Mother Racer

Thursday: Well back to no running this morning. Ugh! I took the girls to school, picked up my neice (I’m watching her all day), and then headed to my doctor’s appointment for more needles & electricity.  

 I ended up watching 3 extra kids after Kindergarten (not including my neice) for a few hours… My friend Stephanie stopped by to hang out and then I helped her with her running (& form). She looked great! Soon after, the girls and I headed to track practice. It was a very easy day due to the big meet this weekend.  

 I left practice a few minutes early to head out to the city’s 1st youth track meet. The whole meet is major chaos but so much fun! My oldest ran the mile, 4×100, 200 and did standing long jump.  

My 2nd daughter ran the 4×100, 50 meter, 100, 200 & 400.  

My 3rd daughter ran the 4×100, 50 m and did the standing long jump.  

My 4th daughter ran the 50 m and did the standing long jump.  

 They all did so good and it was fun to watch! (Their ages are 8,7,6 & 5)… I love that they like it. Starting them young. 🙂 We didn’t get home until a little after 9 (of course we had to stop off at Wendy’s to get a frosty). We were all tired.  

Friday: Another day without running. I am going to go crazy!!! I hate not being able to go every morning and not being on a plan! I got the 3 older girls off to school… G-goat (grandma) went with my 2nd daughter on her field trip to the zoo. It was nice that she went because I had so much going on and it helped me not to have to decide on what to do (especially with Corom being gone this week)…  

 My youngest and I went to a huge invitational track meet… I was able to watch the 2 milers before I had to head home (but that was the only distance run of the day- which worked out perfect with the day that I had).  Both of our runners (one male and one female) ran huge PR’s this morning. He ran a 9:24 and she ran a 11:12. They both looked so smooth! You have to qualify to get into this meet and the times are so competitive… It is hard to do! My youngest had a great time! 

 My youngest and I quickly left and went to my Kindergartener’s class for pet day. Of course, my 3rd daughter, wanted me to bring a puppy, a snake and a baby chick…  

 I, then, had to go to each classroom to hand out gifts to each teacher. We dressed up as Super Heros and ran into the classrooms (my 2 younger girls and another little girl I watch on Fridays were our special helpers)…  

 Good times in the PTO (PTA). I did get a picture of my Kindergartener in her cap and gown. So cute!  

 My oldest made her 1st blanket with no help from me!!!  She did such a great job! 

Saturday: I set my alarm for 6 a.m. but I didn’t have to use it because my oldest got up at 5:30. She was invited to a birthday party yesterday (which is being held today). My oldest rarely ever gets invited to parties and I used to think that it didn’t bother her or that she didn’t know about them (I knew about most of the parties due to the fact that I am way involved in the classrooms and school functions). But on one of our one on one dates, I brought it up in a non caring way (like it was no big deal) and she really opened up. She said it makes her sad and hurts her feelings but that she understands that not everyone can be invited (she went into more detail but that was the main point). So when her friend from class (on Wednesday) said she might be invited to her party (for Saturday), oh I was hoping and praying that she would. My oldest kept asking the rest of Wednesday, all day Thursday and the morning of Friday if I had heard anything from her mom. That was so hard to say no each time (and I didn’t want to ask her after school if she did get an invite) but I would talk to her about it and about herself because I want to make sure my girls have great self esteem. A couple of weeks ago I heard the 2 older girls talking in their room. My 2nd daughter didn’t get invited to a party (and it really isn’t a big deal but it does stink)… But I heard my oldest telling my 2nd oldest that it will be ok. She went on to say that she should always remember to be nice to everyone because there are other kids that need friends. It was the sweetest thing I have heard from my daughters. I love that they look out for each other even though they fight a ton!!! Well yesterday she came running to the car with an invitation. 🙂 She was so excited. So back to my early morning… She got up at 5:30, showered, made a sweet looking birthday card and finished getting ready by 6:15. I have to leave for a track meet by 7:30 and I can only imagine how it’s going to be for my friend, Amy (she is taking the girls until 11 before a babysitter can come)… My oldest asked me at least 3 times, in that hour, how much longer until the party starts. Sorry Amy! 🙂 So I left for the track meet. I was able to meet up with 4 other coaches to go for a 6.2 mile run (in 43:37). It was a great run and good company.  My calf began to hurt going into the 3rd mile… This is driving me crazy! 

 We returned just in time for our milers… We had 2 females and 3 males qualify for this meet in the mile… 3 out of the 5 PR’d, but they all ran well (one of the females had to drop out due to a foot injury :(). For the 800, 2 PR’d and 3 came so close to PRing. All the rest of the kids (in field events and sprints) performed and competed well.  

