Cheris

My husband and I tried to pick out an awesome spot on Sunday to park the houseboat--one with lots of sand for the kids to play in, as well as some sort of option for me to run. I was so worried about not running the week before Hobble Creek, and this close to the marathon! We got a perfect spot kind of close to Hall's Crossing, in a little protected cove.

I was so excited to be able to run there, even after my son said he saw a rattlesnake. "No," we told him, and assured him it was probably a lizard. He was insistent, though, and on Sunday he took me to the spot where he had seen it. Sure enough, there was a medium-sized, sand-colored snake all coiled up in the sun. As it slithered into a bush I could clearly see the rattler on the end of its tail. Since it was in a place that was highly traveled by children, my husband and his brother had to kill it. And even though the snake was totally venomous and scary, it made me just sad to think that they had to end it's life.

So, on Monday I didn't dare run through the sand and sagebrush as I had planned. Instead, I found lots of interesting patches of solid rock--no vegetation, sand or anything that would harbor snakes of any kind. I ran for about an hour and ten minutes, but I have no idea how far I really ran. It was so beautiful, but unfortunate that I had to watch my feet the entire time!

Today I ran another hour and 10 minutes, thinking it was the equivalent of 8 miles. With all the uneven up and downs of the rock faces I ran on, I have no idea how far I really went again. But it was a nice, cool morning for Lake Powell, and it was great to be ALL BY MYSELF for a few short minutes. No, I love my family, all 3 million of them that were with us, but I think that's part of why I love running--just the quiet time, or I guess, the time with other people that are not in my family--like the running group!

We left Lake Powell right around lunch time, and with a stop at Stan's and then at Goblin Valley, we got home around 7:00. After unpacking I had to go running again--on a flat surface! So I did about 3 more miles at night.

Which made me remember why I never run that late--I hate running at night in the dark, by myself! Also, somehow being on a houseboat (or maybe the water in the lake) seems to have affected my balance. If I close my eyes or hold still I feel like I am still swaying around. Weird.

8 miles from my house, to trail and Mulligan's. I felt tired after my run last night, and still off-balance! But I did a slow warm-up my first two, then tried to just run between 8.5 and 9 minute miles.

Met the running group at Gardner Village, and the plan was to do 10 miles, 6 of that at marathon pace. However, with Hobble Creek this Saturday I turned around at 4 miles with Jody, and kept it a little slower--9:05 average pace.

In preparation for Hobble Creek, I did 3 easy, easy miles with 3 fast pick-ups mixed in. This seemed to be great for Des News 10K, so I am hoping it works for this half, too!

Awesome race! I took 7 minutes off my time last year (1:39:07). It felt hard, but running with Michelle the whole way TOTALLY helped to pace me, so when those last three flat, hot miles through 1700 North and Main Street came up, we were able to keep our 7:04 minute pace!

Our first mile was actually the slowest, despite the downhill, just trying to extricate ourselves from the blob of people that were crushed together at the start line. And my legs felt tired right from the start, but by mile 4 they started to feel a little better. Then they got tired again, but I was able to push through it.

So I am so excited for St. George! The race predictor was totally right for this race, after I put in my Deseret News time of 43:37. So with a 1:32 at Hobble Creek, it predicts I can do faster than a 3:30 at St. George, which is my goal! Yay!

Split times 1 Mile Averages

00:7:25 2 Mile 7:25

00:14:20 3 Mile 6:56

00:21:24 4 Mile 7:04

00:28:26 5 Mile 7:02

00:35:27 6 Mile 7:01

00:42:31 7 Mile 7:04

00:50:06 8 Mile 7:35

00:57:16 9 Mile 7:10

01:04:30 10 Mile 7:14

01:11:43 11 Mile 7:12

01:18:54 12 Mile 7:11

01:26:10 13 Mile 7:16

01:32:36 13.1 Mile 7:04