Tri Man

Chris has recently been interested in doing triathlons. His mother is a great inspiration to everyone she comes in contact with and she was able to inspire Chris to work hard at more than just running. Chris has been getting up early to swim and staying out late to ride his bike and after all his training he was finally able to participate in his first Olympic triathlon. He had done a couple of sprints earlier this year, but the Olympic was his real goal. He had been planning to do the Pumpkin Man Triathlon down at Lake Mead and had been working towards that goal for a long time and that goal was put into the jeopardy when the government decided to shut down and close all the national parks. They sent out an email to everyone who had signed up saying that if the parks were still closed that they could still come down and do the run portion of the tri, but that would have been a waste of time. We didn’t want to drive 6 or 7 hours both ways so that Chris could run a 10k. Luckily, the government ended their childishness a couple of days before the race and we were able to drive down so that Chris could do the whole race. He did pretty well, his transitions could use a little work, but he looked strong throughout the whole race and his run portion was amazingly fast. Good Job Babe!

Hoping to Adopt

There has never been a doubt in my mind that Chris and I would eventually have kids. Whenever I would talk about the future, it would be “when we have kids…” not “if we have kids…”. I knew when I married Chris that it would be a little while before we started, he wanted to finish law school before trying and I agreed with him for the most part. I’ve always felt that I’m a bit immature for my age and I’m never quite ready to move on to the next step in my life at the same time as my peers. I wanted to get used to being married to Chris before starting our family, I think that I needed a strong marriage and a strong relationship with my husband before involving children. In addition to that, I wanted the decision to have kids to be a mutual thing, I didn’t want to force or cajole or bully Chris into starting a family when he wasn’t ready any more than I wanted him to do the same to me. So we decided to wait. When Chris finished law school and we moved back to Salt Lake I felt like it was finally time to start our family and I began to talk about it with Chris more and more. Chris is the kind of person who needs to think things through and get used to an idea over time, so I was okay with the delay at first, but my patience did wear thin. After a while, he finally agreed that it was time to start trying. I just knew that we would be able to have kids right away, I come from a huge family and his is rather large, so clearly fertility wouldn’t be a problem for us. However, after the first couple of months, I began to wonder. I started reading articles and books about infertility and began to get worried. I tend to overanalyze things and it was something that was constantly on my mind. I was starting to drive myself crazy when Mary handed me a training schedule for a half marathon. I had been doing a little running, but never more than a 5k and the idea of running a longer race was intriguing. I decided to give it a shot and if I should get pregnant, than I would just stop the training and be happy. I started thinking about the amount of running I was doing, what type of shoes I was running in, going for a run with Mary, who is a much better runner and I didn’t want to slow her down, etc. I honestly believe that if I hadn’t started running, I would have been a miserable person. I needed something to take my mind off the fact that I wasn’t getting pregnant and running was exactly what I needed. After my first half marathon, I kept going and I made Chris go with me. We did several half marathons together, Ragnar, and we started our first marathon together (Chris couldn’t finish due to a knee problem, but we had trained for the whole thing and made it about 17 miles in together). After that first marathon, I developed shin splints and then a knee problem and couldn’t run for about 6 months. I did not handle it well, I’m afraid. I had been so concentrated on running that I didn’t have much time to think about infertility, but when I couldn’t run, our infertility came crashing down around my head compounded by the fact that my distraction was just another problem to deal with. I felt pretty useless and shed many more tears than I’d like to admit. I had to face my problem head on and it was one of the toughest times of my life. Looking back now, I know that my injuries were the catalyst that finally sent us to the infertility doctor. If I had been able to run, I would have been able to push that particular problem to the back of my mind indefinitely and we still might be biding our time. However, in facing my problem, I made an appointment with an infertility specialist and we discovered what our problem is. We tried a few different treatments, all to no avail and eventually our choices were narrowed down to adoption or invetrofertiliztion. We fasted and prayed and made lists of pros and cons and talked to family who also fasted for us and did research on both options and after a while decided that adoption was the option for us. Through all the research I had done, I thought that LDS Family Services would be the best option for us and Chris agreed, so several months ago, we met with a counselor, went through orientations, interviews, home-studies, questionnaires and eventually made it to where we are now, with a profile up on It’s About Love, hoping that someone will pick us as the right family for their child. I continue to run to keep my mind off waiting and Chris continues to be his usual calm and serene self as we play the waiting game, but I realize that we’ve been married for 8 wonderful years, and a few more months is do able. I do hope that we are chosen soon, I’m eager to have an addition to our family, to share the amazing life I’ve been able to have with one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. I know we’d do a great job.

