Brie The Most Amazing Babysitter Ever!

Once again, I broke with tradition this year!  The last 5 years we've taken the twins with us down to Moab for the run.  This year since I had decided to run, I decided not to take them with us.  As luck would have it, Brie was up here for the weekend from St. George & I asked her to stay with them.  B was very unhappy with me making that decision.  I knew I'd worry too much about who would get them to the park, the weather waiting for us to finish, their complaining about the drive down and Ari always gets in our bed on trips and I don't sleep.  With the stress of running, I didn't want that added stress.  Sharon's husband decided to come at the last minute and Brie agreed to watch her 3 little ones on Friday too until their older sister could watch them.  Brie is the most creative and fun girl.  She saw the leftover boxes from our treadmills in the garage and then went over to Ikea and asked for more so they could build a fort together.  It is truly a masterpiece!  They had a big slumber party too.  The twins couldn't have been happier and had more fun.  We are very excited that she is transferring to the U in the fall and moving back up here.  We love Brie!

Ouch It hurts to Run 13.1 Miles!

Lelu & B ran the 5 mile and both placed 2nd for their respective age groups.  Lelu finished in 38:04, only 20 secs behind the 1st place. She's in the 12 to 15 group now.  B came in at 42:42, 2nd place for 46 to 50.  Last year she ran it in 40:02 and she wanted to increase her time by 2 minutes.  She did it!  That little thing is a speed demon!

D, myself and my friend Sharon all ran the half marathon.  D was aiming for under 2 hours, but in the last mile his shoes were bugging him so much that he took them off and ran in carrying them.  He got a lot of attention for it from the announcers but since his shoes with the race chip weren't on his feet, it didn't record a time for him.  The clock wasn't working either so we don't know how close he came to 2 hours.  B thinks it was a few minutes past.

I was extremely nervous all last week, wondering what on earth possessed me to sign up for this thing.  I finally just decided to take it one step at a time.  I could always walk if I needed to.  Sharon has been telling me this whole time she'll run it at my pace.  She doesn't normally run at my pace - she's 5'9", is thinner and in much better shape than me.  Last year she trained with a bunch of other girls to run the SLC half and every single one of them injured themselves and didn't run it.  She didn't want to injure herself and kept telling me she just wanted to do it and finish.  BUT after the race, I found out she had ulterior motives!

I had thrown out my goal as 2:15, but to be honest I had no idea how fast of a pace I had to keep to get that time.  It just was the average time for my age and I thought that'd be a good goal.  Sharon figured it out, but decided not to tell me, just to try to keep me at that pace.  She has this really neat gadget watch that keeps track of our pace, mileage, calories burned, elevation, time etc.  The whole time I couldn't hardly keep up a conversation but I felt pretty good so I just kept up the pace we were going.  She was telling me it was about my pace, maybe a little faster.  The last training run was 11 miles and I thought 2 more miles would be no big deal.  It ended up being a VERY big deal to me.  At about mile 9 my foot usually goes numb.  I've handled numb many times, but at mile 11 numb went to severe shooting pain with every step.  I kept telling Sharon to go ahead of me.  She'd say to me "You did not train to walk the last 2 miles, push through the pain, the damage is already done, just finish and finish well", I'd say "please go ahead of me" and she'd say the same thing again "You aren't going to quit or walk, keep going"  I made the decision to stop complaining after about 1/2 a mile of it and just start praying.  I was seriously taking it one painful step at a time. We finished in 2:14!  I had to keep telling myself not to cry, I was feeling unusually emotional after crossing the finish line.  Mom & Dad came over from Aunt Donna's in Blanding and were there to see us all finish.  Definitely one of those memorable moments for me. It meant a lot to me to have their support.

 When we went back to the condo we were staying in, we went to go soak in the hot tub, Sharon says "I lied to you about our pace the whole time".  I don't think I've ever been more grateful to be lied to about anything ever in my life.  The first 9 miles we were running a 9 min 50 sec mile.  That's running about a 6.2 on the treadmill.  Then we hit a big hill and slowed to just under 11 min mile for the last 3 miles.  I didn't know my short little legs had it in me to keep that pace for that long. My comfortable pace is an 11 min mile.  She had decided she was going to pace me and just see how well I could do.  My quads and feet are unbelievable sore today.  I focused on using my legs the last 2 miles to compensate for my foot and I can really feel it. It must be like childbirth and thankfully the memory of the pain you've suffered fades. We signed up to run the Utah Valley half on my birthday and she is trying to convince me to register for St. George full marathon.  I can not in my most insane imagination see running another 13.1 after the first 13.1 - but I did learn to NEVER SAY NEVER.

