What have I been up to since I last posted? A lot! Yes, I've been busy. No, I haven't been sitting around eating bon bon's. Maybe a cupcake here and there but that's entirely different. Ha. In May of 2014 I went to the RRCA Convention held in Spokane, WA and took the running coach certification course. It was the first time they offered the course as part of the annual convention and I'm so glad I got to take part! We got to enjoy the convention perks in addition to the course. It was a weekend of great information and fun. I traveled across the state with a good friend, listened to interesting and sometimes humorous instructors, met new friends, ran in the Bloomsday race and got to listen to Deena Kastor! Best yet, when I got home, I took the test online and passed with flying colors!
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| Check out all the loot that came home with me! |
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| My nifty new logo! |
As for me, I had running goals too. I ran my first 50K in Feb. of 2014. Oops, that happened before all the coaching business. That's okay. I'll stick with the out of order state of this blog. I ran the entire distance with a super awesome 70 year old woman who runs 100 mile races. Inspiring to say the least! I loved listening to her stories as we ran along. I also remember telling her I doubted I'd ever go farther than a 50K. Oh, silly me, you think I'd have learned to never say never by now.
After that 50K I took a break from racing for awhile (other than Bloomsday). Mentally I needed the breather and that seemed to coincide nicely with what my body was planning for me. Over the summer I still worked out but rather than running lots of long miles I enjoyed hiking and camping with the family. In September my husband and I took a trip to Hawaii (our first ever) for our 20th wedding anniversary (which was in June but June is too busy to celebrate). And the rest of the time I was sick. Well, it felt that way. Actually, I got a sinus infection right before Hawaii but it cleared up on the plane ride over. Literally, my ears cleared when we got up in the air and ... poof ... I was all better, thank you, Lord! However, once we arrived back home I struggled with 3 more rounds of sinus infections, a couple bouts of the flu, colds ... it was awful! I had hoped to run the annual Snohomish River Half Marathon since it's our hometown race but had to drop to the 10K. Oh my, worst 10K of my life. I should have skipped it. I was sick over the Seattle Marathon which was just as well, since I was too sick to train. I was a sad puppy. Meanwhile, my daughter began having chronic, daily, 24/7 migraines that lasted from January to early summer. It was bad. Bad enough we had to pull her out of high school. Thankfully, she's all better now and is enrolled in the alternative high school, which has allowed her to catch up on missed credits and has a much better schedule for her needs. But it was a rough going there for awhile.
Come spring I was finally able to start training again. By this time we knew my daughter would be okay if I was out running (I didn't want to leave her for awhile there - I logged more than a few treadmill miles) and I was healthy again too. I signed up for the Vancouver USA marathon in June. I was finally going to run another marathon! In March I ran the Cupcake 5K with my client and friend, Lisa. It was her first race ever and she pushed through a lot, lot, lot of rain to cross that finish line. It was a huge moment for her. It was a huge moment for me too, as a coach. She did awesome and her joy was contagious.
In April, I registered for the Mud & Chocolate double weekend - a 4.5 mile trail run on Saturday with another client/friend (she rocked it, by the way) and then the half marathon on Sunday. I was ready for a great weekend of racing! Two days before the race I had an IBS attack. These are rare for me and best guess is the stress of my daughter's health brought it on. Regardless, the pain was so bad it made me pass out. I don't make passing out a regular habit. My poor daughter found me lying on the floor at the base of the stairs. My daughter asked, "Mom, should we call dad?" Being the crazy runner that I am, the first thought I had was, "No way! He won't let me race!" Well, we ended up calling the walk in clinic, just to be safe, and they told me to go to the ER, just to be safe. Ugh. I called my husband and we had a great date night at the hospital. Not really but you gotta make the most of a bad situation, right? By the time the doctor saw me I was feeling much better. I had fun setting off the heart rate monitor every time my resting heart rate dropped below 50 bpm, and let's face it, enjoyed hearing them tell me how strong my heart was. Yes! Hard work pays off! Proof is in the pudding, baby! They did an EKG to be safe and declared me fit and able to run my races over the weekend. So, the plus of all that waiting time in the ER was doctor permission to race. The race was awesome, by the way.
