MIA and a Race Report

I have been out of bloggy land! So much has happened over the past month or so! We have moved back to Utah! Sunny St. George. Hubby and I grew up here and we have always said we would never live here...well, here we are. There are several reasons we came back to the mainland, but the number one reason is family. BUT my #1 selfish reason is my 40 by 40 is ON! ( : I'm so excited!

Although I miss Kauai, the beauty, the friends I've made, the ocean, the trade winds, the tropical rain showers, the plumerias, the waterfalls, just to name a few things. It is good to be back on the mainland.

We finally found a house and moved in last week. I am still not completely put away, but that is okay, I ran the Mesquite marathon yesterday and it was great!

First of all I have to say, I haven't been able to run over three miles at a time for several weeks. I have had plantar faciitis in my right foot and my outer calves have been giving me grief, so much so that my form has been off and I can barely lift my feet...crazy! So, going to the sports doc was a must when we got back. And it doesn't hurt that he is cute! ( : He gave me a plastic cup to put in my shoe for the PF and he said that for my calves, the new Kayanos are not as supportive for my high arches as the older versions...so I tried the Asics 2140s. They didn't make any difference. Luckily, the St. George Running Company took them back. That is service! So, Friday night, the night before the marathon, I called my friend, who is a nurse, and asked her what she thought. She said it sounded like a vitamin B-12 deficiency. Could it possibly be that easy??? No calf pain...and no nausea! It was a two-fer. I'll tell you what I did a little later in the post.

The marathon started just outside of St. George, although we drove down to Mesquite to ride the bus and pick up our packets. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold and blue skies! The scenery was a bit desolate, being a desert and all, but it was beautiful in its own right!

There were only 189 marathoners, so it was a small race.

The first 10 miles just flew by. The course was relatively flat and slightly downhill. At mile 11 the rolling hills started, which I didn't think were that bad.. after running the Kauai marathon, no hills are that bad! ( : At mile 15 my quads started cramping, I have never done that before, but I also haven't been running very much! (My last long run was 12 miles, mid October). I realized that it hurt more to walk than to just keep running, so that is what I did. At mile 20, I still didn't have any nausea, I was feeling great! I'll take cramping over nausea any day!

I crossed the finish line before my family even got there. I knew at the halfway mark that this would be the case. My husband was shocked and impressed! heehee. But with no nausea, I was able to sit and enjoy eating post race food. I ate 2 yogurts, a banana, 3 waters and a powdered donut! ~ Normally, I can't choke down anything, let alone something sweet!

The race was pretty organized. They ran out of water at the mile 15 aid station, but they were on top of it and got some there as fast as they could. (that is why I always carry some with me). The medal was a little cheesy, my husband hit it right on the head by saying, "Did they pull that thing out of a cracker jacks box?" Funny. But for the most part, I really liked it. I would run it again.

The B-12...I took 17 drops under my tongue before the race..

Mile 10 ~ 7 drops

Mile 17 ~ 3 drops

Mile 20 ~ 1 drop

I actually didn't count the drops during the race, I just guessed. I forgot to take it immediately after the race, and during the drive home I started feeling a little sick, so I took some and a few minutes later I felt great.

Keep running!