Running, Running and MORE Running

I was a running machine this Spring. I have never run this much in my life and if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm happy to be done with it for awhile. So MANY 5 am (or earlier!) mornings to train for my races and I'm not an early riser by nature AT ALL!

It all started with the Ogden Marathon. This was my race, I signed up right when registration opened and trained hard for 6 months. The race took place May 21, 2011. I raced with my friends Diana and Lalani and Kristy came along as our biggest fan (we were so happy to have her!)

The week leading up to the race was not a good one. I was run down, sick and tired (pretty typical for a runner training for a marathon, actually) and the night before the race was awful! I barely slept a wink. I was in good spirits the morning of the race, however, but these good feelings left pretty quickly as the race began.

Diana and I promised to stay together and we had started off too fast. By Mile 7, we were still on our goal to hit 3 hours 40 min, but I shooed her ahead of me so I could slow down. By mile 13, I knew my goal was gone, but had hoped to still beat 4 hours. I crossed the half at 1 hour 52 min. Then I began the WORST part of the race--UPHILL for 1.5 miles--UGH! The rest was survival and I ran across the finish line at 4 hours 11 min. A PR for me and, after what I had just been through, I felt pretty dang good.

So blessed and thankful to have my Grandma, Grandpa, Dad and Paula there to support me!

Diana, on the other hand, was very dissatisfied with her time and even though I swore up and down Ogden was my second and LAST marathon, she had talked me into running the Utah Valley Marathon with her by Monday afternoon (2 days later.) What a tricky friend :). The race was three weeks away on June 11, 2011.

I kept training, but was so run down, and never really recovered. Our trip back up to Salt Lake was so much fun and made running another marathon completely worth it though :). We laughed so hard and had a lot of fun! Amy joined us the day before making this her 10th MARATHON (that girl is amazing!)

Love these two! Such a FUN time!

This race was horrible! I LOVED the course and would love to do this one again, but I was in no shape to run another marathon. I came in with my worst time of all three marathons: 4 hours 26 min, but at least I can say I have run 3 marathons :). Diana met her goal (whoo hoo!) and beat 4 hours and Amy met her goal of 3 hours 30 min (I told ya...AMAZING!)

If you aren't convinced I am crazy yet, 4 days later, Matt and I jetted back up to SLC to run Wasatch Back Ragnar with our friends! Thank goodness it was Ragnar and PR's are not expected. I added over 18 more miles to my belt and had a BLAST with the "Hot Tamales!" Ragnar's have become such a fun tradition with our friends! We look forward to a race every year.

So, I'm taking the summer off from running (at least!) It's too hot to run outside down here anymore anyway. We'll see what my running future brings. I'd really like to try triathlons, so we'll see...

10 years

Matt and I have been married 10 wonderful years! We have been through so much and time has flown by so quickly. It seems like only yesterday that I was trying to get him to like me at SUU ;)! I love this man so much and am so blessed to be married to my best friend.

We celebrated this year with an extended weekend in Vegas. We stayed at the "Encore" (beautiful) and got to see Garth Brooks in concert. The only word I can describe the show is a BIG, HUGE WOW!!! It was seriously the BEST concert I have EVER been to! I loved Garth in high school, but have not listened to him very much since. I still remember every word to his songs and loved hearing his stories and watching him work the audience. Matt even liked it, which is saying a lot because he does not like country music.

We met our friends Joe and Kenzie at "The Sugar Factory " (yum!) and also ate at "Serendipity" (double yum!!) among some other Vegas favorites. We shopped, saw the show "Le Reve" and slept in! It was a fabulous anniversary weekend with my sweetheart.

Swimming Lessons

We decided to stick with the ISR swim lesson method, this year, because it worked so wonderfully well last year.

Seth did a fast 2 week refresher.

Trent did a month.

Little Rylee, swam her heart out, at her first go around at this, for 6 weeks.

These pictures are amazing to me. I cannot believe my little kiddos can swim like this! I LOVE, LOVE ISR and wouldn't do anything different. We are ready to begin our summer swimming!