The Great Blog Catch-up: American Edition

We are in Europe now and enjoying as much as we can without a car and with the wettest Spring they have had in over 500 years.  It has rained almost every day since we arrived almost 3 weeks ago.  Many towns are under water and being evacuated.   We are not one of them, thankfully. 

Now, when we last left off, Rob was about to leave...and so was I!

We left together in the truck, loaded down with two motorcycles and all the guns and ammo Rob couldn't take with him to Germany.  He decided to take the round about way to Idaho, via Texas.  Now you are right, if you are scratching your head and saying, "that's not really on the way to Idaho!"  Not only is it not on the way, it's way out of the way!  He effectively doubled his drive.  But there was an important reason for that.  We were going to run the first ever Army Marathon in Fort Hood, Texas!  After what happened at the Boston Marathon just a week or so before, I was a little nervous!

We made it down alright and the next day we went to the expo.  We realize real quick that this wasn't going to be your average marathon!  This was definitely a starter marathon!  It was kind of hard to even find the expo, first of all.  Most of the area was for a Ham expo.  I said, "I want some Ham!"  And then I realized there was more to that sign.  It said Ham Radio expo.  Well, that's why all those goofy cars with huge antenna's were hanging around!

We ran around the rest of the day and then met the rest of our team for dinner that night.  Afterwards we got all ready for the race, except I had forgotten my shoes in the truck.  Rob said, "We'll just get them when we leave tomorrow morning."

I got all ready the next day and then sent Rob to get the shoes.  No shoes!  We searched the room.  No shoes!  We searched both again.  Still, no shoes!  We ran to a few of the places we thought they might have fallen out at, but never did find them.  We just barely got the team to the starting line before the gun went off.  And there I was stuck with everyone's stuff- in running clothes, a number pinned onto my shirt and flip flops.

 I instantly went from marathon participant to support staff!  I ran around and cheered everyone on while I tried not to cry too hard.  It is not often that you really want to be in pain and get upset because you aren't.  I can only remember crying one other time, because I wasn't in pain and that was when I was more than a week overdue with my 4th child!

Rob's friend from work and his brother did awesome and ran faster than they had planned.  Our friend and running partner, Dave, ran a better time than he did his first marathon.  Rob got a bad cramp around mile 18 and barely made it in- hobbling.

 Needless to say, he got his worst time.  He says he still isn't a hundred percent back after that marathon.  But I think the fact that he has finished 5 different marathons is a statement of how amazing he truly is!

The Team

I had to buy new shoes before I could run again.  Besides the entry fee, the trip down, the flight home and the hotels, that was just one more expense to make that the most expensive marathon, I never ran!

Rob drove to Idaho and visited his family and mine for all of us.  The kids stayed in school while I became the taxi driver.  We lived on post in temporary housing, which made for about 60 miles a day driving to and from 3 different schools, seminary, soccer, YM/YW, scouts, etc.  Rob stopped by on his way over to Germany for a couple days to pick up the van and take it to Virginia to port.  Thankfully, Rob had a friend that loaned us his car so that we could still drive our 60 miles a day.  It seemed like a very long month as we finished up school,

I volunteered in Max's class, so I could take lots of pictures without the teacher getting upset!

 soccer

On three the yell was Go Max!  Mostly because Max was going - away!

 and Emma went to Mormon Prom.

 I love that she had so many friends that wanted to be there to get her all ready!

Super dooper cute!  The lady (Karen) who was taking pictures with me, said, "It's like the have their own language. 

I'm so glad it all went well, though. I was so scared every time I got into that borrowed car.  Scared that we would wreck it or someone would scratch it or something bad would happen.  I am so thankful it didn't.  Thank you to all those who helped us in our last couple months in Ohio!  We loved living there. 

Some of our many friends in Ohio.  These were the ladies that helped me learn to quilt better!  For some reason I can't find the pictures of the friends I went out to lunches with or the big party they had for us where they took a group photo and framed it for us!  Loved them all, though!

We loved the families we met there!

