Mother Racer

Thursday: It was a better day! I went out for a great run. I ran 10 miles in 1:06.40. The 1st 39 minutes was at a good solid pace. Then I began a Fartlek. I ran between 1:25 minute to 2:20 minuets hard/fast with a 1:00-1:10 minute recovery. I was able to get 10 in. I felt good. Corom and Mike then went out for their long run… They returned about 3 1/2 hours later. They got in 18 miles!

They were pretty wiped out. I went to my kindergartener’s class celebration… We had lunch and lemonade.

The girls and I went to cross country practice and sent them on an easy 5 mile shakeout run…

My kids and the other coaches kids just ran around for a while. After practice, we had a team dinner that our captains put on…

Friday: I got up early and ran for 55:13.92. It was a nice recovery run. At home, we got the girls ready for school and then off they went. My youngest and I ran some errands and dropped off some treats for my 2nd oldest’s class (1st grade). Her birthday is tomorrow… 🙂 I then left for a cross country meet and my 2 younger girls went to their friends house (until their babysitter got out of school).

I headed up to Logan (for an over night cross country meet). The HS kids performed so well!!!! They came here and competed (probably the best race so far).

It was not one or two individuals… It was every single one of them! I was a very happy coach today. I saw determination, want and a fight in them. Good times!

It was a great meet… There were 30 (or 31) teams that showed! After the meet, we arrived at our hotel and ate pizza, played games, swam in the pool, etc. I sat down a read a book. 🙂 I had a nice hotel room and it was quiet!

I do miss Corom and the girls though! They were going to come meet me up here but things didn’t work out. They attended a neighborhood BBQ and had tons of fun there. Well it is late and I’m going to bed!

It was one of those days… The day went smooth and no problems but I was just in a down mood. And I know we all go through it but I couldn’t shake it off. I had a great 1:00.16 minute, 8.3 mile run. The girls, the 2 kids I watched today and another little neighbor boy walked to school today… It was a beautiful morning and the mile walk to school was good…

The kids played, we ran a couple of errands, had piano lessons today, went to cross country practice…

… The kids went on a 7 1/2 mile moderate to hard run. And of course we have the few that are injured and have to ride the stationary bikes. Good times for them… Then we had dinner and the girls and I went to a soccer coaches meeting.

The girls are playing in the city league soccer. I volunteered to be a coach for the kindergartener’s… I don’t know a lot about soccer. That is why I signed up for that age because all they do is run around in a big clump and chase the ball. So I will have my 2 younger girls on my team. We came home (around 7:30) and the girls did their 20 minutes of reading, then went straight to bed. I did lots of laundry. Corom is lucky he works late tonight… Otherwise he would be folding with me.

This is only a 3rd of the laundry… Anyway… It is late and I am going to bed. Oh… I lost my wallet a few days ago- I cannot find it!!!! Our accounts are still ok so that is a good sign. Well good night. Tomorrow will be a better day. 🙂

Monday: Another race morning… The traditional Labor Day Payson Onion Days 10k. I run this race (or the 5k) every year. Even though, I wasn’t in the mood to run the 10k this morning, I had to do it for traditional sake. 🙂 I chose the 10k over the 5k just for the sole reason of it being a better workout. Well as we lined up at the start, I looked around and saw many women that made me nervous and regret my decision to not sign up for the 5k. 😉 During my race, I did throw in a few surges on the other female competitors to throw them off mentally. I was just as tired but I didn’t want them to know it… Oh the mind games. I felt good up until mile 4. I held my pace but it was tough to finish the last 2 miles on a slight uphill! I finished my 10k in 38:14 and placed 1st overall. I’m glad I ran the 10k and I was even happier when it was over. For real.. It wasn’t that bad. I ended up running almost 10 miles total… 2 miles before and almost 2 miles after. Good run!

And of course we (the girls, Corom and I) went to the Onion Day’s parade with a few other neighbors. I love parades… Oh and so do my girls. 🙂

… We did come home and do some chores and organizing. Oh the fun times of getting stuff ready for a move. This is a very rare occasion for any of kids to mow the lawn… That’s why I took a picture.

We went to the Fullmer’s for swimming and BBQing. We had a good day as a family and hanging out!

As soon as the girls went to bed, I finished up all the loose ends for the 1/2 marathon/marathon challenge. I had to write a letter to the parents explaining the whole challenge and fundraiser. It will began tomorrow.

Tuesday: I woke up this morning knowing it was going to be one of those go go go days. I ran with Amber and Rachelle a nice 7 mile recovery run. It took us 54:51.99. It was a good run and we had great conversations! I love running for this reason. Very therapeutic! At home I had 2 extra kids waiting for me. A 5 year old and a 2 month old.

Oh to have a newborn in the house and a boy! It was fun and I forgot how it was to have a baby around. But it was easy enough to bring him with me on my activities and errands. I dropped the girls off at school and my youngest, the baby and I went to a PTO meeting. We put all the packets together (the parent/guardian letter, the pledge sheet, the thank you notes to the donators, the log sheet and the envelopes)… To send off to all the parents.

