Andrew's 14!

Andrew turned 14 the beginning of this month.  I think he's grown at least half a foot in the last year.  He's not quite as tall as me yet but he's getting close and it's strange to look at him at eye level now instead of looking down at him.  He's a teenager in every way now and although he has his moments he is such a great kid that I feel privileged to be his mom.  After school I took him to pick up his birthday present.  He had outgrown his bike a while ago so we got him a new mountain bike.

He headed out for a bike ride with Jason after we got home.  It's usually really nice weather for his birthday but this year snowflakes were falling as they left for their bike ride.  We tried to buy the bike big so it would last for a while but I was surprised how well it fit him now.  If he keeps growing this quickly he might need another one next year!

At 14 lighting the candles on the cake is much more exciting than blowing them out!

The day after his birthday we left for St. George for the marathon.  Jason threw his and Andrew's bikes on the bike rack so they could try out some trails there.  It was tough to find much time between the race and our church conference that was going on that weekend but they got in a couple of rides with some beautiful scenery.  Andrew's gotten to be a great mountain biker and loves to try new trails.

In our church boys can be ordained to the office of a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood when they turn 14.  We enjoyed having several family members there to support Andrew in this step in his life.  I'm so proud of him for the decisions he's making and the young man he has become.

Yes, he's as tall as Grandma now and if I wasn't wearing my highest heels in this picture, he's getting pretty close to me too.

Here's a look at Andrew at 14.

What he likes: Legos, running, Minecraft, piano (most of the time), playing with his little brother Skyler, getting straight A's in school, mountain biking, scouts, waking up early, backpacking with his Dad, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books and movies, pizza, pasta, and Skittles.

What he doesn't like: mowing the lawn, vegetables, rice, trying new foods (yes, he is as picky as ever), practicing the piano (sometimes), cleaning the bathroom, and getting his hair cut.

What I love about Andrew: his happy outgoing personality, his enthusiasm about everything, he's hardworking and a great student, he's fun to run and bike with, his smile and dimples are still adorable, he's a great helper around the house, he is so cute with his baby brother and a great babysitter for me.

I couldn't ask for a nicer 14 year old! 

A Perfect Day for Running!

It's hard to believe that just earlier this year I was still trying to break three hours in the marathon.  This has been a fantastic year for running for me, probably my best ever.  I've run a PR in everything and it has felt almost easy.  A lot of people were asking me what I thought I could run in St. George and I was hesitant to say it out loud but I really felt like if I ran a great race I could run under 2:50 and finish in the top five women.  But I knew it was going to take a perfect day, both weather and how I was feeling.  I knew I was in the best marathon shape I've ever been in, but there are so many uncontrollable factors that get in the way for marathon running.  I was keeping my fingers crossed that everything would go in my favor this year.

The week of the race I was frustrated to find out that I had been cut out of the elite division.  When I registered for the race in April I still hadn't run a marathon since I had Skyler, and predicted I would finish around 2:56.  I was told they set the cutoff this year at 2:55.  The race directors wouldn't listen to any amount of arguing that I had since run that fast and deserved to be in that group.  I spent a lot of the week angry with the race directors and frustrated that people had obviously exaggerated on their finishing times to get in that group.  I felt I was at a disadvantage not getting the perks of the elite aid stations that the runners I was racing against were getting.  It even started putting doubts in my mind that maybe I was overestimating what I could do.  After several days of all these negative thoughts I realized I needed to forget it and just get ready to race.

This was my third race on this course and the last two attempts were during record heat waves.  Heat has always been my worst enemy when it comes to racing.  The weather forecast was looking ideal: a cold front just in time for the marathon.  I was feeling terrific on marathon morning, although I didn't sleep much the night before thanks to my nerves.  I got on the shuttle at the hotel at 4:30 in the morning and got on a bus to the start line much quicker than I expected.  I met a new friend staying at our hotel and enjoyed the bus ride with her to the start.  We arrived at the start line around 5:15, way too early.  It was cold and I had an hour and a half until the start.  Luckily I had come well prepared with several layers of clothes and claimed a spot close to a fire.  The wind was blowing fairly hard but it was looking like it was going to be a tail wind.  I soon found some of my friends and training partners and we were warming up and getting ready to start the race.

