Trail run in the DARK

We move next week!  Crazy.  Been packing up and selling things.  I am excited to live with less stuff and clutter, for as long as that lasts anyway!

Allie went to a birthday party this week, and it was a Frozen party, so they made snow out of cornstarch and shaving cream.  That's one brave parent!  Well, she brought some home, and Claire ended up playing with it for over two hours!  Easy entertainment right there!  Luckily it's a cinch to clean up!

So I decided to hire a fitness consultant for the next 12 weeks to help me lose a few lb and tone up.  I signed up on Saturday and have already lost 2 lb!  He just holds me accountable to my plan of eating less and moving more.  I love it.  I am learning how to control portions, and I can't believe what a difference that makes!  Feeling good!  We start FaceTime workouts next week.

Last night I took Missy and Megan on their first trail run up Pipeline Trail in Millcreek Canyon.  Janet came with us, which of course made me happy!  I was SO excited to show Missy and Megan one of my favorite trails!  BUT....I'm kind of stupid and we started too late in the evening and had to walk back in the DARK!  Luckily we had our phones to help us see!  But before it got dark, we had amazing views and the fall colors were so gorgeous!  And of course, great company!

Proof of how DARK it was!  I was holding my phone over us while Janet took the picture.  I felt so bad!  I'll have to take them on another trail run where we plan a little better!  

Life Update (LONG post!)

Okay.  I have been slacking on my blog, and I don't like that!  This is my family journal, and I need to do better.  I'm going to try and sit down every evening and write down our day.  That's the goal.

So here's a quick recap of what I haven't blogged lately.

1.  The kids are doing great in school!  Cam had a field trip to Silver Lake yesterday and said it was a blast.  He's learning multiplication and division, and it feels like yesterday he was in Kindergarten learning addition!  Roo is loving Kindergarten.  I love her little homework worksheets.  She LOVES riding the bus, and I'm sad that the chances of the kids riding a bus wherever we move to are pretty slim.  Bear and I always have fun at home together.  She misses the older kids, but I'm loving have that time with her.

2. Still no job.  Trust me, you'll know when we get one.  He's had a few interviews though, and the IHC job is still in the running.  Our official move-out date is September 27, so the plan is to move to Salem if nothing else happens by then.  Sigh.

3. I have started a new workout program and clean eating, so be ready for that update each day.  I LOVE it!  The goal is to workout an hour a day, NOT counting running.  I alternate arm/ab day with leg day, and I feel so amazing already!

4. Nate did his 2nd Triathlon on Labor Day and rocked it!  SO SO proud of him!  He wants to do a half ironman next.  Woot!  Such a stud.  And hot, might I add...

5. Yesterday, I met up with my friend, Cindy, at City Creek for lunch.  She is part of our running group, but we had never met, since she lives in Southern California.  She came to Utah to run Big Cottonwood this weekend.  It was such a treat to meet her.  We walked over to Temple Square, since she'd never seen that before.  I hope she had a nice time and felt something special there.

6. My awesome running friend, Ty, invited our family and Joshua over for dinner last Sunday.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  We seriously laughed for like 3 hours straight.  I don't think I've seen Nate laugh so much!  Also, I got to snuggle baby Ginny.

7.. Nate is HOT.  That's all.

Closer to God

I am still recovering from my marathon.  I have felt pretty crummy ALL week.  I've had a really mild fever, a lovely rash all over my abdomen, NO appetite and have been completely exhausted (NOT prego, by the way).  I really think I have some sort of virus, and I REALLY think I had it when I ran the marathon.  It would explain everything!  Like why my body could NOT run, the entire time!

So that's the physical aspect.  Hoping to kick this bug SOON!

Mentally and emotionally, I'm doing MUCH better.  I struggled for a couple of days.  EVERYTHING made me cry (promise I'm not pregnant!  Apparently post-marathon-ness is like the first trimester!).  I kept beating myself up over and over about how that marathon went.  But I'm feeling better now.  I'm out of that hazy feeling, and almost feel like I've been lifted above it.  Let me explain.

My friend, Mike Talbot, told me after the marathon, "You are not the same Becca who toed that starting line."

I can't get that thought out of my mind.  It's SO true.  The feelings and experiences I had in those grueling 6 hours were so humbling.  I have felt a quiet closeness to God this week.  I can't get enough of the scriptures.  I feel closer to Nate.  I feel like I have more faith than ever before.  There were moments during my marathon where everything went away.  Time, material things, people, what I thought to be reality....it just vanished, and I was just briefly lifted to a higher plane, above all that.  Sure, maybe I was just delirious from the heat, but I'm going to go ahead and pretend that I wasn't.  John Groberg wrote about his experience in Tonga when the island he was on had been hit by a bad hurricane, and they waited weeks and weeks for a boat to come with food.  He explains how he begins to grow closer to God as his physical state diminishes.

