Snow Canyon Half Marathon

In 2015 my main goal was to prepare for the Olympic Trials in 2016.  But I knew I needed some races to keep me motivated with the training.  I opted out of a fall marathon to focus on the trials but decided to run the Snow Canyon Half Marathon in November.  I was having some good races leading up to Snow Canyon but I hadn't been able to PR in anything yet for the year and I was hoping to finally get a PR.  It was my first time on that course but I knew it was a fast one and I was in great shape.  Jason was planning on running as well and had finally had some good injury free training although he was having some health problems that were concerning.  We felt he was on the mend though and headed to St. Gerorge.  About half way to St. George Jason became very ill.  I was driving and we were already a couple hours south of Salt Lake but still a long way from St. George with no hospital within miles.  I was seriously worried and close to turning the car around when things improved and we decided to continue to St. George.  We decided there was no way it was safe for Jason to race the next day.  He was so disappointed to miss out on another race.  I tried to focus on my race but was having a difficult time when I knew Jason was so discouraged and when I was concerned about his health.

So the next morning Jason dropped me off alone and I boarded a bus.  I always hate a bus ride alone but I met some new people.  They weren't serious at all about running but they were friendly so it helped with the pre-race jitters.  I got to the starting line and found my friends, Angi and Amy and we warmed up together.  We were worried about it being too cold this late in the year up the canyon and while it was a little chilly it was a beautiful morning for running. The sun was shining and it was warming up quickly.  I started the race with some arm warmers and gloves but quickly discarded them by the side of the road.  It was a perfect day for running!

The first couple miles are fairly flat so I started out at a comfortable pace knowing that I wanted to save it for the steep downhill coming later.  I thought I was leading the women's race alone but then realized someone was right behind me.  She introduced herself as Candace Carlisle and we ran together for the first two miles.  I was hitting right around 6 minute miles.  I knew I needed to go faster but I was patient waiting for the downhill.  After the first couple miles we got to where the course starts to drop. I picked up the pace and my effort a bit and left Candace behind at this point.  I was warmed up and I felt great!  I ran the 3rd mile in 5:45.  I was settling into a fast downhill pace now and feeling terrific.  Jason was out on the course cheering for me just before we turned off the highway and headed into the state park.  He is always so supportive when he is watching me run. I felt so bad for him though knowing that he really wanted to be running right next to me.  The road through the state park was closed so he couldn't follow me through that section of the course.  This is breathtakingly beautiful steep downhill section.  I had a big gap between the couple men I could see in front of me as well as the ones behind me.  If it weren't for the lead biker (actually eliptigo) in front of me I would have been all alone.  I loved the beauty of the canyon and I couldn't hold back my pace down the steep downhill.  Miles four and five were 5:24 and 5:26.  These were probably a little too fast but I felt so good at this point.  I started thinking I would not just PR but be able to run a 1:15 or maybe even faster.  When I got to miles 6 and 7 the downhill wasn't quite as steep and I was starting to tire just a little bit.  I was a little worried about how fast miles four and five had gone and worried if I would burn out before the end.  Since I wasn't training for a fall marathon my long runs had been a little shorter and suddenly 13 miles was feeling like a long way to go. I was still able to keep those miles in the 5:30s though so I felt like I was in a good position.  Mile 8 was a 6:03 and that's when I really felt like I had to start working.  I wasn't sure if the mile marker was off or if it had just flattened out enough to slow me down that much.  I knew I had a huge lead.  I was getting tired and the course was getting harder. I had to make a choice at this point.  Slow down to a more comfortable pace and coast in for a win or dig deep all alone and go for a PR.  I picked up the pace a bit and was able to settle back into some miles around 5:50.  I was starting to catch a few of the men that I could see way up there so I tried to just concentrate on reeling them in.  The last couple miles were challenging.  I expected the course to flatten out but what I hadn't expected were the rolling hills in the neighborhoods we ran through.  They weren't very long but some were steep and it was a struggle to get up them.  I could see the stadium lights at the high school where we finished a couple miles out and they didn't seem to be getting any closer.  The course had a lot of turns in it as we wound through town.  It was difficult to keep a steady pace with all the sharp turns.  At one point there were volunteers standing and cones pointing me one direction but the lead biker in front of me went straight.  I couldn't see any other runners ahead of me and was confused about which way to go.  I finally decided to trust that the course markings and volunteers knew the course and I chose not to follow the biker.  It turned out to be the right decision.  About half a mile later she caught back up to me apologizing profusely that she didn't know the course.  With a mile to go I knew I wouldn't be able to finish in 1:15 but a 1:16 would still be a huge PR.  My legs were hammered from the steep downhill and I felt done.  I pushed hard through that last mile and was able to run it in 5:52.  My time was 1:16:41, a full minute faster than my previous PR.  A win and a PR was a great way to end the year of racing!  It made it even better that my friend and training partner, Angi, finished second.  It was a great race and one that I am definitely looking forward to returning to.