At 6:45 the gun was off and we were running in the pitch dark.  I kept a warm-up shirt and gloves on for the beginning of the race and was excited with the perfect conditions for running.  It was cool and the wind was pushing us from behind.  I knew there would be a lot of runners that would go out fast.  I tried to follow my coach's advise: be patient and wait for the second half of the race.  I was trying to run my first half around 1:27 and planned to run the second half faster for a finish somewhere around 2:50.  I found a group of women that were running the same plan as me and the four of us worked through the first half together.  Jasmine Sessions and Missy Allred were super nice to share their bottles with me at the aid stations when they realized I didn't have any.  It was great to have a group to work with and it made the first miles pass so quickly.

At 10K I was at 40:35 averaging 6:32 mile pace.  That was right where I wanted to be since the first seven miles are some gradual downhill and the hills were coming up in the next seven miles.  I'm not sure what place we were in at that point but probably somewhere between 20 to 30 for the women.  At seven miles we reached the town of Veyo.  It was finally warm enough to ditch my warm-up shirt by the side of the road.  I was feeling good and ready to charge up the hill but stuck with the group I was with and kept reminding myself that I was saving it for the second half.  Veyo hill is the biggest, longest hill in the course.  It stretches for about a mile and we went up it in 7:20.  We were starting to pass a lot of people as the hills kept going through the next several miles. Jasmine and I started to pull away from the other girls we were running with at about 12 miles when it flattens out a bit.  I realized we had fallen off the pace I wanted to run a little but not so far we couldn't make it up later.  We crossed the half marathon in 1:27:56 averaging 6:42 miles.  It looked like we were in a good place to run low 2:50s.  Maybe if everything went perfect we still had a chance to go under 2:50.

After the half Jasmine and I really started to race.  We started to look for runners, especially the women ahead of us and pick them off one at a time.  We dropped into the low six minutes for our mile splits when we hit the downhill and were catching a lot of runners.  When we reached Snow Canyon at mile 15 we had passed a few more women and one of the spectators told us we were in 9th place.  We had broken into the top 10 but I was sure there were still others up ahead we could catch.  Jasmine was great to run with but a couple miles later she said the pace was starting to feel a little too fast for her and she started to drop back.   My quads were starting to burn from the fast downhill running.  I was a little worried by this but at this point I could ignore the pain and it wasn't slowing me down.  I just hoped it didn't get worse.  I crossed the 30K(18.6 miles) split in 2:01:30.  My average pace had dropped back down to 6:31 thanks to some fast downhill miles.  I started to calculate in my head what I could do.  Could I run another 12K in less than 48 minutes? I could see a couple more women up ahead and I picked up the pace working on catching them.  I felt great other than the fact that my quads felt like they were on fire.  With every step I felt a shooting pain in my quads but instead of slowing down I just kept getting faster.

Around mile 18 I hit the last uphill in the course.  While it's not as long and steep as the others, it's late in the race.  I easily passed some runners though and on the next steep downhill mile ran a 5:29!  I was flying past people and had moved into 5th place for the women.  Every mile split I glanced at the clock and tried to figure out how fast I had to keep running.  I soon realized I would be well under 2:50 as long as I didn't slow down.  Maybe a 2:48, or even a 2:47... My quads were screaming at me.  I was on my own now.  There were a few men to pass but it was getting pretty spread out and I couldn't see the 4th place woman ahead of me.  I knew I had a good lead on 6th place and it was so tempting to just coast in those last few miles to town.  Maybe my legs wouldn't hurt so bad if I slowed down a bit.  But I knew I would regret it later if I did.  I knew that I may never get this perfect of conditions again and I would always wonder what I could have done if I'd pushed it a little harder.

The last two miles flatten out a bit as they wind through town.  Jason and my kids were waiting to cheer for me there.  It was so great to see them and get that extra bit of encouragement.  I could really do this!  I was still keeping a 5:50 pace.  I could do anything for just two more miles.  The mile markers that had come so quickly in the beginning were feeling like an eternity now.  With about a mile to go I caught up with a guy who stayed with me and raced me to the finish.  It was just what I needed to keep my pace up and ignore the pain in my legs.  I remembered three years ago coming around that corner and realizing I had fallen just short of my goal.  This year I had made it and with time to spare.  It was a great feeling to come across the finish line in 2:46:13.  They put my 5th place finisher tag  and finisher's medal around my neck.  I was so excited it was hard to even notice how tired I was! I found my friend Rosy Lee who had won the women's race in 2:37.  Jasmine finished in 2:49 in 8th place, her first time under 2:50 and Missy ran a PR 2:53 in 13th and 2nd for masters.  It was an extremely fast year with the top ten all under 2:52.  We were aided by the wind and temperature but there were also some very talented runners there that I felt privileged to be a part of.  I won my age division and my biggest cash prize ever.  My average pace was 6:20.  This means I averaged under 6 minute miles for the second half.  I realized after I finished that I had run my second half of the race in 1:18:17, a full minute faster than my PR in the half marathon.