  We will miss you all!

Galactic Acidification

Last marathon I did a home movie, took lots of pictures, wrote about in glowing prose.  This marathon- not so much.  We ran the Air Force Marathon September 17th.  

One of the many flyovers by various aircraft during the race

We did the training in half the time as the last one.  Life kept getting in the way, and we let it.  We didn't really have a team until the last 3 or 4 weeks and we didn't do team dinners/breakfasts or shop for matching uniforms or anything.  As soon as we started running with a team, though, things seemed to get a lot better.  Rob started not being so exhausted on runs.  In fact he ran us into the ground on the 20 miler.  Runs seemed a lot more fun and not as hard.  But then the last week I started feeling really exhausted.  I came up with all kinds of excuses from "I'm still recovering from the  20 miler, to I haven't eaten and it's already 10 am and I'm trying to run, to I'm just nervous about the race."

I tried to get into the race spirit a little the day before the race.  I made a tutu to wear and put butterflies on clips that I put in my hair.  I thought about buying wings, too, but decided against it because of the whole wind drag thing.

One of my butterfly clips had fallen out at mile 3!

The day of the race, we went in early- to the wrong gate and told them we were going into the office- which we were- so they moved barricades for us to pass through.  We went into Dwyne's office and hung out for a while, trying to eat the last of our bananas and oatmeal muffins.  It was all very surreal to me.  We finally headed down to the start point and just barely got there in time for the wheelchairs to start.  Two of the guys had to drop bags off at a collection spot, so we missed them.  We looked everywhere, but it didn't take long before the gun went off for us to start.  We eventually caught up with them.  They had lined up with the 4 hour group and we had lined up with the 4:15 group. 

Right before you got to the 1mile poster you got to a huge hill that went on for another mile and a half.  Really not fun, when you have trained on mostly flat ground.  The rest of the course was up and down except two spots- one at miles 9-10 which went off base, so that families could cheer.  

That is where the party was.  

One of the kids favorites

One of our friends' -who smoked us all- wife watched and carted around our children for us, so we could see them and they could see us.  She is such a sweetie!

By this time, I was already done running!  I couldn't seem to put one foot in front of the other without a huge effort.  

Everyone kept asking if I was Ok.  I wasn't.  At mile 18 I was really done.  I didn't think I could go another step, but we made it to mile 20 where true to form, Rob got a cramp in his hamstrings.  It happens every time at mile 20!  Before mile 21, though he caught up with us and passed us.  He said, it actually felt better if he ran faster.  He ended up finishing at 4 hours 14 minutes. 

He told one of the guys, Dave (who is in our bishopric) to stay with me and he did, the entire way.  Even though I took extra breaks, he stayed with me.  The last 1.2 miles is where you can see the finish line, but you have to go in a huge loop and back to it.  I couldn't even keep running there.   I had to take one quick walk before I could finish the point 2.  

As soon as I crossed the finish line a nurse was in my face asking if I was Ok.  I wasn't.  It was all fuzzy on the sides of my vision and I could feel myself starting to faint.  Rob stuck out his hand and I grabbed it and then I knew I would be Ok.   I did have to walk a couple yards and then sit down before I did faint, but I knew it would be alright with Rob.  I downed an entire bottle of gatorade and inhaled a banana and then I was able to stand.  I still didn't have to go to the bathroom until 7 o'clock that night, though!

Dywne still hadn't come in.  He was fighting hard with cramps.  We weren't sure when he would be there, so we took pictures.

Notice the bumble bee shirts the boys wore to match Rob's black and yellow combo (they are stinging like bees!)  Emma is in purple to match my floating like a butterfly outfit!  Nobody really got it.  They kept calling me tutu girl or I  also got fairy and ballerina! 

