Happy Birthday David!!

Today my dear husband turns 38!! I will make fun of him for getting old every chance I get today!! Hee Hee! I love you sweetie!

Salt Lake City Makes #8! Give Me My Second Star!!

Wow! Time goes by fast! It was only a year ago that I ran my first marathon, the Salt Lake City Marathon!As my previous post stated, I signed up to run the Salt Lake City Marathon this year, not as any sentimental gesture, but just to get my second Marathon Maniac star by running 8 marathons in 365 days. Well, mission accomplished! Me and a few of my friends hit the streets Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day to run.

With the Tacoma City Marathon on May 2nd approaching quickly, my friend Teresa and I decided to run SLC as a training run, going nice and easy and that's what we did. I did not have my best time at this race, but I had fun and I recovered quickly. Not to mention, I got my second star!!

   Teresa and I at the start.

Me at Temptation Station!

Me at the finish!

Franz and I at the finish with the NJ Maniacs!

Franz, Bob K. Sue and Mike at the finish! Sue qualified for Boston and Mike finished his first marathon!

I Surrender Salt Lake City Marathon!

OK- The Salt Lake City Marathon was not on my to-do list this year for two reasons. First: It was my first marathon last year and out of all of the Utah marathons, this one is the least scenic of them all. Running through neighborhoods and downtown SLC is not my idea of scenic when Provo Canyon, Ogden Canyon and St. George are so close. Second: I am running the the Tacoma City Marathon on May 2nd (Marathon Maniac reunion- whoo hoo!) and wanted to be "fresh" for that.

I was intending to run the 1/2 just for fun, until I started looking at my Marathon Maniac stats. I only have one star (the lowest level Maniac) even though I have run 7 marathons in less than a year. Looking over the info, I realized that I could get that second star by completing 8 marathons in 365 days. I called my friend Teresa (who is in the same boat) and filled her in. "We are only 1 marathon short of our second star, but we only have until April 18th to complete it!" Darn!

With this years marathon falling on April 17th, we bit the bullet and today I paid $100 for a race I find not so scenic (nothing like waiting until the last minute) so that we could covet that second Maniac star by one day! So Salt Lake City Marathon, I am waiving the white flag! You got me!

Hi, My Name is Angie and I am a Marathonaholic!

I have a problem. So Wednesday, I am waiting on pins and needles for the NYC Marathon Lottery to take place. I ran NYC last year and had the time of my life. I really wanted to get in this year too, that is until I looked at my credit card bill. Now one of my New Years resolutions was to pay off my credit card. Then my little dog Zoe got sick and the cash earmarked for the credit card went to the vet instead. Anywhoo, while waiting to hear my NYC fate, part of me was hoping NOT to get in as that would result in another $190 added to the credit card!

At 10:30am (mountain time) I logged on to the NYRR website to see my fate: Entrant #460203= Not Accepted! OH NO/WHEW!!! I was happy and mad at the same time! It's OK if I can't really afford to do it, but don't you tell me I can't do it!! After the initial shock of not doing NYC this year wore off, I tried to console myself with thoughts of saving money and counting the numerous marathons I have done and/or have on my list for this year. Let's see: In February, I did the Surf City Marahton, in March, I did the LA Marathon, on April 17th I will do the Salt Lake City Marathon, then in May the Tacoma City Marathon, in June, the Casper Marathon, in July the Missoula Marathon, in September, the Top of Utah Marathon and on October 2nd, the St. George Marathon!

One of sound mind might be content with a list of races like that to look forward to and called it a day,but like I said earlier, I have a problem. How DARE NYC not let ME into their race this year! I was a tax paying New Yorker for over 15 years and this is the thanks I get?

Instead of licking my wounds quitetly, I fought back in the only way I know how, I signed up for the MARINE CORPS MARATHON on Oct. 31st!! OO-RAH!! So much for saving money! I hope I don't have to turn to selling drugs to support my running habit!

Antelope Island Buffalo Run 25K!

I am a little late posting this but, oh well. This trail race would be a first for all of us. Teresa, Josh and I signed up for the 25K and Bob B. and Bob K. signed up for the 50K. I was a little worried about getting through this race after running the LA Marathon 6 days before. Our training run out on the island a couple of months ago proved that course was not a piece of cake (even though we were lost and not even on the course most of the time ;-) )


Since the 50K started at 8:00am and the 25k started at 10:00am the two Bob's left for the Island early and Teresa and I drove together. The morning started off with me arriving at Teresa's house and realizing I had left my bib, chip, and can of food (for the huge stew) on my kitchen table! Luckily, I live about 10 minutes from Teresa and we had time to rum home and get it!

The energy on the island was great. By the time we got there the 50 milers and the 50Kers were already running. We had just enough time to use the potty and hang out and meet a few new people before the race director said "Ready? Set? Go!" and we were off!

Saying this course was hilly would be an understatement! The first 1 1/2 miles was straight up this mountain. We lost Josh from the very start. I kept thinking "what goes up must come down". We relished the downhill when it came, only to have another hill smack us in the face. These hills were so steep and rocky everyone walked up them (which was no easy feat). Our legs were burning!

The first aid station was at mile 5. We filled our water had a snack and off we went to meet Elephant Head, the hardest climb of the course. Teresa and I were glad we were only doing the 25k because we did not want to conquer that mountain again!

At the mile 10 aid station, we met up with the two Bob's who were about 21 miles into their race. We stopped for a few minutes to eat something and chat with them, then we were off again. After another climb, the last 4 miles were pretty much downhill. I was loving it and had caught my second wind. Teresa and I were hauling it down the hill when all of a sudden, I tripped over a rock! I fell just right though, rolling into it. The only damage was scraped up hands and (more) dirty clothes. As we came to the last couple of miles, we could see the finish line tent from above. We went for it and finished! Besides having sore legs, we both felt pretty good!

As we waited for the two Bob's, Teresa and I met up with Josh, drank some cold pop, ate some buffalo stew and chocolate doughnuts and picked up our award mugs (which had a bottle of chocolate milk in it-Yummy)!

We hung out for maybe an hour when we saw the two Bob's coming in! It was quite impressive! This was the longest distance either of them had run and on this hard course, we were in awe!! YOU GUYS ROCKED!!! The cutest thing ever was seeing Bob K's mom and her husband out there in a lawn chair, with a sign and as cowbell cheering them on as the crossed the finish line! It was AWESOME!

After the Bob's recovered a bit, we all went for a lovely lunch at Cafe Rio (the perfect recovery food). THANK YOU BOB!!!

We couldn't believe this race took us all day, but it was worth it. We had a blast! The best part was not having to use my pepper spray on stampeding buffalo and hearing Bob K's story of how he fell a mile form the finish (Ha Ha)!