Mother Racer

I am back in Utah… I actually kind of missed the cold, as strange as that sounds. I was able to meet up with a few running friends. I ran a little over 9 miles in 1:11.04. I was still feeling a little tight and blah but not as bad as yesterday’s run. It helped meeting up and running with people.
This will be quick… I had a few neighborhood kids over to entertain my kids. They all played outside most the day. It was nice!

I had scouts today… It was so loud and crazy that I didn’t even think about taking pictures! 🙂 I ran Z (our Foriegn exchange student) around today, the girls were a little more hyper than normal, my youngest clogged the bathroom sink again for the 3rd time today, my oldest played around in the mud and brought it into the house (kitchen, living room, bathroom…) a few kids stepped in dog poop (I hate when the snow 1st melts), there were at least 3 or 4 fights I had to break up between the girls, but this is where I want to be. Even though more than half the time I don’t show it! 🙂 Especially on days like today when I couldn’t wait for bedtime. Now I can sit here and reflect on how it wasn’t so bad.

I really have great kids… Active but great! Corom has his late night at work today… So I think it is time for bed for me!

I love my kids… So cute!

My day began with a 40:25 minute run. I wanted to end my run after 15 minutes of being out. I felt lousy today. My calves were tight, my legs felt heavy and I could not go. I did run back to the Memorial Park just to run a few times around before I headed back to my sister-in-law’s apartment. It is a beautiful, little park.

I was happy to be back from my run. Just not a good day for me! Shortly after, Corom and I were off to the airport. (Thanks Kymbra and Justin… We had a great time!)
I do not like flying… It freaks me out just a little bit! There was a little more turbulence on this flight than on the ones flying into Florida. I just closed my eyes, took myself into a happy place and waited for the airplane to settle…

We did take a couple of shots of our view because it was so pretty…

I did sit next to a nice man on our flight to Houston… But, he kept picking his nose… I tried not to pay attention but for some reason I couldn’t ignore it. So I snuck a picture.

We had a short layover in Houston, Texas… We had to hurry from one terminal to the next (took a tram to get to a different section). We hurried on to our connecting flight… A small airplane. Next to me was a young man returning home from an LDS mission. He looked excited, yet nervous… Oh how I love the missionaries!

It was good to take a few familiar mountain shots from the plane.


The last picture is of Salem… We flew over it!

I had a lot of fun in Florida but I am was so excited to come home to the girls…

Yep… It was fun seeing the girls. They were so excited! I wish I would have remembered to take pictures but it was chaos… Chaos that I love!

Let’s see… We got up around 8 and slowly dressed for running! Corom and I went on an easy run. The downfall of choosing not to run/exercise on a Sunday is I become really sore & tight after a race or hard workout. So come Monday… I feel it takes a little longer to loosen up the legs. But, it is something I have decided long ago and will live with the extra sore legs. 🙂 We ran around the Florida neighborhoods and into a park. Corom tried to catch a duck…

With no luck (lucky duck!). Then we ran into some exercise equipment that we had to tryout…

Then we saw the biggest hill here in Fort Lauderdale and I decided to climb the beast…

Okay… It was a 3 foot incline but it felt steeper! 😉 It was a nice, easy, beautiful run. Something my legs needed!

We continued our run out of the park to the nearest store. Corom went in while I ran back and forth outside. We headed back to his sister’s house to get ready for the day. I ran a total of 1:00.09. It was not as humid today as it was Friday and Saturday.

We went to the beach this afternoon…

It was funny because we noticed that the 3 of us (Corom, Kymbra- sister in law, and I) were the youngest group there of about 25 years or so! It was great. 😉 We had fun and got to know the “older” people around us! We found many shells… Hopefully we can bring them home for the girls…

Dinner, Corom picked a couple of coconuts for us and made drinks out of them… The coconut water was okay. It would have been better if it were cold.

For dessert we went to some gourmet ice cream place: Jaxon’s. It was a cute place with monster ice cream dishes…

Corom was in heaven… He could eat ice cream for every meal!