I was really disappointed with my time of 4 hours and 20 minutes.  It was almost an entire minute more than last race and I had trained to run it faster.  I kept trying to figure out what my problem was.  Why I was so exhausted the entire race.  The whole last 18 miles was a gut check.  It took me until the next day when I finally realized.  Only one thing changed from the time I ran the 20 miler (where we all ran strong and where on time for our goal) until I ran the marathon.  I had started taking Allegra for allergies!  And a couple weeks before the 20 miler, Rob had stopped taking allergy medicine because of nose bleeds!  I don't know why I didn't even think about it before I started taking it, but although it is non-drowsy, it still is, obviously exhausting!   Rob had been struggling with the runs ever since allergy season had kicked in and I started having trouble when I finally started taking allergy medicine (I usually don't get allergies, so I had just been trying eye drops and stuff before that.)  Needless to say, I have not taken allergy medicine since the race!  I am biased against them.

One day, I will realize that just completing a marathon on those terms and in not a terrible time, is a good thing, but for now I'm just disappointed.  I would like to prove myself, but I am also ready to do some other things.  We talked to several people about doing a triathlon and Rob really wants us all to run the Army 10 miler, (which we have already started training for) and I really would like to do a Ragnar race.   There are lots of fun things out there to do!  Anyone want to come with us to do any of them?  We do love a team!!

Dywne, Dave, Shawn, Rob and Deborah

PS the lactic acid from a marathon is always galactic!

The Marathon- She said

I have always been too much of a follower. One of the things I tend to follow in, is my big brother's shoes, so when he ran a marathon at the ripe old age of 18, I thought, I need to do that one day, too. Fast forward too many years and two marathon's run by my husband. Now my desire is a little stronger. Still not a burning flame, but certainly a flicker. Then I don't seem to loose those last 8 pounds from the last baby and I think to myself, "training for a marathon will definitely help me shed those unwanted pounds." I will fast forward to the end real quick and let you know that I haven't lost a single pound- I eat too well.

I decided to make it a goal for the year, when we did our yearly goals, which we do each year with our kids. I started looking for someone to train with. I am notorious for not sticking to something without someone pushing me. When I started running in Colorado, it was only my running partner and friend, Tammy, who got me off the couch most days. No one seemed to be interested, however; and so I quickly wrote in on our goal sheet that hangs on the fridge, that running a marathon would be a 5 year goal. One day we had the elder's quorum presidency over with their wives and I mentioned that I wanted to do this and had found a marathon that was run on a Saturday, but that I couldn't find anyone to run with. Jodi chimed right in and said she would be interested. I wasn't sure how interested she was until she sent me an e-mail saying that she had started looking at marathon type sights on the web. We started running together on Saturday's. Rob decided to make it a Saturday event and we had all kinds of people come out and join us. Most of them never came back. I don't know why- those Saturday's were amazing, both physically and socially. We had so much fun the first 10 miles of every run. We kicked a paper at mile 3 1/2 (each of us got a turn, but usually it was Jodi), we talked and laughed and made up rhymes, and we designated who got each of the honks from the cars. I think Scott and Dwyne got the most. After 10 miles it usually got a lot quieter and we just focused on running. Then we would stretch and drink and eat a little under the trees at the school. Then we would head to our house for a big pancake breakfast. At one time we had 17 people here for breakfast. It was so much fun. I would have never done this without the team. I knew a few people who were trying to do it on their own and finally when they got to the really big runs- 18 and 20, they gave up. Who can run that long with no one to joke with, no one to kick a paper with, no one to eat pancakes with afterwards. Eventually, the whole group signed up for the marathon. Rob was the last one and didn't sign up until September or October.

Rob told us that it helped if you have a "thing" that people recognize and can shout out to cheer you along the way, so we went and bought a team outfit (red- not Rob's first choice) and did iron-on's of card faces. One lady along the way, yelled out "go K's and Q's" I wonder if she ever got it!? The kids all had red shirts. Dwyne's wife and Jodi's husband did too. We put the suit on them that went with ours and then put their age. Dwyne's youngest is one, so he was the ace of spades. Jodi wore pajama pants because it was so cold. She wore them all the way until the last couple of miles. She got more yells than anyone. "Go pajama pants girl" they would yell. We decided we all needed to wear pajama pants next time!

