Highlights from my year 2014!

It is time to wrap up 2014!  I cannot believe this year is already over.  I have one goal for the year 2015 and that is to run a marathon!!  I need to take plenty of time to prepare and that will include getting back into strength training.  I plan on going back to the gym and using machines as soon as possible.  I will have to be at the top of my game to run for that far and for that long! I would like to run a couple more half marathons before it gets hot again, but my ultimate goal for 2015 is to run 26.2!

Here are some highlights of 2014!  I started the year on January 1, running my first 12k which is about 7.5 miles with one of my running friends, Katie.  

If I could go back and spank myself at this race, I would!  I was already injured and ran on a hurt knee from beginning to end.  I still finished in an hour and 20 minutes, but I should not have tried to run that far on a hurt knee.  My running pretty much went downhill from this point and my mitral valve prolapse symptoms started flaring up.  I had palpitations every day for a week after this race and chest pain.  I still tried running on my hurt knee, but eventually the pain became too much.  I went to an Orthopedic doctor at the end of January and he told me to take off from running for 3 weeks and to start walking at week 4, then run by week 5.  During this time I was diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer on February 19.  That was the worst day of my life.  I thought that I could possible die from this and that was a scary place to be!  

This verse from Isaiah got me through my darkest days, especially while waiting to see a surgical oncologist.  I had surgery to remove inside the margins of where the melanoma was located on February 27 and found out March 11 that the melanoma had not spread!  I was going to be okay!  I am so thankful for praying family, friends, and a praying church that prayed over me during this difficult time.  I had been running and walking after my surgery and ran my first 5k of the year with my friend, Pam on March 15.

It was really hard and afterward, I felt like I had a hangover.  Running had become so hard for me!  Every run was a struggle.  I had a tough time running 11 minute miles and that was very frustrating for me.  My family and I went to Disney World for spring break the last week of March and I had almost decided to quit running.  

Thankfully, my sweet husband encouraged me to keep trying and told me not to quit.  We got home for our trip and I ran a local 5k the next day.  I had not run in 2 weeks and I placed first in my age group.  It was a really small race and everybody won something, but it gave me the confidence I needed to keep going.

As the weather continued to warm up, I ran a couple more 5k's in the spring.  We ran the color run as a family minus my sweet son.  My Addy finished her first 5k at the Color Me Rad on May 3.

I decided to train for my second half marathon which would be the Hotter than Hades Half Marathon on June 21.  I trained for this race for 2 months and getting those long training runs done was so hard in the heat.  We as runners can run in colder weather and not feel so tired, but running 10 or 11 miles in the heat will show you what you are really made of.  My husband and I traveled to Greenville, Mississippi on June 20.  He drove the half marathon route so I could see what to expect.  We ate the pasta dinner at St. Johns Episcopal Church and got up around 4 AM to make the 6:15 start time.  

The race went really smoothly for me and they had fun water stops at every mile.  It was hot from the beginning to the end.  I started pouring sweat only half a mile into the race and my husband met me at mile 6 to refill my water bottle.  Finishing this race was a huge accomplishment for me.  I felt like this was my comeback race!  I finished in 2 hours and 34 minutes and I was soooooo happy!  

My husband had Shipley donut holes waiting for me in the truck.  We even went fishing that afternoon. It was a wonderful trip!

Sometimes when you achieve great victory, that is when the devil starts to attack.  I had the worst panic/anxiety attack when we got home from the half on June 22.  It had been a long drive home with bad weather and the boat tire had a blow out.  I haven't really felt like myself since that happened.  I struggled to keep my emotions in check and we tried to go on one last vacation before school started back and my son got terribly sick.  We had to cut our trip to Destin Florida short so I didn't quite feel ready for the school year to begin.  All 3 kids were starting school at 3 different schools this year.  It has been a little overwhelming, but we are making it!
My husband and I bought bikes in July and we trained for our very first team duathlon!  Our time was 70 minutes and we placed 13th out of 23 teams!  

Christopher rode the 10 mile bike ride and I ran the 5k portion of the race in a little over 28 minutes!  I was so proud of him and for our ability to work together as a team!  I started a running streak on my birthday, August 12 and set a goal for a 5k PR.  I needed to beat 27:26 and almost had it at the Run Like a Diva 5k in Peachtree City, Georgia on September 6.

