The End of Another School Year

The end of the school year always brings lots of activities and awards for the kids.  This year wasn't an exception.  A few weeks before we left for Boston I found out that Andrew was being awarded Scout of the Year from the Trapper Trails Council.  I was so excited for him to receive this honor.  I was disappointed when I found out the banquet they were holding to present the awards was being held while we were in Boston.  One of his scout leaders went instead to accept the award for him.  Here he is with his trophy after we got home.

Kaitlyn was really sad that we didn't ever dye Easter eggs with our trip to Boston.  So I told her if they had any egg dye kits left at the store we could do them for family home evening the Monday after we got home.  She was in luck.  There were some on clearance.  The kids were quite creative with their eggs this year.  I also made some bunny rolls so we could have our traditional Eater breakfast the next day.  Better late than never!

Andrew also earned several awards at school including student of the month for April and the high honor roll for another year with a perfect 4.0!

Andrew also missed the first track meet of the season while we were in Boston so the only meet he was able to participate in was the District Meet.  He ran a new PR in mile at 5:27.  Here he is with his team's first place trophy.

Kaitlyn had her end of year dance recital.  She had a great time in dance class this year with her two friends, Ariana and Ruby.  It was always interesting carpooling these three girls!  (There were a lot of Frozen songs being sung and listened to every week!  They were thrilled that their teacher Brynn chose Let it Go for one of their dances.)

In April Kaitlyn had a field trip to the Ogden Nature Center.  It was on a Wednesday and I figured Jason would be home to watch Skyler so I would go with her.  Kaitlyn had other plans though.  As soon as she heard it was on a Wednesday she came home begging her dad to go with her.  I asked her why I couldn't go and she said she really wanted Jason to go with her and I could wait and go to the Dinosaur Park with her class in May.  So since neither of us could tell her no, that's what we did.  I had to find a sitter for the Dinosaur Park field trip but it was fun to go with her.  She was thrilled to be in the same group as her friend, Sage.  Here they are digging for dinosaur bones.

The kids had their end of year piano recital.  The theme for this recital was movie songs.  The parents had to guess which movie the songs were from that the kids played.  Kaitlyn played a song from The Lion King.  Jared played a song from Pokemon, and Andrew played a song from Star Wars Phantom Menace.  Their teacher also handed out the awards from federation.  Andrew and Jared both earned their first cup from receiving superiors three years in a row!

One morning we saw in the newspaper that this Big Boy train had stopped for the day in Ogden.  It was being towed somewhere to be restored.  The train fan in Jason came out and he insisted we stop by Union Station on our way home from Kaitlyn's softball game that night to see the train.  Skyler loved all the trains at Union Station.

Spring also means sports for our family.  Almost every night is spent at the ballpark for baseball and softball games.  This was Kaitlyn's first year with coach pitch.  At first she struggled to hit the ball but by the end of the season she was hitting really well.  Here she is with her trophy.

Most of Jared's friends aren't playing baseball anymore and he ended up on almost a completely new team with a lot of kids he didn't know.  He has made some new friends though and his team has had a lot of success winning quite a few games.  It's fun watching him getting so much better with his hitting and throwing.  Here he is hitting the ball.

The weekend of the Ogden Marathon Andrew and I decided to run the 5K.  I was still recovering from Boston and wasn't up to the longer races but I thought it would be fun to do something to participate and it's always fun to run races with Andrew.  I knew the tougher competition would be in the longer races and wasn't planning on running too fast.  It was my first time in my utahrunning.com elite racing team gear.  There were a bunch of Bonneville High School cross country runners there and I started out the race keeping up with them.  It was mostly boys but one girl tried to keep up with me.  It felt like a comfortable pace but I looked down at my Garmin and it said I was running 5:35 pace.  I didn't think it was really that fast.  I figured the watch was still trying to find the satellites and it would find my real pace in a minute.  About a half mile into the race the girl trying to keep up with me dropped back.  It was just me and the boys from Bonneville.  It was kind of fun to run with them because you could tell they really didn't want to get beat by a girl.  I hit the first mile marker at 5:35.  My Garmin had been right!  I really was running that fast!  I'm so used to running longer races that when I hit the first mile marker I thought, Oh good, I'm almost done!  Only 2.1 miles to go!  My second mile was almost as fast 5:45.  By the time I got to the last mile I realized I had a chance of breaking 18:00 if I could keep my pace under a six minute mile.  I have never broken 18 before so I really kicked it in that last mile.  I won the women's race in 17:50.  Andrew also ran a PR in 20:15.