Women's Top 10 Awards

Age group awards.  Zak James next to me was a teammate of ours at SUU.

In some ways I think I may never be able to run that fast again.  Everything really was perfect on Saturday.  And if I never do run faster I think I will always be really happy with this race.  It was a day to remember.  Yet, I'm also already scheming as to how to get faster.  I negative split (ran the second half faster) by 10 minutes!  While that is amazing, I think if I had it to do over again I would run the first half faster.  Maybe I could have shaved another minute or two off my time.  Of course there is no going back to do things again but I'm already looking forward to the next race and many more to come.  Next up, Boston 2014.  It's going to be a great year!

And I had to include this one last picture where Jared sneaked up on the podium behind me to get in the picture with Skyler.  My family deserves this victory as much as I do it.  They've been right there with me the whole year cheering me on and supporting me.  It takes sacrifice on everyone's part to get where I am and I couldn't do it without my fabulous family!

Running, Football, Dancing and More...

This weekend was one of those crazy weekends with so much going on all we did was run from one event to another.  I'm finally feeling like I have a minute to sit down and breath today.  Friday was Andrew's district cross country meet.  I thought this might be kind of a let down for him after such a big win at Bob Firman.  Even though this was a much smaller race Andrew still has some amazing teammates to push him.  It was a cool, rainy afternoon.  Andrew finished 4th with the top 5 runners all coming from Mt. Ogden, sweeping the district championship. He finished the two mile course in 12:33, (6:16 mile pace.)  It's been fun to see all these boys on the team improve so much this year.  They have one more race this week to finish off their season.

The boys celebrating their win.

Both the girls and boys from Mt. Ogden were district champions!

Saturday started early with Jason headed to the bus for the Huntsville marathon.  It was a chilly morning with frost on the ground at home and he was heading up to Monte Cristo at 8,000 ft for the start of the race where there was snow on the ground.  While he was on his way to the start the rest of us were out the door early for Jared's last football game of the season.

I told Jared to smile for this picture and he said he did!

After game treats are still the best part for this kid.

The sun was finally up halfway through Jared's game and it started to warm up a bit.  We caught the first half of Kaitlyn's soccer game and then headed up to Huntsville to cheer Jason on at the end of his race.  We were watching the half marathon runners coming by and I was starting to get really worried when Jason still hadn't come several minutes after I was expecting him.  What I didn't know is that the full marathon had started late so he wasn't as far back as I thought.  He looked good with a mile and a half left but I could tell he was hurting.  The race has a super steep downhill first half and flattens out later in the race.  A lot of the full marathoners looked like they were really feeling terrible towards the end.  This isn't the greatest picture since I got him opening the water bottle but it's the only one I got.

We had to really hurry to make it to the finish but got there just in time.  He finished in 2:52:51 in 9th place overall and 1st in his age division.  He would have liked to have been a couple minutes faster.  He said that second half was pretty tough and 10 minutes slower than the first half but it was a great race on a tough course.

When we got home Saturday afternoon I had just enough time to squeeze in one of my last training runs before St. George and then we were off to the Weber State homecoming game.  Jason was working at the game which meant I got to take all four kids myself.  It brought back memories of all those time he was in fellowship and I took the kids alone to games while he worked.  Luckily Andrew and Jared are old enough to take care of themselves now as long as I buy them plenty of treats.  Kaitlyn got to perform at halftime with the Jr. Wildcat Spirit Squad.  Her dance teacher is one of the Weber State dancers and she loved getting out there and dancing with the cheerleaders and dancers.

Bob Firman Invitational

Andrew is running cross country at the junior high again this year.  The high school cross country team goes to the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise every year.  This is a big race put on by Nike with teams from several states.  Three of the boys on the junior high team were traveling with their parents and older siblings to the race in Boise and were going to run the middle school race. They needed five boys to make a complete team and were hoping Andrew and a few others could join them.  After a few weeks of trying to figure out if there was space in the vans to take a few junior high boys the final verdict was that their wasn't room and they couldn't go.  I could tell Andrew was disappointed so I decided if all they needed was a ride I would drive them up to Boise.

