8 Minutes

This past summer I ran the SLC Half Marathon with my SILs in April (already posted about that one), then I continued on through the summer to train with two of my very best friends who have become very dear to me and I am so glad we have been able to spend so much time together. They are both incredible runners and I owe my newfound love of speed training all to Alisa! We have run together until we hurt so bad we (maybe just I?) wanted to cry, been injured together, shared our joys and sorrows together, and even frozen our behinds off together on 6 am runs in the middle of Jan in the pitch black freezing cold hours where we needed a headlamp to guide our way. These ladies have become my sisters.

Our first race that we finally managed to run all together! In the past we had trained together quite a bit but always managed to sign up for different races. We signed up for this 2011 Provo Freedom Festival 10K on the 4th of July as part of our training for...

The Top of Utah Half Marathon 2011! (Ok I HAVE to say that there was a little girl cooling off runners from her front lawn with her garden hose on the last mile of the race, so my wet shirt is not all sweat! I was soaked from her hose and it hadn't dried yet, promise!)

Buckle up, there's a story behind this race:

You may remember that I ran this one last year (2010) by myself and it was the first time I had ever set a time goal in a race because I was finally to the point where I felt that I could train for speed, but then I injured my knee 2 weeks before the race on my 14 mile run and ended up limping through the end of the race and getting almost my worst time ever. Well, since training with Alisa and Kerstin was going so great and it was the right time of year and my knee seemed to be fully recovered, I convinced them to sign up to do it with me and I once again set myself a goal of 2 hours for the Top of Utah Half. I was so scared of this race because it kicked me so hard last year, but instead of turning tail and running I decided to stare it in the face and try to conquer it.

Race day came and my training wasn't where I wanted it to be as far as speed, even though my knee was great. I had done my intervals every week and while my speed definitely had improved, when I ran my long runs on Saturdays I just couldn't get to where I needed to be on speed when coupled with distance. So, I just decided I would go have fun with friends and run a good race and just keep my body healthy and not worry too much about time.

The race begins and it's perfect deja vu: gentle rolling downhill out of the beautiful canyon, perfect (even heavenly) weather, well run race and aid stations, etc. I even remember one moment while whisking down the canyon road, flanked by fellow runners, when Katy Perry's "Firework" song came on and I lost it. I mean full on tears of pure, blissful adrenaline. I know that sounds absolutely insane given it's KATY PERRY, but google the lyrics. Go on, do it. You'll understand. Or maybe you won't...

There's something about a race that makes your emotions so raw. Maybe it's because it's one of those rare moments in life where you have worked so hard for something for so long and put so much of your precious time and effort into it and you actually have one tangible moment in time where it's almost as if time freezes and you think to yourself, "This is it. This is everything I have been working so hard for. Within the next few moments of my life I will know, for better or worse, the fruits of all of my labors over the past few months...of everything that I have sweated and cried for and wanted so badly." It all sounds so dramatic on the screen but that is how it plays out in my mind every time I run a race. Every time. And I have heard and read plenty of people's words making fun of people like me for describing scenarios like I just have and saying how melodramatic it can all be, but I think you say that until you experience it and then you really believe it, but then again maybe it's just me :)

So we get out of the canyon and I am feeling good. Knee=great. Pace=respectable. I'm not really paying much attention cause I am truly just ENJOYING this race and so happy. I get to about mile 8 and start to add up in my mind how fast I would need to run to finish in 2 hours and I think, "Hey, if I can pick it up a little I could actually do this thing." But I am very aware that this is exactly where I started struggling and my knee started paining last year, besides the fact that 8 miles and 13.1 miles are very different, so I kind of put it out of my mind. Along comes 9 miles and I check my watch again and think wow, I can still do this thing. Again, put out of mind and keep trudging along. Mile 10 comes and this is where it starts to get hard. But still, I can't get over the nagging feeling that if I can keep up this pace and then some I could really hit this goal. I am really bookin' it at this point and it's hard but I just think I'm doing ok and if there was ever a time that I was going to hit this goal it was going to be now, and after all, I haven't hit this goal ever before for a reason: it's not easy and it's going to be hard no matter when I do it! So I set it in my mind that I am going to do this, figure out the pace I need, and start to push. Then comes the last 2 miles.

