Andrew's 15th Birthday

Andrew's birthday was the day before the St. George Marathon so we checked the kids out of school early and drove to St. George.  I'm not sure if the drive in the car was such a fun birthday but I think getting out of school early was.  We celebrated with cake and presents at the hotel that evening.

I loved these Lego candles I found!

It's hard to believe that I have a 15 year old already.  Andrew has grown 6 inches in the last year and is as tall as I am.  He is such a great young man.  Of course having a teenager in the house has it's moments but I really can't complain about him.  I'm so proud of all his accomplishments.  I couldn't ask for a better teenager.

Here's a look at Andrew at 15:  5'6" (as tall as Mom), shoe size 11 (same as Dad)  I think he's got some more height still coming to catch up to his feet!

Things he likes: running (cross country, road races and long distance in track), Legos (can you ever get too old for Legos?) Minecraft, playing the piano in Jazz band, Heroes of Olympus books (had to preorder the next book for his birthday), playing with his baby brother, mountain biking, fishing, backpacking, camping, hiking, watching football and World Cup soccer,science, and girls (yikes!)

Things I love about Andrew:  He is happy and has a great attitude (most of the time).  He's friendly and has a outgoing personality.  He is a hard worker and tries his best.  He is the best big brother to Skyler.  He is a huge help around the house, babysitting, doing dishes, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, ect.  I was really lost without him this summer when he was gone on camps for a few weeks.  He's fun to hang out with whether it's running, biking, camping and fishing with Jason, or just tagging along at the store.  I'm having a hard time realizing there will only be a few birthdays left with this kid at home.  He's so much fun to have around I don't know how I'll get by without him!

Lots More Running and a Sprained Ankle

As a ninth grader Andrew has been able to run on the high school cross country team this year.  We spent a lot of time driving all over northern Utah to different parks for races and even a trip to Boise for the Bob Firman Invitational.  He had a terrific season, running in one of the top spots on the JV team and taking two minutes off his 5K PR.  He's put in a lot of hard work running every day since August and it has been rewarding for him to see all that hard work pay off.  He's been running really well against a lot of older boys and it's exciting to watch.

Bob Firman Invitational running on the sand on the beach.

6th place finish in the JV race at the City/County Invitational!

Last home meet of the season.

October brought another trip to St. George for the marathon, this year for Jason.  Unfortunately after a whole summer of hard work, he went out for an easy run two days before the marathon in the dark and sprained his ankle in a pothole he couldn't see.  He was hurting pretty bad when he left for work that morning but I was hoping maybe he had just tweaked it a bit and it would feel better later.  By the time he came home that evening it was black, blue, and swollen all the way from his big toe to his ankle and he could barely walk.  We were supposed to be leaving for St. George the next morning but I didn't know how in the world he was supposed to run 26 miles on an ankle he couldn't even walk on.

Friday morning he woke up and decided he better try running on it to see how it felt, even though it didn't look or feel any better.  The physical therapists he works with did a bunch of treatments for him and it seemed to help a bit.  The kids were all disappointed that the trip to St. George might be cancelled but I knew it would be a miserable weekend for Jason if we went and he couldn't run the race.  After a lot of debate we decided to go anyway.  He decided he'd ride the bus to the start and see how it felt.  If he was in pain he'd drop out and catch a ride back to the finish.

I took him to the bus early in the morning.  Jason was really nervous and to be honest I was nervous for him too wit  I woke up wondering how he was doing.  I was able to track him online and saw that he had made it through the 5K and 10K split and was even on pace running his mile splits in the 6:20s.  Every time it was getting close to an update I would get nervous and hoping it would show that he was still running.  At the halfway point he was at 1:25:44.  He had slowed down a bit but he had also just gone through the uphill part of the race.  With a lot of downhill in the second half he was still right on pace to be able to run under 2:50 like he wanted to.  I figured at this point the ankle must be feeling ok but I was a little worried how the pounding down the hills would feel on it.  We left the hotel and headed over to the last two miles of the course to find a place to cheer him on.

We were so excited to see him coming and still running a good pace.  I think this picture really shows how hard the end of a marathon is.  He looked like he was hurting but I knew he was going to finish in a great time.

He finished in 2:47:32!  His second fastest marathon and the day before I didn't think he'd even be able to run!  He was so happy about it.  It was great to see him so excited after the race.

Jason with two of our utahrunning.com teammates, Missy Allred and Taylor Monson

 Another highlight of the weekend was Jason being able to meet up with a friend, Adam Jarnigan who was a mission companion with Jason 20 years ago in Brazil.  He came from New Hampshire to run the marathon.  We were able to visit with him the evening before the marathon.