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St. George Half Marathon

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Location:

UT,

Member Since:

Oct 14, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

85 marathons, 5 times Utah Grand Slam finisher (division winner twice).

7 Bostons (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016).

Two 50Ks, one 50 miler (Pony Express).

A handful of AG wins in all distance races.

Marathon PR: 3:57:09 (Boston'08)

Half Marathon PR: 1:48:41 (Bryce Canyon '11)

10K PR: 47:50 (Spectrum 10K '09)

5K PR: 22:31 (Nestle 5K '08)
 

Short-Term Running Goals:

2017 Races:

June 10 - Utah Valley Marathon (5:13:43)

June 24 - Morgan Valley Marathon (5:49:01)

July 8 - Hobbler Half (2:19:37, 2nd AG)

July 24 - Temple to Temple 5K (27:43)

July 29 - Timp Half (2:08:01, 3rd AG)

Aug 26 - Mt. Nebo Marathon (5:16:16, 3rd AG)

Sep 16 - Huntsville Marathon (4:48:53)

Oct 7 - St. Geroge Marathon (4:57:11)

Nov 4 - Canyon City Marathon (5:30:07)

2018 Races:

Jan 13 - St. George Half (2:19:45, 3rd AG)

Mar 3 - The Woodlands Marathon (5:01:35)

Apr 6-7 - Ragnar So. California

June 1-2 - Ragnar Wasatch Back

June 9 - Utah Valley Marathon (5:19:22)

June 30 - Morgan Valley Half

Sep 1 - Pocatello Marathon (6:00:43)

Sep 15 - Huntsville Marathon (5:37:08)

Oct 6 - St. George Marathon (5:25:43)

Oct 20 - SoJo Marathon (5:29:23)

2019 Races:

June 1 - Utah Valley Marathon (5:44:24)

June 22 - Morgan Valley Marathon (6:15:13)

Aug 31 - Pocatello Marathon (5:38:47)

Sep 14 - Big Cottonwood Marathon (6:03:51)

Oct 5 - St. George Marathon (5:57:46)

Oct 12 - SoJo Marathon (5:55:45)

2020 Races:

Jan 18 - St. George Half (2:38:28)

Feb 15 - Sun Marathon (5:51:54)

May 5 - Conquer Covid-19 Virtual Marathon (5:49:07)

May 16 - Clear Creek Canyon Half Marathon (2:32:15)

May 25 - Utah Valley Virtual Marathon (5:33:110

June 9 - Independence Run Virtual Marathon (5:55:22)

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Run happy and healthy all the days of my life. Be an example and inspiration to my family.

 

Personal:

I'm 64, retired RN, happily married, nana to 14 beautiful grandchildren, mother to 6 children (1 daughter, 5 sons) who are kind, hardworking, caring, wonderful people! Wish they live closer!!!  :)  :)  :)

Picked up running in 2005 at age 50, to stay healthy so I can take care of my husband who had endocarditis resulting in AVR and MVR in 2004, end stage renal failure in 2014, kidney transplant on Dec 30, 2015.  Six months after the kidney transplant, we discovered that he has a rare auto-immune disease that was probably triggered in 2004 with then the undiagnosed infective endocarditis.  The doctors had to make up a name for this rare disease, Monoclono Gammopathy with Renal Significance (MGRS).  It is not curable.  After desperately trying different chemotherapies, the doctor finally found one immuno-therapy, Daratumamab, that works to treat the MGRS.  It is a miracle!!! 

Grateful for the gift of life, blessings, dear friends and loved ones!!! Thankful for the ability to move, walk, jog, and yes run!!!!

 

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony Guide ISO Wide Lifetime Miles: 311.91
Saucony Guide ISO Lifetime Miles: 313.31
Sacony Guide ISO (2) Lifetime Miles: 225.26
Altra Torin (sz 7) Lifetime Miles: 44.49
Saucony Guide 10 (2020) Lifetime Miles: 60.91
Race: St. George Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 02:38:28, Place in age division: 5
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.100.000.000.0013.10

Got up at 7:00.  Breakfast of oatmeal in half n half, with 1/2 banana, few raspberries and blueberries.  6oz water.  Lowell and I left the house at 8:35 as planned.  Got to Dixie Center with 18 min to spare.  Met up with Amanda and Hailey.  Used the restroom then walked to the start.  Saw Karen and Evan Tree so visited with them a bit while waiting to start.  The announcer said starting temp was 25F.  Race started right on time at 9am.  We jumped in after the 2:30 pacer.  Karen, Evan, Lowell, Hailey and Amanda quickly ran off ahead.  I just loved this fun atmosphere of this race with over 700 participants.  Well, mainly I like races where we just walk up to the start instead of riding the bus to the start! :)

