Thanksgiving Weekend

I went down to St. George for Thanksgiving weekend. I managed to avoid the blizzard weather by going down Wednesday-Saturday. It was a pretty low key weekend spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Chelsea and family. We did a little shopping and played with the kids and just hung out. It was a great weekend.

Karlee loved playing outside even though she was freezing. Jeff raked the leaves and Karlee loved jumping in them.

Malea gave Karson his first haircut

Karlee got a new coat for winter and did a little modeling for me

Girls Night...Melting Pot

A couple weeks Melting Pot was doing ladies night out so Kristi got a group of us together to go. It was so much fun! There was a little misunderstanding with what was included in the night, but the manager was nice and thanks to Kristi we got dessert too. The food was so yummy and we had a great time! Thanks Kristi for always planning fun things for us.

26.2...NYC version

It seems like Generation Gap has been planning the NYC trip/marathon for almost a year. We all signed up this past March, and thanks to Sharon and her connections we all got in. Training for this marathon was weird because it was only 5 weeks after the St. George marathon. The longest run in between was 15 miles so I felt sort of unprepared even though I was prepared. I started freaking out a few days before.

I went to the race expo pretty much right when I got in town. As soon as I walked in the door of the expo. There were people everywhere, and it was huge. It made me nervous but also really excited too.

Race day started pretty early considering the late start time of the race. We left the apartments at 6:30 to take the subway to the Staten Island Ferry as our assigned time of 7:30. Even though that was 3 hours before our start time we didn't stand around nearly as much as I thought we would. It was so great having the whole group there. By the time the race started, the group had separated a little, but there were still several of us starting together. It made it that much more exciting.

The race was AMAZING! It started on Staten Island, ran through all the burroughs, and ended in Central Park. There were over 40,000 runners and so many spectators. The energy from the crowd was great. There was so much entertainment and so much to look at during the race. I didn't get bored at all the whole time. I pretty much ran the whole race by myself with some flip flopping with Sharon. I loved this marathon. It was such an amazing experience, and I feel so lucky I had the opportunity to do it.

cute sign Laurann made for me

race expo


part of Generation Gap in the apartment and subway station

Judy and Chad in the subway. we met up with Teresa and Brynn

om the Staten Island ferry

on Staten Island pre-race



mile 16. Judy saw Shawnie and JoAnn who came to cheer

ladies I run with along the course



after the marathon

the next day at the finish line

NYC

I LOVE New York! It seems like there is a reason to go nearly every fall. I never get tired of it. As usual the trip was packed with lots of fun. Laurann came out for the first few days of the trip. We flew in on the red eye and wasted no time having fun.
Day 1...We arrived in NYC around 6:00 and took the subway into Manhattan. We dropped our stuff off at the apartments the running group rented. We resisted the major desire to sleep and went over to the race expo to pick up my race packet. The pre race anxiety hit as soon as we walked in the door. After the expo we went shopping in China town. We spent a couple hours and bought plenty of scarves, purses, and wallets. After shopping we went to Grand Central Station for lunch. It was CRAZY! We did a little more shopping around the hotel before going back to rest. We saw Promises Promises that night. The production was amazing, but the storyline was a little off.

race expo

lunch at Grand Central Station

we were so worn out after the show this is the only picture we got

Day 2...After our busy/productive day we decided to sleep in a little. We finally got out of the apartment in the mid morning and went to Times Square. We had an early lunch, shopped a little, and walked around. In the afternoon we went to Central Park. With the marathon the next day, I didn't really want to walk all over the park. We took a bicycle taxi around the bottom half of the park.

Times Square

in Central Park

our bicycle taxi

Day 3...marathon (more to come)

mile 16 with Sharon
Day 4...shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped and walked a lot too with Brynn, Teresa, and Jenny
Day 5...I went to Ginny's (friend from freshman year of college) apartment to visit with her and meet her darling little daughter. I did a little more shopping before flying home that night.
Ginny and Xela

Fall Run

Generation Gap has a tradition of doing the Liberty Park run the last weekend before a marathon. With the New York City marathon just a week away, we did the Liberty Park run yesterday. We start in Olympus Cove and make our way to Liberty Park passing some beautiful streets on the way. The leaves yesterday were so AMAZING! Shawnie and ReNae took the opportunity to make leaf angels in the park. We saw every color...yellow, red, orange, and green separately and sometimes on the same tree. That is my favorite run, and the scenery made it even more amazing.

Shawnie and ReNae and their leaf angels

I love this picture with the beautiful leaves and the ladies running.

Really? Already? NOT. READY. FOR. THIS.

J.E.A.L.O.U.S.