I finished in 27:43 in 72 degree heat and humidity.  I was so proud at how far I had come since March when I was running a 31 minute 5k.  I had one more chance for a 5k PR at the Dancing Martin 5k in Leakesville which is right up the road from us and where my daughters go to school.  I finished in 26:18, but the route only measured 3.01 miles.  

This is me and my pastor Bro. Cregg and we both placed in our age groups.  He was right behind me the whole race!  So I still say my 27:26 time from September 2013 still stands as my 5k PR.

I ran the Pink Pumpkin 5k for Breast Cancer awareness with my youngest daughter, Addy and she finished in 43 minutes smoking her previous color run time of 45:59.

Team Shepherd ran another 5k on November 1 in Leakesville and my oldest daughter finished in 39:50 and my husband and baby girl Addy finished in 41:01!  That was a fun morning for us!
In the meantime, I had been training for my 3rd half marathon, the Pensacola Half Marathon which was November 9.  I had asked my brother, Jamie if he would like to run it with me and he said yes!  I booked our hotel room and headed down to Florida the night before the race.  Had dinner with two of my running friends and their families and Jamie didn't get to the room until 3 AM!  We got up at 5 to head down to the starting line at 6 AM and we started the race at 6:30.  My brother and I started strong and we ran together almost 3 miles when Jamie had to make a "pit stop."  I showed him where the porta potty was and I ran up a hill and waited for him to come out.  Well, I never saw him come out!  I waited and waited then started to think maybe he had by me.  I ran and walked for about 2 miles not really knowing what to do!  I was so worried about him, but by mile 6, I was running a steady pace.  I didn't have any music so I was thankful for all of the bands, crowd support, and even Elvis.  I even got "power" from a little girl dressed up as Elsa from Frozen.  Before I knew it, I was finished with the race.  I saw the clock time was at 2 hours and 48 minutes and I was kind of in shock!  

My watch said 2 hours and 40 minutes!  I tried to smile for the finish line cameras, got my medal and made a U turn to go wait for my brother.  I thought he was behind me!  I got some water and plopped down in the grass to watch the other runners finish when my phone started ringing.  It was Pam, my sole sister, asking me where I was and that Jamie was by the Subway tent!  I was so excited and relieved.  He had finished in 2 hours and 37 minutes.  My official time was 2 hours 46 minutes and I did not care.  I was so happy to see him and he was happy too!  We took our picture with our medals and started walking back to the room, chatting the whole way.  I loved seeing him feel proud of himself with his accomplishment!  He had only done a couple of 5 mile runs before running his very first half marathon!  I will always look back at this race with wonderful memories and a very happy ending!

 My last race of the year was the St. Jude Half Marathon in Memphis on December 6.  We had formed a team and registered for this race in May.  There were 5 of us on the team, myself, Katy Roberts, Lauren Kropf, Tina Fritz, and Pam Pitts.  We were running in honor of Jaxon Schoenberger, a 6 year old little boy from Ocean Springs, Mississippi who had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in March.  The tumor, sadly, metastasized to his spine and Jaxon passed away on October 31 right before his 7th birthday.  I had met his parents at a wedding several years ago and got to meet Jaxon at our first fundraiser at Newks in June.  I will never forget him and actually got up this morning thinking about him.  My girls and I had our own fundraiser at our family restaurant, Rocky Creek Catfish Cottage, where we raised $545 in donations and the restaurant donated $1000 to St. Jude Children's Hospital.  All together our team raised $11,485 for the hospital. I will never forget this special race.  My husband was kind enough to bring me to Memphis and even though this was the hardest race for me physically and mentally, I ran my best half marathon time for the year at 2:27:06.

It's been a great year and I am now training for the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon coming up January 10!  I just ran my 10 mile long run on Friday and this week is taper week.  I plan on running and walking this race since I had a hard time recovering from St. Jude.  I have had a wonderful Christmas holiday with my family and looking forward to slowing down a bit this week.  Thank you for reading and happy new year to you all!!

St. Jude Half Marathon Recap

What a wonderful weekend we had in Memphis!  I am so thankful for my husband, Christopher, for driving me up there to such an amazing and rewarding event!  We had a long drive up there.  We left here Friday, a little after 9 in the morning and did not get to the expo until almost 4 o'clock that afternoon.  I was prehydrating so I had to stop and use the restroom A LOT.  I always drink about 60 ounces of half water and half Gatorade the day before a half. 

