My first half marathon!!!!

On April 23rd, 2011 I ran my first half marathon! I did the "Running For Risa" event up at Hagg Lake, just southwest of Portland. My good friend, Rachel, and I got up early to drive up. We had to be there by 7:30AM to check in. The race started at 8:00AM. It was a fun drive up. Rachel and I talked a lot and my GPS took us the "back way" and we crossed the river on a ferry! That was an unexpected adventure.

I missed the turn around for the half marathon and continued on to the turn around for the full marathon at this one point so I ran an extra half mile or so. It wasn't my fault. The guy holding the one sign was holding it funny and I couldn't read it so I asked, "Is this where I turn around?" He said, "No, you just have a little further", and he pointed down the road. I ran down and turned around. As I was coming back I realized that no one else was running where I was and was feeling weird about it. Then when I came up to where the first guy was I saw all the runners turning around at him. As I ran by I said, "Hey I though you said this wasn't the turn around?" He said, "This is the turn around for the half." I said in exasperation, "I am a half-er!" His jaw dropped open and he yelled after me, "Oh! I'm sorry! I thought you were a full!" No worries, I just kept running. After adjusting my time we figured I ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 8 minutes. I was a little frustrated but also super excited! Rachel told me that was an excellent time for my first half. I'll believe her, she's been running a lot longer than me. She is like a super woman!

The race was to help a girl named Risa who had cancer. It was to help pay for her medical bills and treatment. I found out that she and her family are members of our church and at the race there were LOTS of BYU t-shirts everywhere. There was also a very special spirit in the air. We also found out before the race that Risa passed away about a week earlier. That weekend was their family reunion. That afternoon was to be Risa's funeral. I cannot even imagine what a hard day that must have been for her family! It was a fun and exciting race, but also a sweet and somber atmosphere.

After we crossed the finish line there was a big lunch waiting fro us! They had amazing hamburgers, salad, desserts, drinks, etc. I have never had a hamburger taste so good! Everyone was so wonderful and nice. I am so honored that it was my first half marathon. It was the most perfect weather, a beautiful course, and helping out a deserving family as we honored their beloved daughter. It was a good day.

I am on the Hood To Coast team and my first half!!!!

I am almost caught up on my blog! Yeah! I am up to this month, April. Although I have a lot of blogging for April, its been a busy month.

But before I continue catching up I have to share some exciting news that just happened yesterday! You see I have been an alternate on a HOOD TO COAST team for the past several months. Yesterday my friend and team captain, Rachel, called and told me that one of the other girls had to drop out for this year and that I am on the team! She sent me the official invite e-mail last night and I went to the link to officially sign up on her team! I am now a member of the "Miss Fits" HOOD TO COAST team! Yahoooooo!!!!!!

If you are wondering what HOOD TO COAST is, let me tell you! It is called the mother of all relays and is the largest relay race in the WORLD! It is 197 miles long! The race starts at the Timberline Ski Lodge on beautiful Mount Hood, east of Portland, and goes through Portland, through countryside, over the coastal mountain range, and ends at Seaside on the Oregon Coast! Once you get to Seaside they claim that is the biggest beach party on the west coast. It has been going on for 30 years. There are 15,000 runners! Each team has 12 members. There are two vans with 6 members in each van and they frog hop each other down the course. There are 36 "legs" in the race. Each runner runs 3 legs and they vary from 3.7 miles to 7.4 miles long. Some are VERY steep. Some you have to run at 2:ooAM. You do not sleep for two days, just run, ride in a van, cheer on your team, run some more. The BEST part is that it raises money for the AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY! Last year they raised $500,000!!! It is going to be SO GREAT!!!! I am so EXCITED!!!!

If you want to learn more about my upcoming adventure, here is the official website. You should check out the trailer to the movie, if you get a chance to rent it (it is coming out soon) then I recommend it, I've seen it twice! http://www.hoodtocoast.com/

Other running news is that I ran my first half marathon this past Saturday, April 23rd! It was a beautiful course around Hagg Lake (almost 2 hours norht of here). The weather was perfect, sunny, cool, with no wind. On the way up there, I drove my friend Rachel (yes, the HTC captain), we were following my GPS and it was taking us on the back roads. We came up to a spot and actually rode a ferry boat across the river! I knew there was a ferry boat close to where we live, but we found out that there is actually 3 ferry boats along the Willamette river! Hmm, you learn something new everyday. It was a funny thing that made my first half all the more memorable. I did pretty good on my time too. I ran the 13.1 mile course in 2 hours and 8 minutes. I would have loved to break 2 hours, but it was SO HILLY and some parts were very steep. I am use to training on hills, but not at race pace. It was AWESOME! Now I cannot wait for my next one! I actually messed up and missed my turn around and ran to the full marathon turn around spot so I ran about 14 miles, oh well. I'll get it right next time. Just another memorable moment to add to my experience! After we crossed the finish line there was a Hamburger lunch waiting for us. It was delicious! After running that hard, I have never tasted a better burger!

