to remember that God is in charge and that He knows His people and he will not leave them comfortless. It was also a time when people remembered God and cried out to Him for healing and relief from this pandemic.

We are quite through this yet. We are still on lockdown until May 4th and even then it is uncertain of how many things will be able to open. But I know that we will get through this and hopefully changed for the better because of the lessons we learned during this time.

Hiking my way through summer: Part 2 - The Frank Church Wilderness

The fishermen in the family have long wanted to hike into the Frank Church Wilderness, The River of No Return. The rumors of the elusive golden trout was the draw for them. For me, it was the adventure of it all and, to be honest, not wanting to miss out! The hike did not disappoint!

Just getting to the trail head was an adventure. The road is a dirt road for 25 miles or so. The first 15 miles are nice, as far as dirt roads go, although I could have done without the washboards. The next 10 miles were done at a snail's pace! I think it took us almost 3 hours to drive to the trail head from Salmon, ID. We spent the night at the trail head and got our gear all situated. We scoped out the trail map and then settled in for the night.

We woke up in the morning, had breakfast and broke camp. Ready for the trail. Or at least I thought I was ready. Really I was only sort-of ready for the trail. It was a rugged 11 miles into base camp. We started at over 8000 feet in elevation and climbed to over 9500 feet, but it wasn't straight climbing. There was a lot of steep ups, followed by steep downs, only to repeat the process for all 11 miles. We also had a pretty decent rain shower at the beginning of the hike. I was so glad that the rain only lasted about 30 minutes!

We made Birdbill Lake our base camp as it was in between the other lakes that David and Carson wanted to fish. The fishing at Birdbill was amazing, with David and Carson each catching many, many cutthroats. The mosquitoes at Birdbill, however, were awful! I don't think there is enough mosquito repellent available to keep those little suckers at bay! Carson had a mosquito net for his hammock and I wanted one, too.

Day 2 found us up and early to start our hike into a group of lakes that were supposed to be great fishing. The hike was a repeat of the day before, complete with steep, rugged terrain and some rain. The hike to Big Clear was about 2 miles and then hiking around to the other lakes was another mile or two. It probably would have been shorter if we hadn't had two little misadventures. First was taking the wrong trail as we were trying to cut over to one of the other lakes. We hiked up, up, up for about 15-20 minutes before we realized that it was too steep and not heading the way we needed to be going. After turning around, we had our second little misadventure. We came to a little lake that we thought was the lake we were hiking to and Dave started fishing. He fished that little lake hard! He changed flies about 20 times and moved all around to fish every area of that little lake. The problem was he was at the wrong lake and this was the one that contained NO FISH! Sometimes his stubbornness irritates me. I thought it was clear after about 20 minutes of fishing that this lake had no fish (based off of fishing experiences at the other lakes he had fished in the area), but he was determined to catch a fish there (because he thought he was on Glacier Lake) and worked that lake for almost an hour! Finally, Carson and I got him to admit that there were no fish in the lake and we needed to move on to the other lakes we had planned on visiting that day. With David sufficiently convinced that he was on the wrong lake, we moved on to Gooseneck Lake and then Crater Lake. The fishing was just okay at both of these lakes, and with more rain rolling in, we decided to call it a day and hiked our way back to our base camp at Birdbill. We arrived in camp just in time as the rain and wind really started to kick up. We napped in the tent as the storm raged around us. The rain broke around dinner time. We enjoyed some dinner and a bit more fishing before calling it a day. The clouds broke over night and David and Carson snuck quietly out of the tent to take some star pictures.

Day 3: the theme will always be up early and rugged hiking into yet another lake. This time the destination was Ship Island Lake. It was absolutely stunning!

David and Carson fished their way up the north shore of the lake until we got to the far end.

The fish weren't huge. And the golden trout still remained elusive. Did I say yet that I believe these particular trout are an urban legend? But the boys had an amazing time. The trail was well-defined in some places and then when we got to the far end, we were bushwhacking quite a bit. We found the outlet for Ship Island and followed Ship Island Creek for a little bit. This creek works its way down to the Salmon River, but we did not do that. Instead, we hiked our way back to the outlet and since it was a warmer day, we all took a little swim. The water was definitely chilly, but not the coldest water we have ever been in, either. Soon it was time to begin the trek back to our base camp. Along the way, we stopped at Airplane Lake just long enough for David to take a natural break and inadvertently expose himself to some ladies that were hiking along the lake shore. In his defense, we had not seen anyone all day, heard no voices, and he thought he was in an inconspicuous area. We giggled a bit about this, but also high-tailed it out of there so David didn't have to face the ladies.