I had to finish off my night with singing with a cute man that handed me his microphone… Oh if he only knew how tone deaf I am… He soon found out. 🙂

Well, time to pack up and get ready to make the travel back home to the girls. I miss them so much!!!

Ready Break…. This morning came too soon. Going to bed at 1 a.m. made getting up at 7 a.m. extremely hard. Almost half of our team had to leave today to depart to our different destinations. Out of our little hotel suite, Corom and I were the 1st to get up and go. Well of course Corom left something (by accident) in everyone’s sleeping area… He accidentally woke up Mike, then Dan (he slept outside and Corom left his red shorts that he found on the ground, outside), and then left his phone charger in where Ericka and Stephne were sleeping. I had to go in there and wake them up… I felt horrible but everyone loves Corom so no one cared. 🙂

We said our goodbyes and left a little after 8 a.m. for a 3 1/2 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale to go to Kymbra & Justin’s house (Corom’s younger sis). We made it just in time for church… (Well this isn’t the church but we passed an LDS temple on our way back)…

What I do love about the church/gospel is that wherever you go it is the same. It was nice being there with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. I did forget to bring church shoes so I wore my running shoes until Kymbra got there with a pair of her sandals… Pretty hot!

Corom was sitting next to this little boy (no we don’t know who he is) and decided to join him.

Right before Sunday School started, Corom and I had to take a quick trip to the car to find those running energy shot blocks! They helped out a ton. We are tired! After church we hung out and relaxed.

Day 2: We are back at it. Corom and I actually had pretty good sleep for a Ragnar (you usually get 2 to 3 hours tops)… We even had a hotel room that our team got through the Ragnar employees group. Shower, beds and breakfast was great! We went to bed around 12:45 a.m. (After showers) and slept until 5:30ish. We had breakfast and then took off to our exchange…

We ran into our brother-in-law, Justin… He was happy to see us until Corom got a little more personable. 🙂

Corom finished off his last (3rd) run with a 2.4 miler… He was pretty happy with that! He found some clothes on the way, kept a pair of swimming shorts that he actually wore throughout the rest of Ragnar whenever we jumped into the water (the red pair). We were all a little disturbed but that is Corom for you. 🙂 He handed off to me and I began a 9.5 mile run across the bridge. The view was pretty amazing but the run won me over. (This is my view for 7 miles running across the bridge.)

I knew way before hand that I should probably start drinking and hydrating myself but I was afraid that if I did drink too much I would be in trouble on my run… Well I paid for it!
I carried a bottle of water with me and I was still over heated and dehydrated. I was struggling but I felt like I had to keep my pace just so I could finish the run. I ran 9.5 in 1:04.04. I did catch up to a guy with about 2 miles left to go and he picked up his stride to run along side with me… It made such a big difference to have someone there to push me along and to motivate me to finish strong. I was so grateful to be done! As soon as I was done, I went straight to the beach (the dock area) and I got into the water. It felt so great on the legs.

After my last leg, we went right back to goofing off and messing around… It was a blast! The 5 of us (Kristen, Tanner, Elise, Corom and I) went out to lunch while van “2” was on their last legs. I had great fish tacos…

There was a team out here that we saw finish that had everyone applauding them in! It was so impressive and we were all so proud of this team. Very emotional…

Our team finished and we all just had a blast hanging out at the beach, dinner, after party stuff, etc. Everyone ran so good! I wish I had more time to write about everyone, but they really did well! It was fun to watch!

We really had a great team!!! With the way we ran this Ragnar with the rolling van idea… We got to know everyone so well!

Fun times walking around… I met a couple of hot ladies… Couldn’t pass up the group picture. 🙂 it was a blast. Now it is 2 minutes to midnight and we are all up talking… I have to go engage in this conversation…

The girls and G-goat (grandma) are still hanging out and from the sounds of it… Having a fun time!

Thanks Corom, Kristen, Tanner, Elise, Darin, Michelle, Chad, Dan, Stephne, Ericka, Corissa and Mike. We had a great time and I recommend everyone to try this Ragnar! If we are able to come back we definitely will!