May 2019

I signed Kaden up for soccer, and I was excited.  Then I got the email saying they were practicing at the soccer complex on the other end of town, every single Monday and had games there too every Wednesday.  I had planned on one day a week at the field by the hospital, which is much closer to my house.  I was pretty upset.  But Kaden was really excited so I decided to just leave him in and get there when we could.  We missed a couple times just because we had other stuff and couldn't quite get there.  A big problem was that it was a 25 minute drive at 5pm and Kaden could not stay awake!  He fell asleep every time!  Then he would be groggy and cranky.  One time I had to go early because Dylan had practice at 4:30 and Kaden at 5:30.  I took them both and left Kaden sleeping in the car while I watched Dylan.  The car was within view and I figured if Kaden woke up he would just open the door.  I was wrong.  I checked on him at one point and he was still sleeping.  Then a lady started talking to me so I didn't check back as soon as I otherwise would have.  When I went back, I found him crying, standing in the car.  He had woken up and needed to go potty.  I don't know why he didn't open the door.  He knows how to unlock it.  He will often fall asleep on our way home and I will leave him in the car in the garage and after a few minutes he will make his way in the house.  Anyway, he had needed to go potty, I didn't come back soon enough, so he peed in his pants.  He was all bundled in layers because it was a cold spring, so I took him to the bathroom and tried to dry him off but he was just not going to play soccer in wet pee clothes, and who can blame him.  He often said he didn't want to go to soccer (after the initial excitement wore off) so he really didn't want to stay and play.  I was frustrated and mad at myself and I just took him and Dylan home.  

 But when he did get out and play (especially when it wasn't freezing) he had fun.  The problem was he was playing with boys almost two years older than him and they had much better ball control so he rarely got to touch the ball during games.  He needs a bit more practice, or time to mature I guess.

Speaking of soccer, we headed back to Utah a couple weeks after my marathon, Layton this time, for a soccer tournament for Kylee's team.  This tournament offered discounted tickets to a ReAL Salt Lake game.  We have talked about going to a game for years so we took advantage.  It was fun, other than the stinking rain!  It was barely sprinkling when we were walking in, but then it started coming down!  We were soaked!  But after awhile it lightened up and the sun came out and we had a good time.

 Kaden was all bundled up and fell asleep just sitting up.  It was a bit late, in his defense.

 Dylan sat by his friend Austin (he plays on Dylan's team and his sister Julia plays on Kylee's team so we are good friends with the McCord family).  Kylee got to sit by a lot of her teammates.

 We stayed the night in a hotel in Layton and I wanted to run about 10 miles.  It just so happened that our hotel was almost exactly 5 miles from our old house.  We haven't been back there much.  We moved over 12 years ago.  It was weird running through our old neighborhood and remembering things.  We only lived there for maybe 1.5 years.  Anyway, it was a nice day and I was happy it was actually somewhat warm for my run.

We had Elder Bednar visit our stake and speak to us.  There was a young married adult session on Saturday night for people 18-40, so Ryan and I qualified.  It was really neat to be there.  Then we brought the whole family on Sunday to listen to his words.  There were a few other 70 members and wives with him.  It was really neat hearing his testimony so powerful, the spirit was palpable.  Afterwards the kids went up to shake his hand.  It's not often you get to shake hands with an apostle!

The girls had their duet recital.  They both did great!

 Dylan had his DARE graduation.  That's always fun.  They sang an awesome song!

Sadie joined PIPES for the second session and she had her performance.  The theme was ABBA which is really Mamma Mia, but the storyline of Mamma Mia isn't appropriate for young kids so they just called it ABBA.  My mom is obsessed with Mamma Mia and wanted to hear all the songs.  We ended up getting a recording of the whole show so she got to see it all later.  It was really cute.  Heather does a really great job with it.  But it was a lot of practice time especially when Sadie learns quickly.  She had every song memorized even the ones she wasn't a part of.  She seemed happy to have it over finally.  It was long.  She did have a little solo part "Slipping Through My Fingers" and she did really great.  That was fun

 Some of our good friends in the neighborhood decided to move to Utah to be closer to family.  They are a great family and we are really going to miss the Bitters. Dylan was friends with their preschooler Claire and Sadie was good friends with Grace.  Ryan worked with Drew in Elder's Quorum for awhile and really admired him.  He was my dentist and I liked him as a dentist a lot so I was bummed.  And Becky was a good friend of mine.

