Racing

I raced in the South Davis Handcart Days Half Marathon on July 23. It was a great race, I felt really strong, and nailed my splits to hit my goal time of sub 1:50. I finished with a 1:48:25 and managed to get 1st place in my age group and 5th female overall. Definitely not PR but this course was mostly flat with the last 3 miles uphill.

Is this not the most handsome kid ever?

Of course my Dad raced with me but did the 5K. He just rocked a Full Marathon in May so he deserved to relax and run the 5K. Of course he landed 1st place in his age group and first place out of all the 50 year old dudes! He never let's me down!

As for next weekend, I'm off to run the Epic Relay from Logan to Jackson, 190 miles and 12 team members. September 3 will be Grand Targhee Trail Run 10k, then September 17 will be Top of Utah Marathon, I WILL kill the 26.2..... I hope.

July Happenings

We took Jack to ride the frontrunner and see the trains at Union Station. We went with my sister and her family had an awesome time, Jack loved it. We also ate at the Union Grill, we hadn't been there since our 3rd date!

One Sunday we sent to Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Hiking is so fun with a 2 year old....not! It's a slow walk picking up every rock and stepping in every puddle. We try to be patient because at least were teaching him to love outside like his Momma and Daddy do.

First race since my stupid stress fracture, soooooooo nervous here. Tin Cup Half Marathon you kicked my butt! Ryan beat me this year, he raced well. It's a super hard course, with the first 5.3 miles uphill, and then rolling hills for 5 more miles, the last 3 slightly downhill with a head wind. But it doesn't get any better than those Teton views. I was dead and came in 2 minutes slower than I did last year, but at least my leg didn't hurt. Overall, a very disappointing race, I felt crappy from the very beginning, it just wasn't my day, I don't know how else to explain it. I'm running another Half this Saturday to redeem myself.

We managed to place in our age groups, Ryan got 3rd and I got 2nd. We won non-profit bucks, and then we picked the charity/organization where our money went. Keep in mind this was a small town race, so pretty easy to place.

Afterwards they had a carnival for the kids, and Jack loved the pony.

We took it easy the next day and went and played around in this bike park. It was so fun, little Jack was riding all the hills, he's going to be a mountain biker/bmx boy I just know it!

I love July!

Just a little trip to Sin City

Yep, we went to Las Vegas with Ryan's family to play for the weekend. Ryan's sister owns a house down there, so we stayed there for 2 nights and at the Mandalay Bay for 2 nights. We pretty much just hung out at the pool the whole time. We ate lots and lots of food, did little shopping, and of course rode the New York, New York roller coaster. Me and Amy BG are the only people that did it and it was sooooo fun! She even got a free ticket from some lady in line and of course I didn't take a camera.

At the pool at the Mandalay Bay we rented a Cabana for the day, it was awesome shade for the kids, it had a flat screen tv and free drinks. Although Jack wouldn't even hang out in the cabana, all he wanted to do was play in the water. And 3 full days in the sun, we didn't even get sunburnt, just tan, the Vegas sun must be magic.

Jack and Bebebebebe Max (this is what he calls baby max) hanging out in the cabana. Jack had just woken up from his nap and was grouchy, if your wondering why he's wearing socks, he won't sleep without them.

Back Again

Sorry, I know I was missed but we have been super busy with Ryan graduating and trying to find a job. As of today, it looks like we will be going to Idaho Falls. Ryan had a pretty sweet job offer there that is just 3 days a week. That's what I'm talking about, more play for us :) But anything could change in the next few weeks, so we'll see. We went to the cabin after an informal second interview in Idaho Falls, it's only an hour away, SWeet!

This kid is a champ on the balance bike, he can hold both of his feet up and cruise. His cruising got so fast we had to invest in a helmet ASAP.

Teton N.P. where we had just seen a bear.... awesomeness.

Then we did an 18 mile bike ride to Teton Canyon and up towards Grand Targhee. I volunteered to pull our tanker child. Let's be honest, with no running and 5 days a week of spin class, I had to show Ryan my skills. Oh and don't be jealous of all these Teton views.

Hopefully I will be more consistent with my blogging in the future, but probably not.

And by the way, I get to run for an entire 12 minutes straight tomorrow! I can't wait! Slow and steady with lots of walk breaks are doctors orders. It's actually quite the particular run/walk schedule, for example I run 12 minutes, walk 2, run 12, walk 2, run 12. Then each day the running increases and the walking decreases. I would hate to re-injure my leg, so far I'm being compliant but it's so hard to hold back when I just want to run my guts out. Ryan refers to me as the caged beast! July 16th can't come fast enough for my first race, post injury. Tin Cup Half Marathon here I come!

Life as a cyclist... not too bad.

When I got the news about my stress fracture, my Dr. told me to stay in shape and keep up my endurance with biking or swimming. I hate swimming, so the bike it was. With the horrible weather I took up spin class everyday, seriously I've been like 10 times. So instead of feeling sorry for myself on race day, I had them switch my half-marathon spot over to the 25 mile bike tour. Heck yeah! This way I still got to compete and be part of the event and be there to cheer my Dad on. I new my adventurous sister-in-law Amy would be willing to be my partner in crime after Ryan backed out last minute due to being sick. We had a blast, and some hilarious moments which I will not get into because you had to be there.