I have never been so sore after a half marathon than I was that next week.  The combination of the fast pace and the steep downhill was really tough on my legs.  I had to take it easy for a week to recover.  But with three months to go until the Olympic Trials, after my recovery week it was time to jump back into hard workouts and longer marathon training runs.  The days were getting shorter and colder, which is usually when I like to back off on my miles and intensity. My training has been going fantastic though and every day I get more excited about the opportunity I have to test myself next month against the best runners in the country.  A month out and most of the hard work is done.  At this point it's just a matter of not getting hurt or sick and hoping that the stars align for a perfect race on February 13th.

In 2015 I also competed in the USA Track and Field Utah Road Racing Circuit.  In the circuit races I accumulated points against other USAT&F members.  In November I was awarded first place in the circuit at the annual awards banquet.

I also had the opportunity this fall to do an interview with a local TV station.  It was a little nerve racking but a lot of fun and my kids were thrilled to be pictured on the news.  You can watch the clip here.

A New Kitchen!

When I bought our house I loved almost everything about it but the kitchen.  It's kind of funny I picked this house too because when we started looking I refused to budge on the kitchen.  But this house just felt like home when we walked into it.  I really can't explain it any better than that.  And it had potential.  I knew someday I could turn it into what I wanted.  I anticipated doing some remodeling within the first couple years but life has a way of getting in the way.  There were always other things to spend our money on and the kitchen could wait after all.  So this year we finally decided to dig in and get it done.  I was really scared of the mess and living for several weeks without a kitchen.  It really was as bad as I imagined too.  Maybe even a bit worse.  It was a huge hassle and I said multiple times during the process, "We should have moved.  It would have been easier."  And it really would have been.  But we love our location, yard and neighborhood so we really never considered it.  And now we will definitely never consider it now that I have things the way I want.  It was one of the projects that just kept getting bigger as we went and turned into remodeling the whole main level.  After all we might as well do this while we already have the mess...  You get the idea.  The good news is I love my new kitchen.  It's definitely unique.  We had quite the time deciding on wood for the cabinets.  As much as I like a lot of new kitchen's these days the trendy style just isn't my style.  So I think we ended up with a more classic look and maybe no one else would pick what we did but I couldn't be happier.  In the end, mahogany was the only wood Jason and I could agree on and I think it turned out beautiful!  Enjoy the before and after pictures.

Family Pictures 2015

Family pictures almost didn't happen this fall but we finally found a weekend to squeeze them in.  I'm so glad we did!  I just with these kids would stop growing so fast!

Fall Fun

Fall is such a crazy time of year.  Throw on top of all the birthdays, holidays, and sports a huge house remodeling project and it seemed downright tumultuous.  Somehow we survived and everyone got where they needed to be most of the time.  Here are a few highlights.