End of School Stuff

Kaden had his Preschool Program ("graduation").  He was so cute.  Sadie got to go up on stage with all the other Miss Deanna alumni.

Dylan worked hard on his Wax Museum project.  (There were a lot of projects in 5th grade.)  He dressed up as Theodor Suess Geisel aka Dr Suess.  I really tried to get him to choose Alexander Hamilton.  He could've rapped.  It would have been epic.  But he refused to just to spite me because he's sick of Kylee and I singing the songs.  He had fun with Dr Suess though.  And we have a LOT of those books.  The library even has a Lorax poster and trees so it helped his scene.

I helped with Field Day and watched Dylan run the relay with his class.  It was fun, especially since it was a nice day.  They had a little soccer tournament too and it was killing Dylan to have to sit out and watch people who don't know how to play.  But they had fun building a human pyramid anyway.

I didn't see Sadie on Field Day but I did get to chaperone her field trip to hike Cress Creek.  These kids are adorable.

 Alex, Ali, AJ, Kylie, Sadie, Gracie

 Mrs Adams

Traditionally, I take a last day of school picture.  It's not as formal as the first day of school.  I usually get an action shot of them jumping for joy and it's pretty cute.  Sometimes they aren't as cooperative.  This first picture shows the reality of when I say "put your arms around each other or something."  Why is it that Dylan only wants to "touch" anyone when he's trying to bug them?  

 Luckily, as I was starting to snap at them to just pretend to like each other for one minute, Jax decided to come and see what the party was about.  And he completely changed their moods.

Thank you Jax, for putting smiles on their faces.  Yay for summer!

Marathon PR

Ogden Marathon 2019

I ran a marathon in August 2018 but I wasn't very happy with how it went since my lower leg muscles completely failed me.  I needed to redeem myself, to prove to myself that marathons are not so scary.  So I was looking for another marathon to do.  I've done Ogden before, the half a couple times and the full once.  There were a couple reasons I was not inclined to choose Ogden.  First, it's in May, which is early enough that it's pretty cold to train for.  Second, the last time I did it there was a lottery drawing and it was not easy to get into.  Third, the one time I did the full marathon here, my knees had problems and they hurt for years after.  I don't know why.  Something about the downhill or the slant of the road.  

But, after looking at all my options many times, I decided it was the best one.  I wanted one a little earlier so I wasn't training all summer.  And my knees were stronger because of my cross training.  Jen had thought the half marathon was a bit crazy and didn't think she would do a full.  But then she started training with me and it didn't seem so crazy.  I mean, it's kind of crazy.  But not beyond her capabilities.  So she signed up too.  We had one other friend Gina sign up, but Gina hurt her ankle the week before the race and decided it would be best not to do it.  

One other thing about Ogden is that the first two times I ran it, the weather was beautiful.  The last time it rained hard the whole time and was kind of miserable and freezing.  I heard that it had rained quite a few years.  So really it can go either way.  We anxiously watched the weather, but unfortunately it showed rain in the forecast this year too.  And it was a cold spring anyway.  The mountains were pretty like always but the snow up there made me nervous!

We did what we could to stay dry before the start.  It wasn't pouring out there, but the ground was wet and it was actually snowing a bit up the canyon at the start.  I had brought my waterproof ipod, but the line to the bathroom was long and they were getting ready to close the truck with the drop bags so I rushed out of the potty and ran to drop off my bag.  10 seconds after I handed it in, I realized I had forgotten to grab my ipod out of it.  I climbed in the truck to try and find it but there were hundreds of bags and I hadn't watched where they threw it so I had no chance.  No music.  Oh well!  I had been running with Jen a lot and I don't usually listen to music when we run so I was kind of used to it anyway.

I brought dry socks to put on right before we started, but it didn't matter.  After three steps on the road, my toes were soaked.  It was just going to be a wet race.  The good news is that it was just drizzly / misty the whole time, not really pouring.  Sometimes it would rain a bit more but it wasn't too bad.  And I had the clothing for it this time.  We decided the cool weather was helpful.  Running in heat is hard on you.

Jen and I started out together.  She had said she was going to stay with me the whole time.  I told her she should run her own race and not wait for me.  We were going a pretty good pace for the first few miles, except when I took my big fleece sweatshirt off and it tore out my diamond earring so I had to stop and find it in the road and put it back in.  Yikes!  It only took a minute but still.  After a few miles I decided to slow my pace a bit because I knew I would burn out.  Jen pulled ahead, I gave her the signal and she went on.  Once she was out of view I didn't see her again until the finish line.