We had a final, restful night at camp and talked about how this was one of our most epic adventures yet. We had an early dinner and turned in early, knowing that we would have an early start the next morning.

 Day 4: up early, breakfast, broke camp and headed back up the trail towards the truck and home. Along the way, we ran into a mule train and I thought it might be nice to have a mule to carry my pack out. The boys thought that was heresy. We also ran into a solo hiker who was planning on hiking down Ship Island Creek to the Salmon River and then hoped to hitch a ride with any rafters that might be floating by. I often wonder how that worked out for that guy. After about 5 or 6 hours of hiking, we made it back to the truck completely exhausted, but also completely satisfied with knocking something off of our bucket list.

Hiking My Way Through Summer: Part 1 - The Jewel Basin

I tend have summers where I do things in clusters. Sometimes I am very focused on doing triathlons. Other times, it is bike riding and doing long group rides. Sometimes, I lose track of how many books I have read. This summer seemed to be spent backpacking and hiking (lots of day hikes).

First big backpacking trip was in July with my dad and 2 of my brothers (Nathan and Daniel). I think the idea for the trip began evolving sometime in January. I'm not exactly sure how I secured by invitation to participate in this boys' trip, but by June I was fully committed to going.

At the trail head, first day. Left to right: Craig (dad), Nathan, Travis, Daniel; front: Greg, me (Heather)

We had a couple of different destinations in mind, but settled on the Jewel Basin in western Montana. This was a perfect setting for my first major backpacking trip. First, it is only 30 minutes from Bigfork, where my grandparents live. Second, the trail up to the lakes climbs for about a mile and then levels off to follow a ridge line. So even though we hiked 3 miles into the lakes, it wasn't too bad.

Before I get too much into the hike itself, I have to share some funny stories about what happened before we even got to the trail head.

We were all meeting in Bigfork on July 4th. Daniel was responsible for bringing his bear vault to store food in since western Montana is prime bear country. Well, Daniel and Greg arrive in Bigfork about 3 in the afternoon and Nathan arrives about an hour later. We are reviewing who brought what gear and Daniel grimaces and says "I forgot the bear vault." Daniel...grrr. There isn't much in Bigfork, but there is a REI in Kalispell, 30 minutes away. And miracle of miracles, the REI is open until 6 p.m. We all pile into Daniel's truck and head to Kalispell.

While in Kalispell, Nathan realizes that he and Travis have forgotten their breakfast (oatmeal). Well, wouldn't you know, Walmart is next to REI. We spend about 30 minutes wandering REI making sure that we didn't forget anything else (really, when you walk into REI you should just say, "Here, take all my money."). Then we headed over to Walmart so Nathan could buy some oatmeal. Then it was back to Bigfork for dinner and watching fireworks around the lake.

As we are watching fireworks, the night becomes a bit chilly and everyone starts adding on layers. Greg, Daniel's 10 year old son, goes inside and grabs a blanket. When it was suggested that he put on long pants and a jacket, he responded that he didn't bring any. He had only packed shorts and short-sleeved shirts for hiking in the mountains! He said he got distracted when he was packing. Oh you can bet we gave his dad a bad time about not double checking Greg's packing.

The fireworks end and there is some discussion/disagreement on what time we should head out in the morning. Dad wants butts in seat by 7:30 a.m. Daniel thinks that is ridiculous. He's determined to slow the roll in the morning.

Morning comes and Dad is pacing and antsy starting about 7. We get out the door about 8 a.m. to head back into Kalispel, back to Walmart to find some clothes for Greg. FORTY-FIVE minutes later we are finished at Walmart and off to breakfast. After breakfast, it is finally time to drive to the trailhead.

After a bit of misdirection from the trail guide book, we made it to the trailhead around 10 a.m. We unloaded the gear, checked in with the ranger, snapped a quick picture and then we were off! Like I said, the trail climbs for about the first mile and then levels off for the next 1.5 miles. The last .5 miles into Birch Lake are pretty much down...which means pretty much up on the way out.

Taking a break at the trail junction

Birch Lake is a beautiful place to camp! But, we didn't know that we needed to examine the trails closely for goat fiber! More on that in a minute. During the hike in it was warm, sunny and nary a cloud in the sky. After dinner, there were storms clouds in the distance and over the course of the night, the clouds moved closer and closer. We all called it a night around 10 p.m. and each headed to their own sleeping arrangements. Dan and Greg were in one tent, Nathan and Travis in another. Dad in a hammock under a tarp and me in my own tent. I do not sleep well in the wild.