Big Cottonwood Marathon 2013

I did it!!! I qualified for the Boston Marathon with 6 ½ minutes to spare! This post will be longer than usual, so bear with me. We got up at 4:00 in the morning to get ready and drove down to get on the bus that was to take us to the start line. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it might be and it wasn’t raining, which was good because it had been raining all week and I was worried that I would have to go slower because I would slip and fall if I wasn’t careful. We were on our way up the course when we stopped because a bus had gotten stuck on one of the turns and we couldn’t get up the mountain. So we all had to get off the bus and walk around it to get up to where another bus was shuttling people back and forth. Of course after we had all been standing around for 15 minutes they got the stuck bus out of the way and we all got back on the busses who were now able to make it up to us. So the race actually started around 30 minutes later than it was supposed to. It was fine though. It was nice and cool all day, the temperature was perfect. Chris and I didn’t run together, I didn’t want him to slow me down and he didn’t want me to pressure him into running faster, but it turns out that he finished only about a minute behind me, so we probably could have run together after all. Anyway, I started off pretty fast. I knew that I was going to have to start off pretty fast and keep it up all the way through the canyon, it was my only chance of making it. For the first 19 miles, I ran sub 8:00 miles, which is amazing. I tried to be very mindful of my body, I was worried that since I had to start off so fast, I was going to burn out at the end, and I didn’t want that to happen so I kept close tabs on my breathing and the way my legs, feet and back felt to make sure I wasn’t in any pain. Things were going along great, so I kept it up and actually had my fastest mile at mile 13. Between mile 11 and 12, some really nice lady started talking to me. It was distracting, and nice to vent some of my feelings about wanting to qualify for Boston and she was very talkative herself, which was nice. She left me in the dust after about mile 14 though. At mile 17 we got out the canyon and the course started to flatten out. I was okay with that for a couple of miles and then I started to slow down. At about mile 19 or 20, I was hanging with the pacer who was going to finish at 3:25 but after mile 20 I had to slow down. I didn’t slow down a whole lot at mile twenty, but it was enough for me to lose him. I really started to get tired at mile 23. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Luckily, Chris’ dad had agreed to support me through the race and I knew that I was going to see him at each mile and I didn’t want to disappoint him by walking so I kept going and only stopped at the water stations. At mile 23 I could feel my calves starting to get really tight and I knew that if I didn’t stop and stretch, I was going to start cramping up, so I stopped and stretched my legs for just a few seconds and then started right back up again. Luckily it was enough and I didn’t cramp up at all. The last mile and was able to go just a tiny bit faster. Mile 24 and 25 I was running over 9 minute miles but I was able to bring it back down for mile 26 even though it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The last .2 miles was really exciting for me. I had been keeping an eye on my watch and knew that I had a good buffer of time so that I could slow down at the end and still qualify and for those last .2 miles I could see the clock and see that I was going to finish with more than 5 minutes to spare. When I finished, Mary found me and gave me a huge hug and let me know that Chris was just a minute or two behind me. I got to see him finish, his time was a minute slower than mine, so I still have bragging rights for a little while. I probably won’t be faster than him for very much longer. Then we found Chris’ dad and I got to thank him for helping me finish and accomplish my goal. It was the best feeling in the world and even now I can’t help but smile when I think about it.

Georgia and Florida

Chris and I just returned from an amazing trip to Georgia and Florida. We continued our quest to see all the baseball parks in the country be seeing three more, the Braves, the Rays, and the Marlins. We also went to Disney World, Universal Studios, Gater Land, went parasailing, and did a hop-on hop-off tour of Savannah. It would take too long to recount the whole trip, so below are some pictures that hopefully will do the trick.

Weekend Craziness

One Van Plan was a successful venture! We weren't sure if we were going to get enough sleep, if the smell of twelve sweaty runners in one van was going to be overwhelming, and if we were going to be sick of one another after 30 hours together. But it turned out to be really fun. We were a pretty fast team and we passed quite a few other teams and everyone in our van was pretty pleasant.

