Pocatello Marathon

A few months back, Kristie, Amanda and I decided to run the Pocatello Marathon. It would be my 2nd marathon. I knew I wanted to run another marathon after my disastrous first marathon experience in Richmond, Virigina in '08 where everything that could have possibly went wrong, did. My training for this marathon wasn't exactly what I would have preferred. In the past I've had wonderful running partners that have pushed me to run faster and farther. Since moving from Philly, I haven't had any training partners which means all my running has been alone. I miss you girls!

With all our moving and getting situated, I really didn't get into a good training program until June, and wasn't real consistent until July. Some weeks I only ran twice, sometimes it was three times. Finally the last few weeks I was consistent with 4 days of training. I know I need to do better at training next time. It also isn't helpful when the weather is so hot though. We had some really hot & muggy days this summer- days where it would be 115 and cool down to 85 at night. Some nights I'd wait until 10pm to run outside and it would still be over 90 degrees and so humid it felt like you were in the shower. I would usually start Saturday runs at 6/6:30am to avoid the heat, but when it was real hot & humid it didn't make much of a difference. I could definitely do without the humidity! Anyway, I did the best I could with our circumstances, and felt that I would do alright in Pocatello.
I flew out to Salt Lake City on Thursday night. I didn't get in until about midnight and it was so nice of Tom to pick me up that late. I spent the night at Tom & Kristie's. The next morning we had some time to spend together and get things ready to drive up to Pocatello later on that afternoon. It was so fun to just spend some time together- probably would have been even better if we hadn't been a little nervous about the race the next day.

We arrived in Pocatello about 5:30pm. It was so fun to meet up with Amanda, Mom Stevens and Gideon at the hotel. After getting settled, we went right over to the expo to pick up our packets. This race they even gave us duffle bags & a bag of potatoes along with our nice long-sleeved race shirt. After the expo, we went to grab some dinner.

Tom was a great sport to tag along with all us women!

Kristie, Amanda, and I spent the night at the hotel right by the race pick-up. It was a blast being together that night and we had fun laughing and just visiting. We tried to go to bed early, but I don't think any of us slept real well- do you ever on race nights? We were up at 4:30am and walked down to catch a bus up to the starting line at 5:10am.

We had some time to wait around, wait in porta-potty lines, and spent a little time trying to warm up in the barn. Finally it was time to start the race at 6:30am. Because my last race was such a bad experience, I think I was still a little psyched out by the whole marathon- so my plan was to just go out real steady. I wasn't going to try to go real fast, I just wanted to run the race consistent and finish under 4 hours. The course was beautiful for the first half. I loved running down through the mountains. It was pretty chilly- about 45 degrees at the start. I didn't get rid of my long-sleeved shirt until mile 9, and I held onto my gloves until about mile 12. The course wasn't as pretty after mile 14, and at that point we started to run through crowds of the half-marathoners, 10k's and 5k runners. It made it a little more congested, but not too bad.

(Still waiting for my ordered pictures to be e-mailed to me)

I've heard people talk about the difficulties of down-hill courses, but I didn' t really know what they meant until I hit mile 16. The Pocatello course drops about 1400 ft over the first 14 miles, then it's pretty steady for the rest of the course, except for the hill around mile 20. When I hit mile 16 my legs felt so tired and I couldn't figure out why, then I realized it was from the downhill! My quads would be dying for a few days after the race.

I wasn't too excited when I saw the big hill at about mile 20/21. I wasn't expecting it, and it's never fun to see a giant old hill at that point of a marathon. I know I was slower, but I ran the whole thing and passed probably 15 people on the way up.

By the time I hit mile 20 I was pretty sure I was going to meet my goal under 4 hours. It was fun to start seeing the big crowds of cheering people, and although it was warming up significantly- it wasn't too hot.