"We continued to waste away physically but grow in the more important spiritual sense.  I dozed a lot and at times wasn't entirely sure where I was.  I became convinced that just as we must break the bands of the gravitational pull of this earth in order to explore the farther universe, so we must break the bands of the gravitational pull of the cares of the world before we can begin to see the realities of some of these external relationships. I learned much about who God is, what the plan of salvation is, who the Savior is, and what His part in that great plan is.  I learned something about why and how the world was created, a little about the love our Father in Heaven and Jesus have for us, and why God allows supposedly evil things to happen.  When you feel God's love and have the confidence and assurance that He is there, then other things aren't important."  -John H. Groberg, The Other Side of Heaven pg 116-117.

Such an amazing book.  Read it!

I will forever be grateful for my marathon experience.  The impression to run it and embark on that journey was real.  It was from God.  He needed me to be in that situation so He could put people in my life who I need, and most of all, so He could teach me things I wouldn't have learned any other way.  I'm so grateful for the gift of running.  My running is more than a hobby for me.  It has been an invaluable tool that God has used to teach and refine me.

I like this.

Ogden 26.2: Week TEN (Riverton Half Marathon)

I'm so happy.  I LOVE RUNNING!!!

I was pretty glad this was a "step-back" week for me.  My 17-miler last weekend wore me out.  I could barely run two miles on Tuesday.  My legs were just dead.  But I am learning that rest is important, and that recovery time is when you become stronger.  So I didn't stress about it.

On Wednesday morning, Staci and I did a little trail run.  We haven't run together in ages, and I miss her!  We went up Millcreek Canyon to hike the Pipeline Trail.  It was gorgeous, and I loved exploring a new area!

On Saturday, we ran the Riverton Half Marathon.  I signed up for this back in January.  Only $30!  A few of us were using it as a training run for marathon training.  The course is pretty tough.  Hilly!  Not nearly as easy as a canyon run.  But a few days before the race, Robert Merriman told me he'd pace me to a 2:15 finish.  I laughed.  My PR is a 2:09, and that's running down down down a canyon.  I told him I'd try my best to keep up, but in my head, was still just laughing at the idea.  I was really shooting for maybe a 2:22-25 or so.

There was a fun group of us there.  Me, Joshua, Quesnel, Elvia, Robert and Christy.  We met up and hung out for about an hour before it started.  I'll say it again:  I LOVE these people!  We have so much fun together.  We just laugh and laugh and laugh.

I was still pretty nervous about trying to keep up with Robert Merriman (who I will now refer to as RM throughout this post....I can't just call him Robert, and I'm too lazy to type 'Robert Merriman' out each time), but I decided to just try my best!

We took off running.  The first few miles were not too hilly.  I kept up a good pace with RM.  We ran through some neighborhoods and then did an out and back on the Jordan River Parkway.  It was fun to pass the runners who were ahead of us as they were running back.  Jonathan was pacing the 1:50 group, and Q is speedy, so we high-fived them.  We also saw Josh, Elvia and Christy on our way back.  We finally reached an aid station, so I ate and drank a little.  We stayed on the Jordan Parkway for a few more miles.  There was a pretty good-sized hill.  RM kept trying to distract me as we ran up it.  "See the pond, Becca?  Do you see it?"  Then we cruised down the other side.  We were running into the sun at this point, so I was getting warm.  The miles ticked by, and I was really surprised to be keeping up a pretty decent pace for me.

As usual though, I slowed down around Mile 9 and started to suffer.  RM was a saint and kept me going.  He wouldn't let me take very long walking breaks, and told me stories and made me laugh to keep me happy.  I loved running with him.  At Mile 11, there were more awful hills, and I was really wearing down.  But I held on.  Literally.  I held on to RM's shirt and he pulled me up the hill!  Only for a second though, I couldn't make him do that!  He also made me do a few fartlek's (sprints) at the end to make up some of our time.  I was hurting and miserable, but I was also determined.  I could tell we were at least going to come in under 2:20, and that though kept me going.  The mile markers were about a quarter to half a mile off the entire course.  That messed with my head.

We turned the final corner and saw the finish line.  RM told me to push hard and finish with nothing left in the tank.  I tried so hard to run fast, but that finish line never seemed to get closer!  But we finally crossed it, and I could not stop smiling because we ran it in 2:13!!!!

Shocked.  Only FOUR minutes off of my PR time.

My dear, sweet Robert Merriman taught me a good lesson today:  I am capable of doing SO much more than I thought!  I can push through the pain and accomplish my goals.  I need to aim higher and not hold myself back.

We found Q and grabbed some food while we waited for the others.  Joshua and Elvia came in together, and then I saw the Christy has texted me.  She was struggling.  So we walked back down towards the corner.  When we saw her, we ran with her down the final stretch.  She did so great!

What a great run!  It was really hard.  But I did it!  I'm SO grateful that I pushed myself and didn't just consider this a "training run".  I made it really count.  Now I am stoked for the SL Half next month.  Let's see what I can do there!  No more holding myself back.  No more comfort zone ALL the time!

Bring on Week Eleven!