Winter Racing Circuit Completion

I did it! I completed the Winter Racing Circuit. I wanted to do this to help me face my fears of running in horrible weather, running hills, and prepare for the Ogden Marathon. I can honestly say I am not afraid to run in snow, hail, rain, or wind because we had it all. My least favorite is wind.

I will get my certificate in three weeks. I can't wait.

Overall I did ok. I placed 2nd in my age group.

This is a picture of me at the 30K. Time to gear up for the Ogden Marathon in three weeks and try to take it easy on my right tight hamstring.

D.A.R.E Graduation

Thursday night Jensen graduated from D.A.R.E. I am so proud of him for making good choices. This is his speech:

I learned from the D.A.R.E program that we need to make good choices now because the choices we make now will affect us later in our life. For example: By not drinking alcohol, I am not putting crap in my body that will hurt my liver, brain, memory, and overall functioning.

Tobacco is for wimps. Smoking turns our lungs black. It makes us stink, turns our teeth yellow and it takes seconds of our life away. So basically it's stupid!

Marijuana affects our memory and slows down our reflexes. So why would anyone want to take it?

I am grateful for the D.A.R.E program and hope this program will be around forever so all kids can learn how to make good choices.

Say Cheese!

My hubby surprised me this morning. He took the day off of work since it was the kids last day of spring break and asked me what I wanted to do. I told him that I wanted to run and then the rest of my day was open. He asked me if I wanted to go and get family pictures. I have been trying to get an updated family picture for the last two years. My hubby can now check this off his honey-do list!

Winter Racing Circuit 1/2 Marathon

One more race in three weeks and I can say I have completed the series. But first, I will tell you about the 1/2 marathon. The forecast predicted wind, snow and rain for Saturday's race, so I decided to wear my shoes that had 378 miles on them that I got in January (see previous post) instead of my brand new ones that I got a week ago that now have 30 miles on them so I wouldn't ruin them. Actually the snow wasn't that bad. It was freezing cold in the morning when I picked up my packet and they said we could drive to the start of the race instead of ride the bus if we had a driver. Guess what? I had a driver. My wonderful hubby followed the bus to the start of the race and I sat in the car keeping warm instead of standing out freezing in the cold weather.

This half marathon is actually the first half of the Ogden Marathon that I will be doing in May, so I was excited to see what the course would be like. It was rolling hills, loops, and some flat areas in between so not to bad. It seemed cold, but nothing worse than what I have been running in considering the last couple of races. The roads were wet from the snow and yes, it was snowing. My eyelashes caught quite a bunch of flakes and I kept occupied wiping my eyes. But then after mile 4 or so it seemed to clear up and the roads dried off. At mile 4 my time was 29:50. I took GU at mile 5 1/2 and 8 1/2. I saw my hubby at mile 8 and blew him a kiss and kept running. What I didn't expect was what everyone hated from mile 9 on. We hit strong canyon winds. I struggled with them, but noticed everyone else did as well. (It's to bad the wind was working against us) I have no doubt that my time would have been at least three minutes faster. I crossed the finish line in 1:46:03. I felt pretty good and told my hubby when I collapsed in his arms at the end of the race that I did the best I could considering running the last 4 miles in strong wind.

I ran into Blair Perry and he asked me how I did. He said with my time that I probably did pretty good for my age group and to check it out. He was right I took 2nd in my age group, 21st overall in womens, and 95th out of 414 people.