{HaLLowEen WeEk}

This has been a fun week!

Saturday - Ward Fall Festival (Halloween Party)

Sunday - Shirsten's Young Womanhood Recognition Night. Shirsten is the first young woman in our ward to earn this in 3 years.
Monday - Pumpkin carving. Ally was so proud of herself for doing hers all by herself. She really did (it took her 3 times as long). The only thing that anyone else did was Chris cut open the top for her.
Tuesday - Laser Tag (they took all the 6th graders and I had to help drive). I also got to play which is always great fun! I was the 2nd best player (yes, I realize I was playing against 11-12 year olds). Yahoo for me!!!
Wednesday - Halloween Trivia & Cookies
Thursday - Final Shindig with my Team In Training group
Friday - THIS IS HALLOWEEN!!! The sunrise was beautiful this morning and the high is supposed to be around 70 degrees. It's not very often that we have such a nice Halloween!

I stayed up late last night helping Keyan to make a Waldo shirt. If you are ever painting a shirt, the painters tape worked great (the paint didn't get under it). Don't use the color spray for fabric if you want a bold color. We ended up painting over with fabric paint. Also don't freak out if your red paint looks pink, it will dry red! :)

Sammy has a cute fairy costume, but since she didn't want to deal with it at school she decided to go as a badminton player (anything to wear a t-shirt, her school has a dress code that doesn't allow t-shirts).

{friEnDs}

It's funny how life and things turn out. I convinced Chris to get on facebook. It just so happens that within a few days he was able to connect with some of his childhood friends. He finds out that one moved to Utah within the last year and another is coming to Utah in about a week.

Last night the 3 of them were able to meet up. I know that Chris was excited. For me it was fun to see Clint again (you haven't changed at all since I last saw you about 12 years ago!) and nice to finally meet Jennifer!

I really should have Chris write about this! I hope that they will all stay in better contact now and I look forward to the day that we can get all our kids together. We each have 4 kids (although I think Jennifer might have 5) and we each have 12 year old daughters!

{daFFodiLs}

Yesterday I went to help the 2nd graders (Ally) plant daffodils at their school. It will be fun to remind them in the spring that they planted those pretty flowers!

{bAnD}

Keyan let us know after school that he had a band concert that night (Tuesday) that was worth the majority of his first term grade. He takes the percussion class, but they always throw them in the concerts. We had no idea what songs he was going to play in. With one song left to go I had told the kids if Keyan is not in it (we'd already seen him play in some of the other songs) then we would just go, since I was still really sore from my marathon. I'm so glad we stayed. Of course, he played in the last song and had a nice little solo part also! Yeah for Keyan!!! He is an awesome drummer! :)

{4:58:58}

Message from Nike:

… Even with a new course for 2008 and a few additional hills, you rocked it out there! … In total, over 20,000 runners toed the start line and included participants from all 50 states, 25 countries, 5,000 Team in Training runners, 1,089 brave (and brilliant) men and 400 5-time or “legacy” runners. … You and thousands of others ran not only conquered the Nike Women’s Marathon, but also helped raise over $18 million to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!


Isn’t that incredible! My little Utah team raised over $89,000. I just think it’s amazing.

Let’s talk about this course. From the beginning, everyone has said you will not get a PR at this course. When I found my coach, with 1.5 miles left, he said that for this race he always suggests that people run the half marathon. Now he tells me! Did you notice the little blurb from Nike - “a few additional hills”? Sea level, whatever! This course kicked my butt. The hills were killer, but for me, the worst part was going around Lake Merced. That lake went on and on what seemed like forever. Even though you were going around in a big circle it was nearly all uphill. This was also the part of the race where the “Bite Me” stage sets in. Some guy was out there on the sidelines eating a hamburger and fries, which I could smell. I wanted to kick him! I was so starving. Once around the lake and up the hill you have several miles back up the Great Highway to the finish. I was really cold at this point. You have the ocean wind blowing on you and spraying the water. It seemed like it was raining. Then the finish line you can’t even see until you are almost right on it. There is a small (very small) hill that is right before it, but it’s just enough that from a distance you can’t tell where it is.

However, I had such a great time. I made my goal of under 5 hours, although I really thought it would be possible to run it in 4:48. I was only 10 minutes off though. I had many 13 minutes miles (2 at the beginning and several on the hills and around the lake), so that kind of put a damper on it!

The start was crazy. They had us get a pace band and line up in the street that that pace was assigned. There wasn’t a gun or anything that we could hear that marked the start of the race, although we were at the intersection diagonally across from the start. It took 13 minutes to even get to the start. We’d walk, then stop, then wait, then walk, and so on.

There were so many people. We probably ran an extra mile laterally just trying to get around people. I thought it was weird to be passing people when you weren’t even a mile into the race. Oh well. I couldn’t believe how many articles of clothing were just tossed aside. I’m sure they had truck loads when they went to gather them all up.

The hills were killer, like I said before. I’m actually really good at running up hills. The problem here was that you could only go as fast as the people in front of you. There wasn’t a lot of weaving through people on the hills. That made it harder for me.

I was so happy that at the last minute I decided to put my name on my shirt. Most of my team had puffy painted their names on their shirt. I just couldn’t bring myself to do. I knew I would mess it up. My teammate, Tammy, showed me her shirt and she had ribbons hanging on it with names on it and I thought I could just write my name on some ribbon and pin it on. It worked great. It was incredible having people cheer for you by name. They’d give you advice and say things to make you smile. It really was worth doing.

Another hard part for me was coming out of Golden Gate Park. I knew I wouldn’t see my family again until the end and I had 10 miles left to go. I knew that the half marathoners were within a mile of their finish. And to top it all off I could see runners coming back with only a few miles until their finish and they would be done 1.5 – 2 hours before me! Grrr….

