Burpees for Boston

**An aside...

Today (to our office retreat) I wore my favorite running shirt in solidarity for runners everywhere.

And, while I'm not a hard-core runner, I recognize that the spirit of running has tied a lot of people together this week...

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Monday Ryan came by my office. It was a busy day and I hadn't been using the Internet much. He asked me if I'd heard about the Boston Marathon, and I said, "No, what?"

Then I pulled up CNN.

Horrible.

Heinous.

Why would someone do that?!

It wasn't until later that night that I started to hear the stories, the horror along with the heroics.

---

"Bootcamp" came bright and early the next morning at 6am. I wasn't too excited about a 6am butt-kicking...

But when the guy in charge, Scott, started out by mentioning the bombings and then number of causalities and that we were going to honor them, my attitude changed.

Then we did burpees. Burpees for Boston. 147 of them to be exact. The casualty count as of Tuesday morning.

We did them as a group, but it was still hard. It reminded me of this run and made me miss Wes. And again I thought to myself, "Wes didn't ever give up, so why should I?" and "Those people didn't give up, so why should I?" 

It was emotional. Spiritual. 

It brought me closer to the Savior. And a quote came to mind... 

(Pg. 52 of "Preach My Gospel") 

The horrific acts of some lead us to question why?

Sadly, we may never know the answer. And, even if we do, we may never understand. 

But, in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement. 

What a wonderful, uplifting reality. 

While those in Boston are grieving, we are praying. Praying that they may recover. Praying that they may have justice. But most importantly praying that they might have peace.

Here's to Boston! Because "If you're trying to defeat the human spirit, marathon runners are the wrong group to target." -Patton Oswalt 

The End of the Rainbow

Maleen and I have been looking for some good, fun races in the area and yesterday we did one!

Vineyard Elementary has an annual St. Patrick's Day 5K, so we decided to dawn our green and run our little hearts out. 

Ryan was teaching for the Red Cross, so I pushed Adi in the stroller. 

Ready? Set? Go! 

We were off. I was trying to keep a 10 minute pace, but about five minutes into it, I came across Maggie and Daisy... or so I had called them who were out of breath and a little discouraged. It turns out it was Jane and Ivory (wrong sibling names) and for the rest of the race we ran together! 

While it was slower than I would have run otherwise (a lot slower) it was so. much. fun. I really, really enjoy cheering others on. It's probably one of my favorite things. (If I could go back and re-live my education I might consider life coaching...) 

Those little seven-year-olds were troopers. And we rocked it! 

Adi even joined in the fun for a little while, but her princess dress (that she insisted on wearing) was a little long for running, so she rode most of the time. 

When we reached the end of the rainbow  race there were yummy treats and a park! 

Adi could seriously not get enough of it. 

We are so ready for spring! 

Provo River Trail: iPhone Edition

The Provo River Trail is amazing in autumn.

The leaves, the lights, the smell of fall.

Baby snakes... maybe not our favorite, but they kept Adi in the running stroller.

The Halloween decorations along the river.

And Adi's favorite: the ducks.

Black-Light Fail

We shop at Big Lots! for personal hygiene necessities (you know, the stuff that helps you appear civilized and of good rapport with people like deodorant, shampoo, and body wash), because they usually have awesome deals. Plus, they have these huge mobile fireplaces that would look great in our living room with the silhouettes of Christmas stockings hung from the mantle as the light of the fire dances and the warmth staves off the winter chill outside. But, I digress, and I also committed an unpardonable sin for many people; that of mentioning Christmas before Halloween. Well, while I'm at it, I might as well confess that I have already listened to a few rounds of Ave Maria and may have already listened to the Nutcracker Suite several times and created a Christmas playlist on Spotify. There you have it. An unapologetic confession for the love of Christmas. 

Lest you think that I just used lest to reign this conversation back in and make some sort of point, I did. I will blame this on Washington Irving, whose popular Halloween tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, has had me thinking in old-versed descriptions. I may have listened to that book more than once in the past couple of weeks. And that was segue enough back to Halloween, I guess.

So, while at Big Lots! I happened to see black lights for sale. I was excited because I wanted to put a black light out on the front porch. Well, we go it home, screwed it in and turned it on. What we soon found was that this black light was different in a sense that it was a light painted black. A "black" light, not a black light. Yeah, I'm still not happy about the purchase of a lightbulb whose only purpose seems to be to emit a muted 60 Watts across the room and become dangerously hot after only a few seconds of use. Who had this idea, anyway? Next time I'll take the light out of the box before buying.

Speaking of buying, Kenz has a cool costume to run in for the Halloween Half and I, well, do not. I don't usually plan these things, which ends in me being myself or something severely undeveloped. Last year, as we realized that DI doesn't have much Halloween selection on Halloween eve, I grabbed an oversized bowling shirt and Kenz got a dress that legitimately could have been property of a polygamist wife. It was then that I realized these things take some effort and thought to throw together, at least they do for me. Or, they take the magic of Amazon.

So, I started browsing through Amazon's selection of costumes, which are 60% off, because putting forth the effort of trying to be creative and think of something myself is just not going to happen right now and the effort to look for something is effort enough.

