Chicago Marathon & A Whole Lot To Catch Up On!

Chicago Marathon October 13:

I love running Chicago’s marathon! The course, the people & volunteers, the atmosphere and the energy… all of it, so electrifying. I didn’t hit the time I wanted or a PB (personal best) but I loved the entire race. I did go into this race with a few hiccups along the way with training. I found out 2 1/2 weeks before the race that I was borderline anemic so trying to load up on iron pills was no fun.

I was able to stay mentally positive even when I fell off my pace. I’m not going to lie… I am way bummed about it but there’s always another race. I don’t know if I’m crazy to keep trying for the olympic trials, but I know I would regret it if I didn’t try. The weather was perfect at the start of the race.

It was about 32 degrees Fahrenheit and no wind. Which was awesome because it’s been windy all weekend (strong winds). At about an hour into the marathon (10-11 miles in), the wind started to pick up.

I still stayed on pace for another 5-6 miles but around 17 miles, started to struggle. Slowly but surely, I began to fall off pace… I finished at a 2:51 and just tired. But mentally I felt good!

Corom was awesome and all over the course! He probably put more miles in than I did. He seriously was making me laugh… I’m glad he was able to go out with me.

We had a great weekend (movies, walking the streets of Chicago, food) and met so many great people from all over the world. I do love traveling for races.

Well back to training!

September:

My 2nd daughter’s bday: She turned 12! My kids are growing up so fast. She is so fun to be around. She knows how to joke with adults which is not too common with younger kids. She is growing into a beautiful young lady and always so sweet to everyone (except to her sisters 😂).

We had a girl from Italy stay with us for about a week. We took her around to the Hot Springs, a Sundance lift ride, the High School, etc. It was a little hard because she didn’t speak or understand English to well. But it was fun having her in our home.

We went south towards St. George Camping with my sister (missy and her family), the Thompson’s and Jeff Chase and a couple of his kids. We had a blast!

October:

Halloween: Trick or Treating (lots of it), The Witches 5k Run (and the 1 mile… my kids did both); Halloween dinner of Monster burgers, mummy dogs, pumpkin mashed potatoes and brain jello, and school parties!

November:

My 3rd daughter’s bday: She turned 11. She cracks me up! Always says whatever she wants and doesn’t care what others think or say to her. She is the best cleaner and loves doing it! She is always willing to help anyone that needs it.

Corom’s birthday was also this month. He is now 41. We are getting old. His friends left a nice surprise on our front lawn. 🙄 They left a living room set out there (chairs, couches, shelves, carpets, TV, a toilet and many more things). We do live right next to the high school and jr.high so that was probably pretty entertaining to them.

The girls made him breakfast as well.

The rest of the day was work and things not going so well at work. He had to do an assembly at an elementary school. He was given an hour to talk about emotions, suicide and the safe app Utah has. Well he decided to throw in some magic tricks to keep the elementary kids entertained and engaged. There was a girl in the front row that kept calling out how the trick was done because she could see everything. Corom said he was getting so frustrated. 😂😂 Anyway, we had dinner with his brother and sister and their spouses. Later in the week we went out again with our friends.

Thanksgiving was good this year. My brother (Mike) came into town from California. So my other brother (John), my sister (missy), my Aunt Georgia, 2 nieces (Taylor’s) and a Chinese family (visiting from China and had no place to go to), came to our house. The week was fun with hanging out. Corom’s brother also came into town.

More cousin fun.

That morning we had a little over 50 missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint’s come to our house for cinnamon rolls, muffins and drinks. We used the facility behind us to play soccer and football with them (our families, the mission president and the cute missionaries.

August:

My bday… I started off with a 9 mile run with 2 good friends of mine (Amber-her bday as well & Beth). Beth has us run with balloons, music and little fire crackers, along the busy roads every year! 😂 Love it!

I had some friends stop by on their bikes… I wasn’t home so I got this nice selfie from them:

I received a message from the Croatia guys:

Corom lit off some fireworks for me…

I had songs sung to me on messenger (just audio) from our Peru friends and the Republic of Georgia… and treats, messages from neighbors and friends.

I did go about my day as usual… cousins are still in town, so my mother in law, aunt Mary, and 7 cousins (4 of them being my own girls) went to the movie, “Lion King”. It was cute.

Corom and I went out to lunch at the Chinese place here in town (and a pic of some of the treats I got from friends).

I had cross country practice and ran 5 miles with them, then headed straight over to the Boat Regatta.

Corom, Sarah (my mother in law), and I had to help build 3 boats out of duct tape and cardboard. It is 2 people per boat (so my 4 girls and 2 cousins).

I actually got a few cross country runners to come over and help us build them (in the 2 hour time frame we were given to build it).

They put their boats out in the water and had to race around some buoys. My oldest and her cousin’s boat sank right away and had to be brought back in. My 2 middle daughter’s were a pair and their boat made it around great. My youngest and an older cousin also had a great boat and made it around. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

The rest of our City Day’s week: We had a 5k fun run; We had a parade; We went to the city talent show and there was many more activities!

August through December:

XC:

-High School Cross Country: I absolutely love coaching the high school kids (we are actually on our way to California right now for our last race). They had a great season. The girls team made it to state and we had a couple of boys on our team make it. They were a lot more chatty this year than in the past but they are also a young team. They Ran well and worked hard! I will have to say, they did some great service around the community when needed. Anytime someone needed help moving or whatever, they always jumped to the occasion.

-My oldest and Jr. High XC (and soccer): Corom coaches the Jr. High team. It has been nice to have him as a coach because he makes it fun for the kids where they get hooked and then they come to us at the HS. 😉 My oldest is running for the jr. High now and is actually enjoying it. I love going to her meets and watching her. And I also threw in a soccer picture… corom and I coached her city soccer team as well and this was the 1st time we won the tournament. 😂 The team was really good!

-Coaching the City’s XC team: The city started a new elementary age XC program and asked if I would coach it. We had about 22 kids on the team (3 of them were mine 😂). It was actually more than I thought but fun to be out there with the kids.

Yes it is a lot of running, every day!! With my own training, HS, Jr. High and the city… sometimes I do go a little nuts.

Random Pictures:

I had a gift certificate for a a few pedicures… well I never used the gift certificate and realized it was going to expire in about a day or 2. So, my girls and I, decided to take a day out and get spoiled. It was nice! (I actually had an 19 miler that morning… so it was great to sit and have my feet/toes worked on.)

Boaz, our dog, had an infection in his mouth. It kept getting worse… we took him in and he had to get tubes in his cheek to drain the blood. If it comes back then we will have to put him down. 😞 and our cat went missing the same week… she has been spotted in the city next to us by a few random people but we cannot find her. Poor chubby… maybe she will find her way home.

The last 3 bottom pictures are of my oldest… she likes to cook. She put a sheet across the kitchen (to hide what she was doing in the kitchen) and surprised us with breakfast.

Pictures of the Southern Boil at the Clarion, hiking and a trail run…