Half Marathon etc.

I guess every so often I can post something that I've been up to instead of just the kids.  I once again signed up for the Top of Utah half marathon.  I printed out several different training plans and then proceeded to not follow any of them.  I really struggled to be motivated to train!  I did run quite a bit the end of May/June when I last minute filled in on my friend Desi's Ragnar team.  We had a great time.  I can now say I've done Ragnar, and I might want to do it again!   I did spend the coldest night of my life sleeping outside.  I have slept outside in lots of different weather but this topped it all.  First of all, I did not take a pillow or my air mattress..genius I know.  That weekend was unseasonably cold for June (which was great for running), but I spent the most miserable 3 hours freezing my butt off on the cold, hard ground in 30 degree temps.  Misery!  I've never been so glad to jump out of bed at 4 am, shake the frost off my sleeping bag, and get in the warm car!  We had a lot of laughs though.  Our team was the Ragnafarians.  On the back of our van it said, "Don't worry about a thing, except the squirts."  That generated a lot of laughs.  You don't know how true that is unless you run.  It can get sketchy.

Anyway, I buckled down the month before the half and at least got my long run in consistently on the weekends.  I have been running faster this year despite my slacking, and I clocked my fastest time yet-- 1 hour and 46 minutes.  I was pleased with that.  I would have been more pleased if I hadn't tanked and dropped more than a minute per mile after about mile 9 but oh well.  That's where the additional training would have come in handy.  An added bonus was that it was the hottest weekend of the year...a real migraine recipe!  I hate to admit it, but I even walked for a minute.  I seriously blew myself up about mile  11.  By mile 12 you are reaching the finish and there are lots of spectators, so before I was in that gauntlet I made myself suck it up and pick up the pace...only pride kept me running across the finish line.

My cute cheering section.  They were so proud of me and thought I did great!

Jer and I headed down the Friday night of Labor Day weekend to Salt Lake.  The kids had fun partying with their grandparents and cousins up in Preston.  We went to P.F. Cheng's...love those lettuce wraps and stayed at Little America and slept in.  We headed back to Logan Saturday afternoon and hiked/ran up to Naomi Peak.  It was great.  I haven't been up there since before Jer and I were married.  It was a very refreshing 24 hour date.

Ignore the shorty shorts.  I've finally embraced the fact that while not the most flattering actual running shorts are by far the best kind of shorts to run in.  One morning this summer Luke looked at me and said "well those are kind of short aren't they?"  You had to hear his tone.  It was funny.  Yes Luke they are...please don't be too embarrassed of your old mom.

I am signed up to run one more race this year.  It is another half marathon in Park City with my mother and sister-in-law.  My training commitment hasn't improved.  At least it will be October and cool!  Things are quite hectic around here right now.  We've got soccer and flag football going on.  I am definitely busy being a wife and mom and trying to keep my house from being a total pigsty (that's about as good as it gets right now).  I'm also getting pretty busy with my online teaching gig, and I just started another master's class.  I was about to throw in the towel on that whole program, but I'm so close I really do need to suffer through these last few classes and get it done.  This semester is Organic Evolution, and it's a chore...bleh!