When it rains, it pours

Well, I'm back! Ok, not everybody even knew I was gone, but here I am again! (I really should update this thing more often) So this past Friday, I flew out (on a jet plane...) to the fabulous state of Colorado. Real had a game there this weekend, and since it's the only there of the season, of course we had to go. It was very late minute-we literally decided during church last weekend. We quickly booked everything that afternoon, and the hotel we chose to stay in is the same one the team stays in. I like when we stay in the hotel, we get to see them. I wouldn't say I stalk them, I'd say...we're friends. From a distance. That they don't know about. But we got to the hotel safe and sound, and late, so we pretty much just went to sleep when we got there.
We awoke pretty early the next day, which sucked, after being in so late, but that's ok. We were going to hit the gym (yes, I'm one of those people that uses the gym and exercies on vacations) so I was getting ready for that. The time was about 7:30-8:00, and all of a sudden, the fire alarm goes off. Luckily, since I was a quick dresser, I had my running clothes on already, but PJ was still in her PJ's (ha ha!) but when the fire alarm told us all (yes, it talked) to go outside, using the stairs, we listened, and started making our way down.
Unfortunately, our room was on the ninth floor, so going down took a little bit of time. I, being helpful, called out the floor we were on every time we got to one, and I don't know if the half-asleep people on the stairwell liked that, but whatever. I really don't care what strangers think of me. We finally made it downstairs, and outside, where there were groups of people, all huddled together in the cold. We had been outside for maybe a minute, when they told us it was safe, and we could go back to our rooms. We all went in, waited for elevators together, and went about our business. There was one person I felt bad for, a girl who had been called out of the shower, and was in a robe. Yeesh.
The weekend had no good events for us almost! Real lost the game, 2-0, which just sucked. We didn't play that well, and the ref hated us I think, but it was fun cheering with all of the other fans. It rained during most of the game, which made it cold, but not freezing, thank goodness. And, as it turns out, the team wasn't even staying at our hotel!! The entire reason we were staying there, and it didn't even happen! I was so disappointed by this. I didn't even get to see any of them outside of the game. Plus, our goalie was injured in the game, so our third-stringer had to come in, and our best defender was thrown out of the game. Not our night!
Besides those bad events, the weekend was a lot of fun. Riding an airplane is always fun for me, and I got home early enough to do my laundry, so that was awesome. Hey, I take pleasure in the little things! And hopefully, Real will kick some LA butt when we take them on on Wednesday.

Result!

Ok, I know it's been a really long time since I've posted, but things have been so busy. There are many a thing I need to blog about, but I'll just go from the last thing I've posted about. I did indeed run the SLC 1/2 marathon. 13.1 miles of running, sprinting for some of it, and by the end, I was pretty dead. For those of you who haven't heard of my results yet, here they are: I finished the marathon in 2 hours even. Ok, to be perfectly precise, 2 hours, 0 minutes, and 42 seconds. Not bad for my first one, I think. My placing was 1504 out of 4139. Top half! I was a little proud of myself for that. A bit of trivia, I was 171th place out of 557 in my age group. I'm not sure why I'd need to know that, but I do. Nice.
Some stories from the race...I got to the starting line after the race had actually started. I took Trax up from my hotel to the start line, and it ended up taking forever to get up there. We (when I say we, I mean myself and the other random people who happened to be on Trax with me) ran from the station to the start line, then started the race. I had a really good pace for the first few miles, I finished the first 4 miles in 32 minutes, which, for me, is a super good pace. I kept going at that for the next few miles, then started to get a little tired and my pace slowed a little. It wasn't until mile 10 that I started to wear down, and then, mile 11, we started to go uphill. It wasn't a slight hill, like I'd been told, it was a big one, and I slowed waaay down going up it. When I reached the top, though, I was so happy. I picked up the pace a little at the top, and after another mile (so now, we're at mile 12) I noticed how close I was to the end. A really fast-paced song started on my iPod, (the best kind!) and I ran along with it, which put me at sprinting. There were people all along the sides of the streets, cheering for everyone coming in. This pumped me up also, so I sprinted the last mile in as fast as I could. My lungs were burning, I felt like my legs were going to die, but I did it, I finished!
The people that met me at the finish line (my fam and PJ) all told me how angry I looked coming into the finish line, and having seen the pictures now, yeah, I look totally pissed off. Unfortunately, you guys can't see the pictures, because I can't figure out how to get them to save here. I think I have to buy them before I do that, and I don't think I want to buy them. But at least I finished, and I hit my goal of finishing in 2 hours, so I was happy. I got some really good looking blisters on my toes, one of them a blood blister, which actually finally popped today. Gross. It took me a few days to recover, and now, I'm finally doing some good runs again. I will do anothe 1/2 marathon-in September. At Disneyland!

I've got nerves of steel...

