Route 66 Mock Marathon

Summer/Fall 2009 RunnersWorld Training Season has been a blast! I am so proud of my "Like a Virgin" group training to run their first marathon as well as others who are training to run the longest race of their lives. Here are some pictures from the Route 66 Mock Marathon 11/7/09.

First, some pics from the "Like the Virgin" group, who are popping their cherries at the Route 66 Marathon this weekend.



Shawn and Ricky












Pam and Hilarie











Rebecca











Jamie













Arena and Jamie stretching but they didn't learn that from me.




Several others from my group escaped my camera: Felix, Carmen, Mike, Christal.


Other Runner's World Members who Rocked the Mock 22/13.1



Wade and Jason set up the 9/12 mile aid station















Curtis' mug is always a treat













as is Yao's smile!










A lovely group that included recent Kansas City Marathon finishers! Wow they have lots of energy to run so far so soon!









Thirsty Guy drinks a warm beer at mile 9.
















David, a prodigy, keeps adding miles on by the half dozen or more at at time, and the lovely Stacey. April ducked out of this picture.







Patty, who is truly an amazing runner and one of my biggest inspirations. Larry, who invited this guy anyway, and some TATUR estim8ur finishers. You all are fast! Maybe trying to get away from Larry.






Some more of my favorite RW folk, Rock Star Ed and Trail Zombie, who is wearing the official race shirt, along with BOMB Heidi who may even learn my name someday. I guess for now I will settle for 'pink sports bra girl'.





Vanilla Bean, A.K.A. Kim, is enjoying a banana at mile 12 while Swade and Harris discuss firing up the grill for some more hot links.








Tom meets up with his sister to run it on in.










Kay is all smiles as this is her longest run to date.













YAY! Cheryl only has 10 miles to go!
















The volunteers of Mile 9/12 aid station. Jason, Lisa (me), Sally, and Wade. Sally was also at mile 6 until everyone passed by.




Back to the Start/Finish for a few more pics and celebration.



Cold beer was a popular form of rehydration











Head TATUR Brian and TATUR Dave making sure there was some water and gatorade
available for the few who replenished their fluids the correct way.






Rachel's birthday was on the day of the Mock and we just happened to get a pic before the cake was all gone. She still looks so young!











Eat a cupcake, get a fabulous birthday cupcake ring. Have to replenish those lost carbs.







Charlie finishes in style. Never a frown on this guys face when he is running.














It almost looks as if this picture was taken before the race, as Ryan looks like he hasn't run a mile.







Overall, it was a great day for this year's Mock Marathon. Whether you were a volunteer, (Sally and Terrie work the registration table) . . .







. . . ran the whole thing in toe socks (Andy swears by these) or barefoot (Dustin, ouch!) . . .














. . . even though you did not get an official time, you could do like Glowstick, A.K.A., David, and write your time on your bib. . .





. . . a good time was had by all. We missed Coach Kathy as she was in Greece running the original marathon at the time of this training run. She would have been proud of everyone.

Good luck everyone on the Route 66
Marathon or Half Marathon! Who says running cannot be fun?

A special thanks to RunnersWorld for the FREE training. I know I speak for many others out there when I say I could not do it without you guys. When we are all out there together, it makes the aches and pains tolerable and leaves me craving more.

The Stanky Leg

Please visit You Tube and rate this video of Jason ;) Thanks!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0SIei-j0Kw

old news just discovered

jason and i achieved marathon maniac status in december 2008 but i just noticed by googling myself (you should do so periodically) that we made the december 2008 newsletter and so did tz! tz is mentioned on page 20 and jason and i are mentioned on page 23 and our picture is on page 24. tz, why no pics? atleast of a blister or something! jason and i both have one star, the bronze level, but hope to move up soon. tz has 4!


bobby, another maniac, just informed me that he is in the february 2009 newsletter. yay!

flip the turtle over and give her a hug

so since you have been on here i have renamed my blog. i never told the story of the first name "conquering the hills" because i never got a round to it. (actually i do have a 'round to it' wooden coin somewhere but anyway) if you have run with me you know i am not great at hills. i am a true tatur and do walk them whether i am running road or trails so i am obviously not conquering them in this way. but i do have a larger upper anatomy and this is what my blog was named after. despite the sisters in the way, i still trudge on. well, i was sitting in moe's burrito joint the day after the little rock marathon i was watching a cartoon and there was me! on tv! what is slower then a turtle? an upside down turtle. he just needed some help to get going to then he accomplished his goal. this post is dedicated to my new blog name and my new journey.

today i joined some friends near stillwater for the lake mcmurtry race directed by my dear friend, trail zombie. he did a great job and managed to really get his head ripped off by only one runner. i am sure he will have a great race report in the next few days.