I have to admit that I don’t feel any desire to run another marathon, but I wouldn’t rule one out. I just need to convince my family (siblings, husband, Keyan) to all run one together. They should all like that, at least they wouldn’t be the last one in, I think I’ve got that spot covered!

They will have to wait awhile though. I’m on a month long hiatus. I was told you need 1 day to recover for each mile, so I’m nicely rounding it up to a month!

(The time in the picture is the clock time. My official chip time was 4:58:58)

{sAn FrAnciScO}

San Francisco is such an amazing city. There is so much personality everywhere and the shopping! Oh, Oh, Oh! There are so many great stores, and lots and lots of cute shoes. Also the food is fantastic.


Unfortunately we stayed in the bad end of town. Everyone said don’t be out on Market Street between 5th and 7th at night. There are lots homeless people there and blatant drug dealing. However, I was more scared during the day in those areas then at night. The other bad part was their language. I was so glad that my kids were not there to hear some of the awful things that were said.
I’m sure I probably walked a good 50 miles in those few short days. I am happy to report that their public transportation is great (trolley and bus). We also ended up taking a taxi once because we were going to be late for our airport shuttle. He was nice until the end, then he was rather rude.

I did some of the tourist things: Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and Coit Tower.

As always the highlight was visiting with family. It was great to see Adrian & Tane and also my Grandma. My grandma is 90 years old. She’s amazing!

My cousins Adrian & Tane came to rescue me for an afternoon! They took me on an insider’s tour of the city. I was able to meet some of their friends and they helped me discover my new favorite dessert, ginger cake with pumpkin ice cream. It was divine!

The entire country and Canada’s Team in Training got together the night before the race for a pasta party. We had pasta dinner and some motivational speakers. Every team was assigned tables. Our director and coaches decorated our tables. It was nice. It was also the first chance we had to see our whole entire team together.

{My TEAM UTAH}

The night of race day they had a Victory Celebration. I would have been ok skipping that. They feed us turkey and potatoes (of course there was other stuff also). I was just tired, sore and not really up to it! There was lots of walking involved to get there.

All and all, this was an incredible experience. I had no idea I could accomplish such a thing. Thanks to everyone who has supported me in this.

{cRaZy dAys}

Life has been absolutely crazy around here. I think that today I am overly nervous for my upcoming race. I board an airplane in a few hours and set out for San Fran. I guess I think that if I blog that I'll relax, we'll see! :)

Some of the highlights from the past week:

I got to help pass out treats at lunch for Red Ribbon Week. They had to dress up for different days (red, crazy socks, hats, backwards) and if they did they got a treat. Nearly all the kids on put a "cap" on drugs day wore a hat and they loved it. Then on "turn your back on drugs" day Ally wore her shirt backwards. When she came home she looked kind of funny. Then I realized she had her jeans on backwards. Silly girl! She said that she turned them around at school.

***

The other day Landon and Rob (our neighbor) were throwing a ball at each other. When they were done Rob said, "here's your ball back". Landon says, "It's not my ball" and throws it in his yard and runs off. When Landon went to bed last night he finds the ball under his pillow. Landon groans, "He wins..." But then this morning, Landon runs the ball over to Rob's front porch. This time with a sticky note that says, "Ha Ha I win"

***

As far as Wednesday night youth activities go, I think this weeks activity has been the best so far. We went up to Timp Lodge to serve, eat & dance! We hauled wood, then had a great dinner. Of course, the dance was the best part. Josh Nichols brought up his sound equipment and was our DJ. Katie Williams came up and offered some dance instruction (Cha Cha). Some people were a little worried about having a dance with just our ward. I figured that the kids all knew exactly what we were doing and they still showed up. It was a great success and hysterical too! :)

***

Oh to be young again! Here's Ally and friends. It reminds me of when I was little and we'd all roller skate. The wheels have changed (Heelys now), but the freedom of flying down the street will never change.

{hOoRaY fOr mE}

I'm so excited! Today I had my final check-in with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society over my fundraising. I official made my goal of raising $4000. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me do it. Obviously, there is no way I would of ever been able to do it without you.

My race is in a few short weeks. Last week I survived my first 20 mile run. I even have cuts and bruises to show for it. Yes, I'm a klutz and had a little tumble down a cement hill. Now we taper our runs. I think tomorrow is only 10 miles and the next Saturday is 6 miles and the week after that is race time!

Running a marathon does not sound like any fun to me! It's going to be a huge challenge. Everyone keeps telling me that the last 10k is the worst. I believe it. However, I will finish this race, even if I am crawling in on all 4's, and I will be so happy to say,
"Yes, I've run A marathon!"

{oH tHe jOyS oF a nEw sChOoL}

Last night after 9p.m., I'm driving Sam home and we pass by the school. There are several cop cars and a fire engine on the east side and the back corner. The fire engine has it's ladder stretched up to the top of the school. I'm thinking great they must of had some kids up there again and they were too scared to come down. All the neighbors around the school have been asked to call the the police if we see anyone on top of the school. They have already had problems with this.

About an hour later the school bell goes off and then we hear an announcement over the intercom, ...the building is surrounded...the police dogs will be called in...please find the nearest police officer. I look out the window and sure enough the building is surrounded by police cars. The one on our corner had his spotlight on scanning back and forth. Chris and I go out and sit on the porch and wait. I was worried that it was going to be some of the youth from my ward, and thankful to know that my kids were all home.

After about 20 minutes, I hear on his radio that they have the suspects and about 10 minutes later he drives away and officers start coming out of the school. I never did see who it was. They must of found them around back.

Moral of the story (for my kids): Stay out of anything that is not yours.