It was such a great feeling to get closer and closer. I'm sure it's due to the fact that by the time you get to the end, you're physically and emotionally spent, but I started to cry when I saw that finish line. Good thing I wear the sunglasses. It was even better to hear my family cheering and see them waving. My goal had been to run the race consistent and steady and finish under 4 hours. I never felt like I was dying, I know I could have pushed it harder and run faster, but I wanted to have a positive marathon experience and feel great. I was so happy to have made my goal with a 3:56:10. Not too bad for a 2nd marathon.

Amanda & Kristie did awesome too! They both also had PR races and Boston Qualifying times-both have already run Boston. Amanda took 3rd in her age division with a 3:38, and Kristie ended up taking 3rd out of the women with a time of 3:08!

Mom Stevens, Gideon, me, and Amanda

Kristie and I with our 'baby' brother Cole.

I was amazed at Kristie! Her marathon time of a 3:08 is a 7:10 pace! She placed 3rd out of the women (she would have won the race & set a new course record any other of the 12 years) and 1st in her age division. In fact, in a field of 608 marathoners, there were only 11 men that came in ahead of her. I think I will always be chasing after my little sister. :)

After the awards ceremony and the fun experience of trying to get back to the hotel in time for checkout, we had a little more time for visiting (and getting some fun pictures) while we got the cars loaded up.
It was so much fun to run the race with these girls. I love my sisters & sister-in-laws and have decided that running with them is the best way to do a race. It sure makes it a lot more fun!
I was also grateful to have support of my parents, Mom Stevens, Cole, Tom, and the kiddies. It sure makes you feel loved when they all made such an effort to be there to support all of us. I was missing Jeff and my kids, I sure wish they could have been there, but it wasn't really a possibility/financially smart option.
At the end of the race, I was a little tired, but so glad to have met my goal of running a marathon that ended well! And I was definitely looking forward to not having to get up at 6am on Saturday mornings to do long runs!

Happy Birthday Caleb

Caleb finally turned 6! This boy has been asking me how many days until his birthday since last year when he turned 5, so he's been waiting a long time! I was just sad that I wasn't there on his actual birthday. I was running the Pocatello marathon and had to fly out the night before. Good thing Jeff is so much fun! I had all the presents wrapped and ready to go and threw in a few extra fun things for everyone. Then I made Jeff promise to take lots of pictures.

For his class birthday treat, Caleb said he wanted donuts. Well, I usually prefer to make something fun and cute for the class, but with me being out of town and leaving Jeff in charge of everything- that's exactly what we did. All the kids loved having a donut for a treat.

That night Jeff let the kids get a happy meal for dinner (they're probably hoping at this point that mom will never return- I'm no where near as fun as daddy! :) After dinner they did birthday cake and presents.

Caleb got some really fun gifts from grandparents and us. He loved all the books, pajamas, and fun toys.

I love Emily's face in this picture- she just realized what one of Caleb's presents was. This girl loves HEX bugs!
We got Caleb a lightsaber toy that lights up and makes sounds, but it's not as fun with just one. So I wrapped up a couple more for Matthew & Jacob. I figured I'd let Jeff have fun with them! :) I know it was probably more out of feeling guilty for being gone than anything, but I also left a game called "Big Buck Hunting" for everyone. You just plug it into the television and play the hunting game.

Like I said before, the boys were probably hoping I'd never come back- while I was gone I left a bunch of fun things for all of them, Jeff got them happy meals at McDonalds, they went to ChuckE.Cheese and had fun playing games and spending time with dad. I'm glad they had so much fun & we had a good time celebrating again once I got home.

Just Because

Just because they're cute...

First Days of School

Jacob and Caleb started school on Wednesday, August 24th. Jacob started 2nd grade and Caleb started kindergarten. They were so excited. I had mixed feelings- I was excited for them, and knew that they were definitely ready, but there's always a part of me that's sad when school is back in session-especially since kindergarten is all day here. The first bell rings at 8:10 and class starts at 8:15 so they start the day early.