 My dad came out here for my little brother’s graduation (he just got his masters)… So they (my little brother & his cute family) came over with my dad. We hung out for a little while before they had to leave. The girls loved playing with grandpa (and of course my neice)! 

 Corom got home in the late afternoon (about 4ish) from his camping trip (with his friends and brother). They had a great time! I will post more pictures tomorrow…  

It was nice having him home this evening!  

Monday: With Corom being gone, I had to run around my block (5 times) just so I was near the girls. I did get in 8.38 miles in 1 hour. I came home and immediately iced my legs. So cold and so painful!  

 I heard my youngest screaming for my help… I went into her room and she was stuck hanging in her closet. Not surprising! The girls and I went to school a little bit earlier to finish decorating a couple of the teacher’s doors and then Megan, Barbara and I went on RS visits. 🙂  

 For track I sent the distance runners on a 7 mile easy run…  

 The girls had friends over (and they stayed for dinner), then soon after they went home, we had family night with a couple of families.  My oldest taught the lesson and the other girls helped with the songs, conducting and prayer… 

Tuesday: I did the same thing as yesterday… Ran around my block a few times.  I didn’t have a lot of time to run so I got in what I could. 

 My calf is sore but I still am able to run! While the girls were in school, I had the opportunity to serve at the open house for the new LDS Payson temple. It was so peaceful and beautiful in the morning before we began letting people through. It was a neat and fun experience and I was able to meet so many wonderful people from all over.  

 When my volunteer shift was done, I met Camille at the school to pass out little gifts for all the teachers. Camille made them all… They turned out so cute!  

 The girls and I went to track… The girls hung out and played. The track kids had a hard speed workout today.  They ran 2 400’s, 2 300’s with a 100 meter jog them a 100 meter sprint; back to 1 400, 1 300 w/ the 100 jog, 100 sprint, 2 200’s. They were long recoveries in between each interval. So these were fast! 

 Right after this practice, we had the City track youth practice. The kids had fun and they loved it when I brought out the Popsicles at the end. My 3rd daughter did get a bloody nose during the practice… It was a bad one!  

 I had a babysitter come tonight so I could go to a movie with some friends. It was so nice to get out and hang with friends. Right after steph and Camille stayed and helped me cut up fruit for the teacher & staff breakfast tomorrow. 🙂 It was fun!!!  

 Corom came home late tonight. It was nice having him back. 🙂 

Wednesday: I got a 7.9 mile run in.  

 My calf bothered me a little bit more today. oh well… What do you do! I hurried and got ready, got the girls ready and headed off to school early to set up for the teacher/staff appreciation breakfast. It turned out really well!  

 After the cleanup, I headed over to a friends to help put together the Mother’s Day gifts for our ward. It was a lot more fun than I anticipated. I am not very good at crafts but I enjoyed putting together these tile things.  I took the girls to the park with a few friends and then the girls sold painted rocks in front of our house. The jr high got out shortly after they set up. surprisingly they made $3.75! I don’t want to know how much they were asking for!!! At least it kept them entertained! 

 For track today, the distance runners went out on a 5 mile recovery run. I had to run my girls back and forth to piano and activity days.  

That mask is used for elevation (or something like that)… It just looked funny so I had to take a picture of it… I had a meeting (at my house) for RS and then we went and visited a couple of people. Corom didn’t have to work late tonight so it was nice being able to go on visits and not having to worry about the girls and a babysitter. 🙂 

Friday: I went out for a 7 1/2 mile run… I have no idea what my pace was because I did not start my watch. I felt better than yesterday, so that was a good thing! After I took the older 3 to school, my youngest and I went to Dr. Brady for more leg work… It was painful but good going to.  Because of running the marathon, my upper calf was swollen and inflamed…

 I had acupuncture and some type of laser/shock thing set up. Oh it was uncomfortable… My calf would twitch and move and it was the weirdest feeling.  

 I should not have looked at my leg because I hate needles and seeing them poke out of my leg was a little creepy. Dr. Brady told me not to run until Monday. For track today, the kids went on an easy 3 mile run and ran 5 strides to finish off the workout. We have a big track meet tomorrow, so the kids just needed an easy shakeout run.  

 The girls and I went straight to their elementary school to help decorate all the teacher’s doors for teacher appreciation week (it is next week).  

 The doors were taking a little longer to decorate than what we anticipated, so I took my girls home and 5 other kids to feed them dinner and to watch them until the decorating was done. My girls loved it! Grandma and Aunt Kymbra (and her little boy) stopped by for a visit…  

 We had movie night with the girls and then we watched a movie (I fell asleep for more than half of our movie). 🙂 

Saturday: I woke up early to head out for a HS track meet. It was a cold day with rain and wind at times. The kids performed well and our girls team placed 1st out of 48 teams. They are doing so well. We do have a few (girls and boys) that are trying to fight off injuries… We just have 3 more weeks of the season and are hoping they can stay healthy for that much longer!!!  As you can see, plenty of blankets were brought and plenty were shared. 