Keep in mind, this race is going to be cold. It's up the canyon in the early morning. They bus you up there and then you wait for probably 30 - 45 minutes before you actually start running. I'm shivering now just thinking about it. 

Anyway, I start looking...

Hmmm... Zombie Doctor.

Not if I ever expect my daughter to go to the doctor again, and it's really not my thing.

Next up, Bear. Definitely will keep me warm, but am I going to want to run in this thing? Not likely. Too bad, this could have been fun under different circumstances. Oh, and did I mention this thing costs like $500? Not happening.

Nerd glasses. Nah. Like I said, it's going to be cold and this is something I would buy and not know what to do with in the future.

Werewolf. Although I could wear my usual running gear, I'm not sure the Binx is ready for this, nor do I want to run in a mask.

Ostrich. Now we're talking. This search has now become encouraging. I worry about being able to run in it though.

Fat suit... Meh, I've been working on my own fat suit in real life for too long. Why else would I be running this thing?

A more dignified and culturally revered fat suit. Not heavy, but will I be able to run in it? Will the fan that keeps the suit blown up make me cold?

Well, back to where I started. Maybe I'll just use that black light to keep me warm and get some use out of that bowling shirt from last year.

12-Mile Friday

Longer runs for Kenz and her GRB have been hot in the past and so the Binx and I sometimes drop off water at a location about an hour into the run, or a halfway point. Hopefully, it's a good boost for the rest of the run.

Adi thinks this is fun.

Not that you can tell by the above picture. How about the picture below?

Apparently, it was a very dramatic drop off in the beginning. Her boots must have been in danger of getting wet and muddy - not that this has ever been a deterrent before.

Who knows what the deal is with wearing socks as gloves lately. She loves it.

In fact, yesterday she insisted on wearing her sock gloves to church. One of our neighbors was nice and commented on her cute "gloves", fully aware that they were socks and not gloves.

At least they are clean socks (most of the time), and it's not like she's draping herself with underwear to go out in public. If I have to choose battles, she wins this one.

Her escapist tendencies have to go though.

10-miler

Well, after that 8-miler, I did not want to have anything to do with running.

It. Was. Brutal. 

But, we did it again. 

We started way earlier and added two miles onto our 8-mile Canyon Run. It was gorgeous. 

And even fun. (I know. Did I really just call running 10 miles fun?) 

Maleen makes a great 2-hour running buddy. We have random and sometimes hilarious conversations and then other times we have a comfortable silence. 

Here's to 10 miles and many more to come! 

8-Miler

Maleen and I are well into our Half-Marathon training (Yes. I am running a half-marathon. More like wogging a half-marathon, but at least we're doing it!) and yesterday we had our 8-miler. 

The weather (at first) was gorgeous. Sun shining, crisp air, gorgeous landscape.

But by the end of those eight, I was dying. Over 80 in the middle of the day, pushing a stroller (Maleen helped for more than half!), brutal. I'm so very ecstatic that the half is early... er. 

Either way, I can't believe I just did 8 miles. Insane. 

We did pass Bridal Veil Falls, which was super cool. I even grabbed my phone to snap a few pictures. 

Here's to a few more weeks of training and an awesome GRB!

PR!

Ladies and gentlemen! Drumroll please...

I just ran a [timed] mile in 9:05! A personal record and decrease of 2:45 since June 18th!

I'm pretty excited about it (if you can't tell already)!

Oh, and did I mention I'm running the Halloween Half!? The day after my birthday in October.

Nervous.

But totally excited!

You Go Running?

I don't feel like I'm the most active person, but I feel like Ryan and I try. 

One of the rewards of trying is that this little one has taken notice! When she notices me getting my running clothes together she asks, "you go running?" So. dang. cute.

We bought her her very first pair of running shorts a few months ago and when she goes running with us in the stroller, sometimes likes to dress up. 

Here is how I found her one day before she and Ryan left on a run...

Watch out Richard Simmons. You've got competition. 

New-New

I love getting a good deal, but sometimes I hate the wait involved.

Ryan has taught me this patience over the past four years, and I'm thinking (or rather hoping) that it's starting to rub off.

Previously we posted pictures of our new pistachio-colored exercise room.

I'll admit, it looked a little bare.

It definitely needed a treadmill!

So we looked.

We looked and looked and looked.

And almost bought. And then we waited.

I'd given up the idea of getting a treadmill this year, thinking we would have to fork over $600 or more for anything decent.

And then, thanks to Facebook, we saw that some friends were selling their gently-used treadmill for only $100!

I called Ryan immediately and we were both in sold!

So a fresh, $100 bill later we had a not-so-bare exercise room!

Tonight I was able to take her for a spin for the first time (in my new pink shoes I might add), and I must say I scored a personal record for my mile time!

Now I just need to hit the pavement that fast!

Here's to running, I guess I'm starting to warm up...

(The before picture. Lonely weight bench.)

(The after picture. Yay!)

