San Francisco Treat

For our 12 year Anniversary, I wanted to give the Love of my Life a treat that could express how much I love being with her and exploring new places.  With the help of a few people, whom I want to thank and recognize, we had a spectacular trip.  A friend of ours, Craig who works for US Airways, helped us with buddy passes to fly into Oakland and then we took an exciting BART train ride into downtown SF.  Also my  awesome in-laws who booked us an amazing Time Share Resort in heart of San Francisco. Lastly my mom who was our transport to and from Airport and helped watch the boys while we were gone.  THANK YOU GUYS- It wouldn't have happened without your help.   

Now some highlights of the trip.

We walked all over the place, and by the end of the weekend we were exhausted.  We did buy some City Passes that allowed us to jump on the countless trolleys, old style cable cars, buses, etc...  My favorite was riding the cable cars and holding on for dear life on the side rails.  We saw the whole city, thanks to Carolyn and her amazing maps skills.

The Wharf, Marketplace, Pier 39, Downtown Chinatown , and other locations were all within walking distance or a short ride on bus.

Another highlight of the trip was the amazing food that we ate.  Authentic Chinese food from Chinatown, Sourdough Bread (it tastes so much better when you eat in SF), crab right off the boat, chocolate from Ghirardelli factory.  The list went on and on.  Thank goodness we walked everywhere so we could burn off some of the calories.

Lastly I booked 2 special tours:  Muir Woods and Alcatraz!!!!  We had such an amazing time and the pictures don't do justice to how breath taking the giant red woods were and the nostalgia of being on "The Rock"

MUIR WOODS

ALCATRAZ

San Diego -- July 2012

Last July (2012), my brother and his lovely wife were sealed in the San Diego Temple.

The San Diego is one of my all-time favorites and the grounds were spectacular as always.

They were also very welcoming, cool and comfortable, apparently.

At first we thought Dad was praying....

 ....no we didn't.  We knew he was sleeping.  So of course we took photos and made fun of him.

And then there was the beach.

We always love the beach. 

So much fun!

Apparently our boys don't like taking photos with us.  :)

 Here's Jeff throwing the ball....

 ....and catching it at the same time.  Amazing!!!! 

 These two didn't get the beach memo, I guess.  My dad's calves have always been awesomely muscular.  

Here is a shot of said leg muscles holding up pants without the need to roll!!!

Awesome.

I want to go back.

Utah Valley Marathon

I could have sworn I did a post on my marathon already but I checked multiple times and couldn't find anything, so here it goes.

I decided to follow a training program I had heard and read about called Run Less Run Faster.

A friend at work let me borrow her book and I LOVED it.

I ran three days a week, cross-trained on two other days and had two days each week of recovery.

I had never been one to put in miles and miles each week so this program seemed to be just what I needed.

The training is set for about 16 wks. but as you can see, I started a little late.  Which I was okay with because I felt like I already had a pretty good base from the crazy Ultra Ragnar Relay I had done at the end of February.

 Here I am early early early on the morning of June 9th, 2012.  Jeff was dropping me off at the shuttle site.
I was pretty nervous.

It really was a beautiful course.  I'm so glad I picked it to be my first.

We scouted out the whole course the day before and I got scared about all of the uphills there would be.

So anytime there was a downhill section, all of us runners, made sure to take advantage.

--Although, the headwind was so strong that day that you couldn't really go much faster than if you were running on a flat stretch.

 Here I am being a goof for the camera...

 ...trying to make Jeff smile...

...before realizing I'm probably wasting energy,

and deciding to get back into my stride. 

Jeff was able to meet me a few times on the course and give me my beloved coconut water.

I made sure to hydrate at each of the water stops (every two miles) and still I wish I would have worn my water belt.  It's those in-between miles that always ends up when you need water the most.  :)

This was at about Mile 20, as we had just come out of the Provo Canyon into the city.

I'm not really sure why there are so many older gentlemen around me.  I promise I was keeping a pretty good speed.

The last 4.2 miles were a killer!!!  My legs started to burn and it became all mental at that point.

All I wanted to do was stop running, just walk for 1 minute.  Then I would tell myself that if I did, I would be so angry and regret it completely.  So I kept running.

And kept running, and running and running.

That last stretch was the hardest thing I've ever done.

This is my head and shoulders, minus my knees and toes, running in through the finish lane:

Can you find me?

After I crossed the finish line, I almost started crying.

I felt completely exhausted but completely accomplished at the same time.

It took me a few minutes to find Jeff, and when I did, I posed for some shots of course:

.....but all I really wanted to do was this:

and this:

and this: 

 and this: (my back was killing me!)

After resting a bit and making a pit stop, we wandered over to the results tent.

All you had to do was type in your number and it showed your official time and ranks.

                                    Official time:   3:27:20  (7:55 per mile average pace)

       Overall rank:   177  (out of 2044)

   Gender rank:   32  (out of 955)

My public goal was to qualify for Boston.  Which meant, for my age group, I had to get under 3:35.

Secret goal:  I would have liked my time to be 3:20.

I met right in the middle of those two and I was really proud of what I had done.

Not all marathons do this, but if you DID qualify for Boston, you could take your results printout to a tent they had at the finish line and they handed you a shirt to prove you had done it!!

So, mission accomplished:

I got my shirt and proof:

And I finished my first marathon!!

Would I do it again?

Absolutely.