Kaitlyn was so excited about her class play they were putting on the last week of school.  She did a great jog singing a duet in the play in front of the whole school and a lot of parents.  She didn't even look scared!  Here she is dressed as a "wind sister."

A Week in Boston: Part 2

Wednesday was not the most enjoyable day of our trip.  We checked out of our hotel downtown to move a little farther outside of the city to a less expensive hotel and to get a rental car to be able to visit some sights outside the city.  That meant we had to get all of the suitcases packed up and take the trip on the subway with everything back to the airport.  It took all morning to get out to the airport to get the rental car.  We finally pulled into Minute Man National Park at around noon.  We had stuff for a picnic lunch but it was pouring rain.  It would have made a great spot for a picnic if it weren't for the weather.  So we ate our lunch in the car and then pulled out the rain jackets and umbrellas and headed inside to the visitors center.  They had a fun video inside the visitors center that explained a lot about the start of the revolutionary war.  We grabbed some Jr. Ranger booklets for the kids to do.  Andrew and Kaitlyn were excited but Jared was not happy about it.  He said it was just like school and didn't want to do it.  So with one unhappy child we headed back to the car to visit the other sights at the park and fill out the booklets.  By then the rain had stopped but it had turned off really cold and a strong wind was howling.  It was miserable to be outside.  There were lots of trails through the park that took you to different sights but it was way too cold to be outside much.  We also found out that we were there off season and several of the buildings we would like to have visited were closed.  I didn't get many pictures that day since it seemed like we were running back to the car as quickly as we could to get out of the cold.  The kids were tired from the long week and late nights and getting sick of sitting in the car next to each other.

Concord where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired.

The kids taking their Jr. Ranger pledge.

Besides the starting place of the revolutionary war, Concord was also home to several favorite authors.  After visiting the North Bridge in Concord we stopped by the Orchard House, home of Louisa May Alcott but found out that it had closed for tours for the day.  Our next stop was Walden Pond, where Thoreau went to have his experience out in the "wilderness."  We were surprised to find that it sits right outside the town of Concord.  I always assumed he was a long way from civilization when we learned about it in school.  It would have been a lot of fun to walk around the pond to Thoreau's cabin on a nice day but we were all so cold by this point and the kids were getting really tired and ornery so after taking a quick picture from the window of van I made the decision to just grab some fast food for dinner and head to the hotel.

The next day everyone was feeling a lot better after a night's sleep.  We were headed to Plymouth and since it was supposed to be windy again we went prepared with more layers of warm clothes.  At least the sun was shining that day and it made a big difference.  All of the kids said that Plimoth Plantation was one of their favorite things we did on the trip.  At the Wampanaog Homesite we got to see a village where Native Americans showed us how the people live in the 17th century.  The kids loved watching them burn out the inside of these tree trunks to make boats.

We got to go inside their houses and ask questions about how they lived.  These two cute boys are hanging out inside their winter home.

Skyler loved playing with the leather ball they had made.  We had a hard time dragging him away from the toys.  He didn't want to hold still long enough for me to take his picture though.  Here we were protected from the wind a bit and with the sun shining the kids were having a great time outside.

Jason checking out the food they are preparing.

The summer home.

Then we went to the 17th century English Village.  This was on a hill overlooking the ocean and it was a lot windier.  We ran from one building to the other trying to get out of the wind.

In this village the actors played the part of the English settlers in the 1600's.  The kids really wanted to find our ancestor Peter Brown but we were told by the other villagers that he was gone for the day up north cutting wood.  When Skyler got bored of sitting in houses and talking to people he found the chickens in the back yards and loved to chase them around!

The kids had a lot of fun with the children's games.  Here they are bowling.

We were never able to find Peter Brown but when we headed over the replica of the Mayflower the kids were excited to find his name on the list of passengers.

The replica of the boat was really cool to see.  It was amazing to see the conditions they lived in while crossing the sea.  We also discovered that they continued to live on the boat after arriving in Plymouth for shelter.  Without it they probably wouldn't have survived.

On board with one of the passengers.

This next picture in front of the Mayflower is kind of silly but it shows just how windy it was that day!

We were disappointed when we saw Plymouth Rock.  I won't include a picture because it's not worth it.  Jared's comment when he saw it was "They ruined it!"  It was pretty anticlimactic and definitely not what you imagine when you think of Plymouth Rock.  I'm not sure how big it originally was but it had been cut and placed in a monument.