Again the imagery of everything turning to slow motion comes to mind. Those last 2 miles felt like the world was stuck in the mud, spinning ever so slowly around me. Then I get to the very last mile, my friend, Mister 12.1 and I think, "I have to stop and walk. This is it. I have pushed too hard. I can't do this." The last mile of this race, which I feel like I know so personally from walking it while flooded with pain last year, is on one very long and straight street that seems to not be an incline, but it's definitely not a decline, but it doesn't seem very flat either. It just is in a league all it's own. I have run this street when I was in so much pain I cried like a child and wanted my mom to come hold me. Yet today I am on a whole new plane. Painful still, but in such a different and interesting way. Over the period of that last mile, which I think I needed to run in something like 7-8 min but can't remember for sure, my mind jostled back and forth continuously between thoughts of, "I can't do this! It's over! I'm stopping and walking now cause it hurts too bad!" to, "You are less than a mile away from a goal you have wanted for over a year now! Push! Only 8 more minutes! You can do ANYTHING for 8 minutes!" It's funny the conversations you have with yourself sometimes. It makes me think there's something to those cartoons with the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other.

I can't begin to describe how badly I was hurting when I came into view of that "Finish" banner up ahead, but I knew I had to run hard to do it. I kid you not, about every 5 seconds of that last minute before I crossed that finish line, the devil on my shoulder whispered in my ear to stop and walk, and I almost did. Every time. But then the angel came back and I pushed hard. Then I almost walked, then I pushed harder. It was this sort of back and forth tennis match of thoughts. I don't ever remember feeling when I have run before the sort of physical exhaustion that I felt during that last minute. I do remember looking down at my watch and seeing 30 seconds left before the 2 hour mark and looking up and deciding I will make this goal or break my leg trying, but either way I am going all out. I set off in the hardest sprint and caught the time in the corner of my eye...20 seconds left...15 seconds...10 seconds...the finish banner was SO close. I didn't look down again at my watch for those last 10 seconds as I gave it all I had left in me. My foot hit that finish pad, my finger hit the STOP on my Garmin, and this is what I saw...

Two hours.

Two hours and two seconds.

(I didn't know whether to cry or laugh hysterically over those 2 measly seconds!)

But still, two hours!

Now, I had envisioned this moment many times in the year that I had had this goal for myself, and there were many different scenarios of what I would do and feel when I finally accomplished it, but most of them involved a whole lot of crying. Blissful crying. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm a crybaby. I have cried, mostly for joy, after every race I have ever run. So you can imagine my genuine shock when I realized I wasn't crying. I wasn't laughing either. I was past any of those reactions. I simply was too exhausted to have emotion. For the MOST emotional girl in the world, this is utterly hilarious to me! Oh, how it makes me laugh now! In any case, I did it. I mean, tack on a couple silly seconds, but I did it :)

And tears or not, all I can say is it felt really good. It always does after it feels really bad, right?

And now I'm doing a marathon in June. What's wrong with me??

We celebrated that night by taking Will to an Orem Owlz baseball game, after Ryan let me come home and take an ice bath and sleep all day of course! What a fabulous husband and a wonderful day! I took Will over, towards the end of the game, to roll around on the grassy knoll with all the other kids and watched him laugh hysterically in the cool summer evening. Then we went back and sat by Ry and I enjoyed such a fun and relaxing night with my family. Seriously I remember driving home from the game with Will asleep in the backseat and grabbing Ryan's hand and saying, "This has seriously been one of the best days ever."

Last 8 minutes included.

Guilty Pleasures

Hobbies and interests sections on questionnaires, for me, usually consist of little more than the following 2 things: running and quilting. (I guess I really like to read and am into music too, but can you imagine how interesting a blog post about how much I love to read would be? Bleh.)

At the encouragement of a good friend, I signed up for my first quilt class over 2 years ago now and have done the yearly class ever since. We do a few blocks a month and at the end of the year you have a gorgeous quilt. I still need to post pics of those quilts, but recently I finally decided I have had enough practice to start coming up with quilts to do all on my very own, and since I had 2 of my very best friends having babies at the end of this last year, it was the perfect time to do a couple baby quilts. Not only were these my first quilts that I totally designed and pieced together by myself, but I also did the actual "quilting" myself with my machine instead of taking it to a professional quilter to be quilted. It was fun to have the experience but having them professionally quilted after they're all pieced is much less painful!