My only goal is to finish this thing before the time limit of 3:30.  I broke my tail bone on Oct 17 last year and hadn't run for the next 6 weeks.  I ran a handful of times in December.  In January I did 9 runs, mostly short runs on the Legacy Center tiny indoor track.  The longest run was last Fri on the MTC for 11 miles. which took me about 2.5 hours.  I had not worn a GPS watch for months.  This morning Lowell slapped on my wrist one of his older Garmin watches and showed me the start/stop button.  So I decided to start running at every 5 min interval, walking for 30 sec. in each interval, so run 4.5 min and walk 30 sec.  I also walked through every aid station taking a cup of gatorade and a cup of water.  I ate a Gu at the third aid station which is just before mile 7, so at half way.  I took off my headband at mile 5, shed the jacket after taking the Gu at half way.

The first couple miles were on River Rd with gradual incline.  The next three miles were running up to the Bloomington Hill neighborhood and by the golf course.  Then the course spilled out on Brigham Rd for the first of two significant inclines up to mile 7.  Then we dropped down for a quarter mile and turned into the trail.  I saw a group of family members cheering on couple of ladies ahead at the turns before the trailhead.  Then I recognized Barbara, mother of Kathie Phillips.  I asked if Kathie was running this to which she said no.  Soon I caught up to the two ladies and recognized Kim (Kathie's younger sister) right away.  We exchanged hugs and chatted a bit.  It was SO great to see her.  I tried to hang with her but she's a much stronger runner than me.

Around mile 9.5 my left calves started to cramp so I walked and pulled out the Hyland cramp tablets which I dropped at which time a lady looked to me in my age group passed me.  I looked at my time after mile 10 and figured if I kept a 13min pace I'd make it under 2:45.  I was leapfrogging with a young man who has some kind of vascular disease that affects his left lower leg.  His left calf is bigger than the right calf and has very visible bunches of varicos veins.  I encourged him along with a taller man who was coughing at one time.  Since I was coughing quite a bit from my asthma, I asked if he too has asthma to which he said no and that he just had a cough.  He was very complimenting of my run despite having asthma.  Anyhow, I had the usualy cough, blow nose, spit during the walk interval.  Never did get into wheezing mode so I was not pushing the pace at all.  Now with 5K to go, I just concentrate on not letting my pace got higher than 12:30.  I passed the lady (who might be in my AG that passed me earlier) at mile 11 and never saw her again until after the finish.  When I passed the 12 mile marker, I called Lowell to let him know I had one mile to go.  He had of course already finished and was planning to run back to find me.  He said, "one mile left ?!! liar, liar, pants on fire!" Then I said, yep, see you in 15 min. and we both laughed.

Saw him soon at a bend looking down at his phone.  I yelled out to him and just in time for the walk break and he pranced right along and then sprinted ahead to snap a few pictures of me.  He said he told Larry when I called so he'd be at the shute before the finish.  I waved to Larry and looked ahead at the finisher clock showing 2:39:xx.  So happy to have finished in 2:38, well under the 3:30 time limit.  Lowell ran a 2:13 and won his AG. 

A little side note:  The last time I ran this was in 2018.  I crossed the finish line with TJ in 2:19 and we both took 3rd in our AG.  It's sad to realize how much slower I've gotten over the last few years.   Today we had perfect weather, in the 30s, sunny no wind.  Legs felt good.  We walked over to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  After shower at Lowell's house, we drove home in the afternoon.  Larry commented that I should just do Halfs from now on, so much easier on the body and on him! Haha!!!

 

Saucony Guide ISO Miles: 13.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments
From Rhett on Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 10:09:58 from 66.185.226.102

Smooth, as always your race reports are inspirational. Good job staying way below 3:30!

I like how Larry thinks. I'm going to be running a half in April here in Havasu. It's been a years since I've run one.

From Jon A on Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 10:20:25 from 65.155.232.74

Great to see an update. I don't know why I haven't been getting any notifications about blog posts, until today.

What a great run!

Jon and Kelly

From Burt on Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 19:58:43 from 98.165.212.26

Way to be strong Smooth!

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