Negative Ned

This is a name that my friend's family calls her when she is being negative. I feel like my interview was a little negative today. I wish I could do it over again. I actually do like to run and I liked it even more so today. I think my good runs have a lot to do with the weather and whether or not I am running alone or with someone. Today on our last run together the weather was perfect. We didn't run very much but I enjoyed every bit of it. I even caught up to you Jen but you may have been going slower than usual. Thats okay it felt good either way. So what I am saying is that this has been an enjoyable experience for me. Even though I am not as close to everyone as ya'll are, I am grateful I was able to come in and join the group. I know I never wouldv'e done this on my own. Thanks girls for all of your help and guidance. Good Luck with the marathon! I am just a little sad I am running the half but I remember when I started this training I thought I couldn't even run a mile without dying. Look how far I've come. One day maybe I'll do a marathon too. Okay I know I will. I'm hooked. I don't know what I am gonna do with all my Saturdays now. I have to watch my kids!

I am a new woman... and runner.

So, I've been having some issues. As in things preventing me from enjoying my runs. I know, you non-runners out there are thinking "why would you ever enjoy running?" but I truly do, and when something hurts, let me tell you, it puts a major cramp in my style-- literally.

I finally broke down (yes, sobbing the ugly cry at the realization I may have to run 26.2 miles in miserable pain, or worse yet, may completely destroy my body in the process) and made an appointment with a physical therapist. It was two weeks before the race, and I had to travel to Southern Utah for work for two days, so by the time I would get in for my appointment, I would have a week and a half to the big day. That's not much time to get myself in ship-shape and rehabilitate, but at that point I was desperate.

On Wednesday, I went into South Mountain Sports Medicine in Draper. I went in my running clothes and running shoes, not really knowing what to expect. The therapist, Charles, was WONDERFUL!!!!! He examined, and poked, and pushed, and prodded in all the hurtful places, then we got right to work making me better. I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot, and have been experiencing some pretty bad knee pain. He quickly determined it was my MCL, and that the plantar fasciitis in my foot was pretty severe. His crew went through all sorts of stretches with me, then massaged my injuries with what I believe is magic gel, then ultra-sounded my knee (no, there's no baby in there, just my knee. Sorry to disappoint all the Mormon women who are praying for my future offspring to make what they believe to be a long-awaited and over due appearance. Guess they'll have to continue to wait in Heaven, much to my wickedness and demise.) and then, they stuck little electro-shockers on my leg, strapped me up with ice, and proceeded to torture me by rubbing an ice cup on my foot, and holding me down so I couldn't squirm. Yes, it hurt and made me never want to look at an ice cube again, but by golly, it WORKED! That same day I was feeling much much much better, and today I went back, redid the whole routine, and once again, I am feeling BETTER! My foot feels like it's clearing up, and the pain in my knee has gone down.

Praise the Lord, give me some Hallelujahs, because I have seen the light! I've been healed! (okay, maybe not completely and miraculously healed, but they did save my marathon dreams, and I am eternally grateful). I am now recommending all of you go in and see this fabulous man and let him torture you so you too can feel pain free again! I am going in 3x next week, in hopes the healing will continue and I will be at 100% come April 19th.

I'm a believer!

Help!!!

I want to thank our readers again, for #1: even reading our blog... and #2: posting such helpful and supportive comments. Thanks to all those who share my knee pain. I've been running this week, (granted only 3 miles) with no pain and I have a doctors' appointment on Thursday.

So many of you referred to "pain killers" when talking about knee pain. Question: Are these real painkillers, like from a doctor? Or are you just referring to Ibuprofen. And if the latter, how many should I take, when and where. Unfortunately, I'm counting on "painkillers" to get me through this. Isn't it funny when pain is all you are thinking about, how it can swallow you? I self diagnosed myself with a couple more injuries the other day and I'm interested to see what the doc says.

Happy Running!

