This Little Peanut...

...makes me so happy.

We hit the road together yesterday for the first time in months for a jog. She doesn't like sitting in the stroller for any amount of time. So we had to stop at a beach by the river for a bit. I'm always grateful when she makes me stop and play. I know I'm going to miss doing it one day.

She's all registered for Kindergarten this fall!

Good Riddence to Winter 2011-2012!!

I normally prefer winter.  Even in the snowy parts of the state.  I like winter fashions better.  I like playing with my kids outside in the winter. I like bundling up and breathing in the cold.  I like fires and hot chocolate.  I think it's beautiful...  You get it.

I also like winter better because Summer hates me.  I hate swim suits, being hot and sweaty and my legs in shorts.

These are some reasons why St. George has been a difficult transition, but not the only reasons.  I have never fit in here.  I made a couple of pretty close friends a few years ago in our last ward, but they moved and I have never really made any others since.  There are really wonderful women in the neighborhood where I live.  I like them all and get along fine with just about everyone.   It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I'm not like them.  Ya know?  I just don't enjoy doing what they all do.  I'm not into Twilight or midnight movies of any kind for that matter.  I don't want to read or talk about what they read and talk about.
 

I've forgotten what it's like to be around people that I can hang with.  And maybe that's a silly thing to care about at my age.   I've really thrown myself into finding the fun that is to be had here.  I take my kids to the river or lakes during the hot season, I run on the awesome jogging path, and get involved in community stuff.  I really have put my heart into it and until last December I thought I was doing fine and that eventually I'd really be "from St. George."  But I'm really feeling super homesick these last few months.  I am actually having panic.  I wake up and after just a couple of seconds I remember where I am and what my life is consisting of right now and I instantly feel sick.  I'm trying to figure out if it's my surroundings, or that I'm involved in too much community stuff, or the absence of friends, or something else entirely.

Maybe it's just that because I've been so busy and stressed with everything that's gone wrong this winter I haven't had time to run at ALL or do anything that I am used to having in my schedule.   I had signed up for that Zion 100, which is in a couple of weeks, but obviously that isn't going to happen.  One nice thing that has happened with being so busy, is that I have spent a lot more time thinking about other people and things that need me instead of spending it all running.  I've realized how I really don't want to be that selfish anymore.  There are so many important things that I could be spending my time doing that would help others and the community.  I'm not ever going to feel good spending that much time on myself again, I hope.  I just need to do as much as I need to feel good and that's it.

I've been thrown in to the Chair position of a community arts committee the past year.  I had no idea how to do the job and really no guidance at all.  I went okay,  maybe even went well, but I have one more year as chair, and now that I know how to do the job, I feel like I am going to have to give it even more effort to make sure it's done right.  Even though I really love art and am happy to be involved in it's promotion, I'm not sure if this is what I should be spending my time doing.  I wonder if I feel so much unrest because it's not  what I should be doing.  We just finished the big job and are kind of breaking for the summer so I won't have that pressuring me quite so much for a while.

We are moving around the corner in the next month.  It could be that I just am feeling displaced.  Although, I'm looking forward to the change so I don't know if that would be effecting me in this way.

Here's to a fresh start, new surroundings (kinda), and new schedule.  Fingers crossed for a good Spring/Summer.

39/15

Wow, I'm 39 and have been married for 15 years.  What the heck?  I often say that I really don't mind getting older.  I can honestly say that.  I read someone ask on a FB status, "Would your 20 yr old you be proud of who you've become today?"  and as I thought about that, I realized that she would.   I had never thought about that before.  I get down on myself a ton for messing up, but if I look at my life in that light ~through the eyes of my 20 yr old naive, selfish, insecure self~ I am pretty happy with how I am doing.  I do really think getting older is great.  Ron and I will have been married for 15 YEARS tomorrow.  I can say the same thing about us.  I'm pretty proud of how we're doing.  It. has. not. been. easy.  But the fact that I love him more now than I did then is pretty telling for me that we are doing this right.

Zion 100

So I'm all signed up for the Zion 100.  I actually went and bought the map of the course, downloaded a training schedule *shutter* and started training.  I do not do training schedules very well.  I have always hated "having" to do a certain number of miles at a certain pace.  It makes it not fun for me, and I've always said if it's not fun I can't do it.  This time I'm going to do it smart and follow a training schedule in the hopes that I can finish 100 miles.  The heaviest days in the schedule for first-timers at 100 milers are 30 miles one day and 20 miles the next, then two days off, then lower miles for three days (10, 12, 15), then do the heavy miles again the next weekend.  It focuses on those high back to back mile days and then the rest to heal, instead of speed days like you would in a marathon.  I really like that about it.  It counts "time on your feet" over a couple days time rather than speedwork days and careful counting of mileage.  Every time I try to do speedwork, I get injured in some way.

