Throw it back to the one that started it all

The Inaugural Top Of Zion Relay 2012

Ok, so all the girls were already runners before they got into this race, but this race started it for me and it is the race that kinda brought us all together and it is the one that gave us our great blog name:  RUN LIKE A FISH. 
Ebbi is always going to claim the fame of getting you into running, Becka. But let's just remember who told her to ask you to run this relay!! Ebbi I'm trying to think where we even saw the Top of Zion Relay flyer? Was it at Adobe?

First how it got us all together.  Lexi and Ebbi were our team captains.  We needed another team member.  We had thought about MaryAnn, but she was doing the Ragnar Wasatch back two weeks before.  Finally we decided just to ask her, what would it hurt.  Who knew she was a crazy addicted runner who would just consider Ragnar a warm-up for TZR.  Yay!!! (Crazy thing was, I was dying wanting you guys to ask me to run it with you!  I just thought it was a little too forward to invite myself on the team! So, so GLAD y'all asked me!  I now have some pretty amazing close friends because of it!) 
So glad you decided to run with us MaryAnn! 

"Run like a fish" came about after a TZR meeting, we were all leaving and Ebbi shouted as we went out the door, "Run like a fish".  Her pregnant mind was a little....  well, you know how preggo minds are.  We laughed our heads off and even wrote it on the side of our vans for the race.  We probably wouldn't have laughed so hard had we known we would literally be running like fish in upwards of 114 heat.  We were dumping water on our runners so yep...  we were running through water..  like fish.  =)

The actually running in TZR killed me, I didn't train enough. but I loved the cheering each other on, Dancing and stuff!  I'm all over that!  So as we traveled along down that last dirt road, all of us dying, we went around the group and all vowed NEVER to do TZR again.  I think it took us all of 24 hours, if not less to start planning for the next year, which is coming up in a month.  Go Jalapeno Hotties!!!

I was one of those girls that SAID no way in H will I run this relay again.  I know that I can even be quoted as saying "this relay should be posted as for elite runners only!" I am sure that was after running in 114 heat and seeing some of my teammates having to keep running even though there was dust and heat blasting us!  I also think I was the first one to post on our Facebook group asking who was going to run it with me again next year!  Yes I am addicted!  Pretty sure you were!  jaja 

I am sad we were all in different vans. I wish we could be in the same van this year! I still had a blast with my van 1 girls. It is definitely a tough relay and I remember thinking this is insane. We will NEVER do this again. But wow... changed our running lives! ja ja. I compare the toughness of every race to this relay! I'm so glad to have done this with all of you.  I can't wait to take our annual Jalapeno Hotties picture in the year 2042! We will set records!  ja ja. 

Here it is one month from TOZ! I must admit I am scared beyond belief! I was so glad I was 23 weeks pregnant last year and decided not to run. After seeing what these girls went through I was sure I would have gone into labor! The only thing that comes to mind when I think of TOZ is "What doesn't KILL you makes you STRONGER!" I have so much respect for those who ran it last year! It was such an emotional experience (and I was only the driver hahaha). As we were driving to Tory the day before we drove over van 2 first legs and I was sure Becka was going to kill me! I felt horrible (Let's just say the course description did not  give us any insight on how difficult this really was), but to my surprise Becka and her van were all fired up and excited! They showed TOZ who was boss!! I really wish we were all in the same van this year! It really sucks that we aren't! I'm pretty sure after this year of  TOZ is over we will vow to never do it again, only to find us making plans for the next year a few days later! We are crazy like that! 

 

Brooks vs mizuno's that is the question

I researched and researched which shoe to get! I narrowed it down to two, Brooks or Mizuno. I literally ordered them both from Zappos one day and they were here the next! Yay!! Now for the real test, to actually try them on..... I put one on each foot and walked, jogged, lunged, skipped, you name it i did it and the winner is..... Mizuno!!! Yay!! I'm so Glad because I thought they were the much cuter shoe!