Then at the end of the year we FINALLY bought Will a real bed and moved him out of his toddler bed, and I remembered the Star Wars quilts my brothers had growing up that great grandpa made for them and still own to this day, and I thought how fun would it be for Will to have the same kind of thing? So I asked him what kind of room he wanted and of course it was a superhero room and I got the genius idea to make a quilt for a full sized bed+use the fattest batting+quilt it on my mini size sewing machine=nightmare! I know I said I love quilting but right now I'm making it sound like a real headache aren't I? ;) Well it was!

In the end his batman room is turning out great and the quilt is perfect and I am glad he will always have it and know his mom made it in it's entirety on her very own, but I told Ryan he had to swear to make sure I stuck with baby quilts from now on!

(I bought the stuff to make a decorative pillow with the bat symbol on it but it's not completed yet, so the spiderman pillow pet is a good stand in for now)

On to running now, but that deserves a post of its very own...

Random

This was Will's attire the day Utah played BYU. Go Utes!

Some of my girlfriends in the neighborhood decided to hold a midweek mom-and-kids campout at a little camping park close to our home this past summer since it's hard to get away with the whole family sometimes with working dads. It gave dads a break and was such a blast! I think we stayed up til some crazy hour like 4 am! The moms...not the kids :)

My anniversary flowers. No matter how tight our budget is, Ryan always spoils me with flowers because he knows they are the one thing that mean so much to me! I think I have received flowers from him every anniversary and mothers day since we have been married. We went out for sushi that night and it was a simple date, yet great to have a night just to ourselves to reflect on 7 of the best years of our lives. We talked a lot this year about how it really does just get better with each year!

So I made this collage after taking the bottom right pic one Sunday because it reminded me so much of all the pics of Ryan and Will napping together when Will was a baby. Ryan has always been the proudest, most loving daddy and never hesitant to spend all of his precious free time with his little boy! Almost every night he comes home and drops everything to play with Will then put him in bed while I enjoy some relaxing time to myself. I love watching them together and the love Ryan has for him!

A Sunday afternoon drive to visit the UP house. The pic of Will putting his hand on the mailbox handprint has to be one of my all time favorites!

More dad and Will time just watching somethin' on the tube before bed.

The Raspberry Patch! One of our favorite places to go in the fall! We went with some friends this year and had a blast picking raspberries, as usual. The worst part is trying to keep the kids from eating them before weighing them! I always have to throw in a dollar or two extra for the "snacks" we consumed before weighing :) There's not much better than a fresh off the bush raspberry!

July Log Entry: 31st & Pioneer

For Ry's 31st birthday this year he wanted to do something outdoors, so we invited our families to join us on a hike to Stewart Falls where we brought popsicles to eat once we reached the falls, unbeknownst to us that there would still be a sheet layer of ice covering the ground once we got to the falls! Last summer we had some crazy late winter weather! Afterwards we went to get sushi and to a movie.

For Pioneer Day we always try to make it to the Bees game to watch the fireworks. This year Jon, Jen, and Addy were able to come with us, as well as Ryan's aunt, uncle, and cousins. Will and Addy had fun watching the fireworks on the field after the game then running the bases before we left, which they have never done before but they let all the kids do this year.

We were also able to go to the pioneer day parade in Salt Lake with our friends and their family, and Laurie bought umbrella hats for the kids.

Here Isabelle wanted to be just like Will, who had his hands in his pockets like the grown up boy that he is :)

Dog Days of Summer

I know, I know... I am blogging about summer in the end of Jan, but I have this thing where I'm not very good at skipping around and everything has to flow chronologically, so bear with me.

Monkey boy showing me his acrobatics. One day he was being creative and wanted to show me what he could do (don't worry, this event was highly supervised, leashes and all). He concocted this little trick all on his own, no help from me whatsoever. I know this isn't the best use for the door handle but how could you not grab a quick snapshot of that face??

