Brent and I even went on a run! Oh what a lovely run it was. It was a 4 miler on part of the Idaho Rails to Trails. Running in the mountains, in the drizzling rain, was just what I needed! If I could only run there for an entire week. At least I got out again! It was also a great weekend for Brent and I to catch up and just enjoy each others company. It is hard surprisingly hard to spend time with a person you live with sometimes! We used the windshield time to just catch up on our thoughts and feelings about everything. What an awesome husband I have!

Well, I hope that is enough to let you know that we are still around! Less than 2 weeks before we fly out! Continue to pray! We have a lot of things to do in the next week to get prepared. Also, some of our team members are still needing support.

I have had a couple runs in the middle of all of this, but that means about 2-3 in the last month! Seriously starting to get anxious. Oh I want to get out and hit the pavement. Sounds ridiculous to those of you that don’t run. There are so many reasons that I love it. It helps reduce stress. Which I am stressed and can’t find time to fit it in and doing that stress me out. Funny huh? It is a moment of quiet time. I can talk to God or just think about things in my life. It is my health! It is healthy not only physically but mentally. It truly makes me a better person. I could keep going on.

This has been a hard last month being in this situation. How did I make myself so busy? Pray that I don’t get to frustrated with this. I know I’ll make it through. I just need to get there.

The trail has thee paths that you can take; easy, medium and hard. Being that better fitness should be expedited, I have been taking the hard trail up. It’s not that long, but it is steep! About a half mile in length and 750 ft. of elevation gain. It’s been taking me about 15-20 minutes to go up and a little less to go down.

It has been a great work break to go on these little hikes, a moment to get away (even though I carry my work phone and a tablet just in case an IT emergency erupts at work). I especially love the moment when I reach the top and I get to behold the beautiful expansive valley below. Next week I will be lugging my pack up, probably with tripods and cameras getting myself ready to photograph and film for two weeks without the guarantee of electricity to charge my gear. On that note, I just picked up numerous extra batteries and will need to run them through a full cycle a couple times to get them to accept their maximum charge. That means lots of pictures and video to come!

My friend’s first goal was to finish and her second was to cross the line in at least 2 hours and 30 minutes. I told her that was impossible. I had been training with her a lot over the last several months and I knew she was better than that. I didn’t have my good old watch to keep track of our splits, but I knew we were running well.

I kept encouraging her and letting her know that we were doing great! I even got her to pick up the pace for the last couple miles. It wasn’t a huge increase, but it was just enough to get us to cross that line in under 2 hours! I was so proud of my friend!

Here are our stats:

Jess & Katie (They put Katie in right behind me, but overall we were the same).

Overall: 372 out of 687
Age Group: 62 out of 134
Time: 1:58:52.2
Pace: 9:04 min/mi

Brent (Poor sick guy, but he made it!)

Overall: 551 out of 687
Age Group: 54 out of 63
Time: 2:13:19.9
Pace: 10:11 min/mi

Enjoy our pictures!

Then Tuesday night hit. I was up all night with a terrible cold. It was miserable, so I just couldn’t sleep. I cancelled Wednesday morning’s run and went straight to the store before worked to get drugged up. It was a rough day. I was exhausted and there was a ton of built up pressure in my head. Thursday was not much better, but I was convinced I was getting better. By Friday I knew there was no way I could run the 18 miles that was on my ultra training schedule. I met with my friend and we discussed not doing the ultra. We came to an agreement that it would be better not to. With missing two long weekend runs and still being sick, I did not think I could make up and of the time and be where I need to be for the ultra.

I was disappointed but at the same time I felt relieved. Brent and I (and my running friend) are all working on going on a mission trip to Nepal in May. We are going to have several weekend fundraisers and other meetings to prepare us. I new that it was the right decision and with a week of praying about it, I came to peace about the decision. Brent told me that I will have another year to try for one and it will happen. I just picked the wrong timing for this one.

Here I sit on Saturday morning where I hoped to be able to go out for at least an hour run to see how I would do. Well, I am still sick and I woke up with almost no voice. I am hoping that I can get healthy by the time the weekend it over and start running again. I am planning on running a half marathon in March and then I hope to run the 25k at the same event as the ultra. We will see what happens.

