Don't Do This!!

Yeah, we look rather cute and sassy! In our little outfits and tutu's! Of course this is the "before shot." You'll see an "after shot" a little later. (BTW, I'm the one on the right with the pink skull tutu from Hot Topic and piggy tails;)

For people who know me or want to get to know me, I'm the "keepin it real" kinda gal. I don't necessarily air all the details of my comings and goings, but you get a good sense of who I am and what I'm about... "beautifully flawed" and unafraid to tell the world about it! haha. (ok...maybe not everything.)

We can all learn from each other right? And though I "preach" certain principles as a trainer, sometimes, well, I EAT MY WORDS!!!!

I ran the Provo Half Marathon with some of my "besties" yesterday. Went in completely confident that I was going to nail it! Cement in my best time and make my clients and treadmill class members proud. (Yes, I have a big mouth and told them I was running this, even invited anyone is earshot.) 

Every week I get up in class and proclaim the "do's and don'ts" of proper running and racing technique. Sure, I try to practice what I preache....most of the time. But EVERY TIME I get cocky and cavalier about anything, it turns around and bites me in the butt!

So, beginning to end, this is the breakdown of my race with all the "don'ts," which I actually "did." So basically, you'll take my experiences and do the opposite, ok?...haha!  Some of you might be a little shocked with my revelations, but hopefully you'll appreciate that I'm on this journey just like you. Sometimes we all go against our better judgement. That's human nature, right?

1.  I didn't sleep a wink the night before. Probably because I washed my spaghetti down with too much Diet Coke and Cheesecake!!! On top of that, the whole week I wasn't able to sleep or eat much, for other reasons. NOT GOOD! 

2.  That morning I woke up at 5 am to get ready. I was soooooo tired. More than usual. My stomach was in knots, so I wasn't able to eat much of anything. I was draggin', so to wake me up, I drank another Diet Coke on the way to meet the girls! What was I thinking????! Not much.

3.  When we got to the start line, I was thirsty and a bit dehydrated (thanks to my diet coke genius). There was no water, so I would have to wait until the 4 mile mark. Still quite fatigued, I then consumed part of my runner's powerade "slime" for energy. Not recommended on an empty stomach. Awesome combo!

4.  I was in the first wave of runners, the under 2 hour group. I can't lie. I am very competitive. So, it takes me a lot of restraint to hold back, which I should have done at the beginning. We started up at Sundance resort and had a little over a 3 mile distance downhill. Think in terms of "blue," or "black diamond" steep. Crazy! At the start, people were literally sprinting down. Again, against my better judgement, and I always tell people NOT to do this, I sprinted right along with them. No previous warm-up or stretch. I'm talkin, beginning the race in an ice cold standing position and GO!! Full sprint! I think it was around 30 degrees out. Yeah...I know.

5.   Thing is, the whole time I was pounding down the mountainside, my instincts were telling me to "SLOW DOWN. This is crazy. You're going to burn out pretty soon, and it will be hard to finish." In other words, I knew that as soon as I accumulated enough lactic acid in my legs, from anaerobic "sprinting," it would be near impossible to flush it out, which would slow me way down. And like I've always said: a proper, steady warm-up gets oxygen to your lungs and blood allowing you to go longer and eventually faster in a race. I KNEW that. But, for some reason, I went against my own logic, ego set in and I was determined to sprint past all those other runners.

6.  As I was heading down, probably at a 6 mile an hour pace, my big toes were on FIRE!!! I thought for sure the toe nails had been ripped off. Hurt so bad, and then they were numb. From feet to knees. I felt like I was running on stumps. Weird. Kind of nervous I was going to face plant it at some point. Luckily, that didn't happen. But, my toe nails are now totally black, and I wonder if I will eventually lose them. (For your viewing pleasure, see "after" photo below:)

7.  From start to finish, my stomach was in knots. I haven't experienced this symptom in a race since my first half in 1994. It was so frustrating, because I truly wanted to stop and just walk. I was miserable and fighting through the whole race. Although I wanted desperately to stop I knew I couldn't. I had dragged three buddies with me to this race and told practically everyone I knew that I was doing it. I couldn't back down. Once I commit to anything, I finish, even if I am crawling to the end.

8.  OK, so I usually never have to stop at those porta-potties, but I did yesterday. TWICE!!! And, if you've ever run a race competitively, you know when you stop cold, it's agony to start again. And it WAS! I'm talking knives shooting up the legs pain. But, when you gotta go, you gotta go. In that regard, I really didn't have choice. (although, all my bad choices earlier pretty much led me right to those porta-potties!)

OK, so I did finish the race. Not with a time I wanted, but I finished.  It was hard man! I ain't gonna lie. But, my girlies were with me. And they did awesome! Much better than me. I'm still glad I did the race even though as I write this now, my toes are bruised and I can hardly stand up. It was worth it, because you learn from mistakes, right? And when you conquer an obstacle, big or small, you're always going to come out ahead...even if your time sucks!! haha.

I know, ewwww, but owwwww too!