 The expo was a little overwhelming.  There were so many people and the lines were long to buy merchandise. I picked up my bib number and I was so excited to get another shirt!  We ended up getting a few shirts for the kids, a sticker, key chain and a headband and that was about it!  We ran into my teammates, Pam and Lauren and we took our picture by the St. Jude Heroes Ford Explorer that had our names on it. 

 When we left, it was dark outside and we still had to check into our hotel.  We valet parked at the Westin Hotel, checked in and had a really hard time figuring out how to use the elevator!  After a few minutes of going up and down, and getting stuck for a few seconds, we had to get new keys to use in the elevator.  We finally made it to our room and we were so tired.  We decided to eat the pasta dinner they offered downstairs which wasn't too great, but we were too tired to go explore Beale Street.  We finished our dinner, went back to the room, showered, snuggled and watched a movie.  It was "Walking Tall" with The Rock!  I love that movie!  There was a lot loud music playing and we could feel the booming and bumping in our room even on the third floor!  I rested, but did not sleep much.  The music finally stopped around midnight.  

Before I knew it, it was time to get up!!  It was race day!!  I was so nervous and excited!  I'd gotten a text from Debi Minnick (Girls Run the 901) to meet at 7:40 at the corner of 4th and Union Avenue on the steps of Autozone Park which is where we finished the race.  I was finally going to meet some very special friends I had connected with via Facebook, Debi and Cecilia Jones (Mommies Run) and see Angela (Race Addict), whom I had met back in June in Greenville, Mississippi at my second half marathon.  I got dressed, ate my banana and forced down my peanut butter sandwich.  Those are so hard to eat, but they do not give me any stomach issues like the Ezekiel bread and almond butter.  I didn't have to wake Christopher up until about 6:45 thanks to the 8 o'clock race start!  I looked outside my window and could see the 5k runners lining up.  There were so many of them and they looked COLD!!  I could see the St. Jude flags blowing in the wind and to think I almost wore shorts!  I thought the weather would be warmer, but my weatherbug showed the temperature would drop instead of warm up.  At 7:15, we walked out of our hotel and the huge crowd of 5k runners were heading out.  We waited for them to clear out and headed up the street by the Fedex Forum (I cannot remember the name of it) toward Union Avenue.  I sent the ladies a text asking exactly where to meet and Debi answered immediately. 

 She told me she was headed that way and had a pink flower in her hair.  Christopher and I walked right to Autozone Park and turned to the right and headed toward 4th street.  As soon as we stopped, I turned around to watch for the girls and I immediately saw Debi with a pink flower in her hair!  "Debi!!" I shouted and we both started squealing and hugging!  She called out to Cecilia and I got a hug from her too.  I introduced them to my husband and he took our picture, he kissed me bye and told me good luck.

I got to meet so many Run365 members and got to take a group picture with them! They were all so excited and I was so excited to be there!  Debi, Cecilia, Angela, and I took a picture and I met Danielle from Runningluv.

 I remember asking Cecilia if this was her first marathon and she said it was and I remember talking to Debi about being undecided on which marathon would be my first and she told me I needed to run the full there next year.  We hugged and parted ways.  I headed for corral 9 where my teammates and friends, Pam and Lauren would be and I was also supposed to meet my friend Shana, whom I had also connected with on Facebook thanks to my page.  

I ran right into Lauren and I started trying to text and call Pam because we couldn't find her.  My phone was not working very well, but we ended up finding her almost when it was time to start.  The three of us took a selfie and waited for our turn to start.  

I texted Shana, but we could not find each other with the sea of people.  Corral number 9 started around 8:10 or maybe even 8:15 and we were off.  Mile one started off pretty smoothly around 10:45 pace, not too slow and not too fast.  I was trying to keep up with Pam and Lauren and Pam tripped over a cone after the first mile marker looking for Lauren!  Scared me to death!  Miles 2 and 3 were a little too fast for me, around 10:22 pace, but I did get to meet Shana around mile 3 and her husband!  She came running up beside me because she saw my red pony tail swinging!  We chatted for a minute and she introduced me to her husband, then ran on up to hang with him.  We hit the mile 3 marker I believe on Beale Street.