We left for the marathon on Friday morning. We met up with the others and then went over to the marathon site. We walked to the start and then walked to the finish, just to see them both. It was nice, because when we were coming down the last stretch and I didn't think I could go anymore, I remembered the names of the streets and knew how close I was. Rob didn't want to see the whole course, because he said it would be too depressing. Afterwards, we headed for dinner, but on the way Dwyne and Sara's car blew up. We went to a home depot parking lot and tried to cool the car down. A very nice man came over and offered all kinds of help. He then began to interview everyone. He happened to be a radio jockie who was contributing to the coverage of the marathon the next day. What an amazing coincidence.

I have always been extremely nervous at any race, but the marathon was different. I was determined to enjoy ever minute of it. I had found a site that I read about one person's marathon experience and it had inspired me, when I was so nervous about being able to finish. It is here, if you want to read it. The day of the marathon, Rob had everything set out for us by the door. We woke up before our alarm went off and just sat and talked. Finally, the alarm went off with the song, (you want to) Make a Memory. We got dressed and met our friends outside the room. Scott, Jodi's husband, helped get our kids ready and to the 7 mile mark to cheer us on.

Rob had warned us about the start and so it wasn't frustrating to walk slowly to the starting line. It took us almost 5 minutes to get up to the start, after the gun was fired. That's why they give you those little chip things to wear on your shoe- to measure your real time which is different from the clock time. We stayed in a large group for quite a while- longer than I thought we would. We had trained to run 5 minutes and then walk 1 minute, but we had determined not to start this for the first few miles, because of the crowds. In the end we didn't start it until mile 4. It's funny that so many people seem against this idea of walking at all- like it's cheating or something. All I know is that we ran a really good time for first time marathoners and at one point someone said, "look their walking again." Jodi said, "it's all part of a system." Then another person said, "hey, that must be a pretty good system, if they get to walk and they are in front of us." His friend then said, "no, no, no, no" but, I didn't hear his explaination of why it was a bad thing. All I know is that we beat them!

Like I said, I was determined to enjoy the whole experience. I gave high fives to the little kids, I yelled back to the crowd, I pointed out cool looking stuff to the group. It was all fun and games until I hit around mile 14. At that point, my shouts back to the crowd were a very weak, "woohoo" (without an explanation point.) Just before mile 16 we hit a bridge, that must have been the really bad part- all those hills were nothing compared to the bridge. I think it was because it was so cold and the wind really blew hard while you were on it. I became very tired and just wanted off that bridge. As soon as we came off there was a perfect cheerleader. She yelled stuff like, "you're done with the bridge, now it's easy, just 10 more miles." and "It's not hot, it's not raining, it's a perfect day to run a marathon!" The people there cheering you on and the people who came out and set up stations for you and all the volunteers were amazing. At one point there was a family who set up their own water station. The kids had put out water on a little table and were now huddled under a blanket on their lawn. The parents kept going, filling up more water and handing them out. If that's not amazing enough, they had to clean up all the water cups afterwards that were littered all over their front lawn.

At mile 19, our family was there to cheer us on again. It was so nice to see them. I was so exhausted by this time. Right afterwards, we had to go up a long hill. Rob got a cramp in his thighs and had to stop. Jodi and I ran to mile 20 and then took a bathroom break so that the guys could catch up with us again. They caught up before we had gotten in the bathroom. Most of the marathoners, didn't wait for the toliets, they just pulled off to the side and went- even the girls. This was a little bit gross! Rob stayed with us until around mile 23. I don't know where Dwyne was at this point. He caught up with us around mile 24, but then said "see you at the finish" at mile 25. Jodi had a really bad pain in her foot and she said she just had to finish right away, so we sprinted off. I have never been that exhausted before in my life. Around mile 22, there was a little girl giving out chewie lifesavers. I had gotten a pack and I knew I needed to eat something to get my energy back up, but I didn't even have the energy to get it out and unwrap it, so I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I would have never finished in such a good time without Jodi pushing me. The last 4 miles people kept saying, "your almost done." I got so tired of hearing that. I wanted to yell back at them, "liar!" 4 miles seems like an eternity when you have already run 22.

