Salt Lake City Half Marathon 2010

I'll warn you now, this is long, but I think I always feel the need to share the whole story.  As many of you know, I have been training for this Half Marathon since I finished the Mesa Falls Half Marathon in August of last year.  I have put in a lot of hours of running, cross-training, nutrition and even dropped nearly 30 lbs for this race.

I carefully started upping my long runs in March, carefully, because I'd started having some tendinitis issues with both knees and IT Band problems with my left leg (remember this for later) back in Dec.  It was going marvelous!  I was feeling good and starting to get pretty confident about my ability to run this race fairly well.  I'd done successful 8 & 9 mile runs with my friend, Valerie.  March 20th I finished a 11 1/2 mile run on my own and felt pretty good after (considering) and that's the day I KNEW I could finish this race and not have a problem.

March 27th, yes one week later, Valerie and I headed out on our long run to Shelly, ID.  Her mom lives 7 miles out and then 5 more to her Grandma's house.  Now, I'd just run 12 mi the week before, but felt pretty good, so had no worries.  I'd hadn't even been wearing my brace for my left IT Band for almost a month.  It started out just like any of our other runs, but something happened (who knows what..stepped wrong?) and instantly I have pain alongside my RIGHT IT Band as we went up a very conservative hill.  I stopped, stretched, walked for a minute and tried again.  I couldn't make it 3 more steps.  We didn't quite make 6 miles that day and had to finish by walking to her Mom's house.  Yes, I cussed a little.

I tried to be good.  I still had some time until race day.  I was going to baby this leg and nurse it back to health, just like I did the left one.  I cross-trained and then attempted a little 3 mile run.  I had to stop by 1/2 mile.  I tried again..just 2 miles, a measly 2 mile run...I had to call it quits at 1 mile.  Now I'm MAD!  Fine!  I'm taking some time off and see what happens....no improvement.


Now, I'm looking at 1 1/2 weeks to race day and I'm desperate.  Physical Therapy here I COME!  He says, "Well, I'm not saying it's impossible, but I wouldn't bet a million dollars on finishing this race.  Let's see what we can do".  I love that he's a runner too, and he understands the obsession.  He does Ultrasound Therapy, Massage and Battery Current Medication Therapy.  Those battery's currents hurt like a bugger, but my hot spot seems to be improving!  My PT tells me to become a slacker from now to race day, because all the training's in the tank and you won't see any improvement for your effort anyway.  I want to feel AWESOME on race day, so I followed orders.


Meanwhile, I'm conducting my usual daily business:  house chores, child rearing, working at the school, primary stuff, memorizing music for choralaires in prep for our concert and prepping for the upcoming Summer Wellness Challenge.  April 9th I wake up at 2:30 am crying with the worst headache of my LIFE, the next couple of days I'm miserable, but able to recover by Monday (somewhat) so go to work on Mon & Tues.  By the end of the workday on Tues I start to realize my voice isn't quite normal, I'm tired and feeling a little icky.  I woke up the next morning with no voice and a fever.  Ugh!  Seriously?!  This kept up through Thursday and I was determined to stay positive and run this race!  Race day is Saturday.
 
Friday we dropped off the girls with my niece, Alyssa, in Provo, went to back up to Salt Lake to the Expo to pick up my race packet and meet friends for a fabulous dinner at my favorite restaurant P.F. Chang's.  Delicious!

From here I'll explain via picture.  Here we are tired riding the Trax up to the Start Line.

 Do you see the ungodly lines to the bathroom?!?  Valerie and I were just trying to stay warm while waiting...waiting...waiting...

 Getting ready and trying to steady nerves.

 Ok, you see that LACK of people in the bathroom line?  Yeah, that's because they've already crossed the start line. 

 And here we are FINALLY crossing the Start Line and getting wished good luck from the Mayor.

 I'm so excited that I'm even running at this point!  Yeah!  Though we hadn't even run a 1/4 mile yet.

 I started hurting at 1/2 mile and it never let up.  At mile 3 or 4 I told Valerie to go on, because I didn't think I'd be able to run the whole thing and she had personal goals she needed to meet.  At mile 6 my LEFT IT Band injury returned, wasn't that so nice of it to come back and visit?  This became much more than physical training at this point.  Every step I took was full of pain and by mile 9 the tears came.  I'd stopped to go to the bathroom and it took a full mile to get back into a reasonable rhythm of movement.  I felt like such a pansy crying, but was able to maintain a running type motion.  I'd been able to push the tears away until I rounded the corner towards the finish line when I saw Israel standing there cheering me on with all his might yelling, "You got this Dianne!"  I pretty much lost it there and the following picture is the result of my feelings of appreciation for his enthusiasm, my intense pain and my amazement that I was really about to have run this full 13.1 miles despite my injuries.  FINISH TIME 2:33:46!!  Not too shabby for injury ridden ol' me. (that's 40 min less than Mesa Falls)

 My fabulous love helping to relieve my pain post race.  What a guy!

 Here I am with my best buddy!  I have to say THANK YOU for helping me stay focused during training and just knowing you were running helped to keep going.  And a shout out to Misty for getting me back into running after these many, many lazy years!  You have both saved my dwindling sanity.

So, I also have to say THANK YOU for helping me to no longer look like THIS!  This was me and Valerie at the starting line to my first 5K April 2009 in Salt Lake City.  We've come a LONG way, baby!!