Back to school time already!  Four kids in four different schools. Andrew's first day in high school, Jared's first day in junior high, Kailtyn's first day of 4th grade and Skyler's first day of preschool.  Yes, that means I actually get four whole hours to myself every week.  Sending my second child to junior high was a bit easier.  I mean, I knew Andrew had survived.  I still couldn't help feeling nervous all day for him.  Getting a locker open and finding his way around to all his classes for the first time is a big deal!  He came home happy though and loves the new change, well as much as a kid can love school.  Andrew handled switching to high school with ease.  The bigger building didn't scare him at all and I think it helped that he ran on the cross country and track team there last year and already felt a bit at home there.

Andrew had a terrific cross country season.  He ran on the varsity team in most of his races.  Bob Firman was one of the few races that he ran JV and he was able to finish in the top 20 of his race against dozens of schools from several states.  His team won the City County Meet and Region.  He was able to end his season with a huge PR at the Nike Regional meet in Phoenix running the 5k course in 16:22.

We enjoyed one last summer like day on Labor Day.  My parents came with us to Trial Lake.  We enjoyed a day of fishing, rafting on the lake, picnicing, and just sitting by the lake enjoying the scenery.

We were excited to find out that ECU where Jason did his fellowship training was playing football at BYU this year.  Jason lived ECU sports when he was at his fellowship on the sideline at every home sporting event.  The game happened to be on Jared's birthday.  I thought that was fitting because Jared absolutely adored the ECU football players when we lived in North Carolina.  He was only three years old at the time and he sure looked up to those players.  We had never been to BYU stadium since we aren't BYU fans.  We had fun sitting with the purple section in the corner and cheering on the Pirates.  We met a lot of other local Pirate fans that had lived in Greenville at sometime and were now living in Utah.  There weren't a ton of us but we made a lot of noise for how many of us were there.  In the end they lost the game but they gave us an exciting game to watch right to the end.  Jason enjoyed seeing a few of the doctors that he worked with that still travel with the team.

Southern Utah University was hosting the Big Sky Cross Country Championship this year and Coach Houle, our college coach who is still coaching there, put together an alumni weekend.  It was a fun reunion seeing old friends and cheering on the teams at the meet.  It was a tough weekend to travel since the meet was being held on Halloween but we were so glad we made the trip.  On Friday Jason and I drove to Cedar City.  We toured all the new facilities and went to the course to run with the team.  Friday night they held a dinner for all the alumni.  It was great to catch up with teammates we hadn't seen in years.  In the morning we met up with old teammates to run.  We ended up with two groups, one fast and long and the other not quite so fast.  I ended up in the fast and long group (all men except me).  It was not a leisurely pace and I was trying not to go too hard since I had a race the next week.  It was fun to run some old trails although I was disappointed to find that some of our old dirt trails had been paved.  The meet was a lot of fun to watch.  It is hard to believe it's been 16 years since we left.  I was joking with most of the girls on the team that they were babies when I ran there (and they really were!)  SUU's men's team won the meet and Weber State won the women's race.  It was fun cheering on our current coach, Paul Pilkington's team as well.  Some of my best memories from college were from my experiences running on the team.  It was so fun to relive some of those memories.  Coach Houle had made t-shirts for all of the alumni.  He recreated the shirt from the first year he coached at SUU (the year before Jason started) and we also received one of the current team shirts.  All the alumni seemed to really like the retro shirt.  That's what we all showed up wearing to cheer the team on that morning.

Skyler had a fun preschool fieldtrip to Black Island Farm.  We went for a hayride and he got to pick out his own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  I don't know if he was more excited about the tractor pulling the wagon or all the pumpkins.  He was so excited whenever we went to the store in the fall and saw pumpkins.  He would point to them and exclaim, "Halloween!!"  He was in heaven picking out his very own pumpkin from the patch.  He also had fun seeing all the farm animals.

Jared and Kaitlyn enjoyed playing in the ensemble festival with their friends, Maxwell and Ruth Larsen.  It took lots of practice learning how to play with another person but both pairs did a great job on their duets!  I love that my kids have such wonderful friends!

