Taco Bell 50K

Yeah, these two things should not go together.  But they do and they did.  This weekend I traveled with my friend Spencer to Denver to run 31 miles and eat taco bell all along the way.  It was epic!!  Friday, we flew out at 4 PM and met up with Spencer's friend Samyam and his Daughter Eva.  We headed to Meow Wolf in downtown Denver.  We grabbed a bite to eat at the "museum and then spent three hours walking through the exhibits.  It was insane!!  We had a blast.  

 

 We stopped at Taco Bell before going to our hotel to order our food for the race the next day.  We ordered 6 menu items.  I got 5 hard shell tacos and a chalupa.  Except they didn't give me a chalupa.  They gave me a crunch wrap supreme.  Not what I wanted but wherever.  We went to the hotel and put our food in the fridge and went straight to bed.  

We woke up at 5:30 AM to race prep and head to the start line.  The CRAZIEST thing happened!!  I saw KARA AND NATE!  My favorite (and only) youtubers where at the race filming for their channel!  It was a celebrity sighting!!  I actually hugged Kara and told her I love their stuff.  Then we ate a taco and started running.   It was crazy!!  The first taco went down fine.  The second taco went down Ok.  The third taco did not go down.  The fourth taco was a huge nope.  The fifth taco was also a huge NO!  The crunch wrap supreme was 6 bites then garbage.  I started to feel really gross after the 5th taco bell. I started searching for a bathroom and ran by some at the park but didn't stop thinking there would be another in a few miles.  That was a mistake.  I should have stopped.  We ran through the Denver Broncos stadium that had a ton of por of pottys!  ALL LOCKED!!  Ugh!!!  So as I got into downtown Denver on to 16th street, I was dying.  I ran into the Walgreens and they wouldn't let me use the bathroom.  Then I saw a jimmy johns and said "I'll buy something but I have to use the bathroom first".  They were so excited to have a taco bell runner in their restaurant.  I was their first.  I used the bathroom and didn't have to buy anything,.  They were so nice.  I ran past stop six and tried to eat the taco but had no luck.  I put an order in for stop 7 that was about 3 miles away and ran like crazy to get there.  My two friends kept waiting for me at each stop.  They were so nice as I was about 10 minutes behind them.  I picked up my food and stuffed it into my back pack and kept running. I had 2 packages of cinnamon twists that were extremely dry!! I ate a few of them at stop 7 and 8.  My friend Leigh Anne came to cheer me on and by mile 18 my knee was not feeling great so at mile 21 and Stop 8 I got in the car with Leigh and we went to lunch.  We had pizza and mimosas!!  It was so fun! I am so glad I stopped.  It took Spencer and Samyam two and half more hours to finish the race.  Spencer said he felt awful.  Samyam felt great and ate every. single. taco!!!!!  Impressive.  

 

We showered and rushed like crazy to catch our flight back to Albuquerque to go to Mumford and Sons.  There for a minute it looked like we might cut it very close to missing our flight.  We had to return our rental car, drive 45 minutes to the airport, and get to our gate.  Our flight left at 4:00 and we made it to the gate at 3:40!  The only reason we made the flight was because someone on the previous flight had pooped on a seatbelt and the maintenance crew had to come replace it so our flight was delayed by 20 minutes!  Lucky us??  Or unlucky us?  Which seat got pooped on? 

We landed in Albuquerque around 5:30 and spent some extra time at the airport because Samyam's daughter, Eva didn't have a seat on the flight home.  After figuring that all out, we drove back home.  I was dropped off and waited in anticipation for them to return for the concert.  It took them a little while longer than I anticipated but that was fine. I unpacked, got gas, and grabbed some peanut M&M's for dinner.   We had a blast at the concert.  I don't know a lot of the Mumford and Sons music but it was fun to hang out with all of the new friends I have made this last year.  Our entire kickball team was there.  We got home at midnight and I passed out!! I was so tired.  

 

Sunday, I woke up at 5:20 and rushed to get ready to take all of Spencer's high school friends to Balloon fiesta.  He invited Ryan, Samyam, Eva, and Rich.  So there were 6 of us in the car that morning.  Nolen has a parking pass that allows him to park close to the fiesta while avoiding all the traffic.  So we pulled in at 6:30 and walked right in.  We watched the Balloons rise at 7 AM and then walked around until 10 AM.  By the time I got home, I was back to being exhausted.  I fell right back to sleep.  General Conference was on for church on Sunday but I didn't watch a single session.  I basically slept the rest of the day.  It really was a fun filled weekend and I am so glad I was invited to participate.   