The rain started about 11 p.m. I tossed and turned, shivered from the cold, and tried to go to sleep. It was a futile effort. The rain stopped about 1 a.m. and then shortly after that, I heard things crash through the bushes. They were big crashes! My heart raced as I listened closely to see if I could figure out what was literally right outside of my tent. Hoof beats. That is what I heard. Relief! And as quickly as the hoof beats came, they disappeared.

I think I drifted off to sleep, only to be startled awake with my dad saying "Bugs, let me in." He got too cold in his hammock. I was happy to let him in! Note: a 2-person tent warms up about 10 degrees when you go from one person in the tent to 2 people in the tent. Dad got in, got settled, and was quickly back to dreamland. I, however, was now wide awake again.

Then the hoof beats returned. This time, there was enough disturbance to wake everyone up. I know they were awake because I heard Daniel saying "Go away bear. Go away bear. Is anyone else hearing this?" Yes, yes we are. I told him I think it is the mountain goats we had heard about from the ranger. Daniel unzips his tent and discovers we are on the goat highway! Those goats are right in our camp.

The goats hang around for an hour or so. After the goats leave, everyone but me goes back to sleep. The rain returns about 5 a.m.

The rain broke about 8 a.m. so we had a quick breakfast and got ready for our day hike to Crater Lake. The hike from Birch Lake to Crater Lake is about 5 miles. It's another fairly easy hike, especially without a 30-pound back on my back! We had a nice lunch at Crater Lake, but didn't stay very long because the mosquitoes were obnoxious!

Lunch at Crater Lake

That night the rain rolled in about 7 p.m. and stayed until about 2 a.m. I learned that my tent has some leaks and having a space blanket inside your sleeping bag is a life-saver (thanks to my brother, Nate, who happened to have a space blanket with him. Always the boy scout.) I slept better. The goats came back about 4 a.m. and stayed about an hour. Then I was up.

We decided we had enough of camping in the rain so we broke camp, snapped another picture (look at the happy faces!) and headed to Glacier National Park to do a day hike or two.

No pictures from Glacier, but we did a hike I've never done. We hiked into Avalanche Lake. It is a 5 mile hike that is totally doable, but we almost broke Greg. He was such a trooper on all of the other hikes, but being tired can get even the best of us. After a little rest, he rebounded and finished strong.

I am so glad I had this time with my dad, brothers and nephews. We laughed, we sang a lot of songs (well, my dad sang a lot of songs), we teased and enjoyed each others company. We also began planning for our next hike!

Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon, June 9, 2019

The picture gives the result, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

I ran my first marathon in May of 2014. It was a completely miserable experience. I was doing a walk/run for most of the last half of the marathon. At about mile 24 I had an older gentleman say to me, "You're much to young to be walking." I remember wanting to punch the guy, but I literally didn't even have the energy to respond to him. I crossed the finish line in about 4 hours 40 minutes. I told David that I had now crossed running a marathon off of my bucket list and didn't need to do another.

But just like childbirth, after a couple of years you forget the pain and discomfort and figure that giving it another shot would be a grand idea. I also was secretly hoping that I would have a much better marathon time and would somehow qualify for Boston. I'm not sure if I even knew what kind of qualifying time I would need to have. Nevertheless, I signed up for my second marathon, the Oktoberfest Marathon in Leavenworth. I ran this race in October of 2016. While I did improve my time and finished in 4 hours 23 minutes, I still thought running the marathon was not a very enjoyable experience. I, again, bonked hard, but this time it wasn't until mile 18.

After 2 miserable marathons, I think most people would have called it quits and moved on to something a bit more enjoyable. But, I was still hungry for a Boston qualifying time. I also knew that I was soon moving up to another age group and the qualifying time for that age group seemed doable. You just needed to run a marathon in a mere 3 hours 55 minutes. I had a work colleague who was 50 years old and she had just run a 3:50 marathon. Certainly I could do the same!

This time I didn't let two years lapse before signing up for my next race. I signed up and ran my first Light at the End of the Tunnel marathon in June of 2017. I had a good race and ran a massive PR, finishing in 3:54:13. This was also a BQ! While David was elated for me, I was crushed because I knew that I had not beat the standard by enough. I wasn't going to Boston. I had done enough research to know that you need to beat it by at least two minutes (and as it turns out, for that year you needed to beat it by 3 minutes 28 seconds to get into Boston).