 There were so many people and I high fived as many people as I could!!  Mile 4 was still pretty fast for me at 10:21 and I was trying to keep up with Pam and Lauren.  We started running through St. Jude Hospital.  I didn't see as many children as I thought I would.  I only saw one little girl in a wheelchair, but I continued to high five kids and the rest of the crowd.  Now, my watch said I finished mile 5 at 9:39 and I'm not sure if that is correct.  The weather was cold, windy, and clowdy so I don't think the connection was very good with my Garmin.  I do remember being really tired after I finished mile 6 at 10:59.  This is when I started walking so I could refuel with my Blueberry Muffin Larabar.  This is also where I lost Lauren and Pam.  It took me .2 miles to get that Larabar down so mile 7 was finished at 12:21.  This was the first race I could feel my mind start to mess with me a little bit.  That had never happened to me before and I almost sent my husband a text to tell him how tired I was and to pray.  Somehow I managed to keep going.  My legs were already feeling sore and that has never happened to me so early in a half which clearly means I started way too fast.  I know someone was praying for me because I slowly started to pick up my pace and the mental block started to go away.  Instead of thinking about how tired I was, I just kept running.  The course was so hilly, I felt like I was going up and down hill so much and not getting much of a break from it.  We ran through a park and mile 8 was finished at 11:20 and mile 9 at 11:18.  I started taking walk breaks at every mile marker and I must have taken 2 walk breaks because mile 10 was clocked at 11:56.  Oooooh weeeee I was tired.  

Mile 11, I finished at 11:27 and sent my husband a text saying I only had 2 more miles left!!  Even with all of the walk breaks, I managed to run 11 miles in exactly 2 hours.  Mile 12, I finished in 11:37 and mile 13, at 11:10.  My watch said I ran 13.1 miles in 2:24:40 but my official time was 2:27:06 at 13.34 miles.  My goal was to finish in 2 hours and 25 minutes so I was very happy and I was so excited to cross that finish line!

 I almost forgot to stop and get my medal and I didn't get one of those blanket thingys either.  I was so ready to hug my husband and tell him how hard this race was for me.  I bumped into Pam and Lauren and they finished about a minute ahead of me!  We all started talking about how the race went for each of us and it was definitely a tough one. We took a finisher picture together and started to head out of Autozone Park...which meant walking up stairs.

 Ouch!  My quads were pretty mad at me.  We slowly made our way up the steps and to the food tents.  FOOD!!!  I was starving!  I usually don't eat much right after a race, but I sure did that day!  We got our plastic bags and the volunteers gave us cookies and fruit.  I ate a banana while waiting in line for PIZZA!  I ate about half a piece of pizza and saw what looked like hundreds maybe thousands of boxes of DONUTS!!

 We were so excited and took lots of pictures with the donuts!  I called my husband who had just made it inside the park.  I was so happy to see him!  I asked Pam to take a picture of us and he took a picture of me with the girls.

 We parted ways and headed back to our hotel.  I was so cold and my sweet husband gave me his jacket.  I don't remember much about our conversation back to the room, but I was so happy to be with him.  He never saw me at the starting line.  We watched some of the marathoners pass by.  They looked so tired.  I do remember him asking me "Are you sure you want to do that to yourself?"  At the time, I thought "NO, no I don't!"  But you know we change our minds!  I bumped into my other teammate, Tina and her family on our way back to the room and we congratulated each other and hugged.

Wow, what a race... I remember getting emotional as I ran closer and closer to St. Jude Children's Hospital.  I remember the lump in my throat and being a little sad that I did not get to see many kids, but maybe I was running too fast!  I remember the mental toughness of the race from miles 6 and 7.  I wish I could say I focused on the kids and for Jaxon, but I didn't and I couldn't.  I started to pray and I asked Jesus and God for help.  I sometimes say "if You'll get me out of this I will never do it again!" And slowly but surely, He pulled me out of my mental fog.  I know someone was praying for me, and come to find out it was my Mother and my girls.  God gave me the strength to finish what I started.  I was so thankful when that race was over, but I still think I will come back next year...maybe for the full?!  This was the hardest yet most rewarding race I've ever run.  It was an honor to run in memory of Jaxon and for all of the children of St. Jude.  It has been a blessing to be a St. Jude Hero and part of "Team Jaxon."  Our team raised $11,485 for St. Jude Children's Hospital!  So awesome. I sure hope to raise even more money next year.