The last leg was straight down a steep hill. I was so glad to see that finish line, but it seemed it never got any closer. I just kept going faster and faster and it didn't get any closer. When I finally crossed the finish line, my first thought of was how much I had wanted to finish holding the hand of my wonderful husband, but also at the same time, "I'm done!" At least I finished with Jodi, though. I went through, got my blanket, got my medal and then stopped and waited for my husband. Dwyne came next. I asked him if he had seen Rob and he said he was right behind him. Finally he came. I was so glad to see him and see us all finish within 4 hours and 26 minutes. Dwyne had a really bad cold with chills and everything. Rob had a stomach bug that he brought back from the Ukraine. The doctor adviced him not to run the marathon and gave him some antibiotics. He lost 6 pounds the week before the marathon. I was just so amazed by both of those guys. I don't think I would have ever run, let alone finished in such a good time.

What a wonderful experience. I guess sometimes it's not so bad to be a follower!

The Traveling PJ's

Here is a very cute story about Pajama girl- Jodi, who ran with us. It is really a story of the PJ's. Rob knows exactly what Jodi's brother is going through, since after he went off to basic training and AIT, he says he never got all his stuff returned.

Our Marathon

Here it is, finally. Ok, it took me two whole days to get it back on- a little lesson in don't delete something, before you have the new one uploaded.

A little note about the music. The Whitney Houston song is obvious, but the first one by Bon Jovi you might not understand. One of the people we trained with said that when he was training for a different marathon, the guy he ran with would bring a big boom box and play music as they ran. So, one day we decided to bring our little clock radio and put it on the bike with our support team- Scott. He wasn't very appreciative of our music choices and as soon as the song (you want to) Make a Memory played, it somehow stopped working. We heard the song several times early in the morning as we drove to the school parking lot where we started all our training runs. Then, the day of the marathon our alarm went off with that song, (you want to ) Make a Memory, playing. We were, of course, already awake, so we didn't exactly get woken up to the song, but it did become from then on out The Marathon Song! And making a memory is exactly what we did. The days and months of training and the final run of the marathon were an amazing experience both physically and socially. We will always remember it with fondness and are ready to do another one! Yes, amazingly enough, running a marathon is a lot like having a baby- you forget all about the pain and only remember the amazing feeling. Rob couldn't convince me that I would, at first, because that was pretty good pain and exhaustion, but it has happened. Marine Corp Marathon here we come!

P.S. For all you non running type, the nipple was bleeding after being rubbed by the shirt for 12 miles in the rain. That's why it is smart to tape those puppies up! There is also one more part you can't read, but I am not doing this uploading thing again, so it said, " a complete team, all in under 4 hours and 30 minutes, even the sick and hurt ones. That's amazing!"

Marathon and books

I just finished the book "Amazing Grace". It is a biography of William Wilburforce. I had heard of him before, but didn't know what he was known for. I just associated him with a little man trying to move a mountain. He was one of the main people involved in stopping the slave trade. It was an amazing book- A little dry at times, like all biographies are, but I was so glad that I am involved in a book club that forces me to read this kind of stuff. I would never do it on my own. It is so humbling to see how many great men's shoulders we stand upon. I recommend the book- I haven't seen the movie, but it might be a good alternative to you less motivated lot- like me.
The Marathon is tomorrow and for any of you that are interested you can check out our progress along the route at this website. It has splits in real time (I believe.) Unfortunately, half or more of our team is not feeling well. Rob has been having a lot of stomach problems since he got back from the Ukraine. He went in and they gave him a Sulfa antibiotic. Now he is really dizzy and nauseated. I took his blood pressure yesterday, because I was afraid he may be getting septic, but it was normal. One of the other guys got sick about two days ago and says if he still feels this bad tonight, he won't be running. Wish us all luck. We have been training hard and really wanted to run as a team.