I sang Hamilton songs in my head for a few miles.  Honestly, the lack of music didn't kill me.  I didn't think that much about it.  I was enjoying the race.  Large races are fun.  I like having people running all around me.  I did a lot of people-watching.  I chatted with people a little.  I had a good time.

I took a GU Rocktane at mile 9 (recommended by my mom for the high amounts of bcaa, which I usually took in drink form on the bike but didn't have that option while running.  She told me to take them as directed, which is every 45 mintues, but I didn't think I needed it until it started feeling kind of hard, which was mile 9.)  And I did feel a bit better after.  Then I came up on the half start line, which meant I was halfway done.  There was still a bit of a party going on and it hyped me up a bit.  Volunteers on the side of the road would read my name on my bib and call me by name.  It was weird at first until I realized I didn't actually know them.  When I was passing the half start, the time clock said 2 hours.  I realized I had ran that first half at a pretty decent pace and I still felt really good.  There was a hill about a half mile long shortly after that and I just went for it.  I passed people walking and by the time I got to the top I felt kind of amazing.  I think I felt like the hard part was over and it was supposed to be all downhill from there.  It wasn't actually downhill for another four miles or so, but in my head I was there.  With all my time to think, I started thinking about my marathon running friend Ali, who is super fast and qualifies for Boston all the time, who had told me she thought I could definitely beat 4 hours.  I had no aspirations to even try for that.  I thought I would get around 4:15.  But I just wanted to beat my old 4:31 time.  As I came up to mile 20, which is where the downhill really got going, I looked at my watch and realized I was at 3 hours.  I had a 10K left to run and if I could do it in an hour, I could beat 4 hours.  I felt good, I figured I may as well try.  I took another GU, and a pixie stick style preworkout, and I pushed it.  I felt really good.  My muscles would get a little crampy sometimes and I had taken a few leg cramp pills and some ibuprofen.  I tried to be careful with my calves and shins, using my quads more when I was feeling them.  It got worse and worse as I neared the finish line but they never seized up and made me stop.

Another thing Ali had told me is that she doesn't usually stop to use the porta-potty.  I had always just assumed that sometime in the 4+ hours I would have to stop.  But when she said that, I decided to wait and see what happened.  I needed to go just a little in the first half, but it never got worse and I was able to make it the whole time without even being miserable.  Amazing!

On the last 1.5 miles I came upon the 4 hour pacer.  I couldn't believe I had caught him!  I passed him and said, "I caught you!"  He said, "good! Now don't let me pass you."  Challenge accepted.  I kept up my pace and pushed as hard as my body would allow.  I passed so many people in those last few miles.  The last mile was the hardest.  I was falling apart.  I wanted to slow down so badly.  But I pictured the pacer behind me and refused to let him pass. 

 When I crossed the line, the clock said something like 4:01.  But I knew I hadn't crossed the start line right at the gunshot either.  My watch said 3:59.  Even if I didn't officially get sub 4, I was thrilled and amazed at my performance.  That may sound cocky, but speed has never been my thing.  I can do hard things, but not super fast. 

Jen was waiting with her husband and called me over.  We did it!  She got an amazing time of 3:44!!  She's so awesome!

After grabbing a water and a creamy, I needed to check my time. I needed to know if I had done it.  Sure enough, the results showed exactly the same time as my watch, to the second.  I had done it.  I never thought it was possible. 

My watch did have my distance quite a bit off, which made my pace look faster.  I FELT like I was running those paces.  Apple Watch is just a little off I guess because Jen's watch said the same distance as mine.

 I was on cloud nine.  I was also completely beat, but also not feeling all that bad.  I got in my car, took off my wet shoes, and headed for home.  I feel like I did it right, meaning I pushed my body as far as I could without breaking it.  I was completely done when I finished, but I hadn't fallen apart beforehand.  I was fine driving home, and just excited to share my news with everyone.

When I got home, I found this little trophy that Sadie had made for me.  She didn't even know that I had performed so well.  Or that I ran in the rain, lol.  She's a cutie.

My speed training all winter paid off.  The cooler weather helped.  I got a personal record by more than 30 minutes.  I call that a good race!