Here are a lot of random pictures.  I've gotten so far behind on blogging and when I look at these pictures I think no wonder!  We have been so busy!! Kaitlyn and I enjoyed our annual girls' morning at Breakfast with a Witch at Gardner Village with Nancy and Jana and her girls.  After hours (they now require 50+) of practicing driving with me all summer and drivers ed Andrew got his driver's licence!  I felt this was a bit of an achievement on my part for surviving teaching a teenager to drive!  Since most of his driving practice came before drivers ed that meant I did a lot of the teaching.  Jared had another fun football season with the Wildcats.  I went to find Skyler's blanket one night before tucking him in bed and came back to find him kneeling by his bed praying.  It is one of those moments where after a hard day you feel like maybe something you are trying to teach your kids is sinking in!  Oh, and if that isn't enough with the countdown on for the Olympic Trials I've been running miles after miles.  It's quite the juggling act fitting it all in!

We rushed home from our trip to Cedar City just in time to carve some pumpkins, eat some dinner and take the kids trick-or-treating.  Halloween is one of those things you just can't miss with your kids.  Jared and Andrew both took off to hang out with their friends but Jason still had Skyler and Kaitlyn to take around the neighborhood begging for treats.  They came home after an hour or so with bags too heavy to carry.

Jason had the opportunity to do an interview with channel 2 news on skiing safety.  He thought it was being recorded and shown later but he arrived at the studio just a few minutes before his interview and found out it was live!  He called to let me know that it was live but I was stuck in line at Costco and missed it.  Luckily we could catch it later on the internet.  Here's the link.  He did a great job!

With all the fun things going on we've had our share of challenges too.  IHC switched computer systems and it meant a lot more time and stress for Jason at work this fall.  Some days it felt a lot like residency for me with the long days at the hospital.  A few months later we are glad that things are starting to improve.  Jason also ended up in an ICU bed one weekend.  We had some scary moments with a lot of worry but he had a wonderful team of doctors and nurses caring for him and we were blessed that they were able to find a bleeding bronchial artery and were able to stop the bleeding and we are hopeful that he won't have any more problems with it.  Andrew ended up needing surgery as well and we are hoping that our  family can avoid the hospital a lot more in the coming months.

Another Teenager in the House

Jared celebrated his 13th birthday in October and we now have another teenager in the house.  He wanted to go to Flowrider for some indoor surfing with his friends.  With fall break just after his birthday everyone was heading out of town and we had to push it back a couple weeks.  It was worth the wait though and the kids all had a great time!

Here's a look at Jared at 13.

He's enjoying being in Jr. High now.  He's learning to play the trumpet in beginning band and loves it.  I don't have to nag him about practicing nearly as much as I do with the piano.  Maybe that's just because it's new but I'm hoping it lasts a while.  He is also getting a lot better on the piano and had a fun time playing in the duet festival this year with his friend Maxwell.  He still loves to play rough and enjoys playing on the line in football.  He doesn't care about handling the ball; he just wants to hit guys with his pads on.  He still isn't too old to sit and play with Legos in his room for hours.  He's becoming a lot more responsible.  Skyler has turned into his little shadow and is often following him around the house when he is home.  Skyler misses him while he is at school and often asks if we can go pick Jared up from school.  (I'm not really sure why because we never have.)  He still hates doing chores around the house but did take over mowing the lawn this summer which Andrew and Jason were grateful for.  He's Deacon's Quorum Preseident at church and it's been fun to watch him take the responsibilities at church so seriously.  He always makes sure that the boys in his quorum are there to pass the sacrament on Sunday and collect fast offerings.  Raising teenagers certainly brings it's own set of challenges but I've been blessed to have these two boys in my life.  Happy 13th birthday Jared!