Speaking of injuries...  I've been doing nothing but treadmill all summer and have developed a strained hip flexor.  I ran outside today 10 in the morning and 7.5 in the evening and didn't hurt a bit.  I guess the longer stride and faster pace on the treadmill was hurting my hips.  I'm so glad it's cooling off so that I can run outside now!  It feels so much better.  I never thought I'd say that.  I've always loved the treadmill so much.  I think getting older makes you have to constantly change the way you do things with the way your body is reacting.

Anyway, the long run days are going to be Fridays and Saturdays.  They kinda have to be, I think.  There may be Saturdays when I can't due to family stuff, so I will have to juggle on those weeks.  But for the most part, I am going to try and do them Fri/Sat.  On Fridays I'm going to try to wake up at about 5:00 AM and run for about an hour and a half until Noah needs to be up and getting off to school.  Then after the last boy leaves for the bus at 8:20, I will put Sarah in the jogger and jog her to school the 2.5 miles, drop her off, leave the jogger and run while she's in school (2.5 hrs)  and get in however many miles I can do in that time, then jog her home.  I don't know how many miles that is going to amount to.  Then I have to do another long one the next day sometime, someway.  It might be in the evenings, which requires I eat really carefully.  Big meals eaten at any time of the day don't sit well in your gut during a run in the evenings.

Fictionist - Choose the cover contest

Click the 5th star!

Article in the local paper about the race

Mischief fails to spoil race

Kevin Jenkins • kevin@thespectrum.com • Published: April 24. 2011 4:55AM - Last modified: April 24. 2011 7:39AM

IVINS - Clear skies didn't stop someone from apparently trying to rain on long-distance runners' parade Saturday by changing race signs that sent race participants in the wrong direction.

The runners in the Red Mountain 50K, a race about 31 miles long, were generally nonplussed but happy by the time they reached the finish line in Ivins, however.

"(It) is kind of unfortunate, but it's OK. Things worked out," Ari Theodore of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake City , said. "I got more bang for my buck."

Many of the race's fastest runners put in an extra half mile to four miles after a directional sign near the ninth mile was moved and chalk arrows were erased and replaced with new arrows indicating an unscheduled right turn, race director Jeremy Frehner said.

"(The race) is just such a grass-roots thing, when we have those elite runners out in front and they get (detoured) a mile ... it's just crazy," Frehner said, indicating there was no way to adjust runners' recorded times at the finish line to reflect what they had actually accomplished.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people have run a 60K today," he said. "I don't want to cast blame. ... (But) if they (the culprits) think it's funny or accomplishing something with doing something that malicious, where they put people's lives in danger, they need to change."

The course began by following 12 miles of public-access trail from the junction of state Route 18 and Pine Valley Road before joining the paved road and wending around the Gunlock Scenic Byway.

Shortly after mile 9, a pair of chalk arrows directed runners to turn down a dirt trail where horses were running. The trail eventually ended up a hill at a T-shaped junction without signs indicating where to go next, said Krissy Moehl, a Seattle resident who is one of the world's top-ranked ultra-trail runners.

While some runners turned one way and others went another, Moehl turned back toward the aid station at mile 9. Along the way she met another runner who had done a trial run on the course.

"He said, 'I don't remember crossing this river,'" Moehl said.

The runners were able to help direct later racers in the correct direction, but Moehl estimated she had passed about 50 runners on her way back down toward the aid station.

"Which is scary for a race director when you've got all these runners going off different directions," she said.

"Everyone had a real good attitude. They still finished and it was still a really beautiful day," said Bryce Thatcher, who is one of Moehl's corporate sponsors.

His wife Melanie said Moehl jeopardized her lead to help correct the situation, including the time she spent standing around discussing options with other runners. Moehl still finished first in the women's category, however, with a time of 5:04:01.

Moehl also completed a rim-to-rim-to-rim run with a friend Tuesday at Grand Canyon National Park , running 42 miles with an elevation change of 11,000 feet in 9:12:29, breaking the previous record of 9 hours and 25 minutes.

Scott Dickey of Murray was the first man to cross the finish in the 50K, with a time of 3:36:21, which would give him a pace of 4 minutes and 20 seconds per kilometer.

"I was just looking for a 50K that was kind of fast," Dickey said. "I ran a 50-miler a couple weeks ago. ... It was OK but wasn't as fast as I wanted to do. I was pretty sick about six weeks ago with pneumonia ... so I wasn't 100 percent."