my husband jason signed me up for the 50k a few weeks ago without really talking to me about it. we were however on a quest to get 2 marathon maniac stars by getting six marathon or ultramarathons in 6 months and this race would make 5 with 6 weeks to go til deadline. so today i set out to run a 50k. now just yesterday i was home from work, at urgent care, getting an abdominal xray in the attempt to further investigate my pain and bloating i have had for the past 6 weeks. this scan revealed some mightly full intestines but no obstructions. and just wednesday i took a laxative!! no, i did not eat a truck load of food! my body just didnt fully evacuate. so yesterday i treated myself to first a unsuccessful liquid glycerin suppository followed by a unsuccessful enema. well that was off on a tangent, back to the race.

i had the usual cramping that is becoming chronic and i was able to get thru little rock 26.2 so why not this? i didnt feel to bad but just never got into the race. the course was the next best to sunmart. i love seeing my friends on out and backs! it is so encouraging. also the aid station workers on this loop were awesome. thanks bill and ed. you were awesome! i completed my first 12k and was rather disappointed with my time ~1:57. my feet hurt and i was tired. just after this i started my second loop and got to see the first 12k runners completing their loop. the fifth person i saw was my dad which was cool. he ended up winning the masters division and got a cool wooden box with a engraved plate and very nice compass inside. cool prize tz!

the second loop didnt go so well. this is where i saw a bunch of people which was the best part. i even got a kiss from jas since he was so far ahead of me and passed me going the other direction. christin did an awesome job at her aid station as well. thanks for all your hard work! just like the first loop, i walked alot and never got into the race. could never pick up the pace. my feet were hurting worse. i started thinking about how my dogs were in the car and they may be getting to hot. i was also thinking about how i needed to concentrate more on my marriage then my job or anything else in my life. i didnt care about my second star anymore. i just wanted to be done. the last two miles i mostly walked. as i was about to cross the finish line, i saw my dad and step mom standing there. since i was just thinking about family and what was important to me, and my family was standing there that i dont see very often, and my dogs were in the car, and the food smelled good (thanks for cooking dana!), it was an easy decision. i would quit. i shed a few tears, felt like a loser but got over it. i could spend time with my dogs and my parents, spend more time with my running family as we waited for others to come in, and i could get off my feet. i completed the 25k with a miserable 3:54.

i got to hang out with sandra alot and get to know her better which i really enjoyed. she ran the 12k and did awesome! she also did a great job watching my children while i ran to get more ice for the water and then running tz out to the aid station to deliver more food. while at the aid station, i got to see jas along his last loop and give him a kiss for encouragement. then, hanging out back at home base i got to talk to curtis, bill, michael (who won the whole darn thing) , randy and others i dont get to see very often. jas came in and i was so proud of him. he pr'ed with a 6:45!

we hung out til the last 5ok runner came in, cleaned up the site although i am sure the wild animals are going to tear thru the trash, have a feast, and make it look like we cleaned nothing. we then went to mexico joes for more fun and fellowship.

on the way home i noticed my dad called. he thanked me for the fun he had the night before at dinner and at the race. he was also wondering how jason did. i called back to let him know that jason finished and did great! i thanked him for being there at the finish when i decided to quit at the 25k since i was so upset. he said that 'there was nothing to be upset about' he said that i was 'not genetically made to run this distance' (50k). he said that i was a 'big lady and big ladies usually have health problems and trouble running these distances'. he said that 'if i was training you i would discourage you from running this far. a 25k was good but for someone your size a marathon distance is pushing it and anything further was just no-mans land. you are just asking to get hurt'.

i pretty much remained silent the rest of the conversation until he was kind enough to get off the phone. i was upset after this and jason was left to pick up the pieces. i did not cry because i have shed tears over this before. when dad found out i was training for my first marathon he said 'you 'are not built like a runner' and 'if i was your coach i would not train you for this'. this offended coach kathy! she has trained so many people, including me to reach my goal. thanks to her and the support of my running family i have run 3 marathons and one ultramarathon in the last 5 months since i started training in june 2008. before that i ran 2 days a week on a treadmill for 2-2.5 miles at a time. so somehow it is possible and i even i am trainable. this upside down turtle can be flipped over and finish a race. today was just not my day, not my race.

so i am going to take my BIG ass to the free state trail marathon in lawrence 4/26 and maybe even find another race before my deadline of may 15 for my two stars and i am going to finish my race, damn it! because i have real family right here that will support me along my journey. i love you all. and you show me what it feels like to be loved. especially when i need it most.