Our last full day on our trip we drove up to Cape Ann northeast of Boston.  The towns of Gloucester and Rockport were scenic sea coast towns.  We found, as we did other places, that we were there before tourist season and a lot of the things we would have enjoyed were closed.  We were too early for whale watching and the boats out to the lighthouses weren't going yet so we had to view them from a distance.   We actually found the lighthouses hard to get to, even the ones that weren't on islands.  We had to drive down obscure, sometimes private roads to get there.  Apparently they don't really want tourists going there.

This was as close as we could get to any of the lighthouses.  After driving around to try to find some lighthouses for a bit we went to Bearskin Neck to grab some fish and chips for lunch.

I was told this red barn is the most photographed building in all of New England.  It certainly made for a picturesque backdrop.

That evening on the way back to the hotel we were able to meet with one of Jason's mission companions, Adam Jarnigan, and his family.  They are a wonderful family and Jason enjoyed catching up with an old friend.  We ate the only food we hadn't eaten the whole trip, Mexican!

With our flight not leaving until late afternoon we decided to stop by Concord again after we checked out from the hotel.  We were able to tour the Orchard House which was really cool although Skyler wanted to touch everything in the house which they specifically asked us not to since most of it actually belonged to the Alcotts.  We also met up with one of my good high school friends, Laura Forsberg White who now lives in the area for a quick bite of lunch before heading for the airport.  It was a great trip but Skyler was so ready to be home to his normal routine.  I had forgotten how hard it is to travel with a toddler!  We may not plan any more big trips for a couple years until he is a little older.  It was so much fun having the whole family there and hopefully it is a trip the kids will never forget!

A Week in Boston: Part 1

We decided that if we spending the money to take the kids all the way to Boston then we wanted to spend enough time there to really enjoy it.  The timing of the marathon worked well because it was spring break for the kids.  That gave us an extra day to spend although they still missed four days of school.  I tried to ignore all the notes coming home telling me the kids needed to be at school every day this month since they were reviewing for end of level tests.  I rationalized it by telling myself we would be visiting lots of historical sights in Boston.

Our first day in Boston was Saturday.  First we headed to the expo to pick up our race packets.  It was a nightmare trying to push a stroller in there.  There were so many people you couldn't even walk.  The line to buy the Adidas gear wound around the building so many times it must have been a mile long.  By the time we had bought the gear we wanted I just wanted to get out of the building.  It was giving me a headache to be trying to deal with the kids in the middle of all those people.  I didn't even buy the jacket this year because I thought it was an ugly color.  These t-shirts were my favorite find at the expo.

That afternoon Jason took Andrew and Jared to a Red Sox game.  I decided that Nancy and I would take the younger kids to do something else.  Nancy's not a baseball fan and although I like baseball I don't really care to watch games when I don't like either of the teams.  Besides, the tickets were way too expensive to spend the game trying to deal with a toddler instead of watching it.  Last time we went to a game at Fenway Park we had a pole right in front of our seat that blocked half our view of the field.  This time I made sure not to buy tickets that said "obstructed view" but Jason sent me this picture during the game.

Apparently the only tickets available for people from out of town are right behind the poles.  Jared had the Red Sox for his team jersey a couple years ago so I had him bring his hat.  I guess he's got too much of his dad and grandpa in him though because he refused to wear it.  I think they might have cheered for the Red Sox a little though.

While the boys were at the game, Nancy, Kaitlyn, Skyler and I went to the aquarium.  Skyler loved watching the big sea turtles and all the fish. But that was nothing compared to his excitement when he saw the sea otters and seals.  He could have spent hours outside watching them!  Here are the kids at the top of the huge aquarium.

We enjoyed fabulous Italian food in the North End.  I love this picture of Kaitlyn on our way back to the metro with the city in the background.

Sunday was Easter.  It didn't seem much like Easter since we were away from home.  The kids were sad not to have the traditional bunny rolls and dyed eggs for breakfast.  The Easter Bunny managed to find them and bring some bags full of candy to the hotel.

