Good and Bad News

Bad news first? (That's usually my preference)

I did not make it into the Boston Marathon. They have made a change to their registration process to guarantee that only the most elite runners that register are accepted. Which means even though you may have qualified with an amazing time, if you had runners in your same division (mine being Women 18-34) that beat your qualifying time they would have a better chance at being accepted.

Because they are so kind, I did receive an email letting me know they were so so so sad that I wasn't going to be joining them April 15th 2012. Also included in the email was the explanation that although I did not make it in, women in my same division with a qualifying time of 3hrs. 38min. and 46sec. and faster, were accepted into the 2012 race.

What was the difference between my time and this one above ^ you may ask?

22 seconds...

-22 seconds I took to re-tie my shoe?

-22 seconds I took to drink 3 gulps of water?

-22 seconds I took .... too long.

Ha ha ha! I can't help but picture my brother Brad saying, "Next time, run faster."

Well there you have it. Next time I will definitely have to run faster because all Qualifying times are being cut 5 minutes from 2013 on. Next time . . .

Good news now?

A week from today, I will be Here!

I can't wait for . . . .

-The Food

-The Museums

-The Parks

Best of all . . . .

- The Kate!

Sore?

2 Weeks from today, I will be very sore. As many of you know, I am trying to qualify for the . . .


By running the . . .


My goal time is sub 3:30

If you have time June 11th, in the morning. Come and cheer all of us crazy masochistic runners. It is a real boost to see someone you know cheering you on to push it till the end.
The marathon starts at 6:00am so hopefully I will finish between 9:20-9:40. We will see?

Marathon 2

Things were great leading up to the marathon. I really had trained well and felt I would be great, that is if the weather didn't become an issue. But of course it did! That is right, don't try running a marathon when temperatures will be up to 100 degrees that day. It was the hottest st george marathon my parents have seen.

It was fun going to the starting line the morning before. I had butterflies all day.


The first time I ran the marathon, these bonfires were so needed. Not this race!


The marathon started and everything was going great! I felt a pebble go in my shoe on mile 8 and just ignored it. I figured it would cut into my foot and stay there and not do that much damage, so I didn't bother with it.
I kept a great pace! I had to repeat in my head, "take it slow", on the down hill though. I didn't want a repeat of the first marathon. I got to mile 20 and I was 12 minutes ahead of my Goal time 3hrs and 40 min! I was ecstatic! I really had to get under 3:40 to qualify for Boston and I was doing it. All along the way I watched people drop off left and right. It got too hot too fast! Literally people were collapsing.
I got to mile 21 and that's when all my worries became reality. I got really dizzy and felt I was going to throw up. I couldn't let that happen, if it did I would get dehydrated too quickly and have to get on a shuttle. After about 3 minutes it passed. I then began running again and got really cold and had chills all over. I thought "Great! Heat exhaustion." I was then stopping at every station to get hydrated. And I then accepted the fact that I wasn't going to make my time. Really, really disappointing. But I didn't cry until later that day when I had to explain to my brother Dano that I didn't qualify. That was hard, we wouldn't be going to Boston together. Anyway, by mile 24 my muscles began seizing and cramping. I was so close but having to walk on and off since mile 21. I had made a new goal. I wanted to finish under 4 hours.


I would love to thank those workers at the stations who rubbed my quads and knees with Icy Hot and had the water and Gatorade ready for us. I have a special thanks to that wonderful woman on mile 25 who had a big gulp sized cup full of Ice Cubes! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Having that in my mouth for that last mile was so refreshing and needed. I then turned that corn and saw it just ahead of me. The finish line! It makes me so happy to hear and see my family. I immediately heard Rhett, "Olivia!" It really pushes me harder. There was the clock . . . 3:56. Honestly, I was so excited to just finish, lay down, and take off my shoes. It was over :)
Sorry about these next photos. They aren't the prettiest.

Battle wounds, Joseph had to take pictures when I showed my family right when I finished. Thanks Catalina for the flip flops!


Everyone was pouring water on them to keep cool and it drenched my socks and made terrible blood blisters.


