2:05:36 and Proud of it!

It was the Garmin Wickedly Fast Half Marathon in Olathe, Kansas.

  

We didn't go this extreme.  

Mandy, Stacy, and I committed to running this in January with Betsy.  It was especially nice being able to stay with family and be with them. 

I miss Betsy.  I love being able to talk, shop, or just hang out with her.  I'm so glad she's coming to visit in June.

Mandy and Stacy are very close friends.  Like I've said before, Mandy got me into running.  I served with Stacy as she was the past YW President in our ward.  It was such a fun trip!  (More on that in the next post.)

Back to the race.  I've been running consistently since the first of the year.  I trained as best as I could given all of my circumstances.  My goal was to run a half in 2 hours or less.  My previous time of my personal record of a half marathon was in 2008 at the Moab Half Marathon was 2:19.

I know without a doubt that I can do one in 2 hours.  My mind was on board but my body must have not understood.  This race had pacers which meant you could choose a time that you wanted and know where you were at by the people that would carry that time on their sign.  I actually started off with the 1:50 group.  I was good up until mile three.  Then my thigh started cramping and slightly later my left toes started getting Charley horses.  Didn't think it's possible?  It was, trust me.  Before mile 4 I wanted to quit because I was in more pain than I had ever been on in a run.  I had one thing that kept me going.

I fell behind between the 1:50 and 1:55 pacers just after mile 4.  At that point I said a prayer asking for help to just ease the pain and let me finish.  It worked a little but it was still a mental game.  I couldn't get past the mind over body matter.  Then I realized that I didn't matter what Stacy, Betsy, Jacob, or even what Mandy would say if I quit.  I think they would have still been my friend.  I realized that it mattered to me that I didn't quit for the Young Women I'm with back home.  How could I come back and tell them I quit?  That I gave up when it got hard?  This is why I finished.

I stayed at my spot until I absolutely had to go to the bathroom at mile 7.  After that I was in between the 1:55 and 2:00 pace.   It was still a mental game to breathe, get a sip of water, or even try to eat a GU chomp.  At mile ten, the 2 hour pacers passed me.  Just after mile twelve the 2:05 passed.  I realized I wasn't going to let anything else pass by.  I finished with a time of 2:05:36.  (That included my bathroom stop.  Also for the record, the course was just almost .2 more than the normal 13.1 half marathon.  Several mentioned this because they clocked it with their Garmin watches.  It's all over the review page too for the race.  You would think with Garmin being the sponsor that they would double check the distance.  At least I would like to say the course was off because I'm sure Garmin doesn't want to admit that their watches are off.) 

I finished the race, sat down, pulled off my shoe, rubbed my feet, and cried.  I was tired and mentally beat.  I did it though.  Then I put my shoe back on and off I went.

The funnest part was going back and running the last half mile with Stacy, and then going back again and running the last mile with Betsy.  I think when I have somebody to push or inspire that I put aside my own challenges and want them to do better. 

2:05.  I'm ecstatic about my time.  I know it's roughly four minutes longer than what I wanted, but I know how much pain I went through to get that.  It's a personal record for me but my worst run ever.  I'm proud that I endured to the end.  I'm so proud of the girls too!  We all got a personal best.  Mandy finished at 1:34, Stacy with 2:25, and Betsy with 2:50!

I've now set a goal to do a half marathon roughly every three months.  I'm thinking the Timp Half Marathon in Utah at the end of July, the Waddell and Reed in the Middle of October in Kansas City, and the Jingle Bun Run in Temple, TX the first of December.  Bring it On!

Stayed tuned for the fun parts about our trip tomorrow!

One year older and wiser too

Happy Birthday McKay!

My oldest is 13!  It's crazy.
McKay spent the weekend in Kansas with me as we ran our half marathon.  I gave her the option of going or I said that I would come home earlier if she didn't want to go.  She of course chose to go and see her cousin, Aspen.

McKay is such a smart and beautiful young woman!  I love her ambition in life and her will to choose the right.  I'm proud to call her my daughter!  I love you!

(I would love input if you like the first picture or second picture better.)

P.S.  More to come on the race / trip tomorrow!

We're off to see the wizard....