We wanted to go to church on Sunday but I found out from a friend it was stake conference that Sunday in Boston.   We got ready as quickly as we could due to the fact that we were still feeling a little jet lag.  We got on the subway and thought we would make it just in time to church.  That was until we got off the subway and were feeling a little disoriented.  We thought it was a building we had been to last time we were in Boston but as we started walking nothing looked familiar.  Now we were late and trying to walk fast in church shoes.  We realized we must be going the wrong way and turned around.  We finally found the street the church was on but couldn't see numbers on the buildings and had to take a guess which way to go.  Our guess was wrong.  A quarter mile later or so we figured we must have gone the wrong way and turned around again.  The later we got the more we tried to hurry but to my dismay I started to feel a blister on my heel.  By the time we finally saw the church (which was not the building we went to before) we were half an hour late and the building was packed.  People were sitting in the hallways anywhere they could find to sit.  Someone started gathering up some extra chairs from around the building and we were able to squeeze in at the back.  The meeting was wonderful though with lots of music and amazing talks about the Savior and the atonement.  It was the only part of the day that really felt like Easter.  We wanted to go walk around Harvard a bit after church but with blisters on our feet from the walk to the church, Nancy, Kaitlyn and I walked back to the subway in bare feet and then just went back to the hotel to get more comfortable shoes.  I managed to corner the kids just long enough to get one picture in their Easter outfits.

Later in the afternoon we walked a couple blocks from the hotel to the finish line to try to take a few pictures.  It was crazy with so many people there trying to get pictures.  We were trying to meet up with a group of runners from Utah for a newspaper picture but kept losing everyone in the crowd.  Here's the best shot we could get.

We headed to dinner at the pre-race pasta dinner the marathon puts on with our friends and training partners, Missy Allred and her son Thatcher and his wife, Sara.  I shouldn't have been surprised to get there and see the line winding around and down several city blocks.  I didn't want to spend the evening before the race standing on my feet and we almost left and found somewhere else to eat.  I figured it was at least a couple hours wait but the volunteers were telling us it would only be 45 minutes so we decided to stick it out. They were actually right and the line moved fairly quickly.  The biggest hold up was the bag check, another increased security measure that added to the inconvenience.  It was a little chilly and the Allred's weren't dressed warm enough.  We were all grateful when we finally got inside. After dinner there was just enough time to get back to the hotel and get everything arranged for the morning.

After Jason and I left for the race, Nancy and the kids met up with Sara a few blocks from the hotel to watch the race.  Sara had saved them a nice spot to watch.  The weather was perfect for spectating even though it got a little too warm for the runners.  They enjoyed watching the elite runners.  Shortly after Jason and I finished they headed back to the hotel to meet us.  We decided it was the easiest meeting place.  I felt bad the kids didn't get to see any more of the race though.  Sometimes they don't really get a sense of how fast Jason and I are when they don't stick around and see how many runners come in behind us.  By the time the kids got back to the hotel all they wanted to do was swim.   A little later when Skyler was napping we convinced Andrew and Jared to walk back down to the course with us.  Runners were still coming in but with all the security we couldn't get anywhere close to the finish for a picture.

That night we went to a sea food restaurant to celebrate.  You can't get any better fresh sea food than in Boston!

Tuesday we walked the Freedom Trail.  We decided to just walk from the hotel to Boston Common where the trail starts.  Later we regretted that but first thing in the morning when we were feeling fresh it didn't seem too bad.  Actually, it wasn't that early in the morning.  We slept in a bit trying to recover and didn't get out as early as we had planned.

It was one of the few really nice days we had during the week.  It was a good thing since we were outside all day doing a lot of walking.  The kids loved following the red line that started in the park.  They were really concerned about not stepping off the line.

Here we are at the state capitol building at the beginning of the Freedom Trail.  At this point the kids are all smiling and cooperating somewhat for a picture.  The rest of the day it seemed like at least one child didn't want to stop for a picture so most of the pictures I got that day didn't turn out that well.  I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that we really walked the whole trail.  Some of the highlights were the graves of Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Mother Goose, clam chowder for lunch at Faniel Hall, Mike's Pastries in the the North End, Paul Revere's house and the kids couldn't wait to see the church where the lanterns were hung to warn that the British were coming.  So I did include a picture of our stop to eat the yummy cannolis from Mike's Pastries just to show that Jason didn't even want to cooperate for pictures.

