Half IronMan Relay, Flooding, Retreat, CC, Dinners, Our 2 New Pets & Kids/Family… 

This is a long one but many things going on… 

Saturday: Well this morning was my annual half ironman relay race with my old boss from Sundance, Jerry (71 years old) and my friend Megan (she’s my age and Jerry’s daughter-in-law). It is always a fun time with these 2.  

(this is actually last years pictures because I have not received this years pics yet.) It’s awesome because we were able to take 1st over all the relay teams… Including the BAM men’s team (who were all younger than us… Way younger than Jerry), the BYU men’s team, etc. At one point after the finish, one of the men’s team came up to us and asked who did the biking… They talked with Megan for a little bit, complimenting her, we talked about the running course and then they asked who and where our swimmer was (Jerry was standing right next to us)… When we said he is right here, I think we really surprised them & depleted their egos a little. He did amazing! I ran the 1/2 in a 1:24… I thought I didn’t do so well and was discouraged. But I looked at my time from 2 years ago on this course and I ran a 1:25:16, then ran a 2:54 marathon 7 weeks later. Last year I ran a 1:24.33 and ran the 2:48 marathon. So that gave me some hope and took away a little of my discouragement. But every year I forget that the 1st 4 miles has a slight uphill… And the next has the flat and down (and you repeat the loop). This course is hard with the heat from running that late (10:30-11:54) and with the course not being flat like I always think it is…. I just forget. I was glad to finish. I did run 4.3 before and a little over 2 after (but about 2 hours after). The girls went to a birthday party today at the local pool (after they got back from camping). Then that evening, Corom and I along with 4 other couples (Fullmers, Booths, Berrats & Johnsons), went to the Clarion Gardens for a Southern Boil dinner. It was so good and fun!  

 Corom and I made it in time (for cleanup) to attend a neighbors wedding. I quickly changed, so I ran in to congratulate them… Of course they saw Corom in the van and wanted him to come in.  

This is what he dressed up like for the dinner, which he fit right in but for the wedding… Goodthing it was over… 

Sunday: I woke up this morning feeling a little blah and down. Just one of those days. I took the girls to another ward (for church) to go to a mission farewell (J. Martin)… It was a good Sacrament meeting. Then we headed back to our ward to finish off the classes there. We went to the Martin’s for dinner and hung out with everyone there for a while.  

 The kids (Corom included) had fun goofing off…  

   Later on, Barbara and I went to visit a few neighbors… They were such good visits. I love my neighbor, J. Morris! She is so amazing and is one that is so strong. She has 4 children, 1 with Down syndrome and another that is blind and at the age of 8, is still unable to walk. You will never hear her complain about anything!!! It puts things in perspective for me. 

Monday: I met up with Amber and ran an easy 10 miles… It felt ok. I’m glad it was an easy day! I took the 3 older girls to school and my youngest and I hung out all day. She doesn’t start kindergarten until Wednesday. They built a “fort” in their room. 🙂 

It’s weird having one child at home!  For CC, the kids ran our course, while coach Thompson and I began to set up for the meet we are hosting tomorrow.  

 After practice and dinner, Corom, the girls and I headed over to our neighbors for family night…  

 Brett showed our girls how to ride the mini motorcycle… 

The girls loved it even with a crash…  It was my youngest that crashed but she was upset that we helped her.  

I headed over (with my oldest daughter) to the local running store for spike night for cross country… I ended up getting new shoes myself!  

 

Tuesday: I had a speed workout this morning… It was 12 miles total with a 4 mile tempo at race pace, a 5 min recovery jog, then 8 x 400’s at a certain pace. Oh it was hard but I was able to do it without feeling too bad! Today was the 1st speed workout in a long, long time where I felt ok! I was excited to go home today to just clean my house (with my youngest)… But I got a phone call from the city saying there was an emergency and any person that was home to run up to one of the churches here in our city, to fill sandbags.  

So my youngest and I grabbed a quick (early) lunch and headed on up. The officer explained there was a breech in the canal and tons of water was coming down towards many homes. Within 15 minutes of the phone calls, texts & emails that went out through the city, well over 150 people came. It was so amazing seeing our community come together. We shared the responsibility of shoveling, holding the bags, tying the bags & carrying the bags to the trucks. The football team came 20 minutes later and began placing the bags where they needed to be placed.  

 It was hot and dirty but we got it all done in a little over an hour. We were able to redirect the water and not one house was effected by the water. I did get a couple of blisters from tying all the bags…. What a wimp! 🙂  

 My youngest and I quickly went over to the HS to finish setting up the CC course for the meet today. She was actually a big help! 