I signed him up for gymnastics about a year ago, as I know many athletic men started there at a young age cause it helps develop coordination for other sports. Also, I didn't know the community center offered anything else for his age, and he hated it! He was the only boy in his class and would jealously eye the boys coming out of baseball every time we got out of gym. Making matters worse, the ball players got candy after every class and a balloon on the last day and the gym kids got zip zilch nada! It was painful to watch and the class couldn't end soon enough for both me and him so that I could get him into ball! We laugh about it now, but at the time Ryan teased me so much for putting his son in gymnastics with the girls :) He now plays itty bitty ball every other month when they hold it and loves it and begs me to sign him up for the next class every time. But secretly every time monkey boy appears with a new trick I know deep in my heart that I did him a favor in those few painful classes ;)

Visiting the temple grounds- we went and visited a few different temples this summer with friends and would have a little story about the temple, take pics, then go visit a park and have a picnic and let the kids play.

Ok so dress up has become HUGE around our house these days. Superheros are second only to pirates, thanks to Grandpa Mark.

More crazy dress up...can we say Elton John? Yikes!

Apparently Jessie the cowgirl is also an avid tennis player

4 costumes in one...now that's creativity

With friends at the park after visiting one of the temples

Girl Trip & One AMAZING Husband

First off, I am sorry I have been on hiatus for SO long! The holidays really took over this year, esp since we had 3 weddings in the family in December alone! It was such a crazy month!

Ok so I know that there are some amazing men out there, but I just have to say it, that I have the BEST husband in the world! He is so kind to everyone and I really don't know anyone who doesn't like Ryan. Truly. He is so patient with me and my sometimes grumpy demeanor and I really am constantly amazed by his kindness and how he really just doesn't get upset by anything or worry. That's saying a lot when you have lived with someone for over 7 years! He is such a tease and I love how he is happy all...the...time!! I have often thought over the years that Ryan really is unlike any person I have ever met in that he really is so happy and optimistic and never gets down. Mostly, I absolutely adore him for being such a GOOD dad! I feel like so often I converse with women whose husbands aren't really too involved in their children's lives, and it never ceases to amaze me since in some ways it's arguable that Ryan is MORE involved in Will's life than I am :) Ryan has frequently said that he doesn't see why men say watching your own child while your wife goes to do something is babysitting since it's your child. He says it's just getting to hang out with your kid. LOVE that! I know, the gushing is getting somewhat annoying at this point but in honor of this post that includes Father's Day from last year then him letting me go on a girls trip the weekend later that I take every year with my oldest and best-est friends, I just have to say how lucky I got in the husband lottery!! Me doing girls nights or trips or whatever it be for myself is a non issue in our house as he has told me time and time again that I don't have to ask cause the answer from him will always be, "Yes, go!"

Father's Day 2011

Girls trip 2011 with my Vegas girlfriends-Mitra was in town again from Hong Kong so we met up in Brianhead and had a shower for her and her sweet little baby (she was the last one without a child until now!), worked on a taggie blanket for her little guy, laughed and talked all night, and enjoyed the beautiful Brianhead landscape!!

Ok get this...while I was off on my girl trip Ryan took Will down to my family reunion that they held up Ephraim canyon so my mom and relatives would get to see Will. Is that not the sweetest thing? Who goes on a family trip with their wife's family without their wife? He knew my mom really wanted to see Will (and him of course) so he went. Will got to ride around in this little 4-wheeler with cousins and they did campfires, etc and had a blast.

Also, it was Ryan's mom's birthday while I was gone so they met up at the Gateway to celebrate grandma's special day! Will played in the fountains with two of his fav cousins, Addy and Megan.

Disclaimer- I know it sounds like I missed a lot while I was gone and as I am typing this post I feel like I am a horrible person for missing it all and going to be with my friends, but since Mitra was going to be in town from out of the country we had that trip planned for a long time and we couldn't really get around it since she had limited time in the states and the other events came up afterwards! Does that make it any better? ;)

This is Looking Really Good

Remember the line from Napoleon Dynamite when Deb is taking Uncle Rico's "Glamour Shots" style photos and she is posing him? I love that scene! I quote it all the time! Well, Will is into this phase (or at least was 6 months ago when these pics were taken) where he loves to grab the camera from me and snap his own photos. A regular old Ansel Adams I tell ya. And I just can't help but think every time I see his pics, to quote Deb, "This is looking really good"...