By the time we got to the North End it was late afternoon and we were all getting tired.  My legs were really starting to hurt and feel the marathon the day before.  We had already walked a couple miles from the hotel and the longest stretch of the walk lay ahead of us to Bunker Hill monument and the USS Constitution.  All the water bottles were empty, it was getting pretty warm and everyone was thirsty.  Andrew was determined we had to get to Bunker Hill early enough that they were still letting people climb to the top.  We ended up attempting to walk fast but the walk seemed forever, my legs were screaming at me, and I don't think I was the only one feeling this way at this point.  We made it just in time to make the last climb to the top.  We were going to carry Skyler to the top but they wouldn't let us leave the stroller at the bottom unattended so I ended up staying down with Skyler.  They said I could go up after everyone else but the 294 steps to the top didn't sound appealing at that point so I ended up skipping the climb.  The kids and Jason wouldn't give me a break the rest of the trip teasing me about being a wimp for not climbing to the top.  To be honest it wasn't the climb up I was worried about it was the climb down. You know what I mean if you've ever run a marathon.

The last stop for the day was the USS Constitution.  I think this was a favorite of the day for the kids.  They really enjoyed seeing the old battleship.

Unfortunately there wasn't a subway line close to where the trail ended so we had a fairly long walk back to the North End.  We met with some friends of ours for dinner that were in town for the marathon and finally made it back to the hotel late to crash in bed after a long day.  Maybe the day after the marathon isn't the best day for the Freedom Trail...

I intended to make the week one long post but since I've been working on this for weeks and can't seem to get it finished keep posted for Part 2.

Boston Marathon 2014

Last year on the third Monday in April, Patriots' Day in Massachusetts,  I woke up wishing I was at the starting line for the Boston Marathon. Since I'd had a baby in 2012 I hadn't run a qualifying marathon so I would have to wait a year.  Little did I know the terror that would unfold that day in Boston.  I listened in horror to the news reports and phone calls I was receiving.  News of senseless acts of violence is always troubling but this one seemed so much more personal.  This was an attack on my sport and a race that I loved and was anxiously waiting to return to.  I worried about friends who were running the race.  I grieved with the people of Boston that a day which should have been one of celebration had turned darker than any of us could imagine.  My heart ached with the spectators, athletes and the city of Boston for those whose lives were changed forever that day.  Yet I knew immediately that I would be standing on the starting line in 2014.  There was no doubt in my mind that the world's greatest race would go on and I would continue to be a part of it.

Our family arrived in Boston Friday afternoon.  We had decided to bring the kids along this time to experience the thrill of the Boston Marathon and my mother-in-law came to help.  Everywhere we turned there were signs welcoming marathon runners to the city.  Boston Strong was plastered on road signs, store windows, sidewalks, and t-shirts everywhere we looked.  I think the only people more anxious than me for marathon day to arrive were the people of Boston.  We were treated as heroes walking the streets the days before the marathon in our jackets.  Waiting for dinner one night I felt a tap on shoulder, "Excuse me.  Are you running the marathon?"  When I answered yes, the man shook my hand and wished me luck.  The expanded field size (36,000 entrants as opposed to 27,000 in the past) made getting around the city with four children quite the experience.  Crowds of people were everywhere, waiting for dinner, at the expo, and especially on Boylston street trying to take pictures of the finish line.  Yet the masses were something we were all willing to put up with to be part of this historic race.  In spite of the inconvenience it seemed to add that much more anticipation to air as we awaited marathon day.

At the expo with our numbers- ready to go!

I had several people ask me why I wanted to run the marathon or if I was scared in the weeks leading up to the race.  A friend asked, if it was checked off my "bucket list" why go back?  Or if I have no chance of winning what is the point?  To me the Boston Marathon means so much more.  It is the spirit of overcoming difficulty to achieve something great.  Every runner there has a story of how they got there, many with much more inspiring stories than mine.  I've noticed both times I have run that at the end of the day no one, other than myself, cares how fast I ran.  The question is always simply, "Did you finish?"  Running the Boston Marathon is about the journey to get there and pushing yourself in a way that you never thought possible to achieve something great and that spirit lives in the hearts of over a million spectators that line the streets from Hopkinton to Boston.  And this year we were celebrating a city that had overcome so much in the past year to become greater than it ever had.