After that 50K I took a break from racing for awhile (other than Bloomsday). Mentally I needed the breather and that seemed to coincide nicely with what my body was planning for me. Over the summer I still worked out but rather than running lots of long miles I enjoyed hiking and camping with the family. In September my husband and I took a trip to Hawaii (our first ever) for our 20th wedding anniversary (which was in June but June is too busy to celebrate). And the rest of the time I was sick. Well, it felt that way. Actually, I got a sinus infection right before Hawaii but it cleared up on the plane ride over. Literally, my ears cleared when we got up in the air and ... poof ... I was all better, thank you, Lord! However, once we arrived back home I struggled with 3 more rounds of sinus infections, a couple bouts of the flu, colds ... it was awful! I had hoped to run the annual Snohomish River Half Marathon since it's our hometown race but had to drop to the 10K. Oh my, worst 10K of my life. I should have skipped it. I was sick over the Seattle Marathon which was just as well, since I was too sick to train. I was a sad puppy. Meanwhile, my daughter began having chronic, daily, 24/7 migraines that lasted from January to early summer. It was bad. Bad enough we had to pull her out of high school. Thankfully, she's all better now and is enrolled in the alternative high school, which has allowed her to catch up on missed credits and has a much better schedule for her needs. But it was a rough going there for awhile.
Come spring I was finally able to start training again. By this time we knew my daughter would be okay if I was out running (I didn't want to leave her for awhile there - I logged more than a few treadmill miles) and I was healthy again too. I signed up for the Vancouver USA marathon in June. I was finally going to run another marathon! In March I ran the Cupcake 5K with my client and friend, Lisa. It was her first race ever and she pushed through a lot, lot, lot of rain to cross that finish line. It was a huge moment for her. It was a huge moment for me too, as a coach. She did awesome and her joy was contagious.
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| 5K Finisher! |
In April, I registered for the Mud & Chocolate double weekend - a 4.5 mile trail run on Saturday with another client/friend (she rocked it, by the way) and then the half marathon on Sunday. I was ready for a great weekend of racing! Two days before the race I had an IBS attack. These are rare for me and best guess is the stress of my daughter's health brought it on. Regardless, the pain was so bad it made me pass out. I don't make passing out a regular habit. My poor daughter found me lying on the floor at the base of the stairs. My daughter asked, "Mom, should we call dad?" Being the crazy runner that I am, the first thought I had was, "No way! He won't let me race!" Well, we ended up calling the walk in clinic, just to be safe, and they told me to go to the ER, just to be safe. Ugh. I called my husband and we had a great date night at the hospital. Not really but you gotta make the most of a bad situation, right? By the time the doctor saw me I was feeling much better. I had fun setting off the heart rate monitor every time my resting heart rate dropped below 50 bpm, and let's face it, enjoyed hearing them tell me how strong my heart was. Yes! Hard work pays off! Proof is in the pudding, baby! They did an EKG to be safe and declared me fit and able to run my races over the weekend. So, the plus of all that waiting time in the ER was doctor permission to race. The race was awesome, by the way.
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| Mud & Chocolate with new Trail Runner, Heidi |
The following weekend I said to my husband, "The trail for the Mud & Chocolate was so nice. Let's go run our long run on it together". What could go wrong, right? We were one mile in when an evil rock, hidden by a drain pipe, grabbed my foot and threw me to the ground. My husband said I went down with such ease and grace (no, really, he wasn't being sarcastic) he thought for sure I was going to be fine. But I wasn't. I was able to walk back out on my own but by the time we got home my ankle looked like this.
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| Isn't it pretty? Now I'm being sarcastic. |
I ran the Beats Half Marathon in July before we headed to Yellowstone for a fun family camping trip. Hubby and I managed to get out for a 4 mile run while there but for the most part, our exercise consisted of a bit of hiking and getting out of the truck to take pictures of bears, elk and bison and getting back in the truck again. In other words, I wasn't really training which had me a tad bit nervous about my upcoming challenge. My second ultra, the 12 Hour Hamster Endurance Run, in August. Yep, I'd signed up for a race because of it's name and shirt (I've always loved hamsters) and was going to run it on very little training. Go me! But that's a story for my next blog. That's right, I'm going to leave you with a teaser. If you wanna know how I did you'll have to check back in. I promise I will write the race report! I'll try and not make it as long as this one but ... two years of catch up, my friends! It takes awhile!
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