Pacer bio

Hi! I'm Sheri Sorensen! I ran in high school but stopped after I graduated. I started running again in 2009 to loose a little weight and relieve some stress. I fell in love with it again! I have ran 6 marathons, over 25 half marathons, many 5k's and 10ks. I also learned how to swim and began triathlons in 2014. My favorite distance is the half. I have paced over 15 halfs! I am a busy mom of 4 active kids and have a husband that also runs and cycles! We think having fun while being active is a great thing for our kids to see. We love to plan weekend getaways around races!
My favorite thing about pacing is seeing others accomplish something they didn't think they could. I also love feedback! I am excited to help you achieve your goals! Happy running!

Six months of running adventures

Today I ran a 5k. It has been a long time since I have ran a 5k-not associated with a tri. I had a lot of thoughts during this run.  Let me see if I can find the words that ran through my mind. 

I started the year recovering from the flu but ran a half, it was freezing cold.  A week or two later I was in St George running another half.  A week or two later I ran 12+ miles across a frozen lake. A week or two later a ran a Ragnar Relay in Phoenix AZ. No it isn't the hot/cold thing I was thinking about it is the variety of the runs. A couple weeks ago I ran a 2-woman relay and the transport was a boat down/up the river!  In 3 weeks I get to ride a train to the start!!  How cool is my running adventures just this year! 
I had my temple to temple run, Salt Lake Marathon and today was the sprinkles-hoping for the cherry in a few weeks.

Today I ran for someone,  no not in their memory, but because he can't run.  This sweet 10yo boy is confined to a wheel chair, so I was his legs and I pushed him while he was in a big stroller. It was so amazing.

I thought about why I ran.  It used to always be about me but lately it hasn't.  I just love to pace and help other runners.  I loved pushing Reese today.  It was an incredible day!  I was filled with emotion as I crossed the finish line and everyone cheered for him!  In 3 more weeks I get the honor of pushing him again for a half marathon, the cherry,  but maybe not.  Maybe it is just another layer because we are only 6 months into the year!

First ride since the turkey tri!

I am a huge Nervous Nellie when it comes to cycling!  It goes to a new level when I hear about accidents too.  There was a pretty bad accident a month or two ago where two cyclists were killed.  I was terrified to go out.  Well I really am to the point I have no choice,  I need to go out and get some saddle time. I am doing Woman of Steel and it is next week!  I have not been on my bike since November! 
I so grateful for spin class to keep my muscles together and strong.  The ride was so smooth and I felt really fabulous!  I pushed hard and wanted to go further but was on a time restraint. I did a tour with the progressively harder hills.  The last hill I have attempted 4 times and today was the second time I made it! Although my legs were screaming I pushed and pushed!  I love the feeling of something hard! 

Expect more cycling posts! Cuz today is one of those "I love cycling!!" days!

it's like riding a bike.

it has been exactly 4 months since i have dipped my foot in the pool. This happens to be a bad thing when you are less than 3 weeks from a triathlon. It also has been 5 months since i have been on my bike, however I have been spinning off and on so at least I have that going for me. As for my running... well we shall see today. I plan to go out this afternoon and give it a go.

ok swimming, I forgot I love it! It all came back and I swam just fine! I am less nervous than I was! I imagined being in the pool during the tri, I thought about last year and just focused on my strokes. I loved it. I wish I was faster! There isn't much hope for that but I am happy I can do it!

I am gonna try to go to the pool as much as I can and just keep it going!

Bling Blong

I will post my Salt Lake Marathon experience, but first I wanted to share this funny thing that happened.

I hung my marathon medal on my board, turned around and the board fell!! Can you believe it? 

You remember this?  I think I had posted it when I made it so many years ago?  Well the bracket on the back couldn't take it any longer! 

I posted it on a Facebook group as a 'runner's problem' and started a small frenzy of people talking about how they display, or don't display,  their medals. I decided since they are down I would lay them out and look at them!  

Half's, relays, 5k's and marathons

I need to do a recount of my half marathons.  I have 20 medals,  I thought my count was 20 and I know there was 1-2 that I didn't receive medals.

Anyway!  Don wanted to lay his with mine and after we had them all laid out he asked me to calculate the cost of it all.  Blah.  I am happy I am able to pace and get a free entries! 

Staring Ms Marathon in the face

After that rotten marathon 18 months ago I really didnt think I would domanother one but here we are, the eve of a marathon. Salt Lake again, a new course that looks like a beautiful course and we are going through one of my favorite pkaces to run, Bonneville Rd and Memory Grove!
My packet is picked up, done lots of carb loading, not nearly as well trained as I had hoped. But ready or not in 12 hours I will be sitting at the start line ready to go.
I thought I had mentioned why I chose to run SL last but couldn't find it so I will write it now.

I had been told SL Marathon was pretty miserable and one of the worst out there so it had always been out of my mind.
One afternoon I was watching The Spirit of the Marathon (if you havent seen it, go watch it) for, well I've seen it a few times. Anyway,  they interview the mayor of Chicago,  he said something like "we close the roads of the city down and you get to run the streets of your home town, who wouldn't enjoy that?" My thought was, that sounds awesome! So I pretty much signed right up!

Looking back two years ago when I last attempted this one I think about running through some areas I live that I woukd never have the chance to run. Sooo many memories of my beautiful home town. I am soo excited to run snd really enjoy this marathon! I cant wait to feel the love from the city! Although I am questioning my sanity! 

See you in 26.2!