 As mentioned above… The kids performed well! A few more PR’s and a few more qualified for State!  

 We did have a few delays at the meet today. One being an injury to a little girl who split her head open on the bleachers (the ambulance on the track) 😦 ; and the other due to lightening and thunder. On both occasions it totaled about an hour to hour and half delay. (For the lightening we had to go inside and wait it out). But we still finished the meet out… Even With wind gusts that would blow our tents away. Oh the joys of track meets. The girls were excited to bring home a trophy! 🙂 

 Corom and the girls had quite the day… I will have to say that I came home to 9 (or maybe 12) new baby chicks. He first made them clean all of the downstairs, then they went across the street to the pond to catch more fish for their snakes.  

 Then they went to the candy store (in the bus with g-goat/grandma and aunt Kymbra and her new baby)…  

 Somehow they ended up at the tractor store and bought a bunch of baby chicks for us to raise. Awesome!!! Let me just say that I was a little surprised to come home to that. Our dog, Kitty, loves the chicks. She just jumps right into the box as if they were her babies!  

 It was quite the day! We hung out when I got home and then it was bedtime. 

Sunday: We went to church (Corom had to go to some work thing) and then the girls and I went to leave after church was over…  

 It took us a little longer to get home. Thank goodness for Camille! She is always prepared and knows what to do. 🙂 At home, the girls and I visited a few neighbors and we had a few visitors here. It was a nice Sunday. I’m tired and am going to go to bed real soon… I’m going to run in the morning! 🙂 

Tuesday: My alarm went off at 4 a.m. I quickly and quietly got up, got ready and left the hotel room. My flight leaves at 5:50. The hotel shuttle took me and a few others to the airport and off I went on my journey back home… The great thing, I ended up being on a flight with 4 people I know from home. 🙂 2 of them live about a mile up the street from me. So we all sat together.  

 After 2 stops, the 3rd one landed in Salt Lake. The Johnson’s took me home and I made it just in time to pick the girls up from school (the 2 younger ones were at a neighbors). We went straight to a track meet (for the HS)… 

 It was a relay track meet. The kids like doing this one… I wasn’t able to stay the entire time because it was the youth city’s track practice. Corom and I met up there and with the help of 2 others, we were able to teach the kids a lot!  

 We finally made it home, made waffles for dinner and the kids and neighbor kids played with the egg launcher. 🙂  

 It was a long day but it is good to be home! 

Wednesday: I am still way sore from Monday’s race. So I rode the bike for 1:01.09 this morning. My youngest and I headed to the Beehive home (old folk’s center) for visiting and a RS message. My youngest got a little carried away with the camera. 🙂 

 My good friends came over to hang out… We had lunch and the kids played. 🙂  

I headed off to track practice… The distance runners went on a 7 miler at a moderate pace.  

 The girls and I went to the Barney’s house for dinner (Corom has to work late tonight). Travis watched all the girls while Megan and I did RS visits. We were able to go to 4 homes and it was very pleasant. Great ladies/families!  

Thursday: Well, I went out for an easy 6 mile run. It was “forced”… Nothing smooth about it.  My calves are so tight (especially my left), but I am glad that I was out running! 

 Corom had the day off… I went with my oldest on a field trip to the Tulip Festval. It was really fun to spend that time with her and to see her interact with her friends.  

 The gardens were beautiful!!!  

 The class had fun and our group of girls were so cute!  

 Corom helped in our 3rd daughter’s class (kindergartener) this morning. After I returned home we began organizing and cleaning. Corom was outside with the girls when I heard a scream. I ran out there and my 3rd daughter was holding her head with blood all over. The slide that Corom was putting up fell on her head. 😦  

 We called Mike (our pediatrician) and he was actually on his way over to our house. He told Corom to meet him at his office and they would stitch it up real quick.  

 I ran to track practice for the HS kids… I have no idea what they are doing but I decided to take a picture of this anyway. 🙂 

 Right after HS track ended, the city youth/kids track began.  A couple of the HS track kids stayed and the head coach (Thompson) stayed to help out. My girls loved it… Well my 3rd daughter just hung by my side because of her head. 

 After I ran my kids home, I quickly headed over to the church for a RS activity (a dinner and 2 mini classes on organizing and gardening). It was nice visiting with the ladies. 🙂  

 I have not been home that much today!!! It has been so busy. I told Corom he was going to hate me today since I have not been home that much, but I was with the kids all day. 🙂 

Monday: Boston Marathon!!! I have so many mixed emotions right now. My plan was to drop back to the 10 start time and begin with the rest of the running crowd, but I found out that I would be docked 28 minutes if I went back from the elite women’s group. No pressure, right? I am going to be left in the dust from mile 1!!! Ugh! On the flip side… Getting into the elite buses with all the other elites was amazing!!! Having police escorts and the freeways shut down for the buses to come through was amazing.  