The race was called "Running For Risa". It was to benifit a 19 year old girl who had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The sad part is that Risa died a couple weeks before the race. Her funeral was to be that afternoon. She had LOTS of family there. The family is members of our church and they live up near Portland. There were a lot of BYU shirts everywhere! It was still a fun and exciting race, but there was also a subdued sense of reverence. I cannot imagine how emotional the family must have felt. Losing Risa, then seeing the big turn out in support of their daughter. I am crying even know thinking about it. I am so honored that it was my first half marathon. And it was a beautiful day too, we kept saying that "the sun was shining for Risa".

Running Update...

Okay, for the month of November I only ran 39 miles. Ugh! But to defend myself I should tell you that I am now training for my first triathalon sprint and have been swimming a lot, so that takes up my workout time so I don't have a lot of time to run. Am I forgiven?

My year to date total is 378.41 miles. This is a far reach from my goal of 500 miles in a year. I was getting down about this and how badly I have failed. Knowing full well that I couldn't possibly run 121.59 miles in one month! Ha! Then I realized that I have had a LOT of health issues this past year (go figure, make a huge goal and then have major health issues!) With the 3 surgeries and "procedures" I have had, I wasn't "allowed" (or, to be honest, really wasn't able) to run for a total of 12 weeks this year. More if you count the 1-3 days after other smaller "procedures" that I had to be out, and even more if you counted all the days I was sick or in too much pain to run. But we won't count those because everyone gets sick. So I decided to make myself feel better by doing this...

See if you can follow my math!
Goal = 500 miles in 52 weeks (1 year)
Averages to 9.2 miles/week

52 weeks (in a year) - 12 weeks (medical leave) = 40 weeks of actually being able to run.
40 weeks x 9.2 miles = 384 miles (my NEW goal for the year!)

384 miles - 378 miles (my current milage) = 6 miles remaining!

In that case I already exceeded my goal!!! (I have ran 18 miles so far this month!) Hee hee! I didn't realize I liked math so much! LOL! Okay, I feel much better.

Running Update...

During the month of October I ran a total of 37.68 miles (I love my Garmin!)
So my year to date is 339.38 miles. Not where I wanted to be by now, but I have had many "medical excuses" this year, so I am not beating myself up too bad over it.

Have I told you how much I love living here?! It is so peaceful and exhilarating at the same time to go running outdoors in the great northwest! Especially when you have this to look at while you run...

and this...


and this on the home stretch!

On this particular day I was just struck with the beauty of the vibrant fall colors so I had to pull my phone out of my pocket and snap a few quick pictures along my route.

My 5k Race...leg procedure...running update...

I ran a 5K race benefiting the Albany School District on Saturday, September 18th. It is called the "Eat and Run" because they have a big spaghetti feed on Friday night (I have never attended that) and then the race on Saturday morning.

It was a lot of fun. Several people I know were there racing or helping with the race. I didn't realize how much I have missed the races. I love to run, but the most fun is all the energy and camaraderie at a races. It is really hard to explain. This is the first race I have ran in over a year. Now I am itching to sign up for more! Maybe once a month? The trouble is trying to find them in my area and not on a Sunday. Most races are on Sundays and I refuse to do that, oh well, the sacrifices we make.

I was really proud of myself this time! This was the fasted 5K I have ever ran! My typical 5K is 30-34 minutes, depending on many factors. I finished this race in 27 minutes and 14 seconds!!! My last 5K over a year ago was a little over 32 minutes! I shaved 5 minutes off my time! Yahoo!

So my official results are; I finished 3rd in my age category (30-34 year old females). I finished in 28th place out of a total of 67 racers (I'm above the half!) and my average pace was a 8:46 minute mile!

Running towards the finish line. Nathan and the kids came to cheer me on, that meant a lot to me!

Crossing the finish line, you can see me 27:14 time on the clock. And a tiny peek of Tatiana's cuteness in the bottom right corner.

After the race with my 3rd place medal and t-shirt. Off to shower!

You can go here http://www.goodrace.com/ to see the official race results. I copy and pasted my line for you here though.

