still running

Well, here is a little update on my running goal. I'm still running friends. I have shin splints. I am earnestly trying to keep a recurring ankle injury at bay. I haven't lost a single pound after running for a full month (boo.). I am battling bronchitis. (as usual). However...I am still running, and it feels great to be in the process!

We met as a Wasatch Back team a few weeks ago to choose our routes and talk a little bit about the race. It looks like I will be runner #5, which means I will be running legs #5, #17, and #29. One pretty hard run (#5), and two really easy ones. I'm beginning to feel pretty jazzed about this. Nervous, but positive.

Many of the ladies on our team have been running our local behemoth known as SUNCREST. This is a road that takes you from Utah Valley over the mountain to Salt Lake Valley via the Suncrest neighborhoods on top of the mountain. Mountain is a relative word...I know. To us, it's really just a hill. In other parts of the world, it is a mountain. Be it hill or mountain, it's a tough little run folks! 5 miles from where I started to the point on top where you can see to the other side of the mountain/hill/really big pile of dirt. All uphill. And when I say uphill, I'm not joking. It is ALL uphill.

So when Saturday came, with its snow and rain and fog and wind, you can imagine the excuses I came up with to NOT run this bad boy. I wasn't looking forward to doing it all alone, and the weather was crumby. However, after stretching, and humming and hawing over whether or not I should do it, I decided to just jump in and see how it goes.

And I did it! I had to walk 5 times (I'm not even embarrassed by this...you should see these hills!), but I never walked more than 30 or 40 yards before I started up again. It took me 63 minutes to get to the top, and it was AWESOME! Not so much the gasping and crawl-running, because I had to tell myself repeatedly that I wasn't going to die. But definitely awesome when I called B from the top and said, "I'm at the top! Come pick me up!" (Let's face it...I'm not ready for the 10 mile round trip just yet! I have four more weeks before I attempt that one.)

I plan to run Suncrest once a week to prepare for my first leg of the relay, and if I can run it without stopping and cut my time down a wee bit, then I know I will be able to tackle leg #5 with confidence. B plotted the Suncrest run over the leg #5 run, and though it covers a similar elevation change, it does it in two less miles than the relay run does. See (the top line is the Suncrest road run) . . .

Anybody want to come with me for another s-l-o-w run on Saturday?