RAGNAR- Wasatch Back

So I have always been slightly interested in running the Ragnar Wasatch Back but never really entered into it. Partly because I know it sells out really quickly and I never wanted to put a team together. Well, after we visited Boston and got to see me Aunt Jan finish the Ragnar New England, I was sold on the idea of the relay race. And then the blessing of all blessing showed up on my voice mail two weeks after we got back to Utah. Our neighbor and his wife were part of Team H.E.B. (an accounting firm in Vernal and Salt Lake) and they had two people who were thinking about dropping out of the race. I jumped all over that opportunity. I had to wait all weekend to officially hear back from him about the race. I was in and so was Trisha. This was tuesday and the race started on Friday at 6:40am. Trisha was nervous cause she has been doing more swimming than running in the last few weeks. I was filled with pure excitement and couldn't wait. We dropped off Sam at Tyler and Shannons and made the trip up to Logan to start the race. We spent the night with Shayne and Chalise, which was really fun and then we left way before dawn to get to the start line. It was cold at the start line, too, so I was really glad that I wasn't the first runner. We were part of van #1 but Trisha was runner 5 and I was runner 6.

We dropped off our first runner and cheered her on and off we were. The race had started. At first it was hard to fathom the fact that we would be running from Logan to Park City and that it would take us 36 hours. But as time passed it became easier to imagine it all.

1st Run: 6.9 miles "Very Hard" from the summit of Avon pass to the city of Liberty, Utah

Trisha passed off to me for my first run at 12:45pm and I ran up about a mile to the top of Avon pass before descending down in a "knee-jarring" manner. The next three miles were crazy downhill. They felt really good while I was running them and I knew I was making good time but once I reached the bottom of the mountain I realized how hard it had been on my knees. The view from the switchbacks, looking down into the valley, was absolutely incredible! The rest of this leg was hard for me and I slowed down quite a bit trying to get to Liberty. I finished it in a sombrero (which gave me a free meal at Cafe Rio) at 1:45pm.

For the next few hours our van got to rest a little bit. We spent some time at the park in Libery, eating lunch and sitting down. Then we made our way to the next big exchange at Snow Basin. You would be amazed at the traffic when you have nearly 2300 cars trying to drive along these back roads. It took us quite a while to get to our next destination. We did however have some time to lay on the grass and relax once we got there. And all of a sudden it was time for our van to start running again.

2nd Run: 8.1 miles "Very Hard" from just outside of Morgan up through East Canyon to East Canyon Reservoir.

Trisha passed this off to me in pitch blackness at 10:30pm. Every team member is required to have a reflective vest but only 4 people per van have to have a headlamp and tail light. I borrowed a headlight because Trisha had been running with ours. I soon learned that my borrowed headlamp gave about as much light as my cell phone would have. I was worried about it at first because it really was dark out but I just decided that I would have to rely on the many car headlights passing me and pray that I wouldn't fall into a crater in the road. It turned out okay, I didn't get hurt. The first 6 miles was rolling hills with a general climb. I felt really good about it. Then it started really climbing. A big hill, followed by some flat running, followed by another big hill. It must have done this 6 or 7 times. I kept thinking I was gonna be done at the top of the next hill, but then I would get there and there was another one. The only thing that kept me going was my "kills". A kill in the Ragnar is when you pass someone. I had 12 kills in the first 5 miles of the run and as it started to get steep, I just kept seeing people in the distance and making it my goal to get another kill. Whatever works, right? Finally I knew I was close when I turned a corner at the top of a hill and saw East Canyon Reservoir with a full moon gleaming down on it. Incredible! I had one last hill to climb and finally saw all of the lights at the finish line. This was my favorite run out of all of them. I got 23 kills, by the way and I finished at 11:45pm

Now our primary goal, after I got hot chocolate, was to find a place to sleep. We drove to the high school in Coalville but decided we wanted to get closer to where we would start in the morning. So, we kept driving and ended up at South Summit High School in Kamas. We hauled our stuff into the gym, which was dark, completely silent and full of sleeping runners. We laid our sleeping bags out on the hard wood floor and tried to sleep. I think I slept well for about 3 hours and then the hard wood floor got to me and I couldn't fall asleep again. After several more hours of tossing and turning, we got the call to move to our next exchange.

Jordanelle

3rd Run: 3.1 miles "Easy" right through the center of Heber

Trisha passed off to me at 11:42am. This run was completely flat, maybe slightly downhill. It should have been an easy run but I was so tired and after a day of running and 3 hours of sleep, my mind was tired and my legs were tense. I still made really good time and was so glad to be done with my legs. I finished at 12:10pm.