Excuse me while I have a moment

I don't like running by myself. It's, well frankly hard. Anyway since I am training for just the half still, I have to run alone the long runs. Tara is still working on getting better. Anyway I had to run 9 miles today. I didn't want to do it. I had to drive the route first it was to be 4.5 miles there and then 4.5 back. Man that was the longest 4.5 miles even in the car. When I finally made the first 4.5 miles there I was feeling pretty good, my knees felt great and I was happy I finished the first half of the run. I started out for the next half without my ipod on my ears. I think it just made me tired because I could hear my breathing. So I put it back on and started thinking. Usually I only think about finishing the run and I think about the run. I made myself think of other things. The more you think of other things the faster the run goes. I have a song on my ipod called Finally by Fergie. It's a slow song. Usually I won't have a slow song on my ipod because I think that's just dumb. But I love this song. It makes me think of my life. I thought of how grateful I am to be where I am today. I have my problems believe me ( you can ask my husband). But I really am blessed to have what I have in my life. I've come a long way baby. For those of you who knew me way back when. Don't you think? Well I have a family now, a great family. I am grateful for my Heavenly father for loving me enough to give me my family. He really has looked out for me and blessed me tremendously. I will tell you that I love my brothers and sisters and mom and dad even more now than I ever have. I am away from them so it's easier to miss them but when we all get together its so fun and I know they feel it too. I am grateful to my mom , I call her everyday sometimes twice a day. She listens and laughs at everything I have to say. My in laws are in town right now. I know I couldn't of married into a better family. I truly love them and all they do for us. Getting together with that half of my family is just as great as mine and I'm thankful for them. I am grateful where we are in our lives. Don't worry I'm not gonna die soon I just wanted to write my feelings down while I had them. Sometimes I get so caught up in my busy life that I don't sit back and think of how blessed I truly am. Maybe this will help you think about your life and realize that its not so bad. Anyway back to my run. I finished the 9 miles and even though I knew there were other people around I threw my arms into the air and yelled. I was happy and I didn't care who knew it.

Things needed to successfully run

Today I was supposed to do 5 miles. I got out the door this morning and ended up turning around and coming back home. I just wasn't feeling it this morning. I used every excuse I could think of to not run. I don't know what was wrong with me today. I just wasn't feeling it. I finally decided to try once again this afternoon. While I was running I figured out why I didn't want to run. First of all I figured out that in order to run, you need energy to run. My beautiful daughter was up until 2:30 am this morning for some reason. So that was probably reason #1 that I didn't want to run. Second, my inlaws are in town and my mother in law is a great cook and makes mexican food. We've been eating good this week. So my second reason is DON'T EAT BEANS the night before a run. It's not fun. Anyway I made it and on to the next run. You live and learn.

Adjusting....

ad·just
–verb
1. to change (something) so that it fits, corresponds, or conforms; adapt; accommodate: to adjust expenses to income.
2. to put in good working order; regulate; bring to a proper state or position: to adjust an instrument.
3. to settle or bring to a satisfactory state, so that parties are agreed in the result: to adjust our differences.

I am having to adjust a lot of things in my life right now, all of which I am doing reluctantly. The first of which, happens to fall under Webster's number 2 definition of "adjust," and that would be my body.

Seems all this running and pounding I've been doing almost daily has put my pelvis all out of whack, which it is prone to do from an old fractured SI joint I damaged back in my pro dancing days. So, on Saturday when Kera and I were running and I felt something excruciatingly painful in my knee, I didn't push it, and went right to the chiropractor. And, he says an "adjustment" is just what I needed to take the pressure off of one area on my knee. It's still sore, but I'm going to see a sports medicine specialist on Wednesday, so hopefully I'll be back in running order in no time.

The next "adjustment" is one that falls under definition number 1: the adjustment of my marathon day vision. This one is the hardest one for me to make, and I still can't quite comprehend it. I'm talking about race day without my Kristi. Oh, it hurts to even type it! As Kera posted, Kristi and her husband, Phil, were in a terrible car accident, and they're pretty roughed up. I am so grateful they weren't seriously injured, but oh, how I am considering hunting the other driver down and giving him a piece of my mind! DOES HE KNOW WHAT HE'S DONE??!?!?!?!? He's taken a girl who's worked so hard for months and made it so she might not be able to complete a goal of a lifetime, and he's crushed her BFF in the process! It's selfish, and I am embracing the selfishness, but I have visualized us running this race together for YEARS and with one smash of a car, I am now having to face the harsh reality that I may have to do this alone, without Kristi, my pacesetter and beloved running buddy, by my side. I don't know if I can do it!