 We were put up in a church to wait until 5 minutes before the race started… There we had about 1 1/2 hours to “hang out”. There were 4 of us from Utah there (Scott Keate, Fritz Van De Camp, Amber Green & I). It was a huge comfort having them there!!!  It was also so fun meeting “new” running friends from all around. Love the running community. I was amazed on the quietness (or I guess you could say… The focus) in the room where we were warming up. It was intense yet sacred (if that makes sense). 

 5 minutes before the race, we were lined up in order and then They called us out. We ran out onto the streets with people cheering so loud for us… Holy crap!!! I am so not the elite runner and out of my element. It was surreal! I knew then that I would have to run a lot faster than what I intended on doing. I just kept praying that my calf would hold up. (And throughout the entire marathon… That same prayer was going through my head.) I purposely stood behind the top 3 racers because I wanted to make it on TV (the front desk hotel people said if any of us make it on tv, they would buy us dinner :))… I made it on!!!  

My kids were so excited to see me! (I made it again on the news for high fiving the crowd… It’s only about 5 seconds after the lady newscaster talks but I made it on. 🙂 http://m.wcvb.com/news/despite-rain-thousands-cheer-on-boston-marathon-runners/32471628.) It was completely silent the last 30 seconds before the start! You could feel the nerves and the excitement in the air around us. It was a feeling I have never experienced before (but now that I have… I want to more!) The gun went off and I immediately fell back into the back pack and just stayed there for the 1st 5k.  I met #32, Kris… She is in the same boat as me. Injured but wanted to experience the whole elite marathon thing. Her and I ran together for the 1st half, after the 1st 5k, we slowed our pace down and set in comfortabley at a 7 min pace (sometimes faster and sometimes slowing down a bit)… She had to slow down a few times so I would turn around and go back for her. At about mile 14 I decided to go ahead, but we had a blast together. I had more fun during this marathon than any other race! It was electrifying… The crowds, the racers… Everything! I high fived people pretty much 21 miles out of the 26.2 and then the last 5, I had to save my energy just to finish. It was cold and rainy with wind gusts up to 30 mph (a head wind). But I was glad to be running and it didn’t stop the spectators from coming out!  I was afraid to be “alone” (the rest of the race doesn’t start until 10, so we had a 28 minute head start)… But once we started that fear quickly left… I loved it.  My calf would tighten up on many different occasions but my mind was focused on everything else around me. The people made it so great and enjoyable! 

 The elite men caught me at about mile 15 or 16… I carried my phone mainly for this reason! I was hoping to take a selfie with the pack of elite men behind me but I wasn’t able to make it work. 😦 I still took pictures of the whole production of the bike pacers, camera/TV crew, officers, etc. A few laughed at me because I probably looked like a tourist.   Then of course… The men came! So amazing. I felt so slow as they passed me! I did hang with the top 2 for about 30-45 seconds so I could be on TV (it worked). 🙂 I had a few people text and facebook me telling me they saw me running with the men, taking pictures of them… I really am not that creepy! 😉   Come mile 23 to the finish I began to really struggle. The only thing that kept me going was the crowd! My legs, especially my calf, was cramping so bad!!! By mile 25, I had to walk. I began to get Charlie horses and my calf was tight. Everyone was cheering me on (it was amazing because there were not too many runners around and no female runners near… Just a few elite females were behind me and all the rest were probably way in front) so the crowd was able to focus on me “finishing” my race. So many encouraging words from everyone! At 25 1/2, I slowly ran in. In pain and frozen, I made my way into the elite tent. I finished with a 3:09.48. I was able to get a massage, warm up, eat and change into my dry clothes. It was great talking with everyone after the race! I soon headed back out to meet up with my friends. We all had a great experience!!!  

 At mile 10, I saw the LDS missionaries, then I heard my name and saw 2 friends of mine from Utah. The Algers… They are serving their mission there too as a older couple. It was so exciting… She just sent this picture to me and my friend, Tifany… It was great seeing them! We made it back to our hotel by 4:30. Relaxed for a little while and then I headed to the lobby to get my free dinner. 🙂  

Josse, Ericka, Ben and I went out to eat. We are at Cheers. We had a good time. It was still raining so we didn’t want to go walk around or anything.  

We hung out in the hotel room the rest of the evening. Both nights, we all stayed up way too late laughing and talking. It was such a great experience!!! I’m glad I came, I’m just hoping I didn’t set myself back. 🙂