Right now, I actually don't feel like I have nerves of steel. I'm nervous. There, I said it. I'll admit it. I know it's dumb to be nervous now, but I am. Tomorrow, Saturday, I will be running in my first ever (and maybe my last, let's see) half marathon. I am both excited and totally completely dreading it. I think I can do it. I have done the distance once before, so I know it's been done, but I feel like tomorrow my body will freeze up, or after a few miles, just give out. But in my logical brain (the one that rarely comes out) I know that probably will not happen. I'm going to think positively now, and know that I can do it.
I pretty much just have one goal. Well, two. My first is to finish, and my second is to beat the other people that I know that are running the race. I think I might be able to do that, and that's what will push me over the finish line. I don't care if I have to crawl over it, I will finish this. I love being competitive, I'm glad that I found something in this race to compete with someone about, even if they don't necessarily know about that.
Well, wish me luck, everyone. I'm sure things will go well, and I'll post the results at some point tomorrow (if I find them out myself) so you can see that I've at least finished the race. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank

Spring is (sorta) here! Along with the warmer weather and the soccer season starting, it's also the start of racing season. I had my first race of the year yesterday, the Provo City Half-Marathon & 5K. For this race, I chose to do the 5K. PJ was originally going to race with me, but due to an injury, she was forced to sit this one out.
We showed up to the race Saturday morning, bright and early, since the race started at 8:10. PJ came with me for moral support, to cheer me along, which was awesome of her. The half-marathoners race started at 8:00, so as soon as they took off, we all lined up in the chute. The starting gun (or maybe it was a cannon? I'm still not sure) went off, and off we went. I started off with a really good pace, and was doing pretty good. I decided to follow the pace of this guy in front of me, but when we went up a hill, I passed him, so that ended up not being the smartest move. I kept going and kept passing a bunch of people, which was a new thing for me.
I finished with a time of 27 minutes 26 seconds, which is my fastest 5K to date. I was 88th overall and 29th in the women's overall, which I consider to be pretty awesome. I was glad to have gotten this out of the way, so that I'll be all ready for my next race, which is in 2 weeks, which I'll write more about later. And today, I'm just dealing with being sore-which I am just a little, so I'll just rest up.

Home opener!

Everyone, it's here. The day I've been waiting for since last October has finally arrived. Soccer season has started, yes, technically, but in my world, it doesn't start until tomorrow. We have our first game at Rio Tinto of the year. Our boys in red are taking on the Columbus Crew. I'm not going to lie, I don't know how well we'll do, but you can guarantee I'll be screaming my head off no matter what; whether in anger or happiness. We have a great team, we'll have the whole crowd, we'll have just a slight advantage there. We need all the help we can get.
The one thing I'm not looking forward to is the cold. As we've been experiencing lately, the weather has not been good. Some might even say, super crappy for this time of year. But, I will show up in my seventeen jackets, scarves, gloves, blankets, whatever I can get my hands on. I'm hoping that it doesn't actually snow or rain during the time of the game, but really, it very possibly could. That will be unfortunate, but it's not enough to keep me away.
Really, what else can I say? I'm psyched for tomorrow, I'll be happier if it's not freezing, but I'll take what I can get. Think warm thoughts!

Avoiding pain is my forte!

I'm doing a lot of running right now. I have a long race that I'm preparing for that's in about 3 weeks. I'm doing well in keeping to my schedule. Of course, with all this running comes the general wear and tear of my body. I'm constantly sore, going up and down stairs is ridiculous, and my back is usually sore (the dreaded "runner's back"). I had a super long run yesterday, so today my quad muscles are so sore. Just moving in positions hurts. Oh man.
But anyway, along with the muscles, blisters are sometimes involved. I usually don't get blisters, only once in a while, and they usually disappear quickly. I got a blister on my third toe on my right foot. I know, the third toe is such a random place. It's not the longest toe, or the biggest, it's just...there, hanging out, and I got a blister. At first, it was just a nuisance, but it just kept getting bigger, and hurt more. Yesterday, after my long run, and the walking I did all day, the blister was killing me, and I'm pretty sure it had grown from being just one the top of my toe to the side of my toe as well. As we watched the Real game last night (grrr) I decided I'd had enough of it. I'd been told over and over not to pop the blister, but I was at the end of my rope! I iced the toe (to prevent any pain, to numb the toe) and after I felt nothing on it, I got a pin and popped the blister.
It was so much easier than I thought to pop it! Immediately after it popped, all this gunk started coming out. Never having had this happen to me, being my first real blister, I was informed that the gunk coming out was pus, and I was completely grossed out. I cleaned it up, did all that jazz, and for the remainder of the night, my toe throbbed. It didn't hurt or anything, just...throbbed. Today, the toe is a different color than the rest, and it doesn't really hurt, just when things hit it or rub it or anything.
At least the blister is gone (for now, and so far) and I'm hoping it doesn't come back. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if it hurts when running. And now I know what to do when I get a blister in the future-even though it's something they tell you not to do.

The first game...my first disappointment

Well, ya'll, the first game of Real was this weekend. Sadly, our first one wasn't at home, we played the new team, Seattle. I was totally psyched for this game. It seems like its been forever since our season ended, so thank goodness it's finally here. Sadly, our team was not put together very well! I don't know if its just because it was the first game, or because we didn't play at home, but oh my heck we were so sloppy! Passes were horrible, no shots were really good, they just all around weren't impressive. I know that as the season goes along, we'll get better, and I hope it's soon. We have the home opener this week-on Thursday. I know it'll be freezing cold, but it's totally worth it. To see my team play is one of the things I love. I'll totally brave any cold to watch it. As long as it doesn't actively snow or rain during the game, I'll be fine. I'm hoping we'll do good in that game, but as we're playing the MLS champs from last year, I'm not sure we'll be successful. But I'll cross my fingers, and hope. I'm just psyched the season has officially started!