Jim Magnan of Tucson, the men's winner in the 30K race that began west of Veyo, said he learned of the race over the Internet and bargained with his wife to participate in conjunction with a Santana concert she wanted to see in Las Vegas.

"We're just kind of squeezing all the living we can into one weekend," Magnan said, indicating the couple had also visited Zion National Park a day earlier.

"I'm preparing for a 50K in Yosemite the first Saturday in June, and I wanted to run something different and interesting," he said. "This was really easy on my mind. ... I carry a camera and I probably took 20 pictures along the way. ... I was just looking to run in some pretty country."

Magnan finished with a time of 2:18:44.

Tanna Bayola of St. George was the women's top finisher in the 30K, with a time of 2:36:01.

"I do a lot of cross-training," she said. "I just want to keep running, keep a smile on my face. As long as I'm smiling, I'm going to keep running."

Red Mountain Ultra

I have to be honest and tell the story behind the second place plaque. I have no idea what my time was either. It almost doesn't matter, because I don't even know for sure how many miles I ran. What happened was a land owner that lives in the mountains that we were running through apparently doesn't like this little race going through his backyard.  So, he got up early this morning and erased the chalk arrows on the ground at one of the forks and redrew them pointing to another path.  It wasn't too horrible because that path, although a few miles longer, eventually lead back to the main path so most of the people that went that way, including me, were okay.  The sad part is that once we got off on that wrong path, there were several other forks that could lead people off into the bush and far far off the main route with no way to end back up eventually on the right trail.  There was at least one other woman that was ahead of me at one point and ended up about a half and hour behind because of that disaster.  There was a professional ultra marathon woman that noticed that people were going in two different directions at one point, so she ran back a few miles and told someone that some of the runners were getting lost, then she got back on the path and started running.  She is the one that won the thing, even though she ran probably an extra 5-6 miles.  She caught up to me and passed me at about mile  24.  Her name is Krissy Moehl.  People had been telling me at the aid stations that I was the first woman they had seen pass, which made me so excited, but I was confused because I knew that I saw other women in front of me.  It still was pretty fun to have them say "Second Place Female!" when I crossed the finish line, even though I know I didn't really earn it.

I did have a great run though, and I attribute it to a couple of things.

*Advil!  2 at the starting line, 2 at miles 15,  21, 24, and 27.  I still cramped a little and had the usual fatigue, but no aches like last time.  No hip or knee issues.  Overall it made the run just completely different than last year.  Hallelujah and thank you, Ibuprofen.

* No headphones.  I know, I can't believe it either.  But it made it so much more enjoyable to be totally on the ride with the other runners and not just locked in my own head.  I was able to chat with other people and joke around.  It kept me going, I'm sure, when if I had had music it would have been much harder.

Starting line is really as miserable as it looks.  Cold and windy.  I loved the jacket I took with me, having learned from last year.  Dry-wicking wool.  I also wore Pearl Isumi sleeves, which I loved having on once the jacket got too warm for my core, but the wind was still blowing and would have been cold on my skin.  I shed them at maybe mile 14 and hung them on my belt.  No weight at all.  A great purchase.

There are several peaks on the trail that have great lookouts.  I promised myself I would take enough time to take some pictures.  These views are the highlight of this run.

Before you hit the pavement you run over three washes.  Last year there was not a whole lot of water in them.  I just jumped over without getting wet feet.  This year two of them were deep and wide enough that we had no choice but to stomp through them, getting wet up to our mid-calves.  One other woman and I spent about 20 seconds at the first big one trying to figure a way across without getting wet.  Finally I just jumped in.  It was three miles later at mile 12 that we would get to change shoes anyway. 

One other thing I did different was bring a new pair of shoes that had only been run in once, to put on at mile 12 (which for me was actually more like mile 13 since we got lost, remember.)  I think that helped.  I noticed a big difference when I put them on.  More cushion and support.

                      
                            Gunlock

                      Gunlock Reservoir

I wasn't sure if I was going to see my family at the finish because it is a really busy day with basketball games and family Easter Egg hunts.  Ron was sweet enough to swing it with all the kids.  Thanks, honey.  You rock my world.

Oh, and I saw a friend that happened to be on a bike ride on the course!  She took these photos and texted them to me.

I ran with this nice guy, Ari for the last maybe... 8-9 miles.  I know it helped to chat with someone at the end.  He's done the Wasatch 100 and actually finished.  Very cool.

I got home and immediately started to feel sick.  I was worried the whole time about the Ibuprofen making my stomach hurt.  I don't know if at least part of what I'm feeling now is so much Meds.  Blehhhh