Place No. Name Age Div/Tot Div City St Time Pace

28 913 Satina Tolman 33 3/6 F30-34 Albany OR 27:14 8:46

Now I am recovering from my leg procedure I had done this morning. I had a "touch up" done to my leg called sclerotherapy. They did the surgery back in May and there has been one section of my leg that has been actually worse and hurting a lot. They have been wanting to do this touch-up for some time, but I put it off because of all our traveling this summer, then the insurance has been slow to approve it and I finally got it done this morning. It hurt really bad! It still hurts, it is all wrapped up and I am suppose to take it easy for two weeks. That means no running. AHG!

I might as well give you my RUNNING UPDATE now since I won't be able to run anymore for the month of September. (Yes, play a tiny violin for me please.)

September total: 45.19 miles

Year to Date total: 301.7 miles

I reached 300!!!! Yeah!!!! Only 198.3 miles to go....I better get going! Wait, have to wait on this stinkin' leg...patience, patience....breath....I can do this.

Running update

I haven't done a running update in a while. Well, I haven't been running really great this summer either so I really don't have much to update. To much going on, gone too much, and just not enough time. I have only been able to get little 2, 3, or 4 milers in here and there. Arg.

My year to date total is 278.98 miles. I have 218.02 miles to go to reach my goal and only 15 weeks to get it done! Wish me luck!!! I do have one more leg curgery coming up that will put me out for a couple weeks, but other than that I plan on getting back into running big time! I miss it, I need it, I'm gonna do it!

Running update

I did not run at all in May. I know, shame on me. My leg surgery was on April 30th and I was not allowed to even walk briskly until at least May 14th. Not that I would have, my leg hurt way too much anyway. Then we left for Europe 6 days later on May 20th. During that week I went on a few walks trying to get my leg working again, but I was in no condition to run yet. On our trip we walked tons! We should have brought my Garmin along and clocked our miles, but we didn't think of that until the end part of our trip. We got back on June 1st and I was so tired from the 9 hour time difference that I didn't have energy to go running until Saturday, June 5th. I did 2.92 miles.

So my year to date total is 193.93

I am almost at my 200 mark! Yahoo! I will be honest though, running on saturday was torture on my leg, especially going down hill. I really do not know how I kept going as long as I did. I guess I had to get home and if I ran, I would get home faster...so I ran...in pain. Oi!

Later that same Saturday we went on a 6 mile family bike ride and that didn't hurt my leg at all. So now I am wondering if I should bike the half marathon. Our whole family could do it together! Then I could just set a date for later this summer to do my own 1/2 marathon by myself and see how I do after some better training. Hmmm...we'll see.

April Running Update...

I will not get much running in the month of May because I cannot run for two weeks after my surgery and then I will be on vacation for 12 days. But the month of April wasn't too bad.

My total for the month of April is 44.87 miles.
My year to date total is 191.01 miles.

I know I will not do great on my half marathon. But at this point, I just hope to finish it. Then I will have a base time to beat next year. And then hopefully all my medical issues will be behind me for a while and I can train better. I will still try, I am just not going to be so hard on myself. Wish me luck!

March Running update

Running this past month has been a little slow. I started off the month okay, then we had illness plague our home. I ran 59.87 miles in the month of March. My year to date total is 146.14 miles! I have passed the first 100 mile mark! My longest run to date is 8.6 miles.

Running update

I am just giving my running update on my total miles so far. Keep in mind I had a two week "medical leave" where I did not do any running. I only had two weeks to tun this month. So taking that into consideration...not too bad.


Total miles this month: 19.97 (I know, why did I not just go to 20?!?! Well, it all adds up in the end I didn't realize I was that close!)
Total miles for year to date: 86.27

I am very excited to reach my "100th mile mark"! I did some research online when I was "on leave" and found out that I was increasing my miles way too fast in January. I can easily get an injury if I keep that up and that is the last thing I need! So I found a 1/2 Marathon training schedule that I am going to go by! You will not see any high numbers yet because I am starting at 3 miles with the schedule and it is suppose to have me ready in 10 weeks. Here's hoping I do not have any more set backs! I completed week #1 this past week. I am on my way!!!

My running Goal

Call me crazy, but I love to run! I have set a running goal this year and I am letting you all know about it so you can all hold me accountable! It is a crazy goal considering I do not run fast and I started out the year only being able to run 3 miles. My goal is to run 500 miles in 2010! Nathan gave me a "Garmin Forerunner 305" running watch for Christmas and I love it! It tracks my exact mileage, pace, elevation, and course. I will post updates regularly (at least once a month) and I would love all the feedback and cheering I can get! I also have a goal to finish a half marathon in June! Wish me luck!

Total miles to date: 66.3
Longest run to date: 6.23 miles in 1 hour and 3 minutes