 She did start to drive off with the school’s gator (4-wheeler vehicle). She didn’t go far at all because coach Thompson and I just barely jumped out to put out more flagging. It was a little funny but from then on we had to take the key out. We were soon done, so we hung out with the CC kids, while I waited for my girls to walk to the HS and waited for the meet to start…  

 The girls and boys ran well! Both in JV and Varsity. It was hot out… The poor CC runners! Our girls won and the boys took 2nd losing by 3 points.  

 I went on RS visits for a little while and finally sat down with the girls to do their homework. 

Wednesday: I went out for an 8 miler at an easy pace. It felt very nice today!! I’ve been wearing compression socks at night (since Monday night) and that has helped with the aching of my legs. Today is my youngest’s 1st Day Of Kindergarten! All my kids are in school now. It is only 2 1/2 hours but I hate to admit that I am really excited!!! She is so dang cute though! Her older sister came in to check up on her. 🙂 

 I went straight to a neighbor’s house to help her move. A few other ladies came to help. I also had to watch 2 other neighbors kids so I brought them with me (this was after I picked up my youngest from kindergarten, too). The 3 played really well in the backyard while we packed up her house.  

I was there from 9 until 2:30. I had to leave to pick up my older girls, head to CC practice (sent them on a easy long run), then went home to make pizzas for all the girls on the CC team. The girls from the team wanted a team bonding dinner. They talked (really loud) and laughed and even pulled out stitches on one of the girls.  It was way fun and my girls loved it!!  

 I went in RS visits right after the dinner, then visited with Julie for a while! 

Thursday: I had a 10 mile moderate run. I started off with an average of 7:30 miles for the 1st half and then dropped it to 7-7:15’s. I felt lousy for the 1st couple of miles and then once I lousened up, felt great. I went visiting teaching today and then to a couple of more homes with Megan. Once I picked up my youngest, we went to a friend’s house for a little while and then cleaned a much needed house.  

The older girls walked to cross country practice, I sent the HS kids off on their Fartlek run, and then I took my girls and the coaches kids to my house for a while to play…  

 Corom and I got a babysitter for the night and went to a bbq at our neighbors. It was just for adults. 🙂 So yummy!!!  

 

Friday: I didn’t get up early to run even though I still woke up early. I was hoping to sleep in but I’m on a schedule that my body is on its own time. We walked the whole crew to school (Corom and I)…  

 And then Corom and I went running together, well at least for the 1st 5 min. We started together and I had to run 6 today… Corom put in 4 or 5. It was nice doing it together, though!  

 I picked up our youngest from kindergarten and then I had a church retreat day up at a ranch. It was for all the ladies 18 and older in our stake (I would say a couple of hundred ladies were able to make it). It was an enjoyable afternoon. (Corom was home today.) We had lunch, music, mini classes, kayaking… 

 I had to come back down to coach the cc kids (and I wanted to see my kids when they got home from school)… So I sent the cc kids off on an easy 5 miler (with strides)… Went home while the kids were running; made dinner for my family and for another family and in the meantime, scored on a huge leftover wedding cake. I went back to the HS with the cake…  

 I headed back up to the Ranch (which was only about 10 min away) with a few ladies and enjoyed visiting, dinner, mini classes & entertainment.  

 I stayed until about 9 and then headed home (a few ladies stayed overnight to camp but because of my morning run, I went home). All the girls were up when I got home but poor Corom… I guess they really gave him a hard time tonight. I was in bed by 10. 

Saturday: My alarm went off at 5 a.m. I had to run an 18 miler with speed added into it. I ran 5 miles to the top of woodland hills and began a 3 mile tempo (5:50 pace for all 3 miles- downhill); ran a 1 mile recovery, ran 3 more miles (almost 2 downhill at 5:50 pace & the last mile at a 6:11 pace… Slightly up-hill); ran a 1 mile recovery, and ran my last set of 3 miles hard (the 1st and 3rd had some downhill at a 5:50-5:55 pace and the middle mile flat at a 6:05 pace). I finished off with a 2 mile cool down. I felt better today… A good run. I quickly got ready, picked up a neighbor and headed up to the Ranch for a breakfast.  

I left soon after breakfast to head over to the HS cross country meet. It was a relay meet… The kids enjoy this race.  

One of the varsity boys took a wrong turn and put us 3rd to last out of 47 teams. I felt bad for him but it happens. We weren’t able to catch up but they did make up a lot of ground. Always a fun race to watch. I got home shortly after lunch and we headed off  to go pick up our 2 new pets…  

   I wasn’t to excited about this but I actually really like them. 🙂 It will be fun. We did movie night and pizza with the girls and some neighbors came over… I popped over to the HS for a cancer fundraiser (Corom finished cleaning the shed and garage)… The fundraiser was very touching (even though I was there for the tail end)…  

 The Fullmers came down for a movie. Good times…