I had a lot of people tell me I was brave to take a baby and a bunch of junior high boys all that way but what they were forgetting is that I have the easiest baby in the world (I know you think I'm exaggerating but I'm not) and that I had three terrific teenagers with me.  We had a great weekend!  I was so glad I took these boys and they got to experience such an amazing race!

The three boys I took to the meet.

I knew these kids were good runners.  Their junior high meets are against the other Ogden District schools and the other teams really don't even have a chance.  We usually come close to sweeping the top 10 at each race.  It is a short season for them so it was great to get the opportunity to throw in another meet.  This was a completely different experience for these boys.  This was a big race with over 200 runners from schools from five different states.  Not only were there a lot of runners, but there were a lot of fast runners.  I warned Andrew to get out fast so he wasn't stuck in the back of the pack.  I was thrilled to see him come around the first corner towards the front of the pack.

It was a 3000 meter race around a park.  We were able to run to a few different spots along the course to watch.  Towards the end I could tell that Andrew was starting to hurt.  This was really the first time I've seen him in a race push himself to that point.  It was great to see him and his teammates step it up at a bigger meet.  Andrew finished in 29th place and had several of his teammates finish close to him.  I knew they had done well but it was hard to tell with so many schools there where they would come out in the team score.  After watching the middle school girls race (Mt. Ogden also had six girls there to make a team) we headed over to where they had the results posted.  The boys race had come down to a tie breaker with the 6th runner and Mt. Ogden won out of 23 teams!  Our sixth place runner was over sitting on the grass because he wasn't feeling well but was soon mobbed by his teammates for winning the race for them.  I was so proud of those boys for running so hard and doing so well!

Andrew and his teammate Ben sprinting to the finish.

The boys were thrilled with the trophy they won!

With the girl's team with their 3rd place trophy and with Bob Firman, founder of the race.

Click here if you are interested in watching a video of the race.  It really is impressive to see how far up these boys were in such a huge race.  We got a late start on our drive home since the middle school races were the last races of the day.  I thought the boys would be so worn out they would fall asleep but they were so excited they all lasted until almost midnight when we got home.  I'm so happy for this great group of kids!

First Day of School 2013

It was such a busy summer for us it was hard to believe it was time to go back to school already.  I think all of us were mostly ready though.

Andrew 8th grade.

Jared 5th grade

Kaitlyn 2nd grade

I'm officially the most embarrassing 5th grade mom taking a picture in front of the school.  Can you tell by the scowl on Jared's face?

This leaves me a lot of quiet time with this little guy.  I'm really enjoying it although I think he really misses his siblings while they're gone.  One of our favorite things to do: head out for a run with the stroller!

Scouts

Jared received his arrow of light last month.  It's hard to believe he is ready to move on to boy scouts.  I was actually a little sad sitting at pack meeting and thinking that after six years of having a boy in cub scouts it would be my last one for the next seven years.  Cub scouts is such a great program and it's been a lot of fun seeing all the things Jared has accomplished the last three years.

His pack did a fun presentation including face paint, feathers and tomahawks.

Jared walked across the bridge to join the Arrow of Light recipients.

Jared loved the arrow he gets to take home and hang on his wall.

Meanwhile Andrew has been busy working on his Eagle Scout project.  He has been doing a book drive for a local elementary school with needy children.  We spent the summer with boxes of books piled in our living room.

Some of the scouts helping deliver the books.

Just some of the books.  He had another car full.

In August they had a court of honor and received the merit badges they earned at scout camp.

Now with his project complete he is one 50 mile bike ride away from completing his last required merit badge and he will be ready for his Eagle board of review!

Remembering Grandma and Grandpa

80 years ago today my Grandma and Grandpa Brown were married for eternity in the Salt Lake LDS temple. It has been over 15 years since they passed away but I miss them and think of them often. I have fond memories of holidays at their house, vacations with them to Yellowstone and just Sunday afternoon visits. One day we were talking about my running and Grandma mentioned she used to love to run and run as a little girl. Of course she lived in a time when there weren't organized sports for women so I guess we'll never know for sure but I like to think that's where I got it from. A couple years ago a running friend of mine figured out he had grown up in my grandparents ward. He still remembered Grandpa's chocolates all these years later and his wife remembered him as one of her high school teachers. Sometimes I am jealous of my older cousins who had a lot more years to spend with Grandma and Grandpa but I know I'll see them again and they are celebrating together today. I love you Grandma and Grandpa!