Trisha and the rest of our team did so well. We all had a really good time and ran our butts off.

Total I ran 18.1 miles. I averaged 9.0 minute miles. Our team ran for 36 hours and 15 minutes.

Boston

I usually hate posts without pictures but since we lost our camera on the plane on our way back, a picture-less post will have to do. My cousin, Keaton, that I lived with for three years while in pharmacy school, left on his mission and his farewell was scheduled for the last week of May. We really wanted to go back to MA on vacation and we planned our trip around the farewell. Once we started to plan out the trip we also found out that two of our friends would be getting married the weekend before the farewell. So we extended our original plans and set out for an amazing trip back in time. I won't bore you with the entire details of our trip just list my favorite parts of it and tell you that we absolutely loved it!!

The wedding of Rob and Leeann Smith

The wedding reception of Jared and Danielle Mooney

Helping Keaton do yard work

Seeing all of my coworkers from CVS

Spending lots of time with my aunt, uncle and cousins, the Arbons

Visiting with the Vieiras

Driving through Worcester

Going to dinner with Adam, Abby, Carly, Lora, Dave and Jessica

Running in the hills of Princeton with Trisha, Mom, Lori and Jan

Going to lunch at Concord Inn

Walking in the Boston Public Gardens and along the Charles River

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at the Pru with Tristan

Lunch with my pharmacy friend, Jessie

A trip to the temple with Keaton and everyone else

Attending Keatons farewell and being part of the 8 hour open house at their house following the meeting

Memorial Day on the beach in Newport, Rhode Island

Driving on Storrow

Watching Aunt Jana finish the New England Ragnar Relay in Harvard Stadium

It was the best trip!! We loved every minute of it and it was sad to say goodbye and have to come back to real life. It really made me wonder why I ever moved away from MA. It is so beautiful and green and it holds so many good memories for me. I can't wait to plan our next trip back there.

To Keaton,

You have grown up so much since I came to live with you five years ago. Not only are you my cousin but you have been a good friend to me over the years. It was especially cool to spend time with you before you left on your journey of missionary work. I am amazed at how you have changed from an immature fifteen year old boy that loved to play pranks on me everyday to a young man that is caring, strong, spiritual, intelligent and kind. I know you will do amazing things out there on your mission. The people will love you and you will change many lives as you teach the gospel. I pray that God will be with you. Love you. See ya in two years at your homecoming!

Graduations and Wedding

We had some busy weekends in May.

Tyler graduated from the University of Utah with a Masters in Accounting

Shayne graduated from Utah State with a bachelors in Chemistry

Chalise also graduated from Weber State's nursing program. Sorry we missed that one.

CONGRATULATIONS to all of the graduates!!

And then, Shayne and Chalise got married...

The cupcakes that Trisha made for the bridal shower

Pictures at the temple

Chalise and the men

All the ladies

Took the opportunity to take family pictures

Sam in his rockstar pajamas, after he had enough of his tux

Decorating the car is our favorite part of a wedding reception. It was relatively low key but still fun!

The wedding ceremony was the best one that I have ever witnessed, it was awesome. The reception was held at the Chantilly mansion in Layton. It's a really cool antique-style house. The whole day was a party. 

CONGRATULATIONS to the newly weds!! Welcome to our crazy family, Chalise.

Random picture: Sam crawling in the bathtub

My mom

I just needed to post this tribute to my mom because I am SO PROUD of her! Over a year ago she decided she was going to start running and she hasn't stopped since.

I knew that she would never let me take a picture of her running so I had to hide at my parents house and take this picture of her while she was out running one day with my sister-in-law.

Not only does she run but she runs around the church parking lot (which is about 1/4 mile) 20 times to make up a 5 mile run. Plus now she has added in her exercise bike every night. So, running in the morning and biking at night. I am really proud of her and she looks great!! She is determined and strong and I know that she will reach her goals because she isn't gonna stop until she does. I am also really excited because she has committed to run the RAGNAR relay with us next year. She is gonna love it and do awesome, I can't wait!

I love you, Mom and I am so proud of you! Keep on truckin'

Birthday and Easter

Happy 29th Birthday to me!! Yay! It has come and gone and now I am 29 years old. Nothing else has changed. Trisha made me an awesome birthday cake and invited some of our friends over to celebrate with us. The cake was a delicious double-chocolate-coke cake!