The bike tour started at 6:00 am and we finished at 7:30 so we had over an hour to wait for my dad to finish. We enjoyed all the free race food, then waited in the huge Starbucks line for some hot chai because we were freezing and of course wet with sweat (we're both sweaty girls). Or maybe it's just because we rode so hard and fast..... yeah, that was it.

We waited for my Dad so I could snatch an awesome action shot, but we were standing on the opposite side of him and I ended up getting a better shot of some weirdo I don't even know. But you can see my butt-kickin' pops on the far left in the red, coming in at top speed to finish with a rockin' 1:53. Good work Dad, you never fail to impress!

Overall it was a good day, although there was just a little jealousy when I watched all the runners finish, wishing it was me. But I loved the bike tour and am soooo glad I did it. I might consider cycling now as my cross-training from all my running. But for the next month or so, I'm a cyclist baby!

Inspiration

I became inspired today from the birthday present that my AwEsOmE sister-in-law gave me. Maybe she meant to, maybe she didn't who knows, but it was great! The gift was a lulu lemon bag, lunch sized bag which I'm totally going to start taking to work, filled with my favorite candy and new running socks, of course from lulu lemon :) Anyways, the bag was sitting on my counter today and I walked past it and the word setbacks caught my eye, and there it was, my inspiration. LIFE IS FULL OF SETBACKS. SUCCESS IS DETERMINED BY HOW YOU HANDLE SETBACKS.

This is just a setback and now I have to handle it and handle it well! So my chin is up and I am smiling. I'm gonna race a million more times in my life, but for now I need to rehab this injury, and do it right. So I guess the pity party is over and I'm done feeling sorry for myself but I did get tons of love, hugs, and treats. Thanks everyone!

My doctor drew some blood and checked my Vitamin D levels and some other labs that came back stellar. But my vitamin D level was low and he said this contributed to the fracture. My prescription being: Vitamin D3 5,000 U BID for 6 weeks. Then sunbathe for 20 minutes, 3x weekly in the 11-2 sun, in a bikini.....this is no joke. My response: Umm, that won't be problem.

Yesterday I turned 27. Seriously, I feel old. Especially since I have the bone strength and vitamin D level as a 60 year old. But overall it was a great day, lots of great food, gifts and of course my favorite cake. I got mostly cash but I won't tell you how much because I don't want to get robbed.

That's it.

I hate my life.

Whenever I'm having a bad day or stuff just isn't going my way, my saying is always "I hate my life". For instance when my dog ralphs on the carpet and I have to clean it up, I always say "Oh I hate my life". Do you ever have a moment or a day where you just feel sorry for yourself for whatever reason? True self pity? Well today is my day!

As you all know I Run. I love running with every fiber of my being, it's my outlet, my stress reliever, and just my plain hobby. I've been having race fever this spring, preparing for the ultimate goal, the Ogden Marathon. I'm also signed up the Salt Lake Half Marathon just for fun ( I heart half-marathons). Anyhow the Ogden Marathon is especially important to me this year because I'm running it with my Dad. Yeah, that's right I said my Dad. Who gets to run a marathon with their old man? Not very many people, but me I get too! We've been doing all our training runs together and have been having a blast. Well during all this I've been having a little pain in my upper shin on the inside. It only hurts for the first few minutes then goes away for the rest of the run, so I wrote it off as a shin splint. This went on for a month, I ran through the pain, because that's what runners do. Well, after my 16 mile run Saturday, it started to bother me when I wasn't running.

So I been talking to Ryan about this forever now and he suggested I go see a sports medicine dr. just to check it out. I saw the dr. today, after an x-ray, ultrasound and assessment he gave me the awful, horrible news that I have a stress fracture. My thoughts being, WTF, I don't deserve this, I've been running forever, I didn't just jump into this and shockingly get injured. For crying outloud, I ran 6 half-marathons, 2 10-k, and a relay just last summer ALONE. I even maintained high mileage during the winter. I was prepared for marathon training! Anyways the dr. gave me the horrible news of not running at all for 4 weeks, that includes nothing high-impact, so no combat class either. I also have to wear a compression sleeve on my leg, but that actually feels dang good.

So this takes me out of the Salt Lake Half Marathon. I could probably run again by Ogden but then I won't be ready because I'll be a newbie runner. No way I could pull off 26.2 miles with all my training thrown aside. Seriously, I hate my life today and I just need to complain and feel bad for myself. As you can see it has been very therapeutic for me to write this all out, so thanks for reading! My husband and my sister already got an earful, and perhaps a few tears too. But there are 2 things that can make me happy, My little Jack and Dairy Queen's new mini blizzard!

Fireman Jack

Jack has totally been into fire trucks lately. Every time we see one he makes the "wee-whoo" sound. So my good friend Ashley invited us to the Firehouse in Centerville where her husband is a fire captain. We totally got hooked up and had the fire truck to ourselves.

We even got to spray a mini fire hose and pretended to put out a fire. What an eventful day for my little Fireman.

Springtime??

We've been living outside with this nice weather, too bad it's not gonna last. Yesterday I took Jack outside to learn to ride his balance bike, but he doesn't get it, he just stands up and walks with it between his legs. That's okay, I can look past his shortcomings.

(Self Portrait)