And, now our running group is down two of its future-hot-jeans-mamas with Kimmie's injury and car accident. Kimmie, I am so sorry! I hope you'll be able to do it! This whole situation is so very wrong!!!!!!

And so, I'm trying to "adjust," in number 3's definition of the word: I'm trying to settle in a satisfactory state. No matter what happens come April 19th, I want you 5 ladies to know how much I love and admire all of you! You've made 5 months of training a memory worth keeping, and I can't wait for our next adventure! (that's right, I'm already planning our next race-- who's in?!?!?)

Adjusting is hard.

6-4-1=Me...

Well I never thought I would be running this Saturday by myself, but I was. I guess I have the unfortunate task of writing about this week's troubles.

We started out with 6 girls. Two got injured mid way into training. The four of us continued on in our journey until last week when we got the terrible news. Kristie, our pacesetter and beautiful friend was hit by a car with her husband driving home. Thank goodness they weren't seriously injured, but it was a serious accident and they were taken to the hospital and the 24 year driver of the other vehicle was life flighted. He was running from police and rear ended their car going 100 mph. I will let her tell the rest of the story if and when she's up to it- but that was the start of a week of awful luck.

Kimmie, another dear friend, was actually leaving the hospital after visiting Kristie and was also rear ended. Again, luckily, she was not seriously hurt, but she did have to go to the emergency room and both girls are suffering severe neck pain.

It is a very difficult thing to watch close friends suffer and I just want you to know Kristie and Kimmie, how much I enjoyed getting to know you and that I'm praying for your quick recovery in time for us all to run the marathon. Together.

So this Saturday for our last long run, there was just 2 of us left. It was an odd feeling having so many girls missing but we decided to do 15 miles anyway.

Long story short, Jen immediately started feeling intense pain in her knee and had to stop less than 2 miles into it. And that's how we got down to me running in my race day outfit alone, along the marathon course to the finish line.

Trust me, it's not as fun...but I guess I'm glad that I was able to finish. Not without a lot of pain though. I think I would have stopped myself if I had a choice but my car was parked at the finish line. So I had to keep going. I fear both my knees are injured. I'm going to go to a sports therapist as soon as I can. I'm so scared to hear what he's going to say because I've had this pain for awhile now and I've just kept going somehow.
Damn patella tendons!!!

Anyway, I don't feel like I wrote this post well, and I'm sweating right now as my two yr old is on top of me trying to type with me. I think I need to go pop some Ibuprofen.

Thanks to all our readers for their support and comments! We appreciate it so much and look forward to keeping this blog alive after the race. I intend to keep running until every spec of fat is off my thighs and then I'll just keep running because by that time, I'll probably be good at it.

I am beginning to understand that once you go *black you never go back.

*black, meaning toenails or the actual marathon (which doesn't make sense)...but black rhymed better and is funny.

Happy running to all of our readers and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone on race day.

Cheers.

Marathon Invites

As some of you know, I do graphic design. I was thinking that I would make cute invites for friends inviting them to the marathon with the addresses of the places I would like them to come and cheer. I was going to make some for just myself and then I was thinking for our group and then I thought others might want some too. Please let me know if you are interested and I can quickly make you some drafts and we can have them printed for pretty cheap!!!

Thanks!

ps. the example is cut off at the end and the real thing will be centered.

What shall it read?

Need some ideas, fellow runners. What should WRFDJ have printed on our marathon day shirts?!?!?!? I need a catchy slogan, something that encompasses all we do-- accomplishing our goals, friendship, running, hot designer jeans, empowerment, you get the idea.

And, I need ideas ASAP! We have to take our shirts to get silk screened by Thursday if we want them done in time.

So, get those creative juices flowing!

Thanks in advance for all of your amazing ideas!

Jen

holy crap...

i would just like everyone to know that...

I FIT INTO MY PRE-BABY, PRE-MARRIAGE, PRE-STRETCH MARK PANTS!!! size 28- thank you very much.

I love everybody.