Temple to Temple Half

I feel so lucky to live in the valley I do. Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I have the privilege to live within 20 miles or so of 4 temples! For the longest time I have wanted to run from the Draper Temple to the Oquirrh Temple. During the first weekend in April our church has it's semi annual general conference where we get to hear the words of our church leaders giving us encouragement and keep us on the straight and narrow path. On Facebook in one of my many running groups we were talking about where we should run. Almost everyone is training for a marathon. Some, like me, are in a taper and the others are in a low miles week. I suggested that we run from temple to temple. It was 13.3 miles which pretty much fit into everyones needed miles for the day.
When the group said yes and we were planning it I posted on my wall and in another group. We ended up having almost 50 people come! It was pretty cool to be able to put on the run and I joked when I live my dream of becoming a race director this will be one of my races.
One of our members who couldnt run with us that mornungncame out to support and take pictures.  So we have pictures of us out running.

I loved running. My eyes always looking toward the temple, isn't that how life should be, our eyes continually on our ultimate goal. Of course many times the song "I love to see the temple" came to mind. And when we ran that final hill to our goal Don took my hand and we finished together at the temple hand in hand. I loved finishing seeing all the happy people! Most everyone brought food so we even had a breakfast, if you can call cookies, cake and bread breakfast food!

I haven't had a runners high like the one I had for quite a while and I think a lot of it was the spirit of this run. It still warms my heart when I think about it. I love the support from everyone and ther appeciation. It will definitely become a tradition. I fact in October we are running from Draper to Timpanogus! that is up and over a mountain!

Utah Lake

I really wish I could keep my blog active! I need to take the time for it but I just don't so you get two posts today! I wrote the previous one a week or so again but didn't post it..



Ok So last year a bunch of runners ran across Utah Lake-like ACROSS the lake, cause it is frozen! It looked pretty amazing so marked it in my head to definitely do it the following year. Which I did! And it was pretty amazing! AND people think I am pretty crazy! HA!

The night before the planned run I got a message in my Facebook inbox, it was from a fellow runner, he went to high school with my sister and I went to high school with his brother, my small Utah world! ANYWAY! He had a newspaper reporter who wanted to come out and do some interviews and take pictures and he asked if I would be the contact for it so I was! The article was posted yesterday so I wanted to post it here so I can reference it later! YAY! (I am feelin cool!)



I had a really fun time! We met really early in the morning, there was 23 of us that took off out but only about 18 actually went the full distance. I warmed up and was able to shed my jacket. We started on the West side and ran East-toward the sunrise. When we made it across the lake (6 miles) the snow was pretty hard to run in because you would step and go down another inch. it was like running in soft sand. Also there was open water on the East side too! There was a lot more slush heading back, the sun was up and warming quickly.

My friend Charles Stoddard. I hadn't seen or ran with him a a LONG time! He said he is recovering from being fat!

about 2.5 miles in there is a big fault across the lake. It was scary to cross it but it was solid. the big shards of ICE poking up were a bit daunting!

SELFIE!! Havin a blast!

You can never go wrong with a picture of the sunrise!! A new day!!

Running friends across the lake!

one last gorgeous picture! My view for an hour!



I was in the back end of the group but guess what? I don't mind, I am a slower runner but I get out and I enjoy it!

So in total it was a 12+ mile run! I backed so far off my running last year I couldn't just go out and run this mileage. I am so excited to be to this point again!

Oh another funny thing-cuz I never blog-I came down with the flu on Dec 22nd. :( I recovered so quickly! I ran a half marathon on Jan 4, 15 miles on the 11 and another half on January 18. I went in to the dr office (I did a research medication so I was at the dr a ton) and I was telling them I had already ran 3 half marathons THIS year they couldn't believe it. They said I should be the poster child for the flu! lol.

Pacing, it is worth it

Two years ago my cousin JaNae signed me up to run the St George marathon, remember that?  Well, anyway we signed up for the runners series for St George to get an automatic entry into the marathon , we had to run two races put on by St George. Well, the first race we picked was the STG half, it is in January, I didn't have a way down but had just started at the gym, there was another lady going down so I reached out of my comfort zone and asked if she wanted a buddy for the road.  She said sure so off we went.
I loved the course it was beautiful! It rained crazy but I knew I wanted to eventually do it again. Well this gal was a pacer. She said I should join the group to pace. My ears heard free race entries! Lol. I have been pacing ever since, however my attitude changed quickly. I was really helping people. I LOVED it. I had wanted to do STG half again so as soon as the race was posted I signed up! I also signed up Don to come with me and pace. We were picked to my hearts delight! We have been to hell and back in the past three months and I thought many times about dropping out. I stayed steadfast and we made it to STG and ran. We started out,  lots of people saying they would run with us.  We had one lady actually start with us and stay,  about mile 2 I knew we had another because I had listened to his footsteps and breathing for those two miles.  I dropped back a couple feet and started chatting.  It ended up being another awesome race.  And today I saw this post on Facebook:


Forwarded from the St. George Half Marathon Director:

Hi,

Not sure who to address this with, but It was my first attempt at the 1/2 marathon, and it was a great success and experience. The best thing was the pacers. I was hoping to break 3 hours with a possible 2:45. I LOVED the pacer idea and decided to try and stay with the 2:30 pacers as long as I could. It was a husband and wife team, and they were awesome. Every time we hit a hill, and I started to drop back, the wife or husband would drop back a bit and encourage me, concentrate on the pace. I wanted to thank the organization for such a fun race, and the 2:30 pacers for all of their help. I finally dropped back a bit over the last mile, but was able to finish in 2:31:43. The two pacers waited at the finish line to see how I was.

Anyway, thank you, and please thank the pacers. It made my experience the best ever.

Ron Mortensen

It seriously makes it all worth it!  I love pacing! It makes my runs more meaningful!