Andrew's 16th Birthday

16 is a big deal.  Old enough for a driver's license and dating.  It seemed like a huge step towards independence and to be honest I had a hard time with Andrew turning 16.  I love this handsome teenager but part of me wishes I could just have my cute little boy back.  But like it or not, it was coming.  I wanted it to be a birthday to remember for Andrew but it was complete craziness at our house.  We were in the middle of a huge remodeling project and had to leave the house for the weekend so that the wood floors could be resurfaced.  His birthday also fell on General Conference Saturday for our church.  That meant lots of meetings and not much time to celebrate.  Since we couldn't host a party at our house and the day was taken up he decided to meet a bunch of friends at a haunted corn maze after dark.  He had a fun time wandering the maze with his friends.

Here's a look at Andrew at 16.

He's taller than me and almost as tall as his dad.  He's a great student and works hard at school.  He's a talented runner and dedicated to working hard to become better.  He's a great helper around the house.  He loves to ski and mountain bike and has no fear.  I make up for the lack of fear when I watch the videos from his gopro (SLOW DOWN!)  He's responsible and a careful driver (which both suprised and pleased me.)   He's having a lot of fun learning photography and takes some great pictures.  He's a great piano player now.  I find listening to him practice is payback for all the money I've put into piano lessons all these years.  He is a fantastic big brother and Skyler adores him.  Happy 16th birthday Andrew!

16 also means Andrew was ordained to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.  This means on top of his other responsibilities he can bless the sacrament.  Here is a picture of him with his dad on the day he was ordained.  It was a beautiful warm fall afternoon and everyone couldn't wait to get home and change into comfortable clothes.  They didn't seem to want to wait for me to get the camera out...

Summer 2015

What happened to the lazy days of summer?  It seemed like ours was packed with so many activities and I'm finally getting around to posting about it six months later.  It's a good thing I have some pictures to remember some of the things we did.

Due to motion sickness I would avoid Lagoon if I could and I think Jared would too.  But the other kids love it so much that I had to take them once.  And looking at these smiles I think it was worth it!

Jared enjoyed his first week long scout camp at Camp Bartlett and earned 6 merit badges.  He even passed the swim test in the cold lake!

With my parents now living in North Ogden we enjoyed having some of my siblings come to Utah to visit.  Rebecca and Brian came with their five children and Spencer and his girlfriend, Janelle, came with her son Calvin.  My kids loved having cousins to play with!  We went swimming, hiking, to movies and just made Grandma and Grandpa's house a lot messier and noisier!

Kaitlyn and I enjoyed a girl's trip with Nancy, Melanie, Jana and Brooklyn to St George.  We enjoyed a fantastic performance of Beauty and the Beast in the spectacular Tuacahn theater.

We took a short overnight camping trip to Tony Grove.  It turned off really cold that night but we had a great time.  It was our first time camping there and definitely a favorite that we will return to.  The wild flowers were beautiful and the fishing was fast and fun.  The kids love camping so much it is actually worth all the work of getting everything packed up to go.  Next time we will plan a longer trip.

Jason and Andrew went on their annual backpacking trip again with Brian and Sam.  This year they went to the Wind Rivers in Wyoming and hiked 50 miles including over the continental divide.  This is no small feat considering they were carrying 50+ pounds on their backs.  They had to take bear spray, bear cans and hang their food in their trees.  They were fortunate to avoid any major encounters with bears although they saw a bear and plenty of tracks.  The fishing was good although not as fast as Brian would have liked.  They saw some beautiful scenery and had a wonderful time.

Jason had the opportunity to go to Colorado Springs to work as a volunteer physician at the Olympic Training Center.  He had a fabulous experience taking care of some of the best athletes in the country.  He's hoping it will open up some doors for some future opportunities to work with some of the national teams.

Summer means more time for just hanging out together.  I'm always sad when it's time for everyone to go back to school.  One of these pictures is a sight I caught as I walked in the door one day.  I guess my boys decided I don't make cookies enough and decided to take matters into their own hands.  I loved catching them in a moment when they were all working together on something and I love that they included Skyler!  He sure loves doing anything his older brothers are doing!  Kaitlyn loves to read and Skyler loves when she takes the time to read to him. We had fun running a few local 5ks together.  And who doesn't love a big slice of watermelon in the summer!