After some chilly days leading up to the race, marathon morning was sunny and beautiful.  It was Patriots' Day commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War in Lexington and Concord and the excitement in the air was almost tangible.  This was the day Boston was taking their race, their holiday and their city back.  We walked almost a mile to Boston Common at 6 a. m. and boarded a bus in the never ending line of school buses.   Even though the race didn't start until 10:00 it takes several hours to transport that many runners.  Since we were in the first wave we were some of the first runners to arrive at the athlete's village in Hopkinton.  We found a place in the sun on the grass to rest until it was time to head to the starting corrals. I laid down and pulled a blanket around myself to keep warm and imagined the perfect race.  Half an hour later I opened my eyes and thought I better make one last trip to the bathroom before we left the village and to my dismay the lines stretched all the way across the village.  It was hard to even walk with people sitting all over the grass.  I realized I would never get through the line in time so we headed to the exit instead hoping there would be some bathrooms closer to the start (and luckily there were.)  We had a three quarter mile walk to the starting corrals.  Jason figured with all the walking we would get close to 30 miles in for the day.  As we walked through the streets of Hopkinton the residents were all out on their front porches cheering us on before the race even started.  Some even had tables set up with sunscreen, Vaseline, water, and any other last minute things we might need.  We left all our sweats in piles of clothing being donated to charity since with the security measures this year there was no baggage check at the start.  I realized the temperature was warming up quickly and we were quite comfortable with only our tank top and shorts: not a good sign with 26 miles ahead.

Jason was assigned to corral one and I was in two based on our qualifying times.  I convinced him he should move back to two and start with me.  Based on the way our training had been going I thought we could run close to the same time and wanted to run at least part of the race with him.  After the star spangled banner, a flyover of military helicopters and an introduction of the men's elite field (the elite women had started half an hour earlier) it was time to start.  With 1,000 runners ahead of us in corral one it took us a full minute to reach the starting line.  We were running but it was difficult to control the pace.  The road was so packed with runners that the only choice was to run the pace everyone else was running.  The beginning of the race runs through more rural parts outside of Boston.  The towns were packed with spectators but in between the towns it was forested area and the only sound was thousands of footsteps hitting the pavement.  The road was filled with runners stretching in each direction as far as we could see and this was only the first wave of four to start.   I was afraid of losing Jason a couple times in the crowd but after a few miles it was spreading out just enough that we could keep our pace better.  We were running most of the miles in the 6:30s with a few downhill ones in the 6:20s.  I had put our names on the tank tops we were wearing and soon spectators in the towns were cheering for us by name.  The crowds didn't disappoint at all.  They were there in bigger numbers and louder than ever.  Kids were offering high fives, cups of water, popsicles and licorice.  Jason quickly noticed that every time we got to a town and the crowds were cheering loudly we would start to speed up.  We tried to be more mindful of our pace and not go too fast.  We were hitting all our 5K splits just a few seconds over 20 minutes, just where we wanted to be.  We knew we would need to save some energy for the hills in the second half.  We hit the halfway point at 1:26:12.  We were on pace to run in the low to mid 2:50s if we didn't slow down too much on the hills.  The temperature was getting hotter though.  We were taking a lot of water and the crowded water stops were slowing us down a bit but we had to stay hydrated.  As we moved into the second half of the race and closer to the city the throng of spectators just kept getting bigger.

Around mile 16 is where the Boston Marathon gets really tough.  That's where we hit the Newton hills.  While they may not be as big as some of the hills we run at home there are several significant climbs between mile 16 and 21 and it's late enough in the race that our muscles were getting tired.  We were both starting to hurt but knew we still had a long way to go.  I reminded Jason that everyone was feeling like we were at this point so let's just focus on one hill at a time.  We were able to keep our 5K splits around 21:30.  We had slowed down a little but that was expected.   It was really great to have each other to help through this tough part of the race.  The infamous heartbreak hill comes last  between miles 20 and 21.  If we can just get to the top, I kept thinking, we can just coast through the last five miles to the finish.  We arrived at the top together and I reached over and grabbed Jason's hand.  "We did it!  Let's go!" I said.  I was wanting to take off at this point but Jason was wanting to recover from the hills.  Jason told me to just go ahead of him.  At the time it felt like the right thing to do but later I regretted it.  Five downhill miles I was telling myself.  That's easy.  I took off and started passing other runners and Jason hung back a little trying to recover.  My plan worked great for a mile or two but suddenly with about three miles left I was running out of steam and I realized three miles was still a pretty good distance to go.  I'm not sure if it was the heat or just hitting the dreaded wall but I struggled through the last three miles.  Suddenly I wasn't passing anyone and I was just trying my best to keep up with the group around me.  It was hot.  It was the only warm day we had the entire week in Boston.  The temperature reached 68 degrees.  That might not seem too bad but in the spring when runners aren't used to the heat and with the later start time in Boston, it definitely became a factor in the race.  Meanwhile Jason had dropped back a bit.  At the 40K I had about a 30 second lead on him but he was wise enough to save a little for the end.