My test is tomorrow. My test is in 8 hours and 24 minutes. My challenge is to run a half marathon in 2 hours or less.   We couldn't have picked a better place.  We are in the land of Oz.  I couldn't have picked better friends either!

"Pain is the feeling of weakness leaving the body". 

And now it's time for bed and hopefully sleep!  

Cookie Monster

Meet Jacob's newest purchase / hobby.
He wanted a "Cookie Convection Oven" to take to work for his team. So he found a steal on Craigslist and had it shipped to him.
He's made several batches of cookies with different recipes and froze the remaining dough.One morning, I woke up to this. Not too bad right? Within a few days Jacob had turned my freezer into his cookie dough locker ... over 250 cookies and 7 different kinds of dough. Slight obsession?
(These are my favorite kind. Peanut butter with melted mini Reeses Pieces, mini Rolos, and mini Hersey drops. )Last Thursday, he asked me to bring the cookie oven to work. I have to admit I wasn't ready to part with it. I made the excuse that I wanted to try the banana / walnut / chocolate chip cookie recipe that I had since I had some ripe bananas. Truth is, it's just been so nice and simple to make cookies when my kids have their friends' over and when they want a snack in their lunch. Three dozen cookies in 12 minutes with no clean up.  I'm thinking maybe I'll have to find a way into talking him in keeping it here.

Easter Sunday.....Projects

This is where it all started.....at 8 pm last Saturday night.
I had wanted to make the girls skirts for Easter. I finally had all the material and stuff to do it so I started late Saturday. I used the same circle skirt pattern as the poodle skirt that I did for Kirsten in February. Like I said, I started at 8 pm and I finished at 8:30am the next morning. I literally didn't leave that room except for going to the bathroom and for trying on Kirsten's skirt once, (which she doesn't remember doing.)
I love how they turned out! Although I was so tired come Sunday afternoon. More like goofy tired. It's amazing how you can't function without any sleep.
....Katanya....
....Cruz....
(he got a new shirt and tie to go with his suit)
....Kirsten....
....McKay....
I have material to make me one but I couldn't do it in time. I had to be at church at 9:15 am for choir practice. I don't sing but McKay and Kirsten do. I do the fun job of pushing the pistons and "instrument buttons" on the organ and turning pages for the organ or piano. : )
The kids didn't want to take a lot of pictures and at this point and I didn't really care. We had a great Easter!
****I can't forget the fun part, dying the elastic. My hands don't look as bad in this picture as they did on Sunday morning. They were a darker shade of purple. It looked as if I was freezing. Because I had bought 10 yards of 2" and 3" elastic, Jacob got a little carried away, and he bought 100 yards online for the next project. I still don't know why I do this to myself and allow me such a short deadline.

Easter Saturday

Our first Easter Saturday in Texas was spent at a friend's / neighbors house. It consisted of lunch,

swinging,

playing for the kids.....

and adults.

And then it came time for the Easter Egg Hunt. All of the kids (12 and under) sat in the front yard and sang song. It started off with Jingle Bells, and we heard many primary songs concluding with Once There was a Snowman.

Then it came time for the instructions. They were told there was 25 eggs a piece, with one "toy" ticket per kid and there was also money eggs involved.

The little, little kids went first, followed by the little kids. And then it was time....

....and they were off.

There were some on the ground, many in the trees and bushes....

....and even some in the pool.

The kids loved that for the reason that they could get wet!

Everyone was happy. After the egg hunt there was plenty of swimming afterwards.

And then there was a group picture, well almost an entire group picture.

And then they wanted a "mom" picture. Jacob asked me why would would want to title it as a "mom" picture. I'm always happy to be a mom!

Now my only question is.... If you look at the zoomed in close up, why didn't anyone tell me I had two different earrings in? I didn't notice this until 2 in the morning after I had worn them all day?!?!?!?!? Typical "ME" moment.

Happy Easter....going deep.

This weekend has been fun and busy. I'll post more on that tomorrow. Right now I just want to say I miss my dad.

I swear every time that I have to teach a lesson or give a talk, I learn more than I present out. Today as we went to church I realized how grateful I am for our Savior. I'm grateful for his Atonement and for all that he did, but I'm grateful for him giving us the gift of eternal life.

It's not the end. I have faith that we will be together again. I'm so HAPPY that he did that for me, for us.