I also had to visit the chiropractor today, my hips have been bothering me and they were getting increasingly worse. He said both hips were completely out of place and the bottom three vertebrae's were out of alignment (thanks to the birth of my fifth baby). No wonder I was suffering in silence :) haha.... Well I should be Ready and Set to train for this marathon/journey! Here we go now!
Ebbi 

Before pic

If you were expecting a picture of someone in a swimming suit, or undies (heaven forbid- but it happens) with a muffin top hanging over the top, sorry to disappoint.  This before is my embarrassing time and even more so how much I was payin' it on my run this morning.  I actually had to walk once and it was just a 4 mile run.  This shows that I just have a long long way to go.  I haven't ran much since we did the Zion Ragnar Trail relay at the end of April (more about that coming soon).  Been going to physical Therapy for my knee and hammy.  Good Stuff.  (Therapy, not the painful knee and hammy) The great thing about a marathon looming I mean coming up, is that ya pretty much know you HAVE to train or that panting and sucking air that I was going through this morning is going to last for 22.2 more miles.  I could probably do it for.2, but that 22 more..  Not happening.   ja ja..  So here is my embarrassing before picture!  I'm excited to see this "trim" right up.  =) 
-Becka

Motivational Monday.

FREE. TO. RUN.  I am grateful that I live in a country where I am free to choose what I want for myself and that I can run.  I looped the cemetery into my run this morning, it was beautiful! 

Memorial Day 2013

My Longest Run Thus Far!

We have one week until our official training schedule begins. I can't even believe it. Right now it has been nice to know that I can run but it's not really crucial to train yet. Whew! I'm getting a little nervous. Saturday's run was intense for me! I jumped from 10.5 miles to 14 in one week. Chelsy Cooper was in town and I didn't want her to have to run by herself... so I told myself I would go as long as I could manage with her. That girl is an animal and runs fast. We pretty much ran down every street in the Kanab City limits and actually pumped out 14! I think 14 miles is the longest I have ever ran! Before I thought I had gone 15 but when I searched through my runs I couldn't find it. So Saturday officially broke the record for me. Wow! I can't even fathom 12.2 more than that but I'm hoping week by week I will feel more confident. Haha. I better or I'm serious trouble. My phone and watch said I burned 1100 calories on Saturday. I am just wondering where those calories are coming from because my scale says I'm up 8 pounds from last year! Sheesh. I've been reading a lot about the Paleo diet and running and think I'm going to try that. We will see! I'm going to try and take more pics when I'm out running so this blog will have some pictures! I love a good picture. GOOD NIGHT ALL!

Saturday Long Run (SLR)

We weren't all able to go on a long run together this week.  Sad day for us!  We all did have a great run though!  My run was awesome. I was even contemplating not going on it this week.  We really don't have to start training for the marathon until June 3rd so I thought, this long run won't really matter, why do it?!  Plus, Bryant (husband, which is also training for this marathon with us) and I had to unload a truck of bee hives before going on our long run.  Before I knew it we were dropping off one vehicle near the bottom of Johnson Canyon and driving up 10 miles to start our run.  Some of our bees stay the summer in Johnson canyon so it was perfect to run after doing our work.  We changed out of work clothes into running clothes right there on the side of the road.  Good thing there isn't much traffic up that way!  The run felt amazing!  We started at like 8 AM, little chilly, but not bad.  I kept looking down at my watch wondering how I was running as fast as I was.  I was keeping an 8:37 min pace!  What in the world!??!!!  I did walk a total of three times and I did take a couple of minutes each time I walked, and didn't turn my watch off.  So in the end my pace was 9 on the dot!  Lately I have been the 9:20- 9:30 min pace lady, so this was kind of fun for me!  Pretty day out there!  Johnson Canyon will always be one of my favorite places to do a long run, unless the wind is blowing against me!  That's happened a time or two.  It is an easy course, mostly flat with a couple of small hills. 

Happy Day!

Wahoo my running shoes that are going to put some miles in just came.  The FedEx guy just dropped them off!  New running shoes always make me happy!

Lifetime knowing

When we were pumping ourselves up to decide if we should put in for the Marathon, we would send each other motivational thoughts.  Every Monday, We will share some here to keep us motivated and remind us why we are doing this.

We are totally going to get this necklace from indulgy.com:

 

And put this on our Posters.  Ja ja ja

 

 

And make these signs.. 

 

 

The DaY we fOund oUt

I am still in shock about the whole St G Marathon!  I can hardly believe that we got in and that I am crazy enough to run another one.  I said after my first it would be my one and only and here I am going to run another one.  All day at school I kept sneaking over (in between teaching of course) to my computer to refresh the St George Marathon page to see if the lottery results were in.   The results didn't post until about 3 PM.  We texted in freak out mode on our group text for about 20 minutes trying to locate Lexi.  Ebbi was sure Lexi  was dead somewhere, she was dead, her phone was dead... pretty close to being dead don't you think?  Tyler, Ebbi's husband had already told her the news about everyone so we just face timed Ebbi on Lexi's phone while she told us all the "GOOD NEWS".  So here we are a few crazy ladies about to start training for a CrAzY adventure together!  That's the part that I love the most, we are gonna do this together!  I can hardly wait for the long run talks where we will solve problems we are having in our lives and who knows maybe we will come up with a way to have world peace!  We're cool like that!