Then we headed out to Salt Lake for the Easter weekend. We had an easter egg hunt, we dyed easter eggs, we hung out a lot with family, we went to dinner at Zupas and watched "Wild Hogs" with some of my siblings. The Easter bunny visited Sam with some new toys and gave Trish and I lots of candy. It was a really fun weekend.

Sam in his Easter outfit playing with the pony that I named "Nasty, The Pony"

So just before Christmas, our Stake Presidency issued a challenge to read the entire Book of Mormon between Christmas and New Years. Both Trisha and I really wanted to do it so we set goals to do it. After about a month it became apparent that there was no way I was gonna finish it if I didn't find a way to fit my readings in every day and read even more from then on. So, I came up with a plan to find the CD's that I had made a while back of the BoM audio tracks. It took me a few days but I found them and I made more to complete the set and I determined that I would listen to the audio tracks on my way to work each morning to catch up and stay current with the challenge. It's not my favorite thing to do. In fact, I hate listening to people speak at me while I am in the car or otherwise (and it really annoys me that the man narrating says "Seth the Lord" instead of "Saith the Lord"). Nonetheless I really wanted to complete the challenge and make the scriptures a part of my day, everyday. So I continued to listen and when I fell behind I would listen on my way home from work too. Many times I would not realize the CD had restarted and I would listen to the same CD over again until I finally realized I had already heard that before. Anyway I got to the Book of Ether and I realized that the schedule that someone had given me had miscalculated the date of Easter. I started to listen to my music again on the way to work and the way home, cause I had plenty of time to finish it. Well, as we were driving back home from Salt Lake on the night of Easter sunday, it suddenly dawned on me that I had not finished the challenge. I instantly tuned back to the CD and hoped that it was on Moroni 9, but remember only getting to Mormon. To my surprise this CD got me to Ether 11. However, I had never made the last CD to get me to the end of the book. I was pretty mad at myself for not making the last CD and for not just finishing the challenge 4 weeks earlier when I was on a roll. But it was too late to do anything about it. So, I have finished the Book of Mormon three days late. Does that mean I am 3 dollars short? I hope not. I think I still reaped the blessings of listening to and reading it. I think it still had an impact on my life and the days that I read it. I know that it is true and I am very grateful for the opportunity to re-read it from cover to cover and to finish it around Easter time to remind me of the infinite blessing that I have because of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  

SLC Marathon 2011

This was my second year running the Salt Lake Marathon. It so happened that it fell on April 16th, which is Trisha's birthday. We went out to SLC for the weekend to celebrate lots of great things. Friday was spent getting ready for the race and then we met up with our friends for a carb load at The Olive Garden. I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my entire life. After dinner, we stopped by the party store and we purchased a tiara, "Birthday Princess" sash and a huge mylar balloon for Trisha to wear while she was running. It was hilarious just to think of her running with all of that and a balloon tied to her. It was off to bed early, but I can't say that I slept well because I was so nervous for the race in the morning. Morning came way too fast and at 4:30 AM it was time to get ready. We arrived to park my car at the gateway at like 5:30 and we had to take TRAX up to the starting line. That is when the morning got really interesting. We walked to the TRAX stop right in front of The Gateway and stood there for like 15 minutes waiting for a train to come. A train never came and we heard that the trains don't usually come to this stop for the race. So we hurried and walked to the next station outside of Energy Solutions arena. There was a train there so we jumped on it and were set to go. That is until a TRAX worker got on the train, told us that this train was not going to the start line but actually going the other direction, got off the train and shut all the doors. We hurried and ran to the doors and tried to open them but they were alreay locked and the train took us back to the station that we had just been at. We got off the train and waited for another train to come. They were supposed to come every 15 minutes but that was a lie. About 20 minutes later a train came and we were finally on our way to the starting line. That is until too many people crammed their way on to the train and blocked all of the doors from closing properly. We waited at several stops for well over 5 minutes each. It was so frustrating! We arrived at the starting line with about 10 minutes to spare. I hurried over to the gear bag drop off and then in line to use one of the 5000 outhouses that they had lined up there. We knew at that point that there was no way that we were going to make it to the starting line for the actual start (luckily your time doesn't start until you cross the starting line). The gun went off and we were still waiting for the bathroom. The advantage to this was that we started about ten minutes after the huge crowd of people trying to fit in the road. I looked in front of me as we went down the hill at the begining and I could see the entire crowd bottle-necked in front of me and I was somewhat happy that I was behind them.

