"The Life Cycle of a Road Trip"

We left for Kansas the Thursday before our race.
Since it was McKay's birthday weekend, I told her she could come and see Aspen or stay home.  She came but I also let her bring a friend so the 20 hours in the car wasn't boring for her (or annoying for us.) 

You can see that we were peppy and full of life.  The car ride included laughing, singing, talking, and playing a game called psychiatrist.  We learned a lot about each other and soon came up with our "KS road trip nick names."  Mandy was very good at getting us to our destination at the ETA the GPS gave us when we left.  That was including our gas and bathroom stops.

And we pulled some "touristy" photos along the way.  We have to have proper documentation.

McKay's friend, Amanda, turned out being from a family that Betsy new.  Back when they were in the Taylor ward, part of our ward was within their boundaries.  It really is such a small world.

Lawrence tries to claim that they are a twin sister to Austin.  Betsy told this when we got there and we actually ran into people that claimed this too.  It's not.  But I did like the fact that they were different and changed their signs.  I'm used to seeing "speed bump." Friday was our "take it easy after a drive day."  We went and drove the course and picked up our packets.

This new tool is one of my best friends.  After receiving a massage, I was sold.  I have a foam roller but this works my calves so much better and easier.  I know, I'm a sucker.  My first thought was, "this could help me with my Christmas gift that I gave Jacob".  My second thought was "now Jacob can give me a massage and it won't tear my muscles up or feel worse the next day."  And my last thought was, "This feels good."  Now Cruz will rub my legs and back down for a low cost. 10 minutes = $1.  

We ran our race and then that evening we went to the Kansas City Temple Open House.  It is a really gorgeous temple. 

You can see from our (or my) eyes that we are tired.  I was exhausted.  I wasn't able to take a nap after the race. 

 When I was a little kid, I remember being amazed by fountains.  I still am. 

 It still amazes me how peaceful and calm the feeling is when you walk through the doors.  It's so instant.  The rooms were amazing.  The chandeliers in the celestial room were hand sewn by community members.  The tour didn't last long enough.

Of course, we have to sport the stylish shoes! 

Nate spoiled us the next morning.  He got up and started making some of his famous waffles. He really is an amazing cook and we were all very grateful.

There were "real" chocolate waffles with vanilla ice cream, lemon poppy seed waffles with blueberry syrup, and ginger waffles with buttermilk syrup topped with pears.  I think I ate the most waffles in that sitting than I had ever eaten.

This was our final shot in Kansas before we started for home.  I was still exhausted. 

There was no game playing on the way home.  Mentally, I couldn't do it.  So the girls did this instead.  And, no this isn't a balloon....

  ....it was McKay's bubble from a whole package of Bubble Tape.

The car ride was a lot quieter.  Stacy summed it up best, "It's the Life Cycle of a Road Trip.  Although the last two hours went by quickly because we plugged my phone in and we played YouTube Videos of the classic older Young Women Songs.  There was Ordinary Hands, I Heard Him Come, Learn of Me, etc.  But our favorite was "I Walk by Faith," and we sang it with pride.  The girls didn't find it as fun as we did and finally said, "Can't you play any ones we know?" 

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!

Running Away...

A couple weeks ago we ran away. After school was canceled again on Thursday for blowing wind and snow, we headed down to the warm south western weather. We had to go to St. George anyway so we decided to go another 400 miles west. After spending a couple days in southern Utah, (also a BIG thanks to Earl and Vickie for letting us crash a night at there house,) we drove on to SUNNY California. We had a fun week with Harry, Dawn, and all the kids. Come the next Sunday morning, Jake and I kept debating if it was really time to go. Coming home to snow and going from 80 degrees to 10 degrees isn't so attractive anymore.

Most of our time was spent at the park across the street, and we have HUNDREDS of pictures of that so I'm going to skip that and here are a few highlights....

La Brea tarpits. This museum was quite interesting. We also had a "star" encounter here.

Outside by the tar pits.

Harry and Jake having fun. Power tools and equipment...who would pass it up?

Not such a smart move here. We went and visited Grandma on Wednesday. McKay enjoyed a game of scrabble with her while the other kids loved playing with Kilee.We went to the Santa Monica pier. We opted out of Disneyland this year and decided to do that another time when we had a couple of days to spend there.On the Ferris wheel.This was one of my favorites. In Arcadia, there is a neighborhood that you can feed the peacocks from your car. The kids loved it as well.After 11 days of running away, we made it back home. Before we left Kirsten said, "Mom, you can't run away from winter!"

Well, we sure tried. : )