16 mile Marathon

Oh man. Where to start?

My knee had been progressing all week. I had almost no pain, and only had to stop and walk 2 times every 3 miles.  I felt like I could probably run/walk the whole marathon.

Then, we walked around City Creek while we were picking up my race packet in SLC.  Three or four times during that little walk I took a step and had a sharp shooting pain in my knee.  It made me nervous and worried that I wasn't going to be able to run after all.

I ran.  I did the first 13.1 miles in 1:59 running/walking the whole time, and then at exactly that point (13.1) I had to start walking because the pain was so bad. I had to keep walking, and walking, and walking until finally mile 16 my dear Watson was there to cheer me on.  Basically, it took me 2 hours to run 13 miles, and 1 hour to walk 3.  I was in a lot of pain. My whole body was aching; I felt sick to my stomach and even after walking 3 miles I still couldn't run on it.

I couldn't imagine walking in this kind of pain for 10 more miles.  After a lot of tears and some stretching/massaging I decided I need to just bow out.

I'm glad I at least tried, and tried my best. I could have decided not to run altogether, but I'm glad I didn't do that even though it was painful.

I realized I have no idea what the protocol is if you have to quit a race before you finish.  So, we just left.

I memorized all 13 articles of faith and Hebrews 12:1.  I thought maybe memorizing scriptures would help keep my mind off my leg. It totally worked for the first 13.1 miles.

It's not the end of the world, even though it kind of felt like it for a minute.  My body is screaming at me to take a break from running to allow it time to heal in many ways. I got a migraine last week while running....that's never happened. I got diarrhea during a run last week...that's never happened (don't worry, I made it to a bathroom just in time). Take a break girl. That's what my body is saying.

Thanks to my sister Hannah and her family for letting us stay at their house. We had a really fun time with them!

City Creek!

I don't know what kind of face he's making here.  

Tiffinay & Co!!! If you look close in that blue thing you can see a giant solitaire diamond ring.

My dear Watson was totally there for me. He was with me at the start and several times along the way. I love him so much. He deserves a medal.  

I took TRAX to the starting line. I'm there in the grey sweater, walking to the start. 

I work bright pink and blue so you could find me easily. 

There I am again. 

This was the last picture my dear Watson took before he realized I was dying of pain. If you could see me up close it wouldn't be pretty. 

The Tiniest Shoe

Once, I set out to make the cutest little baby shoes out of an old purse I was done using. 

I found a pattern online for a 6 weeks - 3 mo baby shoe. 

I carefully took apart my purse and cut out the patterns.

I sewed the straightest lines I've ever sewed, because I was giving this away as a gift to a non-relative so I figured they'd be less forgiving of mistakes.

I got to the part where I would sew the strap on the shoe (think Mary Jane's) and realized something had gone terribly wrong.

The shoe was barely big enough to fit a newborn.  It probably wouldn't even fit most dolls.

The strap is the right size, see how much bigger it is compared to the shoe?

Apparently the lady who put this pattern on her blog had some imaging issues, so when we printed the pattern out it was actually much smaller than what she had intended.  I saw this as an update on her blog, but it was updated in 2009, so I figured I definitely had the right pattern.

I was wrong. 

It actually wasn't as upsetting as my other sewing projects gone bad, because I still made a really cute looking shoe. I did it right the first time, no seam ripping! 

I am sad though that I used all the fabric from my purse, so there's nothing left over to try again.

Cortisone Shot: My New Best Friend

So about a month ago I was running to mutual (literally running because my dear Watson had class), and it was dark, so I was kind of running fast. I'm afraid of running in the dark. All of a sudden the arch of my left foot started hurting so bad I had to stop running. I hate walking. I rested for a day, then tried again. I couldn't run more than 50 feet (I probably had Plantar Fasciitis...it's common in runners).

I spent the next week running 1.5 miles (instead of 3) and then doing 15 minutes of cardio on a machine at the gym. I thought this might help my arch heal.  Then I ran 15 miles and it kind of hurt, but not enough to stop.

The next week, I started having issues with my right knee...my diagnosis was probably IT band (that's common in runners).  I could run about 1.5 miles and then it would hurt bad enough that I had to stop. So I spent the whole next week doing cardio on machines only, thinking this would heal my IT band.  Then on Saturday I was supposed to run 17 miles.  After mile 2, my IT band started hurting again.  I decided maybe if I kept running it would go away.  Then after mile 4 I realized this pain was not going to go away, so I just decided to run until my leg fell off. 

I've never been in so much pain. It felt like my whole leg was on fire, and then sometimes like someone was cutting my muscle with a serated knife.

After 11 miles, a lot of funny breathing to help me relax, and a lot of tears, I finally couldn't put any weight on my leg anymore. I was hysterical: I knew I wouldn't be able to run my marathon, I was worried about surgery and all sorts of things. Plus, I just love to run and I haven't been able to run for real for 3 weeks, AND I was in so much pain.

I called my dear Watson and he picked me. I spent the next couple days limping, and then saw a Sports Medicine doctor.  Turns out, it is the IT band. I have good alignment, my x-rays looked great, so it's just a really inflamed IT Band probably due to running funny when I was trying to compensate for my gimp foot.

They gave me a cortisone shot and I have made huge improvements every day.  They said by 7 days after the shot I should be good as new, and I can start training for my marathon again.

Say what?

I couldn't believe it.  I'm still in shock that every day I feel less and less pain and that I'll be able to run a marathon in 2 weeks even though I was in such excruciating pain just last week. 

I love cortisone shots.

Mormon.org Easter Campaign Wants YOU

Did you know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is launching a three-day advertising campaign this weekend in conjunction with Easter? The focus of the advertising is to help those not of our faith understand that we believe in and follow Jesus Christ.

Short advertisements will be shown on YouTube on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (April 6-8).  They are anticipating the ads will be viewed a minimum of 15 MILLION times. That's a lot of views.

Find some time this Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (the site won't be active until Friday) to visit mormon.org/easter and share your testimony of Jesus Christ. We want the world to know without a doubt that we're Christians, don't we? More importantly, we want the world to know the importance of Jesus Christ in the lives of all God's children.

Again, mormon.org/easter. Look for the YouTube ads and go to facebook.com/mormon too if you want.

Since I have a mormon.org profile, I got an email inviting me to participate and share. I'm excited for the opportunity to share my testimony of Jesus Christ, and be part of something that has potential for millions of people world wide to see. 

The site won't be active until early Friday morning, so come back and click through the link tomorrow!