 

Disneyland Half Marathon

 We had the best whirlwind of a weekend!  Back in May, Craig, Blair, and I jumped online to try to snag a spot to run the Disneyland half marathon.  I was able to get right on and got us all a place on the start line.  It cost $250 per person to run the half marathon!!  We then started training.  I trained hard for a few months until I had my nasal surgery.  This surgery slowed me down a bit and took a long time to build back up, but I built back up and had to fight through a lot of weird injuries.  I also faced some serious fatigue.  I ran with Stephen a few times and he seemed to be doing just fine with training.  He wasn't taking any of it too seriously.  A few weeks ago, I ramped my training way down because I felt like I was about to get an injury.  My knees hurt and so did my hip flexors. I started doing more weight training focused on my knees and hips to avoid an injury.  

Well the weekend of the Disneyland half marathon finally arrived!!  I bought plane tickets for $250 a peace and reserved a hotel room for $500 dollars.  Stephen and I bought costumes and dressed as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan!  All this money started adding up.  Before we even arrived for the race, we were already at $1500 dollars!!  

Saturday, We flew in to Los Angeles a took an $80 uber ride to the expo.  We walked around the expo with our bags and checked out everything they had to offer.  We each bought a shirt for $50 dollars.  RunDisney did have some cute designs but they wanted almost $100 for any good shirts.  After checking in to the race we started walking toward out hotel.  Stephen got mixed up in the directions and lead us about a mile out of the way before we realized we walked the wrong way.  We got to our hotel and the I asked if we could check in early, and guess what?!  They had a room ready for us at 1:00!!  I feel so lucky.  That hardly ever happens.  

 

After we checked in, we walked to The Cheesecake Factory and at a delicious lunch. It costs about $80  We were both exhausted, so we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.  I think we slept for two hours before we met up with Craig and Blair.  They had flown in on Friday and went to Disneyland all day on Saturday.   

We went back up to our room and went right to sleep.  Our race started at 5 AM so going to bed at 8 PM wasn't completely crazy.  I woke up at 3:30 AM because I can't sleep anymore.  My hormones are all off base and I have had it.  I wish I could sleep better but I just can't.  Stephen slept in until 4:05, and then we got dressed and headed down to the race start at 4:40.  I am glad we didn't go earlier because standing around waiting for a race to start is not my jam.  I hate it. 

 The race started out great!  I ran my normal 8:40 pace for the first four miles.  Then my calf started hurting.  Bad. I knew immediately that I wasn't going to keep up the pace I had started.  I slowed down and told Stephen.  Then I walked.  All of mile 5.  I walked.  It was so sad.  After stretching my calf, I decided that the pain wasn't going away AND that I did NOT want to WALK 8 miles of the race.  That would be awful.  Also, the rest of the race was outside of Disneyland.  So we would be walking the worst part of the race.  So, we ran. I ran through the pain.  It hurt for every single step.  At mile 9, I started my period.  I felt it.  I knew it was going to start that day and hoped I could outrun it.  No luck!  I had a tampon with me but if I stopped to use the bathroom I knew I would never be able to start running again.  So, I ran.  We ran fast and faster until we finally rounded the last corner of the race.  

 Once we crossed the finish line, we got in line to take a finisher photo and then walked straight to the hotel.  My calf was killing me.  We finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes.  It wasn't my fastest race but it wasn't my worst.  It could have been way worse.  I had actually said a prayer begging God to help me finish the race.  I had started thinking I wasn't going to make it because my calf hurt so bad. I am so glad I was able to push through the pain and finish the race.

 Craig and Blair finished in about 2 hours and 50 minutes and their friends, Matt and Britney finished in about 3 hours and 30 minutes.  We met them back down at the finish line after we showered and changed our clothes.  We then went to the park ALL DAY!  I limped through the park for most of the day until my calf finally loosened up.  We went on all the big rides twice!  Space mountain, the Matterhorn, and Thunder railroad.  It was a blast.  We ate some delicious food and laughed all day.  

 We even stayed for the fireworks and rode the tea cups while they were going off.  I am so glad to have time with Stephen.  I love hanging out with him.  He really is my best friend.  I am working through some of my own problems and most of them stem from not sleeping.  Stephen has had a hard year, too.  He hates his job and is ready to retire.  He has 5 years left and is looking forward to his final day on his 50th birthday.  Monday morning, we woke up at 6:00 AM and headed to the airport.  We took another $80 uber.  We probably spent $100 on food while we were in the park.  All in all, I think we spent about $2500 for the weekend.  So long Disneyland!  It was fun. Someday, we will go back when we have grandkids! BTW: This will be the last marathon at Disneyland for a long time.  So we were lucky to get into this monumental race.