St. George Marathon 2008

Its been one week since the race and I am finally feeling whole again. It took me a couple days before I could ride my bike to work, but by Wednesday I was feeling okay. For those that don't know, the St. George Marathon has about a 99% chance of being sunny. So, of course it had to rain on race day. Luckily, I had a great support team and really appreciate them coming out and waiting in the rain. The last time it rained on the marathon was 25 years ago! This made the shoes a little heavier and the muscles a little stiffer, but I finished. This marathon marks number 7 for me and number 5 for my mom. Despite our more relaxed training program it ended being a decent race. I was shooting for a 4 hour time, but instead came in at 4:21, so it 'wasn't my worse-wasn't my best'......That's what she said.
















Coke and Red Bull at Mile 16! I didn't drink all of it, but my mom finished them up when she came through.









The Finish!

anima sana in corpore sano

What can I say? This weekend has crept up on me pretty quickly. Its one of those events where you are okay if it takes a long time to arrive, but inevitably comes quick! I got into SLC this afternoon and met up with Jenn and Ava after not seeing them for a few weeks. Jenn has been helping her sister out in New Mexico. And then we head for St. George in the morning. My mom and I have had to a lot of our training apart with me living out state now, and this has definitely hurt our training. When we lived close by it made for training together easier. But its too late to worry about that now. I feel good about the race, I just don't think I will be gunnin for a personal best. Unfortuanetly my time has vanished with work and house remodels this past summer. Not to mention this will probably be my last marathon for a few years, with MBA school starting, I just won't have the time to commit. Anyways, the weather doesn't look that great, but I'll cross my fingers. it will be nice seeing friends and family. Wish me luck!

Another mobile post from a phone that should probably be in the 'off' position...

Well today was a day where I was able to squeeze every minute out of it. It started with an alarm at 4am, a drive to the Portland Airport, landing in Salt Lake, running 20 miles, drinking lots of gatorade, dinner at cafe rio, back to the Salt Lake Airport, landing in Portland at 9pm. All this, cause my Mom (nor I) wanted to do our longest training run alone. Doing the big one by yourself just isn't fun, and since Jenn and Ava were already in Utah-- It was a win, win and really good to see them! I really miss running everyday with my Mom so I am glad I was able to come back and do this run before the race. We were both a little nervous for our 20 miler today, because our training this summer hasn't been the same caliber as the past, but we got through it without any problem and now I'm feeling pretty good for the St. George Marathon in 3 weeks!

And to top off the day I scored a first class seat on the flight home. This is especially nice for my legs!

Oh yeah, and sorry for no pictures-there wasn't anytime. Maybe Jenn will have some good ones of New Mexico when her and Ava return next week. In the meantime maybe I'll post a picture of Buster...he hasn't had a cameo on the blog in a little while.

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Sent on the GO from my Moto Q!

I'M IN!!!

You know where I'll be October 4th!

This is always a great race, and I have had good luck in the lottery! To see highlights of my past races at St. George, click here.

St. George Marathon 2007--3:54:08

I have been so busy this week and in the process of recovery and since I don't have to wake up tomorrow morning and run for 2 hours, I figured tonight was as good as any to post some pics from the marathon last week.

I was really happy about my run. I had started with a 3:40 pace group and managed to stay with them for about 20 miles. For some reason, my legs got so tight and on the verge of cramping I was forced to slow it down. The last 5 miles I added some time but I was still happy that I had a personal best and came in at sub-4 hours. Speaking of good times...I got to give a shout out to my Mom who had a personal best as well and completed in 4:39!!!

Here are a couple pics, but head over to my Dad's Flickr stream for the entire set. Thanks again Dad and Robyn for making the trip and helping accommodate us in a great condo!

4:30 am at the buses







At the finish!
I don't know which pic I look better in.






I love my medal!

San Diego Marathon

San Diego Marathon, originally uploaded by Keltose.

Well the Marathon was a success! I had a great race and was right around my best time (within 2 minutes). My Mom shaved about 10 minutes off her time. The race was a lot of fun, and great weather. Follow the link for my results.

2006 St. George Marathon

Entrant: KELLY GARDNER
Event: Full Marathon
Date: Saturday October 7, 2006

Division / Race Number
M2529 / 1849

Gun Time / Chip Time
4h:7m:30s / 4h:3m:40s

Well, as you can tell from my blog, the St. George Marathon has come and gone. That makes 4 marathons for me and an improved time from the Salt Lake earlier this year. With a time of 4:03, I feel pretty good about it and hope to drop some more time on the next one. My Mom had quite a bit of pain during the run, but still ran strong and only added about 9 minutes from her Salt Lake time. As for my recovery...4 days later I am able to walk up stairs with little pain, but I'm taking a week or so from running.

26.2 Here we go!

Scoping out the start line the night before.

2006 Salt Lake City Marathon

Whoever told you it doesn't matter what place you came in must of been a marathon runner, cause I got 945th place! It wasn't my best run, but I had my good moments and plenty of bad ones in almost every porta-potty there was. That and my knee pain at mile 20 set me back quite a bit but my 13 mile was a 1:51 and I feel pretty good about that. Nonetheless I have the St. George Marathon to start training for and I am sure to do better in that one. Also, I got to hand it to my Mom who did her first marathon in under 5 hours! Here are some pics:

My Life In Training

I have come to the realization that my life is all about training. It never ends.
This is a good thing. As my faithful keltose-blog-addicts know, I started my job on monday the 20th. to be honest I am in about 10 feet of water. I have a lot to learn and accomplish during my time as a manager in training.
Furthermore, I am now entering the phase in my marathon training where the miles are adding up! For the mid-week runs this week; it went: 6-3-6 with a 8 on Sat.
The bulls-eye of this realization is that when I am done with my Assistant General Manager training, I will be training to become a Senior GM. Then when my race is done on June 3rd. It is time to start training for something else. It's always something else.

That was my motivation speech for ya'll.
LATEZ