Running Through Cougar Country

Some of the PACU crew spent the morning in Provo at the Provo Riverwoods 10-Miler... now, the race aside Provo is it's own little world. It is home of the Brigham Young University Cougars, the LDS university, and it's filled with all the typical stereotype mormons: the men who think they're all that and a bag of chips, the wives with 6 children and no job, and the young married couples playing house and living off of mommy and daddy. So, this race took some real tolerance because there was a 20 minute shuttle ride to the start and the finish was filled with a ton of loud children and spouses.

The course was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. It started at about 7000 feet up in the mountains, it's been raining for the past week so everything is green and some clouds were hanging on the peaks... majestic fo' shizzle. After running 3 miles down a small canyon we turned on to the Riverwoods Trail which follows the Provo River and goes past Bridal Vale Falls, it's all shaded and nicely paved. It should have been my best time because it was a great downhill/flat course.



Reasons the PACU girls didn't do as well as last week:
-The hospital has been crazy busy this week so we were all beat
-Apparently we spend enough time together that our periods have synced... therefor cramping and bloating ensued
-I'm getting sick from not eating enough carbs (trying to drop the pound-age)
-... and I'm out of excuses

I was hoping to run 9.5 minute splits since last weekend I was at 9.9 but I ended up running at 10.01... pretty disappointing. Not bad considering there was conversation at mile 4.5 about "I just want to walk this fucker" and "Oh, I feel like shit" and "I really don't want to play anymore". All in all everyone did well, no racing till the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon (July 18th).

PS- my quads are getting a little rediculous... I can only imagine what they'd look like if I started riding my bike and got a tan. Daaayum.

BLS: Basic Life Support

Is it wrong if I thoroughly enjoyed practicing chest compressions for 3 hours today in my BLS renewal class?

CPR is pretty unaffective... but it sure is fun.



Oh, Pam.

Running at the Butt Crack of Dawn

The PACU Crew took on another running challenge this morning. This morning at the crack of dawn, to be specific. The Salt Lake City Crack of Dawn 10-Miler started with a 2 mile stretch up East Canyon to the lookout over Little Dell Reservoir, down the switch-backs to Emigration Canyon, all the way to This is the Place Park for the finish.



The worst part of this run wasn't the 2 miles up a canyon but the lack of level road to run on. Most of the race had a pitch off to the right which has made my left knee and quad pretty sore. My first race was the Salt Lake Half Marathon with 10.8 minute splits, today's race (my second) I had 9.9 minute splits. I'm pretty happy with that progress considering major lack of training and feeling relatively crappy the past day or two.

Over breakfast San San "the machine" Wu (she placed 2nd for the women overall, first in her age group, and then went mountain biking) was talking about the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase race. It's a trail run in Park City up to Jupiter's Peak and back down for a total of 16 miles. It sounds like a pretty good race to determine if I should do the Pike's Peak half or full marathon next year. There are only 250 places so I'm sure I'll be registered before the end of the week. I've put a lot on my plate for this summer with work and class, but it should be a blast!

June-
13th- Provo Riverwoods 10-Miler

July-
2nd-5th- Jackson Hole camping/ mountain biking trip
18th- Bryce Canyon Half Marathon
31st- Snake River float trip

August-
1st-2nd- Snake River float trip
8th- Jupiter Peak Steeplechase Race

September:
19th- Chequamegon 40 mountain bike race

October:
18th- Moab Other Half Marathon

Back that Thang Up

New back-up plan! As usual I spent my first day off of the week reading, studying, and worrying. Mostly worrying about how I'm going to carry my fat butt 10 miles for the SLC Crack of Dawn 10-miler on Saturday but also about the constant fear of not getting into medical school. Original back up plan was to apply to nursing school and have my BSN by the time I could apply to medical school again... or just be a nurse and have a relatively normal life with things like free time and sunlight, but that sounds like all kinds of lame.

I started considering grad school since I really don't want to try the nursing bit unless I absolutely don't make the cut as a physician. The University of Colorado, Boulder has a masters program in Integrative Physiology that looks pretty stupendous. In fact, I wish I would have just accepted my offer from University of Colorado, Denver and transferred over so I could get my BS in the department... shoulda' coulda' woulda' I suppose. Either way, the course studies are beyond interesting with classes like Cellular Cardiovascular Physiology and Molecular Genetics of Addiction. Do I hear PhD? I hear school till I'm 50 and broke till I'm 93.

I could always take the easy way out and stick with exercise physiology. It wouldn't be terrible seeing how strong hot boys in lycra are every day.



Oh, and you best believe I'll be applying to SIU's School of Medicine when the time comes. I'm sure they give preference to former Salukis...