P.S. I took the artistic liberty of naming them myself. Hope you enjoy ;)

Plant Life

Experimenting with Shadows

The Wall

Animal Life

Decor

Through the Shutters

Self Expression

Concentration

Haha this last one cracks me up. Will thought Rusty and the other "animals" apparently needed to be leashed together for a shot. Good old Rusty puts up with so much around here. I think this one's going to turn out really nice :)

Let the Games Begin!

Olympia was our last stop on the Greek cruise and the only stop that wasn't an island. It was also the only place that we paid for a group excursion and didn't do it on our own, as we wanted a tour of the ruins. Our guide was hilariously Greek and it was incredibly hot and such a long tour, but it was remarkable to set foot on the grounds of the ancient and original games' starting place! So much history in these places...it just kind of takes your breath away when you really stand there and think about it.

So many of the pillars were partially intact and you could envision what the original structure would have looked like. The top right picture where you can see it is roped off is where they start the torch for the olympic games every year because it was the original starting point- so cool! Although, they told us we would be visiting that spot and once we got there it was just a tiny rectangle stone on the ground and kind of anti climatic. I don't know what we were imagining, but it was pretty funny with all these amazing towers and palaces surrounding us. The bottom right is the field behind me of the original olympic games events.

Meet Alexander. His class was on some sort of field trip and when we were outside the gates to the ruins he saw our group and came over shouting Hey, Americans! in his broken English. He was the cutest, friendliest kid and was totally showing off to his classmates. Ryan went over and chatted with him from the other side of the gate for awhile before we left, and then when we saw him again in the museum we had to get a picture. Such a cute kid!

Inside the olympic museum there was also so much history. Pictured here is a recovered sundial, warrior helmets, and statues that were uncovered that would have decorated the outside eaves and pitches of the palaces.

Our cute tour guide straight out of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Not kidding here folks. the entire 4 hour tour she kept saying stuff like, "Now your English word 'kimono' is actually a Greek word. It comes from the Greek 'kimos', meaning..." This went on in about every sentence for the whole 2 hours and she was dead serious. Hilarious!

And finally, our last night on the cruise...tear. It was the chocoholic midnight buffet. Here you can see the chocolate sculpture picking my teeth. I guess I would take that over a toothpick any day though.

The cruise was AMAZING and seriously the trip of a lifetime! We were so incredibly grateful to have that opportunity, but after a week with only one limited Skype contact with Will from a junky internet connection on a remote Greek island, we were so ready to get back home to our little guy! What a magical and fun week and one that I will never forget and will be difficult to match!

Opa!

Mykonos was stop #3 and is the most popular celebrity destination in Greece. I read somewhere that it was made popular by the Kennedys. It is known for it's crystal water and happenin' beaches and nightlife, so naturally this was our beach stop while in Greece. But first we hopped on over to the island of Delos, the ancient capital of this ring of islands that is now covered in ruins.

Dancin in the Streets

The streets in Mykonos were originally designed to confuse pirates and are these tiny little walkways that twist and turn a million times over. You would be walking down one and a scooter would come zipping down the street and almost run you over if you didn't JUMP out of the way, so it kept us on our toes! The streets are painted to match the whitewashed houses (which are whitewashed according to Greek law), and we were cracking up at the streets like the one on the top right where they painted over the stones in the ground to make the ground look like stone. A little too ironic...don't ya think? ;) Also we came across this green door that I just had to get a picture of. After 3 days of straight up Greek blue, I had to laugh at the non-conformist in this city. Rebel.

A cool, colorful little church we stumbled upon while navigating the maze of streets.

The Ruins at Delos

A few memorable sites we saw were Apollo's Temple and the Avenue of Lions, as well as all of the recovered art and architecture stored in the museum.

Platis Gialos

From the cushioned chair underneath my umbrella, soaking up just the perfect amount of sun and view, I could understand why this island is the most famous. I took a picture of my toes in the water, as I was amazed that at about 10 feet of depth I could still see the fish at the bottom as clear as day. I think those Mediterranean waters must be the closest thing to a fountain of youth on this planet, as I felt like a kid again playing in the water and digging my toes in the sand.

Our beach day was a rejuvenating, fantastic success!