Feeling like I was so close to my goal, but needed some extra help to get there, I hired a running coach and signed up for the Skagit Flats Marathon in September of 2017. I had an excellent training cycle and was hitting all of my paces going into the race. My coach and I were both feeling confident that I would achieve my goal of running a 3:45. Unfortunately, I made a typical running mistake and started off too fast. I was solid through the first 15 miles, but started to slow at mile 16. Then mile 18 came and I was toast. I pushed until mile 20 and then it was a run/walk to those last 6 miles. I finished that marathon in 3:56:14. Even though I was nowhere near my goal time, I also wasn't far off of my PR. I felt like I could legitimately claim that I was a sub-4 hour marathon runner.

I went into maintenance mode for the rest of year, but prepared to run the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon again in June of 2018. My coach started up my training program in February with the focus on getting me to Boston. Training was going well until disaster struck at the end of April. I was finishing up an easy 5 mile run when I injured my SI joint. To this day, I am not sure how I hurt it, but it took me out of running for several months. I was so sad not to be able to try again for another PR at the LETM, especially since I had several friends who were going to run it that year. I did PT for about 8 weeks and then took it easy through most of summer. I did run a half-marathon at the end of October and finished 3rd overall woman and 1st in my age group! That was certainly a moral booster after the disappointing spring.

Unfortunately, after that half marathon, I hurt my foot. I know now that it was an overuse injury due to poor nerve to muscle communication. I spent November and December seeing the podiatrist and doing a lot of pool running. He released me to run again in January 2019 and just like a kid who has been deprived of her favorite treat, I indulged in being able to run again. I ran lots and lots of miles in those first weeks of January. That, of course, led to re-injuring my foot. This time the podiatrist sent me to physical therapy where I received the instruction to not run at all! Of course I was starting to freak out a little because I had signed up for the LETM back in November. I'm used to a 16-week training cycle to prepare for a marathon and now I was relegated to pool running, biking and yoga. No runnning. No weight training. I threw myself into my PT exercises in hopes that I would be back soon. But little tiny muscles in my neck needed to be re-trained and that just takes time.

Finally, in March of this year I was released to run. That left me 12 weeks to somehow, not only get in marathon shape, but try to be prepared enough to run a BQ time again. My physical therapist told me I needed to be smarter about my training so I looked for a running coach that trained using heart-rate training. The theory is that you run 80% of your runs at an easy effort, 1 run at a medium effort and 1 run at a hard effort. By keeping the effort easy, you increase your aerobic capacity. I figured that training at a slower pace might help prevent injury. I found a couple of great coaches and got to work.

David was completely skeptical of this training approach, not understanding how training at a slower-than-race-pace would have me prepared to meet my goal. I couldn't adequately explain it to him and he wouldn't read the articles I shared with him that explained the concept. So I told him, I'm just going to trust my coaches and the process and see what happens. I also was keying in on different fueling strategies because I was determined to not bonk again at mile 18.

My training went well. I kept my heart rate low on my easy runs. My 5k threshold tests showed that I was improving. I found a fuel that works amazingly well for me (UCAN super-starch). I ran several 18-22 mile runs and didn't ever really feel a bonk, except during PMS weeks. PMS weeks kill me! I can't keep my heart rate down and I'm sluggish on the long runs. The 12 week training cycle was compact, but worked.

Finally, June 9th came! This was probably the most prepared mentally and physically that I had been for a race. I was cautiously optimistic about running a 3:45, but I had also given myself permission to just run and enjoy the day. Whatever happened, happened. I held myself back just a bit in the first couple of miles and then let the course do the work (it is a gentle downhill course so gravity helps!) the rest of the way down. I had told myself that there would be no breaks during this marathon, but at about mile 10 my body was saying different. I took a few minutes to really check-in to see if I could figure out why I was feeling off and discovered that I needed to pee! Fortunately, the course is a trail through the forest so I could find a nice bush to pee behind. Once my bladder was empty, I felt so much better and continued on my way.

I had brought music along to listen to if I felt I needed it at the end. I was prepared to go until mile 18 without it. Mile 18 came and I was feeling awesome so I kept on going, because no breaks, remember. I knew that I would see David somewhere around mile 21 so I kept plugging away. He was with me for about a 1/2 mile and when he left me at mile 22 I decided to plug in the tunes. I'll admit that the brief walk break that I took to get my headphones in and iPod turned on was a refreshing reprieve. And the best part was that the break wasn't long enough to really foul-up my time. I still kept it under a 9-minute mile.

David found me again at mile 25. By this time, I knew it was going to be tight to meet my goal, but as long as I didn't slow down, I would make it. Mile 25.2...exactly one mile left. David ran with me for all but the last 400 meters of that mile. He told me to give it everything I had as I finished. While it wasn't my fastest mile, it also wasn't my slowest. Matter of fact, I ran that last mile in 8:10 and finished strong.