The crowds were amazing the last few miles to the finish.  They really carried me to the end.  I got to the last mile and was looking for my kids.  I was afraid I would miss them since both sides of the street were lined with people.  I knew I'd never hear them with the crowd so loud.  I turned the corner onto Hereford and was looking ahead to the next turn onto the final stretch on Boylston when I saw them, with cowbells and signs in hand, cheering as loudly as everyone else.  They had a great front row spot to watch and although they were on the wrong side of the street and it cost me an extra few steps I ran over to give them all high five. Then I turned onto Boylston street and with a little over 600 meters to go the finish line was in sight.  My body was totally done and it seemed like I would never get there but at the same time the feeling there was almost too much too describe. I didn't want it to be over.  The crowds in the grandstands were jubilant, enjoying this day of celebration the way it was meant to be.  Running down Boylston street I waved to the spectators with tears in my eyes.  I crossed the finish line in 2:55:22.  I turned around hoping Jason wasn't too far behind and saw he had crossed the finish line just a few seconds behind me.  He had a strong finish and almost caught up to me but through the crowd of runners neither of us had any idea we were that close or we would have crossed together.

I finished in 86th place in the women's race reaching both my goals of finishing in the top 100 and breaking three hours.  (The women's race was the biggest and fastest it's ever been with over 14,000 and a new course record as well as American record being set.)  It was 13 minutes faster than my previous time on the course.  Jason also beat his time on the course by five minutes.  It wasn't either of our fastest marathons, but I think it's the one I enjoyed the most.  A highlight of the day was finding out that Meb Keflezighi had become the first American to win the men's race since 1983.  I was slightly jealous that my kids got to see him win.  The excitement of an American finally winning Boston again just added to the festivity of the spectacular day.  What a great day for Boston!

I'm enjoying a little down time the last couple weeks as I've been recovering.  The trails I run on are gorgeous in the spring and it's a great time to just get out and run for fun without caring how fast I'm going.  Soon enough I'll be training hard again.  I'm running the Chicago Marathon in the fall with much loftier goals.  I'm hoping to break 2:43 and qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials.  It's going to take a summer of intense training, even by my standards, and a perfect race in the fall for it to happen.  Yet, I feel like I'm so close that if I never try on a qualifying course I'll always wonder if I could have done it.  Boston taught me a lot.  Dreams really do come true and people can overcome the most tremendous obstacles if they just believe.

Winter Races

Winter is the time of year I don't really thing about racing.  In fact, even training in the winter is usually less intense.  This year with the Boston Marathon coming up in April, I knew I'd have to do some good training over the winter and probably a few races to keep my fitness level what it was in the fall.  I decided to pick a few races from the USA Track and Field Utah road racing circuit this year.  In this circuit you earn points based on how you place against other USA Track and Field members.  One of the first ones was a 5K that is part of a winter series the Salt Lake Track Club hosts.  Andrew came with me on this one and we drove out to The Great Saltair to race.  It was cold but it wasn't icy or windy, so not a bad day to race the end of January.  I rarely run 5Ks anymore.  I usually race longer distances, partly because I feel like it is my strength but also because the 5000 was my distance in college and I felt like I would never be able to run that fast again.  After running the longer distances for so long, 5000 meters felt like a sprint!  The course was flat and the circuit brought a lot of fast runners.  It started out fast and I struggled a little with pacing myself.  I finally decided to try to stick with a few of the women up close to the front.  It felt fast and I was hoping to hit my first mile around 6:00.  It was 5:53.  I was starting to wonder if I could hold this pace for three miles but the girls with me were pushing me so I kept running hard.  It was an out and back course so and when I got to the turn around there was one girl in front of me that had a pretty good lead and one right behind me.   By the two mile mark the girl behind me had dropped back and I hit that split in 5:54.  The last mile I was getting pretty tired but I thought I was starting to gain a little ground on the leader.  My third mile was the fastest in 5:43.  I had let the leader get to big of a lead at the start and couldn't catch her but second place was a great place to start out the circuit against some great runners.  Mostly I was amazed at the time I ran.  18:08!  It was just a few seconds off my fastest 5K in college!  The circuit races all give out good cash prizes and I came home with a New Balance gift card.  Andrew had a good race too, especially considering he hasn't been running much over the winter and placed second in his age group.