It's 2013 and we found out on May "13"th that we drew out for the St. George Marathon! I knew we would! 13 is our lucky number and the stars are just aligning for us. I was a little skeptical that both MaryAnn's entry and our entry would both be drawn seeing how we put in separately but they were! I am so happy about that. I woke up the morning of the 13th and checked the St. George Marathon website immediately. I had googled beforehand that the race results had been posted at 8 AM previous years so of course I was anxious. Nothing! Ebbi was texting me nonstop asking me to check over and over since she was leaving town. She was a little excited too. Finally, I think Ebbi called the actual marathon people and they said results would be posted by 5:00 PM at the latest. We all agreed that we would wait to check together and see if we got in. We made strict orders that if we saw the email we would NOT open it. Haha. I just love us. Next thing I know it's 3:40 and I put my phone on the charger because it had died for I don't know... twenty minutes... and I open my phone to about 121 texts! Apparently, the lottery results were in and my devoted friends were trying to find me! My phone had only been dead 20 minutes! Haha. I scanned the texts for a sec but couldn't read them because more texts kept coming through. It was Becka, MaryAnn & Ebbi convinced that I was dead in a ditch somewhere. I finally connected with them and MaryAnna and Becka showed up at my house. We facetimed Ebbi, who was in Vegas, and she gave us the newS! We got in! All of us! I haven't been this excited about something in a very long time. I am so nervous at the unknown but I feel so excited/thankful that I get to do it with these great girls. I couldn't have picked a better group to go through this experience with. I know there are going to be a ton of memories made along the way. I'm going to try and document everything I can so we can always look back and remember the little things. 

I'm not sure what I think of the news we got on Lottery day... When I was driving around, looking for Lexi, I was thinking, "what the heck!!  Do I even want to know?"  I'm the one who put in a little less than a half hour before the cut off time.  Ha ha... I guess we are winners for getting in, but I am scared to death.  I've only been a "runner" for a little over a year.  What was I thinking putting in for a marathon?  It was peer preasure I tell ya!!  Or the thought of my friends embarking on this adventure without me.  2 years ago if you had told me I would want to run a marathon I would have laughed in your face.  But I do..  I want to show myself that I can do it.  I figure if I can run a marathon, I can do just about anything.  I know that's not true, but  kinda...  And doing it with these girls is the best part of all!!  Ebbi Even promised me would cross the finish line together, which is only fitting since she is the one who got me started.  Really these are the 3 people that had the biggest hand it making me a "runner"...  I just realized that. (just now as I'm typing this..  ha ha) Cool.  Lex told ebbi to ask me to do TZR. Ebbi did and MaryAnn took me under her wing on many a long run and let her crazy running addiction rub off on me. So yay!!  Excited!  I guess so..  Here we go...

I woke up early on May 13th to get a run in, I just wanted to see how I felt about running on the exact day that would determine our fate. At the time running was something i hated (still not to the "I Love Running" stage, but I at least I don't hate it)  I'm not sure what that would determine if I hated my run or not, but it was just something I wanted to do. Lex ran with me,It was a nice run with good conversation. We thought we would know the results by 8:00 am, Lexi and I were texting each other like mad. Nothing! Then we heard it would be 10:00...Nothing! I was now on the road to Las Vegas with my mom and little girls, We were All now texting back and forth frantically wondering our fate..... Nothing! I was starting to lose my patience (which is easily done). I called the Marathon office and she told me we would know at the latest 5:00pm. That gave us a little time to chill out. Not to say it wasn't on my mind. We all made a pack that everyone would be together and they would face time me. I had just talked with Lexi on the phone, and not 20 min later Tyler sent me a picture of the confirmation saying I got in, which meant that Lexi and Becka did too. He also knew that Maryann and Bryant had got in. WoW! I was Freaking out to say the least! I started texting lexi.....Nothing! Figures! she let her phone die! nothing new! Just like she runs with her laces untied, its what she does hahaha....From the other post we all know I knew the results and I was sure Lexi was dead. Turns out she is still alive and we are All running the  St George marathon on October 5, 2013! "OH MY HECK!" What have we got ourselves into? I am Excited, but Scared! My take on it all is that I am doing this for the Journey! Time is not an issue, unless we are dead last and they are closing the course. I am training with some Amazing people and I cant wait for the next few months and all that we will endure! Here we go now....