Remember that pebble? There wasn't a pebble. This was what I ran on ha ha.


We will see how the next one goes :)

St. George

St. George Utah is one of my favorite places to be! It is my oasis from stress and worries, and I can't wait to be there in just a few hours.

Yes we are going down there for this . . .

I am most excited to see this . . .


And I know that the best part of this weekend will be CONFERENCE!


I love Conference! I hope everyone has a great Conference weekend!

The Freedom Run

This year, for the 4th of July, I got to run the Freedom run 10k with 2 of my brothers, my dad, and Angela. I even had my cute nephew, Gavin, run the 1 mile. I am excited to talk to him about it on Sunday.Anyway, even though I didn't meet my goal time, I had a lot of fun. I will post pictures and more a little later, but my sister in law pointed out to me the link that the Freedom Run sent us. Of course there were photographers there taking pictures to sell to the runners, and then send you an email to let you know.
Well, I made it on their cycle of 7 or so pictures on their main page (click below to see). As I was finishing up the race I had a man trying to pass me so I began to speed up. I really didn't want him to pass me so close to the end so I kept strong. Yes, he began to sprint. Therefore, I had to push it really hard to stay in the lead. So the picture they have of me is pretty intense, ha ha. Kinda crazy :)

Click here to see the Page

10k . . . plus some?

So, I signed up for a 10k that I ran on Saturday Jan 30th. I was training pretty hard because one of my 50 life goals is to place (1st 2nd or 3rd woman) in a race. I figured I would be more likely to achieve this with a shorter race and while I don't have kids. I got sick the week before and wasn't able to run for like 5 days, so I decided to try for placing in my division, 20-29 women.
I really enjoy races, I tend to have an anxious excited feeling even the day before. I made myself a playlist on my ipod and got in bed a little bit early (12am). After a lot of rolling around and thinking about pace and what my time should be at each mile, I heard, "Olivia?". . . . Me: "Yeah?" Joseph: "Stop thinking about your race and go to sleep, it's already 1:15." Me: "Ok."

Lining up. Can you find me?

This is what the course looked like. The race was held on a farm with muddy dirt roads with tractor tracks. It was scary watching people in front of you land wrong on their feet and twist their ankle. Luckily they weren't injured enough to keep from running. This farm, like many farms, had many roads going north, east, south, west, in a grid. The problem with the course is we had half marathoners start at 8am, 10k racers start at 8:10 and 2 milers start at 8:20. All with the same starting line and finish line. Anyway, I passed the mile marker 3 and the first drink station without stopping, I could wait till the 2nd station. There were a couple turns that weren't exactly marked, but the 5 people in front of me were running, so I followed.

It was so strange, at about mile 4, we had a group of about 10 of us as far as I could see. There was about 6 way in front of us and should be many behind us. I was pretty focused and thirsty to even wonder. Where was mile marker 4? . . .or 5? Why am I feeling so tired? Finally, the question that really made me wonder. Why did my play list run our of music? I had 50 minutes worth on there, didn't I? FINALLY, I saw the finish line about .25 miles around that turn of trees, so I ran hard. Right before passing the finish line I looked up at the clock. . . 51 minutes!? But, I trained so hard. . . I was glad I took off my headphones in time to hear the man in front of me with his cool gps watch say, "Umm, my watch says we ran 7 miles?"
All confused, we gathered at the map of the course and realized what happened. That group of 10 of us ran about .5 miles too far east and then .5 miles too far west at the next turn. Oh well, I thought. At least my time was a lot better than I thought. Apparently people were so upset that the organizer of the event had to come on the microphone to apologize.
Well, we figured only some people ran off course and with an extra mile, there was no way I would have placed in my division, so we made our way home.


It was a really fun morning and it was nice to run it with Aubrey and have Joseph there supporting me. He seemed to enjoy himself, he told me about the crocodile he got to pet at one of the booths, while I was running :)

That night while I was preparing my lesson, I checked the results. I couldn't believe it, I acutally got 2nd in my division. They were nice and sent me my medal too.