pictures from today to follow . . . when i am not so tired

watch what you eat at RW

hanging out at dave and buster's for michael whitten's b-day was lots of fun. a nice break from running with running friends, eating a huge meal, and then a little cross training with the jump rope game and dance game. some even played trivia but i am not smart enough for that. it proved difficult to perform well on these games after the appetizers, fries, hamburger, and then the donuts. while my dinner was well lets just say i would order something different next time, my dessert was better. the presentation was good. and the powedered donuts were excellent. the sauce was great. the darker colored donuts, however tasted burnt.






but none the less, these hungry folks will surely share any left over grub. and being the sweetheart that i am, i shared my $7 donuts. roman (right), one of my favorite people at runnersworld was there to share. i wish roman would hang out more. i just dont see him enough. being the crazy runner that he is, running marathons untrained, etc., he understands that we need lots of good food to keep us going and sometimes we get so hungry, so desperate for food, ya know like when you are out on a 50k trail race, and will eat about anything. well, this led to my favorite quote of the night.

'you could lick all the powder off that donut hole and someone at runnersworld would still eat it'. . . roman

The buzz word is . . . FARTLEK!

i have seen it on the runners world blog and then on an email (from tatur dave maybe?)... the word fartlek. but before that, i saw this sign along the course at psycho wyco run toto run and have been asking people what it means. my dad, the experienced runner that he is, explained it to me and since i wouldnt be good at it, ignorance was bliss. it was funnier without the knowledge. for those of you still in the dark, an example is what the military does when the guy in the back runs to the front of the line of runners and this process continues. since i will never catch the guy in front, i will keep giggling to myself like a naive kid about what i think fartlek might mean.


so this is how we spent our muddy valentines day.
the taturs were few but i represented with my many chins along with jason, janeen and kate. janeen set out to do the 20 miler while kate set out to do 10 miles and jas and i just thought we would see how it went and decide how far we would go while on the course.

































psycho wyco lived up to the hype. it was trechourous as promised and had a difficult change in terrains. since we were running on a bridle trail, the hoof prints had froze in the mud making for fancy foot work. these pics cannot even capture how many times i said owwch! the guy oat the top of the picture is trying his best not to cuss.
































The course, while beautiful, had many (slick) hills with an overall change in elevation of over 5,000 feet in just one 10 mile loop!


at times it was so steep, it was difficult to even walk up the hills. this sign reads "steep grade. use lower gear". i may have used a few choice works here.




the terrain changed from frozen hoof prints, to icy rocks uphill and icy downhill to very slick mud and back again. after i fell flat on my ass four times within about 1/4 of a mile while descending down icy rocks i walked scared at a slow pace for about two miles before running again. i used many trees to climb these hills and wonder if the older (70+?) man behind me ever finished. the snail pace only extended my time on the trail but i eventually passed under the gates of hell.
































perhaps this guy never made it out last year.











jas however enjoyed himself and is ready for the 50k next year. in fact, he plans to run the psycho psummer 50k including one lap with our dog malibu. malibu has just started training and ran 3 miles with bobby's bunch on monday. i will be there to cheer them on.

so the rumors are true. this is a very difficult course as the name suggests. jas and i ran one 10 mile loop each. he finished in 2:02 and i crawled in about 2:46 or 8 or something. these times were about the same to our times in dan man which was not as hilly but just under 3 miles longer.


*** janeen did awesome finishing her 20 miler in 5:04 on this tuff course! yes she was in shorts and i havent seen her since to find out how many times she fell or if she has any bruises.


aid stations get a 'C' compared to sunmart, dan man, and aid stations i have worked at. there were a few jolly ranchers, frozen m&ms, soup, water, non-gatorade sports drink and coke. the food after the race was less then ok. some corn? soup that looked like vomit, some bean soup, and luke warm hot chocolate was all that was there to comfort you in the 25 degree weather. one of the sponsors, dynamic earth gave out some awesome gear with door prizes including free trail running shoes and icebreaker wool sportswear.

it was real. it was kinda fun. but it wasnt real fun so i will not be doing this race again. i will save my energy to cheer jas on.

btw, jas or my times are not posted online since we both signed up for the 50k but did not complete it. :( my first DNF!

let's demand michael post

so rumor has it that michael whitten has a blog but it is taking him like a week to write one post. atleast that is about how long ago i found out he had a 'blog'. what is the deal? michael i know you have some enlightening stuff to say and you can write more then one post. so publish already. as you can tell with my post about erin, my patience is thin. well, not really, but i love my friends and want to learn more about/spend more time with them. make sure to post some great pics like bobby and ken. please feel free to razz michael on my page so we can all enjoy.

i would also like to mention that i really wish patty and charlie had a blog. i just dont see them enough and i really enjoy their mentoring.