Now we just need some decor and a wall-mounted TV. (;

My Fabulous GRB

As mentioned by Ryan, a good GRB is hard to find.

In fact, the last time I really had a consistent one was in 2008 when ironically my GRB ended up being the wife of our former bishop's GRB. Good times. Good times.

Anyway... almost a month ago exactly a gal in our ward posted on the neighborhood Facebook page, asking if anyone was interested in going for a morning jog. I had just started a BYU jogging class where I had to log 70 miles in about six weeks, so I shouted (figuratively) me, me, me!

I was a little nervous because with running it's so hard to tell if you'll find a good buddy, but it was the start of an awesome GRB!

Meet Maleen:

She is a stellar stay-at-home mom with five beautiful girls and she is fabulous as evidenced here. Honestly, when I get the chance to stay home, I want to do it with as much style as Maleen!

Check out what we've done:

Over the past month, we've run consistently every. single. M, W, F, and even threw in a long-run Saturday! We're even going to train for a 10K and maybe something bigger. Maybe... 

Either way, we've been logging some consistent miles, enough that both of us decided it was time for new kicks! So, Maleen took the lead and came running Monday morning in brand new neon-pink running shoes. I was slightly envious (especially because I hadn't had time to go shoe shopping)... 

So, we stopped by Runner's Corner yesterday and tried on a ton of different brands including Asics, Saucony, K Swiss, Mizunos, and Nike. 

I'm a tried and true Asics girl, but a bea-u-tiful pair of Mizunos were calling my name... 

And I love them. Can't wait to log 200+ miles in these babies! 

Race Pictures

I'm posting these because I think that Binx sleeping in the stroller is hilarious.

We did wake her up at 5:30 to make it to the race on time. Poor girl.

Isn't she cute curled up in a little ball?
(And no, I was not going to pay $50 for pictures of me running.)

Let Freedom Run!

Our Independence Day was fabulous! It started out with a 5:40am alarm and we were off!

Thanks to winning two entrances to the 2012 Freedom Festival race, we dressed down and headed to Kiawanis Park to race! We snapped a few pictures before the race with our bright-eyed fashionista and in tow and headed to the start lines! 

Ryan ran the 10k and I ran the 5k. Lucky for me though, I ran into Mirinda and Lauren before the race started and bam, running buddies! We had such a fun time running and jogging, chatting, and laughing. Definitely the best. race. ever. Thanks ladies!

After the race we headed to look at the balloons and they were gone. It was really sad! We saw a couple in the sky, but nothing note (or picture) worthy, next year I guess! 

We snapped a few pictures of parade balloons filling up with air and headed to my parents for a red, white, and blue breakfast! Pancakes with mixed berries and whipped creme anyone? Yes. Please. 

We got ready quickly and headed back to the parade... but we basically missed it. 

Ohhhhhh well. Again, next year I guess!

We headed home, napped, watched our favorite Fourth-of-July movie, Independence Day, and then BBQ'd it up at my parents. My mom even made these fancy tri-colored drinks. 

We relaxed and then headed to a little neighborhood fireworks show that was a lot of fun (although definitely avoid arial fireworks that have fallen on their side, it can be dangerous)! 

All in all, the perfect Fourth of July! Can't wait until next year! 

Independence Day 2012 

Life is Beautiful

Life is beautiful. I feel so lucky. This week has been incredible and I love when I feel focused, positive, and productive. Here's what we've been up to... 

On Saturday, March 17th, Ryan and I ran the Rex Lee Run. 

It was invigorating. And emotional. We ran in honor of Ryan's grandmothers, Colleen and Joan, and our friend Wes who passed away a few months after we ran the race last year. Not being a very good runner, I couldn't help but push myself to the limit thinking Wes didn't ever give up, so why should I? 

 

It was a great opportunity to remember. Here's to Cancer Fighters everywhere!

After the race, we doodled a little bit, Nate won a $5 Five Guys gift certificate and we made our way home. Then Jennifer, Erin and the boys came down for a visit! We had a blast on the merry-go-round and then headed... 

To the aquarium! The last time I went, Adi was just over a month old and it was an awful experience. (Why do we have new borns again?) This time was so. much. fun. 

I loved that Adi discovered new things and tried new words. Adi loved seeing her cousins, Gavin and Jake and they were so cute holding hands while running around. (It's a good thing there were three adults--great ratio.)

I love this picture--can you spot Adi twice? 

Also this past week, I've been working on my healthy baking. I started with some whole wheat banana bread, but also tweaked a couple recipes and came up with this delicious zucchini, banana, lemon muffin. Whole wheat, no fat, very little sugar (from honey), and seriously delicious. We've also made whole wheat apple and oat pancakes. Yum. Next culinary adventure: whole wheat blackberry and lemon muffins. (I'm going to try and freeze them and fly them with me on my business trip next week... we'll see how it goes.)

Finally, I got this cute picture from my brother mid-day yesterday. The weather is so nice. In fact, we're having to seek out new spring/summer clothes for Adi because everything she has is long-sleeved. She even got a little sun yesterday while we all talked outside.

That's where we've been this week. Yay for warm weather and happiness!