I Can't Believe I Paid $$ to Meet a Politician

These are my good friends Amy and Dave, who invited us to go to a meet Mitt Romney event.  I am very skeptical and cynical about this kind of stuff, BUT it was actually a fund raiser for the Hinckley scholarship fund at the U, so I agreed to go.  I didn't care to get my photo taken with him, but I took a photo of Amy & Dave meeting him.  Dave is a surgeon so he wanted to talk to him about the healthcare reform crap going on right now.  He had exactly 20 seconds to get a word in.  Mitt was very polished and is promoting his new book - But I will concede that after listening to him and learning he doesn't agree with anything Obama has done or says and is being vocal about it - I would have voted for him given the chance.

I was more impressed with meeting Orrin Hatch.  My camera did some kind of freeze up so Amy took a photo of us with Orrin with her camera.  I haven't got a copy from her yet. He is a very tall man, maybe 6'3'.  We were all shocked. Amy even said to him "Wow you don't look very tall on TV". He said "I'm a big guy, I used to be quite a fighter" and he threw a couple air punches. When I walked up to get a photo, I went to his right side and B tried to stand on his left and Orrin said "Excuse me sir, will you stand back for a minute".  B backed up and Amy said "B get in there" and Orrin looks at me and says "Is he with you?" and I said yes.  B was little miffed, but I thought it was funny.  He talked to Dave and all of us quite frankly about healthcare and said Obama is trying his best to beg, borrow, steal and shove this bill down the throats of the House and if he does it the Senate can't stop it. I can't help but be scared of what this ridiculous President can and will screw our country with. We talked to Orrin for a good 5 minutes because everyone else was so into Mitt.
We went to dinner afterward and what I kind of dreaded ended up being a fun night.

Not Sure if Nietzsche Was Correct?

I sometimes wonder if what doesn't kill you makes you stronger or if sometimes you just need a good dose of humiliation every so often? This has been one of those weeks for me.  But what I can say is I've learned from at least one of them.  My running friend, Sharon, went out of town so I planned to run outside with a couple other girls from the gym.  Just because they are around the same height as me, one is a bit older and the other a bit younger, I falsely assumed they ran at the same pace as me.  Oh how wrong I was!  We planned to run 6 miles and they took off at what for me was a sprint!  First I thought they'd eventually slow down, as they didn't I began to wonder is it ego or competitive nature or what?? BUT I tried my best to keep up for about 4 miles before I gave in to my slower speed.  AND SO I came home with a foot injury and a good dose of humiliation.  I can say it did NOT make me stronger but it did teach me to recognize my limits.  A few days of icing my injury and some ibuprofen, I am on the mend.  I also realized I really like running and was very depressed to take a few days off.   

On Saturday, we had our 2nd piano recital. Ari played "Coming Round The Mountain" by memory and with a little bit of her own style without a mistake or any fear.

Lelu played "Spanish Fiesta" perfectly without a single missed note and even changed it up a bit with playing at 2 different octaves.

B was in charge of the camera when I performed and he was so mesmerized by my brilliance he forgot to snap a photo during it (in my fantasy world)- so D caught one afterwards.  While I was a proud mommy,  I knew I practiced far more than my girls did and I know "Viva La Vida" in my freakin' sleep, but once I got up there my brain and bodily functions belonged to fear. After I was done my hands were shaking like a drug addict in serious withdrawal!   I asked my teacher afterwards how many mistakes I made and she said "I didn't keep track, you did great." That's why I like her so much BTW.  But leave it D - He held up 4 fingers and said "4 mistakes, mom.  I counted".  Thanks Pal!
Glad it's over for another 6 months.

Seriously Grateful For Their Efforts!!

This time I missed getting a photo of Michele. Arggggg!   It was so so so nice of them to come up here to see D in his play.  Poor Dave missed his first flight up here by 5 minutes and then had to sit in the airport all day on Sunday on standy-by to get home.  It really meant a lot to us that they suffered for us.  Then Michele drove by herself with the 2 darling boys all the way here and back.  I had a lovely cold and I gave it to Taylor and Christian.  Oh geez.....sorry for being such a bad hostess! Please I promise we'll do better next time!

We absolutely love seeing them and don't see them enough.  Taylor keeps us laughing. He is such a boy!  He zeroed in on every toy gun, sword and wolverine arm in the house waging war on Mr. T.  Even Christian was trying to carry around a nerf gun bigger than him.   Michele kept saying how sorry she was for how noisy they are.  She must have rose-colored memories of my twins as toddlers.  It was also really fun for Lelu to have them go to one of her soccer games too.  Me & the twins babysat the boys and Ari kept asking me when she'd be old enough to babysit their kids and when they'll have another one.  I told her in 3 years she'd be old enough, so she'll be ready and probably calling them on her 11th birthday to ask to babysit and telling them to have a girl next time.