The day after Ragnar, Chris and I were both feeling surprisingly good, so we decided to go for a hike up the Big Cottonwood Canyon with my sister and her family. It was beautiful and the weather was lovely and the company was good. So overall, it was a great weekend.

3:35:16

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?/ Or fester like a sore--/ and then run?/ Does it stink like rotten meat?/ Or crust and sugar over--/ like a syrupy sweet?/ Maybe it just sags/ like a heavy load./ Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes

Salt Lake Marathon

Chris and I ran the Salt Lake marathon on Saturday. It was the second marathon for both of us and we trained really hard for it, so we both thought we were going to do well. The goal was to finish in under 4 hours and to finish together because we had never done that before, he couldn't finish my first marathon because his knees gave out on him and I couldn't finish his first marathon because I was injured at the time. So we prepared as best we could. We couldn't have predicted that it would rain pretty hard on us for the first 13 miles or so, but that was only a slight deterrent and we were feeling pretty good as we ran. We saw several friends along the way, both running and supporting along the sidelines. We ended up running the race in just over 4 hours, 4:00:36 to be precise, but that's so close that I don't feel like we failed in our mission. One of the better things about this race as opposed to the other marathon I did was the fact that I'm not nearly as sore as I was after finishing the other race. I could actually make it up and down the stairs afterward with minimal pain. So all in all I feel good about my second marathon and am actually looking forward to the next one.

Boston

This past Monday was the Boston Marathon. Chris' mom qualified a while ago, so we all decided to go to Boston to cheer her on. So we made a weekend of it. We went to a Red Sox game and walked the freedom trail, and drove down the coast to Plymouth Rock, which is much smaller than it sounds by the way. Then on Monday we watched the marathon. It was one of the coolest things ever and I really, really want to run it one day. Anyway, Mary finished running the marathon in a time of 3 hours and 56 minutes which was amazing. So we walked over to the area where families wait for their runners. As we were walking over, we heard two loud booms. We didn't know what it was, so we called Chris' brothers who were at the hotel and asked them to turn on the tv to find out what was going on. They told us that two bombs had been set off at the finish line of the race. We frantically searched for Mary, wondering if she was okay. We found her and went back to our hotel, which was only a block away from where the bombs had gone off and watched the news. Since our hotel was so close to the bombs, the police had locked down our hotel and wouldn't let anyone in or out. So we sat in our hotel room and watched the news unfold, saw how many people had been hurt and saw that three people had been killed and we realized that we were really lucky to all be safe and we felt for the families who were suffering. We also watched out our window and saw tons of cops with bomb sniffing dogs go all over the streets. They called in the National Guard and the next day they let us out of the hotel, but there were soldiers outside every hotel with guns. It was actually really scary, but thankfully we were all safe. As we went through security at the airport, a cop came up to us and asked us if we had been at the marathon, if we had taken any pictures and if he could see them. We showed him our pictures and then he asked if we would email them to him because we were right across the street from where one of the bombs had gone off about 10 minutes before they exploded. It was crazy and kind of surreal. Our hearts go out to all those families who were not as lucky as us.

San Francisco

Chris and one of my younger brothers have been die-hard Raiders fans for as long as I can remember. I suppose you would have to be die-hard to continue to be a fan, since they haven’t been good for a really long time. Yet, fans they remain. There’s been a little bonding between the two of them over their team, which is great because misery loves company. Recently they decided that it would be fun to go see a game, so we made plans for Jason and his wife to go with me and Chris to see the Raiders play the Chiefs in one of the last games of the year. We figured that we should go to a game where the Raiders at least had a chance of winning, and the Chiefs were horrible this year as well. And since the team has been terrible, tickets were really inexpensive, so we were able to sit on row 5 on the 50 yard line with a great view. Jason and Jen had never been to San Francisco before, so we decided to make a weekend of it and visited all the touristy spots in addition to seeing the game, which the raiders won, by the way. So I suppose that being a Raiders fan does have some perks, they play near San Francisco, which is a really cool city, they were able to beat an even worse team than themselves, and they were the cause of some serious family bonding over the weekend we visited. Go Raiders!