I have run the Striders Winter Racing Circuit here in Ogden several of the last few years.  I decided this year not to run them because the courses are so extremely difficult and the timing of the last two races doesn't work well with Boston.  They added the 10 miler to the USA Track and Field circuit though so I decided it was worth running it to get the points.  It's the course I detest more than any others because the hills are so terrible.  I found myself dreading the race the night before.  I woke up thinking, maybe everyone will have heard about the hills and decided not to come.  If no one fast shows up maybe I can take it at a little easier pace...  Of course as soon as I arrived at the packet pickup I started seeing fast runners.  If I really wanted the points for winning I was going to have to run up those hills hard.  I felt like I had a bit of an advantage though since the race took place in my own neighborhood.  I knew those hills really well even if I generally try to avoid them.  I was hoping that was enough to help me get the win.  I took off pretty fast and although I let a couple women go ahead I was trying to keep them in my sight and hoping to catch them on the hills.  By the time I got to the first big hill, about 4 1/2 miles in, I was in 2nd place.  The girl in first was the one who beat me at the Ogden Marathon last year and I knew she was going to be hard to beat.  She had a pretty good lead on me but I knew I had three miles of climb to catch her and I was slowly doing it.  I passed her shortly into the second big hill.  My legs were screaming at me by the time I reached the top and a quick glance back told me I had a good lead but I also knew she was a great downhill runner.  Could I hold her off with three miles to go as we made our way back down the hills?  I was running as hard as I could, with my fastest mile about 5:30.  I passed my house about mile 8 and my kids were outside cheering for me.  By the time I got to the 9 mile marker I could hear the girl behind me.  She had almost caught up to me.  We made a turn and had to head up one more hill before the finish.  It was short but it was steep and I felt terrible.  I really didn't know if I could make it up.  I thought I was beat.  But a couple of my friends were waiting for me there and encouraged me.  I made it up and just kept pushing as hard as I could to the finish.  I could still hear the girl behind me, I thought, and kept waiting for her to pass me.  I made it across the finish and held onto my first place.  I turned around to watch second place come in only to realize she had dropped back on the hill and finished 30 seconds behind me.  It was a guy right behind me pushing me to the end.  I broke my own record on that course by 4 1/2 minutes with 1:03:04.  Only four men in the race beat me.  My average mile pace was 6:18, not bad considering there is about 1000 foot gain in elevation gain on the course.  I won a Striders gift card that I put toward a Garmin I've been wanting to buy.  I felt like I had raced harder than I had in a long time and paid for it the next week with some pretty sore legs.

Next up is Boston and I feel like this race gave me a lot of confidence.  My goals for Boston are to finish in the top 100 women and run under three hours.  The weather has been warming up and I'm so excited for spring running!  I'm also excited to be part of the utahrunning.com elite racing team this year.  More about that is coming in future posts.

Andrew is an Eagle Scout!

February 22nd was Andrew's Eagle Scout court of honor.  We had a great day celebrating his accomplishment with family and friends.  I'm so proud of Andrew for all his hard work in accomplishing this.  He had some great leaders who helped him on his way but I can honestly say he did the work himself.  He was so motivated to work hard on his merit badges and rank advancements.  When it was time for his project he decided he wanted to help kids at an under privileged elementary school who didn't have books to read at home.  He collected over 1,800 books and every child in the school was able to take several books home and enough money that each child received a new book for Christmas.  The reading specialist said some of the kids were so excited to get their own books.  His project really made a difference in a lot of lives and he took charge and became a great leader organizing his troop to collect and deliver the books. Boy Scouts of America is such a wonderful program that teaches boys so many good things.  Andrew loved his experiences with scouting and the fun times at scout camp.  He was blessed to have a great group of friends in his scout troop as well.  I was putting together a slide show for Andrew and his friend, Caleb, who also received his Eagle that day.  As I looked back at pictures of them from when they were eight and just starting cub scouts it brought tears to my eyes to see how much they have grown in such a short time.  Although I miss that cute little boy with the dimples dreadfully, I'm so proud of the fine young man he has become.

A few days before the court of honor I asked Andrew if he had picked his mentor.  He said he had picked his dad but not to tell him because he wanted it to be a surprise.  The night before Jason said to me, "I hope Andrew picked me for his mentor.  I think I'll feel bad if he picked someone else." All I could do was hide my smile.  Here he is pinning the mentor pin on his dad.

And here he is receiving his award and pinning on the parent pins.

It was great to have so many family and friends there to support Andrew on this wonderful day!

Jason gave Andrew his own fly rod as a present for his Eagle award so they can continue to have a lot of great adventures together.  Here Andrew is with some wonderful past and present scout leaders that have been a great example and sacrificed so much time to help him get where he is today.