Mother Bird

When my kids were little, we wood read PD Eastman's book "The Best Nest" every day. My daughter Annie would sing the Mother Bird song ALL the time "I love my house. I love my nest. In all the world, my nest is best". Thank you Mother Bird for building your nest on my shutter (even if you do make a mess). I sing your song every time I see it.

Antelope Island 50 Mile Run Race Report

Here is a little video I made of the Antelope Island 50 Mile run.

Antelope Island 50 Mile Video

Antelope Island 50-Mile Run

March 21, 2015

Pre-Race Thoughts

In 2014, I watched a video of a local elite trail runner, Janice Cook running the Antelope Island 100 mile run.  I watched it at least 20 times and a small ultra-running seed was planted. I was beyond inspired.  I started doing research on ultra running and the local trails became my new playground. 

After talking with a few trail-running buddies, I decided in January 2015 that I wanted to run the Antelope Island 50 mile race.  I knew I would be in way over my head, but I had to start somewhere.

Many running friends accompanied me on long trail training runs.  All of the trails included a lot of elevation, which was foreign to me.  I struggled on these runs and doubt would fill my mind.  One of my dear training friends, Kelli Stephenson, was a wealth of knowledge.  She was full of constant encouragement, advice, and believed in me 100%.

A week before the race, my original pacer had a sudden injury come on.  Being a runner, I know that these injury events are never planned.  I wasn’t stressed and planned on running the race alone.  Kelli (who had previously committed to volunteer at the race and couldn’t be my pacer) continued to encourage me to find another pacer.  Every day she sent me a text asking if I had found a replacement.  I figured if Kelli was suggesting it, I had better do it.

Matt Clark, a local ultra runner agreed to be my pacer last minute.  I knew he would not put up with any tears, whining, or thoughts of quitting.  I had to bring my A-game.

I had some major anxiety at the beginning of the week.  The biggest culprit was the fear of the unknown.  I had run 31 miles before, but was terrified of the last 19 miles.  I knew it was going to be a mind over matter situation, but I wasn’t sure how strong my mind was going to be.  I finally calmed down by the end of the week.

Race Day

I woke up at 3:00am, got ready, and drove out to the island.  I saw Kelli before she headed out to her aid station.  I appreciated her kind and encouraging words.  I saw Janice Cook, the gal who inspired me by her movie.  She was running the 100-mile race again and I was filled with another dose of her inspiration.

I put my drop bags in the designated spots and headed to the start line.  It was still very dark, but I saw a lot of familiar faces.  The race director yelled out “run you fools” and we were off.  The first several miles were on a single track and it was just a long line of runners running/hiking. 

I was overcome with the peacefulness of the island.  The lights from the city and the headlamps from the other runners were majestic.  We finally came to the Elephant Head aid station (mile 5.5) where Kelli was volunteering.  I handed her my headlamp and proceeded to an out/back bluff.  The sun was rising and it was beautiful.  I saw Kelli again, then started to climb the long set of switchbacks.  Another long line of runners hiking.

We finally got back to the Elephant Head aid station (mile 15).  Kelli filled up my water bottles and opened my GU packet while I took a big swig of Coke.  I was nervous as many runners I knew that were slower than me were way ahead of me.  But I kept recalling the advice I had heard again and again…go out slow and then go slower.  That advice served me well later on.

I ran with a fellow named Brandon for several miles.  It was really nice to have someone to talk to and keep my mind occupied.  We headed back to the starting line and filled up water bottles at the aid station (mile 20).  My IT band was starting to bother me at this point.  I’ve never had problems with my IT band before and was not sure why it was acting up.  The pain would come and go through out the race.

I eventually left Brandon around mile 23.  I started the East section of the island and this turned out to be a very long and lonely section of the course.  I passed several runners here and felt very strong.  But I would also go for miles without seeing anyone.  This isolation has a tendency to play mind games.  I kept telling myself to just make it to the next aid station (mile 25 and mile 30).

I would meet my pacer Matt at mile 33. My main goal was to make it to him.  I was very fast at all the aid stations – just filling up my water bottles.  But planned to take a few minutes at The Ranch aid station.  Matt filled up my water bottles while I used the rest room, washed my face, switched out my visor and put on more glide – 6 minutes total.

I was so grateful to have Matt pacing me.  The isolation on the way out to The Ranch aid station would have been even harder to deal with alone.  We picked up Mike Rice along the way.  We definitely took our walk breaks and were thankful for the cloud cover and breeze.

By mile 40, I was really starting to struggle.  My legs were extremely heavy and I would have bouts of IT band pain.  I keep looking for the aid station tent at mile 44.  I happened to see an orange porta potty way out in the distant and was starting to get discouraged.  Then Matt pointed out a blue tent just around the bend.  I had a renewed energy that I didn’t have to go way out to the orange porta potty and started to pick up my pace. 

We could see the finish line, but we had to take a small detour around a small mountain.  This section was definitely mind over matter.  There were large boulders on the trail and my legs were not stable enough to run over them.  This section included a lot of walking.  The sun had come back out and I was trying to hang on for dear life. 