I started my year off by training for my second marathon, Nashville Country Music Marathon. I was starting my year off right by logging several miles. I was doing a lot more training this time around than I did for the Portland Marathon. I did one of my first long training runs in Bismarck, North Dakota. I got up ridiculously early so that I would have time to spend the rest of my day with my grandma. It turned out to be crazy cold and the trail I ran on ended. My long run turned to a short run as I didn’t know where I should go and I was running alone. That was a great way to start off the running year.

The rest of my training runs went really well and I logged four 20 milers and several 16 milers. I ran my first race in March for Saint Patty’s Day. It was a half marathon and a good one. It started off a little chilly but ended perfect. Training was going really well for my next race, the Nashville marathon. I was sprinting around a local pond each week trying to increase my speed and just to get that extra kick. I ran Nashville and had a blast! I did not slow down too much after that race. I stuck with my training for a while and ran an intense half marathon in Bozeman in June. It was the Lewis and Clark Half and it was hilly! I then pr’d at the local 4th of July 10k Run for Independence! In the middle of July, I enjoyed another half marathon in a small town just outside of Bozeman. It was another great race, but it turned out to be a little hotter that morning than expected.

In August, I ran my first team relay that was 180 miles! (Too many posts to link to, but go ahead and check out all the GTR posts if you haven’t!) It was most definitely my favorite race of the year and I am looking forward to it again in 2013. During the summer months and all of these races, I was training for the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. I definitely did some slacking and in September, I got back into gear. The summer and its activities had swept me away. I ran the half at the Bozeman Half Marathon and was so close to setting a new half marathon PR! Maybe in 2013! At the end of September, Brent and I both ran a new distance, and 8k! It was fun and short and a great evening run! October rolled around and I was able to enjoy my third marathon in San Francisco. The NWM was a tough one, but it was very enjoyable. It helped that I have such a supporting husband! I ran my last race of the year at the local Thanksgiving Day run, Huffing for Stuffing. This was an enjoyable one as my parents were in town and the whole family was running! The races of 2012 definitely made some memories.

I accomplished two marathons, four half marathons, one 10k, one 8k and one relay. What a year! I also set a 10k PR! I did it in 48:46.7. I had not ran a 10k under 50 minutes yet. I also have not ran many 10k’s since I discovered my love for half marathons. Also in 2012, I learned how to run with others. I had rarely ran with any one other than Brent or my sister before this last year. I like my pace. I am good at keeping my pace, but when it comes to running with other people, this tends to get tainted. I must say I have grown to love running with others. Whether that means they are faster or slower than I am. I have also had the opportunity to encourage several people to start running!

This year was also a year of difficulties in running. I had to overcome miserably smoking days while training for my third marathon. I deviated from my training plans, which in the end I believe hurt me a little. I also felt like I got burnt out. By the end of the year, I was only running a couple days a week and I was okay with that. I love what I can accomplish from running, but at the same time with everything else going on in my life, it was stressing me out. I decided that it would be good for my body if I just took it easy. I think it helped a lot. It also made it exciting when I started logging more miles again.

I love running and can’t wait to see what happens in 2013. I do think that it will be a completely different year for me than the last few, but I look forward to seeing what happens. Come on and run with me!

Well, turns out the weather called for a huge snow storm. That storm hit just before Brent go back into town. I started my training last week for the ultra so there was no skipping this run. We headed on with about a half inch of snow already on the ground. We kept on running as the snow just kept on coming down. We ran towards downtown Bozeman and just headed up the street. It was a beautiful run and we definitely got a few looks from some people on the street. One guy we passes said, “Now I’ve seen it all. You guys are brave. Way to go.”

Yes we are running in a snow storm but how else do you get your runs in? We then came up on another guy that told us we were crazy. I was loving the run as Brent and I were catching back up on our last several days. He snow was getting deeper and deeper as we got closer to home. Our last 2 miles or so were in 4 inches of snow with drifts of 8 or 9 inches. It was getting chilly out as well. It was about 15 degrees. Despite the fact that I was getting chilly and all of the snow, I absolutely loved it!! I bet it was mostly because Brent was back. We finished our run with Brent’s beard covered in ice. What a beautiful snow storm. I am so glad that I went out and ran even though normally I would convince myself otherwise. It is always best to go on that run. If you don’t, you will regret it. Ah the love of running and snow!