This is my friend Alycia's diaper bag. Kind of looks more like a purse if you ask me. Petunia Pickle Bottom is so cute, but I've only seen the style that looks like a diaper bag. I am so jealous of her cute bag. I think I need it.

Jackson Hole x 2

This post is long overdue. I went to Jackson Hole a couple of times at the end of the summer.

Trip #1...Nicole's annual birthday rafting trip. Her awesome parents take care of all the details (campsite, food, river permits, etc.). We just have to show up, pay a little bit, and have a good time. It is basically a Turnberry reunion so it's lots of fun. We all head up Friday after work, camp, run the river twice and come home Saturday night. I skipped the morning river run to go running. It was a pretty good run except when my shoe got stuck in quicksand. The weather was a little chilly, but we all still had fun on the river. Thanks Nicole and parents for a great time.

Trip #2...Designated babysitter/helper during the Lotoja bike race. My co-worker, Noelle's husband, Ben, raced in Lotoja this year. I came to help with the kids so Noelle could do support for Ben. After the bike race we stayed in Jackson Hole for a couple nights and went to Yellowstone for a day. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. It was cool seeing Old Faithful and some of the other geysers. Besides having to clean up kid barf in the middle of the night it was a pretty fun trip too. Unfortunately I have no pictures.

Dirty Dash and Boating

Dirty Dash=6.2 miles of running in the dirt, mud, obstacle courses, mud pools, slip n slide and MUCHO FUN! I ran with my fried from work Noelle.

I don't really know how you could prepare for this event.

The first obstacle was with in 10 feet of the start.

A muddy hill with the sprinklers going.

Mud was flying everywhere and everyone was soaking wet.

The next obstacle was about a mile up, jumping hay barrels.

Then it was crawling through tubes 3 different times.

Next was the climbing walls...

not your typical climbing walls...pools of mud on both ends.

You literally started sinking as soon as you stepped in it. And the landing straight into mud.

We ran through tires army style...

A long the way there were pools of mud...no joke when i say pools.

You had to jump in and climb out!

Then we ran a long a marshy lake.

Everyone was just laughing so hard. We were all completely covered in mud.

After what seemed like running forever we hit the "Slop and slide".

It was a blow up slide that had 5 different slots so your team could all go at the same time.

We ran and jumped and slid down.

Then you land into a pool of mud. Trying to run through this was hilarious cause you just kept falling down.

We could then see the finish line...the final stretch!

It was just like a pig pen.

Climbing into mud basically crawling across and doing that again 3 times.

pre-race (nice and clean)

post race (really muddy)

i tried to see several friends, but it just didn't work out. i did run into suzie in the parking lot.

After the race Marianne invited me to go boating at Jordanelle with a whole new crowd of people. It seemed like it would be perfect since I was so close. It was sort of rough trying to meet up, but it finally worked out. Marianne had to leave shortly after I got there, but everyone was so nice so I stayed. I was so excited to meet and spend the day with some new friends. Guess I don't know every single person in SLC.

brooke mastering wake surfing

26.2...St. George version

I've known since May 6 of this year that I was for sure running the St. George marathon. I tried to get in last year and didn't so I figured I would try this year and not get in and get the automatic third time's a charm entry next year. Why would I ever think things would go as planned?!? Of course I would get in this year even though I already had a fall marathon planned (New York). Luckily I have lots of people to train with. I did my fair share of training before my month of weekend travels in September and even forced a last minute 10 miler on the treadmill a week before, but for some reason I was not feeling totally ready. Ready or not race day came. My usual pre-race jitters didn't set in until about 10:00 Friday night, and after that I was FREAKING OUT!

4:45 am group shot (Teresa, Brynn, Shawna, me)

finish line

with Brynn post race. congrats to Brynn on her first marathon!

26.2 miles later

My FREAK OUT was for good reason. My race morning got off to a bit of a rough start. It took me a good 20 minutes to get my left contact in which left me very little time for the rest of my getting ready. By the time we got in the car to leave, I was in tears and wondering why in the world I thought this was a good idea. When we got off the bus and no one was freezing we knew we were in for a HOT race, and it was...HOTTER than heck! I also unfortunately had to stop at the port a potties 3 times and the aid station for vaseline on my blistered toes at mile 23 so my time was a little off from my goal. Considering the conditions of the day, I don't think I could have done any better. Even though I didn't meet my goal, I think I did the very best I could.

I love running with seasoned runners! I pick up a few good tips each race. I got the tube socks for arm warmers last time. This time i upped my caffeine intake towards the end of the race, and it worked like a dream. I will definitely do that again. Thanks Shawna for the tips.

I had a few moments of panic a little too early on wondering why I do this, and why I have plans to do it again next month. Now that's it's all over, I think I might want to do it again next year. Who's in? Runner's Series opens tomorrow.