I crossed the line in 3:44:09. I beat the new Boston standard (which is 3:50 for my age group) by almost  6 minutes. While I know that Boston isn't a guarantee, I feel pretty confident that I will be running in the Boston Marathon in April 2020. I can't wait!

The F Word

Yes, that F word.

The four letter word that rhymes with truck.

The mother of all swear words. The word uttered by Ralphie as he watched the bolts he was supposed to be holding go flying through the air. The word that earned him a bar of soap in his mouth as soon as he got home.

I was about Ralphie's age when I first used that word. I think I was yelling at some boy in our neighborhood. My dad must have been the one who overheard me yell the expletive because he is the one who meted out my punishment. My consequence was not a bar of soap in my mouth. That would have been too easy. No, my punishment involved listening  to my dad explain what the F-word truly meant. That it was a derogatory slang word for sex. He then went on to make sure that I understood what sex was. I don't remember his exact words, but I'm sure I was squirming as he was talking to me about the subject. A bar of soap in my mouth would have probably been a preferred consequence.

I was reminded of that long-ago conversation the other day as I read an Instragram post that ended with the 'Grammer saying she ended her workout feeling strong AF. AF is short for "as f ***". AF has become a phrase that people often use to add emphasis to how they are feeling.

But as I read the AF, I had myself a giggle as I substituted the word "sex" for the f-word. After all, that is what the f-word means. So this girl finished her workout feeling strong as sex. Well, good for her.

Then I began to think, what would happen if people really started thinking about what they were saying and using the real word, not the slang term? Can you imagine...

Guilty AF turns into guilty as sex. Wow, if sex is causing you guilt, sounds like an issue that needs to be resolved.

Dirty AF turns into dirty as sex. Well, that says a little more about you than I really want to know.

Happy AF turns into happy as sex. Sex should be a happy thing, so I guess this one isn't too bad.

Or how about, when crying out "F***" in frustration, you just yell out "SEX". Hope that brings you some relief.

Anyway, the point is, I was reminded of my dad's lecture about what the F word really means and the phrase AF sounds pretty silly if you substitute the word "sex" for the f-word.

Oh, after my dad talked to me, I did stop using that word for awhile. I went through a stretch in junior high and high school where it was my favorite word. But sometime during my senior year in high school, I just quit using it. Haven't said it since...and apparently, can't type it out in full either. LOL.

Trail of Terror 13.1 Race Report

Last Saturday I ran the Trail of Terror half marathon. I was the fourth or fifth time that I have done this particular race and it was my best time on the course. Not only did I a PB, I also finished 2nd in my age group and was 3rd woman overall. The weather was perfect for running! About 55 degrees at race time with a slight breeze. Sometimes the breeze was a tailwind and sometimes it was a headwind. I love headwinds. They make feel strong as I push into it!

The race started at noon, which can sometimes make it a little tricky to know how to fuel. This is what I did and it seemed to work out just right! For the two days proceeding the race, I took Nox at bedtime. This supplement helps increase nitric oxide and preps my body for endurance. I also took another Nox at 9 am on Saturday morning. At 8 am on race day, I had my usual breakfast shake. Then 45 minutes before the race I took a pre-workout drink. With 15 minutes to go before the race start, I took my GU stroopwafel that contained a small amount of electrolytes and caffeine. During the race, I took another stroopwafel at mile 8 and an eshot at mile 10. I grabbed water at 2 aid stations (mile 8 and 10).

It's been a few year since I have run this course and it was a lot hillier than I remembered it being. But, I've run a lot of hills so I didn't let the hills worry me. My goal was to run the first 2-3 miles at an 8:45 pace and then pick it up after that. My first mile was a little fast at 8:21, but mile 2 was an 8:44 and mile 3 was an 8:45. After than I did pick up the pace. I felt so strong and confident. My stride felt smooth. Even though I was wearing my Garmin, I decided that I wasn't going to look at it. Sometimes, when I look at my Garmin, I panic about the pace. Because I was feeling so good during this race, I decided to forego looking at my Garmin and just run on feel.

Another goal was no walking. I almost achieved this goal, but at miles 8 and 9 I could feel myself bonking as I was running the hills for the 2nd time. I walked through the aid station at mile 8 as I took in my stroopwafel and then I walked briefly sometime between mile 9 and 10 after summitting another hill. Even with those walk breaks, my paces for miles 8 and 9 were 9:09 and 9:21. I realized that I waited too long to fuel and that is what caused the slower paces. Now I know, so next time I'll do better.

I am so happy for how this race went! My overall pace was 8:33 for 13.1. I'm looking forward to my next training cycle and preparing to get another BQ time.