The 2 kids went home, my neighbor watched my kids and Stephanie, Melissa and I went to the other Elementary school to help present the challenge to them. We only spoke for a minute and then handed it over to their schools representatives. It was a successful assembly.

I hurried off to a cross country meet. It was a point A to point B race, so the other coach and I brought our bikes to ride back and forth.

It is a beautiful course up the canyon (a very fast course)! Our top guy won the race and ran a 15 something 5k. We had great performances and some that went ok. 🙂

I had to hurry and leave to get to YW’s… We went bowling and had a blast! I have not gone Bowling in so long.

I finally made it home after this busy day. I am so grateful for my neighbors Emilee and Stephanie!!! Stephanie grabbed my girls (because Corom had a meeting), took them to her house and helped them with their homework.

It made me want to cry… For many different reasons… for a great friend to help me out and to help my girls with their homework and also because I felt the guilt of a mom for not being there to help my own kids out. I love, love coaching but sometimes I feel bad when I am gone for the meets, etc. I do try to involve them as much as possible, but yeah… 🙂 Anyway, the girls were up when I got home from YW’s. I was able to give them some loves and send them off to bed. Corom, too, was busy.. Work at the jail, teaching his class at the university and church meetings. Busy day!

Saturday: A good morning for a HS cross country meet. The weather and temperature was perfect. We went to AF for the Grass Relays. It was only a 2 mile course but with hay bales in the way at 3 different places.

The kids really like this race. They started with the frosh/soph females then males, then the junior/seniors race female then males, and finally the relay varsity teams females then males.

The “JV” runners ran really well. The boys improved on their times and competed! It was fun to watch. The varsity girls also ran well. They took 10th as a team out of 27 teams. Our varsity boys took 11th. Our top guy ran very well (there were a couple of college coaches scouting him). He felt the nerves and the pressure before the race, but it didn’t seem to affect him once he started.

Once the varsity races started (it was a 5 man relay team), one runner per team ran at a time the 2 miles… They would then hand off to their 2nd teammate and that runner would run with the baton until they finished the 2 mile course, etc… It was a good hour or so just for the girls varsity race. Then the same for the boys varsity… It was fun to watch. I was able to get a good moderate to hard 36:17 minute run in before the races began and then an additional 40 minutes of running back and forth for each of these races. It really was a good workout! Corom and the girls were having fun camping with the Fullmer’s and the Booths.

I wish I were able to go but I also knew the HS kids needed me there at their race. Either way I would have felt bad. 🙂 But the girls had fun…

My 2nd child has been complaining about her knee for the past 3 to 4 days. I feel bad because I thought maybe she tweaked it and there was nothing we could do about it. I did have her ice it but she still complained about it. Thank goodness Mike Fullmer was there (he is our pediatrician)… He checked out her knee while they were camping. She actually had an infection from a cut or something… There was bacteria build up.

Well now the next few days we will have to watch it, clean it, squeeze the pus out, etc. Fun times! We both got home at the same time and began to clean, organize and pack. The girls did go with their grandma (Sarah- g-goat) to her city days. They had a mini carnival. I then went to work at the Clarion Manor.

We catered for a HS reunion (they were in their 70’s). Cute old people. Good Food!

Sunday: Church day! We went to church today. The meeting (Sacrament) was really good today! The girls were good… For the last hour Corom taught all the youth (12-18 year olds)… He taught about the “Natural Man”.

He did a great job. The youth talked a lot and he kept their attention. After church was fun. We goofed around… The girls were very playful today…

… We made cookies, looked for some lost keys that I would have been in deep trouble if I couldn’t find them (which I finally did), and had some neighbors over for dinner. Now it’s late. I do have a race in the morning… We will see if I actually get up and do it (I have to still sign up). 🙂

Corom woke up early this morning and went for a long run with our friend Mike Fullmer. They went for about 2 hours. 🙂 We got the kids ready for school and off they went. My youngest went to the neighbor’s house while I went for a 1:22.24 minute run. I ran with Mac and Aubrey for the 1st 5 miles and then branched off on my own. It was a nice run… I pushed a harder pace the last 30 min. The PTO board (me and a few other ladies) put on a assembly for the elementary kids to present the 1/2 marathon to marathon challenge. Corom and a few of the cross country HS kids I coach helped with a skit to get the elementary kids excited!

After the assembly, the kids headed out to do the ice bucket challenge on many of the teachers… The kids loved it!

Then of course the principle had to get it done. I helped poor the bucket over him. Good times! We (the girls and I) ran… Well drove over to cross country practice. I was a little late getting to practice but they were all there waiting… Good kids! They went on an easy run. My girls just played around.

When Corom got home, he and the girls went camping with Mike Fullmer and his kids and Their other friend Jason Booth. I was bummed I couldn’t go. 😦 I have a cross country meet in the morning. I did go to the HS football game with my friend Megan… Her husband is one of the coaches.

I left during half time. Our school was winning by a lot… So I went home and watched a lifetime movie. It made me cry. It wasn’t recorded so I had to watch all the commercials… I would start crying and then it would go to a commercial; I would be ok, then the movie would come back on, I would start to cry again and back to commercial. Weird, right? I think I’m in one of those moods. 🙂