Top of Utah Marathon

 The Top of Utah Marathon. I'd been preparing for it since June :) although training was a bit sketchy in the summer I did it! I ran a marathon and I can't wait to run another one, but I wasn't thinking that when I first got there. I really thought I was crazy the morning of the marathon. We were suppose to meet at Merlin Olsen Park to get on a bus to take us to the starting line up Blacksmiths Fort Canyon. I got there around 5 in the morning and I couldn't believe the amount of buses that were there not to mention the amount of people!

a small chunk of the buses

Thankfully I knew that Kandy and Kari were running the marathon so I met up with them on the bus. We were all so excited. They had both run a couple marathons before, they knew what was to come and were still excited so I really wasn't that nervous.

That morning it was raining! I love the rain :) I couldn't believe that it was really raining on my race day :) I felt like I was being wished good luck by mother nature! It was still raining when we started the race but by mile 3 it let up. Everyone including me, shed their ponchos. I wish I hadn't done that. A mile later it started drizzling again. But I really wish I had it around mile 7 because we got a warning that we were running right into a rainstorm. It was this part of the course that I wish I had my camera. We were running down a windy canyon road and could see what was coming in front of us, a huge cloud. That's all you could see. Just a big cloud in front of us. We could see the lightning flashing inside it and could hear the thunder. It was kinda eerie to look at. It scared me a to thinking we were running through that! As we started plugging through the cloud it starts raining really hard. You could barely see the person next to you! While you were running, trying to see, the lightning would flash and the thunder would come right after it! It was so close it hurt your ears. The sound was so loud and because we were in a canyon it would bounce around for a bit and then the next round would come. After about a mile of running in that the rain turned to hail! Thankfully that didn't last too long but it hurt while it did! As we got closer to mile 14 the thunder and lightning slowly disappeared and the rain started to let up. It didn't quite raining until mile 20 and we got hailed on once more! Boy what an adventure.

rain won't stop me from running it only encourages it

My family braved the weather and came to support me!

I have thee best cheerleaders :)

Dianne and Kristin

There was some miss function of my race chip. I had signed up so that when I pass mile 14 my family got a sent a text message so they could come find me. Well it must of gotten wet (weird right) so my fam never got the text. It took them a bit but they finally found me at mile 20!

I loved running in that race by myself. It gave me the opportunity to talk with people along the way. I met some amazing people. I loved hearing their reasons for running this marathon. What brought them here!

I love this picture :) i'm glad my mom came to support me!

... And my dad. He was giving me pointers and helping me out! Next marathon you're doing it with me!

From miles 18-23 i hated it. I wish i had never decided to do this stupid run. It was so hard and I felt like my body was going to fall apart at any moment. But I kept going. I had to prove to myself I can run a marathon and that i could finish!

At one point in the race I was so tired and my emotions were everywhere. We were running down a street heading east. The course then had us turn and run south. That almost made me cry. I was seriously choking back tears! I knew the finish line was north from where I was at and I couldn't believe that they were making us go south! Can you tell that mile 21 was a rough one.

And I did it! I finished! I loved the ending. Running down the ally of people cheering for me with them announcing my name and know that i just ran 26.3 miles :)

My goal was to get under a 5:20 marathon. I knew I had cut it close. After a bit they anounced the times..... I got a 5:19:35.5 :) i was so psyched!

waiting to hear my time

I had so many people come and support me and so many more wish me luck! thanks for the support everyone

Kristin Me and Dianne <3

Suzanna Me and Megan

Tonya and I

Grandpa and Grandma

The rain must have been pretty dirty. I had a nice dirt line :) I also had very pruny feet from running in puddles for the past 5 hours

I was so sore after I finished. My legs felt like jello. It was so hard to pick my feet up when I got in the car to go home. I then realized that I had to climb up stairs to get inside my house. I had to take a "Rocky" picture when I got to the top!

My family thought it was so funny when I attempted to walk up the stairs that they made me do it again so they could record it. Of course if they are going to be recording it I was going to make it look like I was walking up the stairs like a normal person. I failed at that.

I loved doing the marathon. A lot of people have asked me why did I do it. And to tell you the truth I'm not sure. I always admired my Uncle Doug for doing marathons and iron mans. He did have a big part in inspiring me to do it. But I really can't tell you why other than that. I'm just glad I did it! It was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to do another one :)

The 6:30 to Midnight Day

Wow what a loooong day it was. But i loved it! My morning started with volunteering at the Alzhymers run.

Le and I at the Run for Alzheimer's

It was so cold that morning but it eventually got warmer. It was fun to talk to the people there. To learn about who they are running for. I didn't get to stay the whole time there because it was the first USU Woman's Rugby game at 10:30 :)

I didn't play in this game because i didn't want to get hurt before my marathon next week. It was fun to watch them... but it KILLED me not being able to play.

