2016 Fitness goals

At the beginning of the year I really couldn't decide on any fitness goals so I found myself at a nasty plateau. So, in March, I made a big decision to start training for two events, a triathlon and a half marathon.

Last year a lot of my church friends did a Triathlon together and I chickened out because I hadn't trained and I didn't have a bike. We all know that friend who says they will do it next year and then they never do. However, I held true to my promise.

I bought Molly, my bike, in June and we have had many adventures together. Training has been hard on both of us but we have gotten along for the most part. She has taken me to donate platelets in the rain and I have taken her to the bike shop to fix her attitude so she would shift my way. Now that bike riding was no longer my excuse for not training for my triathlon, so I went ahead and registered to encourage myself to training. I also joined a bike club to help ease my way into the whole bike thing.

Before I knew it, the race day arrived (September 17th) and I felt unprepared and anxious. Where do I park my bike? Do I change my clothes? Or shoes? So to be safe I was overly prepared and I think it played in my favor.

The goals I set for myself:

-Don't finish last

-Time under 1:45:00

You will happy to know that I finished 5/6 in my age group. There was a 1 minute time difference between me and the girl who finished in 3rd place. I didn't finish last, so goal #1 accomplished. After I crossed the finish line I printed my time sheet and to my amazement  I beat my goal. My total time was 1:41:56

Here some fun pictures of the race.

Next up was my half marathon on October 9th.

I wasn't sure if I was going to run or not because I wasn't able to finish my training. I hurt my knee in early September during a 10 mile run, and that turned into a 7 mile run plus a 3 mile walk back home. I tried a knee brace for my next jog and it didn't help, so I just massaged it everyday and kept my fitness level up with swimming and biking. When I did the 3.2 mile run in the Triathlon it hurt pretty bad, so after that race I just stopped running. I forgot about my half marathon thinking that there was no way I would be able to do it.  However, the week before my race I started thinking about it again.  Should I run or not?  My knee was doing pretty well and the more I talked to people, the more I got excited about the race. So, I decided that I made this goal and I was going to stick to it no matter what pain comes...........

5:00 AM on race day came too fast. I felt prepared until I left the house and felt the trickles of rain. I went back in to grab my rain jacket and said a silent prayer. Then I checked the weather and found that the rain was going to get heavier as time went by and I didn't even think to check the temperature which dropped 10 degrees during my race.

I walked down to the bus stop and found other runners waiting for the bus too. When we got off at Forest Hills station we searched for the "shuttles" that were supposed to take us to the race destination. The shuttles were not where they said they would be, but we found them and I did make it to the race.

I ran into some friends.

From the picture I hope you recognize right away that #1 people are wearing trash bags to stay dry and #2 it's starting to get cold.

As we were walking over to line up for the race I realized that I needed to pee and I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go now and miss the start or make a bathroom stop on the route. I posed my question out loud and I was given some options,  porta-potties on the route or just pee as I run were the suggestions I was given.

The race started and this picture happened.

Now you can think of me as this happy smiling girl or you can read what I went through and the disgusting things that I saw running .

My knee started to hurt IMMEDIATELY so many thoughts crossed my mind, should I just exit and give up or just run through the pain? At mile 2.7 there was a medical tent. I stopped in hoping they would have something. They had a little bit of tape, but they couldn't guarantee it would stay on. It took her 3-4 minutes to tape it and it felt better...... for 30 seconds before the rain washed it off.

I still had to pee.

Praying, I did a lot of it and a miracle happened my knee stopped hurting for whatever reason around mile 5 or 6. Now I was able to focus and make up some time that I lost. THEN all of a sudden my nostrils were being haunted by someone’s obvious need to use the porta-pottie. I didn't know whether I should run faster, slower, to the left or right. All I could do was fan at my face and talk loudly stating that it wasn't me and whoever did that should be shot. The guy beside me started laughing. THEN something caught my eye something hit the ground not that far in front of me and at first I thought it was an acorn because of the way it seemed to balance off the ground, but it wasn't. I figured that it was a turd ball because of the splat it made when it encountered the asphalt for the second time. The man and I were now playing dodge the turd ball. It was a bonding moment.

I still had to pee.

I wish I could tell you that this was my only poop story but I can't. Right after this happened a lady slowly passed me on my right and I instantly noticed two things, she smells like poo and she had something running from her short shorts. Ladies and gentleman if you know you are going to poop while you run please bring a wipe so others don't have to see it. Heck you could even just stop running and wipe your butt in the wet grass or wash it in one of those huge puddles we had to run through.

Meanwhile I still had to pee.

Mile 7-9 came and went rather quickly. My phone got wet and started giving me problems... BYE BYE MUSIC!!

I tried hard not to concentrate on the fact that I had to pee

Mile 10 we moved from road to muddy trail. My calf muscles started to hurt but people were cheering me on so I kept going.

Mile 11 I wanted to stop running so bad so I decided to try to walk, I regretted it quickly so I went to a slow jog.

Mile 12 I met another slow jogger and she was really nice. She stopped so I stopped to make sure she was okay. She was limping pretty bad and this might sound selfish but after I found out that she was okay I said goodbye and ran away (slowly).

Nick texted me, the stake president was at church (I needed my temple recommend interview) I texted him back because I needed something to do to keep me running.

We ran through the Franklin Zoo and I don't remember any of it because that is how miserable I was.

I really really had to pee.

Mile 13 I thought the race finished at mile 13... I cried when I found out it was 13.1

I saw the finish line in the distance so I sped up. Tons of people were cheering us on in the rain and it made me feel good. I ran through the finish line, they called my name and I got my medal and then suddenly everything I just went through was worth it.

I walked and grabbed my bag and a banana. At this point I was shaking and chattering so bad that I thought I had symptoms of hypothermia. I thought that if I peed on myself I would be warm for a second, so I thought, should I take that chance? I walked back to the shuttle line feeling alone, dizzy and disoriented. I waited too long for the shuttle and I thought about going to the hospital because I had never felt like this in my life. I started to cut in the shuttle line and people didn't seem to mind because of my condition. I called a friend to see if I could be rescued and brought to church for 5 minutes (for my interview) and then home. I made my way to the very front the line and FINALLY the bus came. It was warm. I sat right next to the heater and took this picture. Do you see how ghostly white my hand is?

I started asking questions to the lady next to me because I was really worried about my condition. Was it normal for my hands to be numb and white? Was it normal to be in this much pain? Are you cold too or is it just me? I was glad that she answered yes to all of my questions because I was seriously concerned. The bus arrived at Forest Hills station, I got off and made my way inside to wait on my friend to pick me up. I couldn't control my chattering and my body was visibly shaking I felt like a freak because people were staring at me. The cafe gave me some free HOT water. I was just standing there for about 5 minutes and I had attracted a group of people who were worried about me. I thought they were just talking with me because they ran the same race but it turned out that, as my ride showed up, one man walked me to the stairs to make sure I was okay. I fumbled down those stairs and Christian met me and supported me all the way to his car where a towel, sleeping bag and heat awaited. We made it to the church and Nick met me at the door laughing because of my situation and he ushered me into my meeting. I was wearing a towel as a skirt and I was soak and wet and a shivering mess. Finally I was out of there and home with a nice hot long shower. I finally got to pee!

I did a lot of stretching that day and I iced my knee because I was told too. That night I was in a lot of pain. Monday I forced myself out of bed and out on walks and the next day I was much better and I started my daily routine of hitting the gym again.

I did it! I set goals this year and I accomplished them!