We finally finished the detour around the small mountain and took a dirt road to the finish.  This road took forever to run.  I finally saw my daughter Annie’s pink sweatshirt!  She and my son Carter ran with us for a while and then I could finally see the finish line flags. 

The emotions of crossing that finish line were overpowering. The process of conquering my fears during the last 20 miles was manifested at that very moment.  There were so many strangers cheering for me….genuinely happy for my accomplishment of running 50 miles.

I was overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers through out the day; the volunteers at the aid stations, other runners, and spectators.  I was so grateful for my pacer Matt.  I would have walked a lot more if he was not there.  Because of him, I ran 2 hours faster than my goal time.  My family was there cheering and supporting me….everything is wonderful when they are around.

If there is anything that I learned from this experience it is to not have regrets.  Prepare sufficiently, surround yourself with experienced people, prepare for failure knowing that it will get you one step closer to your goal, and then just believe.

It took a whole tribe of people to get me to the starting line and finish line.  Because of them, I had miracles.

Mountain Running

I'm doing a trail endurance run in March and have been spending a lot of time on the trails.  

Sometimes they are really muddy!

Wendy C. is a ROCK STAR trail runner and was SO nice to join me one morning.  The conditions on that day were horrible.  Hard packed snow.

This hill ate me for breakfast!

The race is on Antelope Island.  To make sure I wasn't in over my head, I headed out there with Wendy to check out the course.  It sure is beautiful!

 I also headed up American Fork Canyon.  I really like this view from the Tibble Fork Reservoir.

I liked it so much that we took the kids up there later on in the week.  We had a lot of fun walking the trails, semi-playing in the frozen stream and enjoying each others company.

I got new trail shoes.  But I hated them and sad I spent $160 on them.

Kelli S. is also a SUPER STAR marathon runner.  By far one of the fastest master's runner in the state of Utah.  She wanted to head out on the trails and was kind enough to go my slow pace.  She is a great running buddy and full of great stories!  This was a 20 mile run.

Kelli S. and I went on another long 26 mile trail run.  It was warm enough for shorts and a tank.  In February.  In Utah!

Christmas Break Part #2/January

Ski Utah offers all 5th graders in the state of Utah three free passes to all the ski resorts.  This pass works well for a family with triplets!

Over Christmas break, we headed up to Ogden to ski at the Snowbasin Ski Resort.  Since the drive to Ogden is over an hour away, we decided to spend the night at a hotel and make a weekend of the trip.

We ate dinner at our favorite Ogden restaurant, Slack Water grill....yum!

We went swimming.  After showers, I did "ski hair" on all the girls.  It takes forever!

This resort is a hidden gem!  They had wonderful snow and it was huge!  We really liked the gondolas - it kept the wind off everyone and we all stayed warm.

Besides a pair of snow boots being left at the hotel, we had a wonderful weekend!

We also had the 5th grade science fair.  Oh my!!  

Abby's science project was to see what marker brand, Crayola or Crazy Art lasted longer.  Lots of coloring!

Annie put marshmallows in several different liquids (juice, milk, water, gatorade, and soda) to see if they would float.

Carter filled two boxes - one with Jello and one with cotton balls.  He put an egg in each box and then dropped them from our deck.  Both the Jello and cotton balls protected the egg.

I'm very proud to announce that we DID NOT make it to the next level!  Whew!

Carter played rec center basketball again this year.  Tim was the coach.  We had a great team and were undefeated until the last game.  It is fun to see the boys progress!

I headed to St George with my running buddies for our annual St George Half Marathon.  This was our 4th year.

We used our awesome Ski Utah pass again and hit up some of the fancy resorts in Park City.  It is such a big resort that we never ski the same runs twice.  It was super fun!

Christmas Break

Christmas break was super fun this year.  It included lots of wrestling.

The Christmas sing (Annie was sick that day...boo!)

Lots of skiing (Abby and I on the chair lift)

Christmas Eve with the Bigelows.  It was so fun to have so many out of town guests.

Christmas morning

Georgia got a snowglobe

Dad and Mom are SO tired!

 

Bowling with out of town cousins!

Whenever we ski Big Cottonwood Canyon, we always stop at 7-11 on the way home.  Everyone gets a treat....it's one of the best part of skiing!

And sometimes skiing wears us out!

We also we rock climbing.  We saw one of my running friends who is a hard rock climber.  She and her husband gave us some great tips!

Mountains

One of my 2015 New Year's resolution is to not be jerk in the summer.  I HATE the heat.  It makes me grumpy, I don't sleep as well, and well.....I just hate the heat.  

So while the weather is cool and gorgeous, I've been heading up to the mountains.  A.L.O.T.

A trail run on the BST overlooking the Draper Temple.

Cross country skiing at the Sundance Nordic Center. (I'm not a very good cross country skier)

A small stream on a trail run in Alpine.

More cross country skiing at the Sundance Nordic Center.

Another trail on the BST - see all those switch backs?  They sure are fun to run!

A gloomy morning, but the Alpine running trails were wonderful!  

Downhill skiing at Sundance with a lot of clouds.

More trail running with lots of ice and snow.  I love looking at those little trails.