After the game I went over to the Purple Driveway Church. I am the Visiting Teaching Coordinator in my ward and I needed to adjust some things before the month of September ended. I stayed longer than expected and ended up going straight over to Hillcrest to meet up with my friends. It was the first USU Football game of the season and we were all meeting there to walk down together.

 

The game was fun but i never go to watch football, I go for the social hour and a social hour it was :) i love my friends. After the game a big group of us went to Federico's Pizza! It was sooo good. Maybe it was because I hadn't eaten since 6 that morning or maybe because of the people i was with... well whatever the reason it was delicious! 

 

I only knew about half the people that were there and it was fun to meet new people. My day still wasn't over. After pizza we all went to Chantry's house and watch the rugby movie Forever Strong. It was such a fun day but i was so glad to finally climb into my bed that night!

One more goodbye

Kandy and I at her party Tuesday night

Kandy. I met her the summer before my senior year, her junior, of high school. We immediately clicked. She has been an amazing friend for the past two years. She has been such a big influence in my life. We can talk about anything together. We know how to have fun and then when we need to be serious about life. We would take "Temple Trips" to do baptisms together all the time. I'll miss not having her around. She's going to BYU Idaho and i'm so psyched for her. She will thrive there and have the time of her life! I love ya girl and good luck with life :)

Mt. Logan

 Mt. Logan. The 39th highest peak in Utah and the highest in cache valley. Katie, Chantry, Jon and I took a trip up there on Labor Day. It was grand. I had never been up there before. It was so fun and it was wonderful to see the valley from such a pretty view.

Chantry and Jon kickin in the front

We also went Elk hunting. Although we didn't see any we were glad we had the binoculars :)

We jammed out to some music, did a little hiking, and had a picnic on top. We got home around noon and that night we had a fire up at Second dam with a big group of people. There were ghost stories told, good food, friends, and music! It was a wonderful day. A day with friends and the outdoors. What could be better than that.

80s flash back

Friday night.

I got home from the Man VS Mud test run and quickly jumped into the shower and rinsed all the mud off of me. It was the first friday back in school and that meant the 80s dance :) It was a party and a half! I went with Kara and Suzanna. Kara came over to my house and we got all decked out together, Suzanna joined us right before we left and we met up with Katie at the dance! I'd like to point out my hair. I had so much product in it! It was sooo big. but throughout the night is slowly flatened. I wish i would have gotten a picture of it when it was at it's high point! I loved dressing up crazy.

We actually didn't go to the 80s dance until 11ish. We were partying it up at the institute dance :) we are dance on stage and having a grand old time. Sorry about the poor lighting on the video it's Katie, Suzanna Kara and I on stage leading the crowd in some awesome dancing!

It was such a fun night and i'm so glad i have friends that love to do crazy things with me :)

Man VS Mud

Man VS Mud 

(click HERE for a link to the hjnews to read the article about it)

(click HERE for a link to the official web site)

Volunteer: A person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.
I have done a lot of volunteering in my life, and it's always fun. But volunteering with Man VS Mud is no comparison! It was a blast!
The Week before the race we had three meetings. The first one was on Tuesday. We met at The Pizza Pie Cafe. We assembled packets, went over the course and got to eat all the pizza we wanted! The second meeting was on Thursday. We go the run down of how registration goes and the schedule for the race day. Friday we met at the West Heritage Center, where we were going to hold the race the next day. We put the finishing touches on the course and then we got to test it out! Yep we got to run the 5k Mud Run a day early and it was so much fun :) the first picture is of Anne-claire and I before we got all muddy. I was so excited when Anne-claire told me she was volunteering too. We had so much fun together! The other picture is us after the race. I would like to point out that when the bottom pictures was taken it was 8:30 at night and we were soaking wet and freezing. We had the heater n full blast on the drive home.

The next day started early. We were to be at the race at 7 in the morning. When we arrived we thought we were going to freeze to death. The sun wasn't yet shining on us and we were all wishing we had brought our winter coats. It was soo cold but the cold couldn't stop us we had a race to set up. We put the finishing touches on things and then we got assigned to what we were going to be doing that day. Kaile, Anne-claire and I were put in charge of the Boggy Bayou aka the kids course. It was so much fun but a very long hot day. As part of the kids course we had a bubble machine :)

Anne-Claire Kaile and I

We got walkie-talkies. it sure made us feel official!

I also had two of my friends, Le and Kaylee, actually run the race! It was so fun to see them and they said that they had a blast!

It was finally 4:30 which meant the last heat of the race was finishing and it was time for the volunteer run! I was psyched to get to run this again! It was so much fun. The only thing was kind of a bummer was that everyone had left so we didn't get any picture of us actually running the race, but we did get a before and after picture :)

I loved it :) and i think i got the deal. Because i was volunteering i didn't have to pay anything. But in return i got a free dinner, two free shirts, a free lunch and lots of coupons, we also got the run the course TWICE! If i was running it and not volunteering it would've been $40 and i would only get a free t-shirt. Anyways it was a very fun day. definitely one that i will remember forever!