The run. The race was really good. I started out pretty stong and maintained a good speed for the first half of the race. I think I pushed myself really hard at the begining because I know that I can and I know that if I run the first half at a faster pace then I can slow down on the second half and still get a good time. The only problem that I ran into was that I was overhydrated from the very begining of the race. I really didn't want to stop at the aid station to use the bathroom because each one had a long line and I didn't want to lose time. So, I may have stopped by a tree in SugarHouse Park and emptied my bladder. I hoped that would be enough, but about mile thirteen I had to stop again. This time I used a port-a-potty and I was able to continue the rest of the race without other incident. About mile 16, it started to rain pretty hard. It felt good to get a little water/cooldown but I was worried about the outcome of running ten more miles in rain. Luckily it ended about 5 minutes after it started and the running continued. In the next few miles I realized that I had slowed down enough to not reach my time goals that I was shooting for so I decided that it was really important that I at least stuck to my goal of not walking at all during the race. I kept on going. It got really tough around mile 19 and 20 and I was so glad that I had asked my brother, Shayne, to meet me just before Liberty Park (mile 22) and run to the end with me. I just had to keep pushing myself to run until mile 22. I knew that once I met up with Shayne that I would have more will power to keep running. It worked. He was really supportive and encouraged me not to walk at all. I did have to stretch my legs one time for a few seconds and I walked at some aid stations to drink water/PowerAde. The hardest part was coming up on the end, about mile 25, when I had to hike up a hill on State Street between 200 South and South Temple. But after that it was good (slow) running to the end. When we got to The Gateway, my dad and my nephews were there cheering for me. The boys joined me and we all ran around the bend toward the finish line. My mom was on the side of the road just beyond that and the rest of my family was cheering me on further down from that. It was an amazing rush of energy to see my family, the crowd and the finish line. As I turned the last bend, Shayne said to me, "Run balls out Mike," so I sprinted to the finish line! Just when I thought that I was gonna fall on to the road and die, I sprinted to the end. I was pretty tired after but it turned out to be a really good run for me and I am really proud of another successful marathon finish. My final time: 4 hours 26 minutes and 23 seconds. Which is not my fastest marathon and not my slowest either, so I feel good about it. However, I am most proud that I made it through the whole race without walking. That is officially the longest distance that I have ever run non-stop, and that makes me proudest of all. 26.2 miles of pure brain and leg power!! It took a lot to push my mind to this accomplishment but I am hoping that I have now passed a mind block that will no longer be there when I run marathons and I'm hoping it will help me increase my time.

I am also really proud of Trisha for finishing the half marathon! She has been training so hard for this. It was really great that we got to train together and run our races together. I think it was a very memorable birthday for her Trish too, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

This picture is of our team sponsored by BRADY TRUCKING (minus Chip who had already left). It was great to have a corporate sponsor. You can also see the tiara that Trisha wore during the race. She loved it.

Usually after a marathon I want to take a break from running and relax my legs a bit. However, this time I don't want to lose the momentum and I wanna keep running. So, today I went on my first run post-marathon and all is well. It felt really good. I am trying to plan my summer and some runs that I can do to keep things up. I am thinking that I want to do 2 half marathons and another full marathon before the running season ends. There are some good races coming up and I am really excited to keep training for them.

On a side note: Sam has learned how to crawl, climb on things, and stand up holding on to things. He is getting so big. He only likes to feed himself these days so we got him a highchair and he sits in there for hours just slowing trying to get food from the tray to his fist and into his mouth. This morning we put him in his exersaucer and both left the room. When we heard a little cry Trisha went back into the room and he was crawling on the floor. What a crazy little kid.

Sunday Drive

Sometimes we just have to get out of the house, so we went for a drive to investigate our surroundings. For the nearly year and a half that we have lived in our home, we have looked out our windows to see this:

Split Mountain.

We have wanted to visit it for a while and tried one time but we took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else. So today we made sure we knew how to get there and we set out on our way. It was beautiful!! We were surprised to find that we ended up in Dinosaur National Monument, which is where the base of Split Mountain is located. We stopped all along the road at every scenic turnoff and took in the scenery. We found hiking trails, camp grounds and some old native american artifacts.

We also discovered that the new/remodeled visitors center at Dinosaur should be done later this year. So, we are really excited to make it back to some of these areas for some more adventures. Todays sunday drive was a total success.