They each picked out their outfit for the first day of school.

Back in July when we were in Utah for the 4th of July, Jeff took the boys up to BYU to walk around his old stomping grounds. Before they left, he let each of them choose a BYU backpack. I was a little surprised since we've never spent more than $10 on a backpack for our kids, but they were all so excited. Wednesday morning when I had all the backpacks laid out ready to go, Jeff came walking into the room, got a big grin on his face and said, "That just makes me proud!"
We took a couple more pictures on the 2nd day of school too because I decided I wanted some outdoor pictures.
One of the reasons we were excited by our new house was because of it's location to the elementary school. We're just up around the block- so close that the kids can walk. Caleb was a little disappointed that he didn't get to take the bus to school, but I like being able to walk them to and from school and let them have the chance to walk to and from school with friends too.

Emily was all ready to go on the first day of school too.

She was so excited that afternoon when the boys came home that she immediately went and plopped herself down on Jacob's lap with her blanket. She loves her older brothers and is so excited when they come home. She often cries when they leave for school.
Matthew started preschool a few days after the older boys. I really debated putting him in preschool. I kind of wanted to just keep him home with me. I finally decided at the last minute to try and enroll him in a local preschool that many of my friends recommended. It's a very popular school that's been around for years and has a great program with fantastic teachers. I didn't know if he would even get in because they usually fill up, but when I called they happened to have one spot left in one of their afternoon classes, so we went for it & Matthew has been so excited. He goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 2.5 hours. You might not see the excitement from his first day of school pictures though. He didn't want to smile for me, he was just ready to go to school!

Plus, he was distracted by all the cool bugs on the ground.

He finally gave me a total cheeser grin and then was off to his big boy school! I admit, I cried after that one.

And Emily? How do you think she feels about being the only child (at least three days a week for 2.5 hours).

Maybe sad?

Well...

Personally, I think she's kind of enjoying it....

But she is always very excited to see her brothers when they come home from school. Here's to another year! And how in the world did I get to this point where three of my kids are in school!?

My Birthday

I don't know how I got so lucky, but I was completely spoiled on my birthday this year. Best part- Jeff was able to take the day off! It doesn't get much better than that. I'll admit, I started the day off by sleeping in- until like 9:45! I took full advantage of the special day! Sounds pretty lazy, but that pretty much never happens- even on Saturdays I've been up before 6am to run, and it was also the last day of summer vacation. That was probably one the best birthday presents, and I enjoyed it! :)

When I came down, this is what was set up. Jeff made an amazing breakfast with crepes & all the toppings, a huge bowl of gourmet fruit, chocolate mik, grapefruit juice, and donuts. The whole place was set with a cute birthday tablecloth, matching pink cups & utensils, and party hats for everyone.
The kids were so excited about the whole thing they could hardly stand it. They had helped Jeff put the whole thing together and had fun playing with the noise blowers and party hats.

Jeff even had cards that they boys filled out for me. He meant to get birthday cards, but ended up getting RSVP cards instead, but I loved how cute it was when the boys wrote on them. I really loved Caleb's RSVP "I will be there." It still makes me smile.

We did the big birthday breakfast this year instead of a birthday dinner. So to fit with the theme, we skipped cake and did birthday donuts instead, everyone had one donut. Maple bars are my favorite, and they worked with the candles pretty well! It still seems like a pretty big number to be sitting on the donut though. :)
We didn't waste any time getting to the presents. I was fine to wait until that evening, but the kids were ready to open presents right then, so we did- pajamas, no hair done, no makeup and all!
Like I said, totally spoiled! They picked up some fun treats- oreos and captain crunch, a new blow dryer- my last one was about 6 years old and ready to die, a set of pots & pans, some clothes,some pajamas, and a new Garmin GPS! (My old one finally started to give in and wasn't giving accurate readings)

Jeff had arranged for me to go get a manicure and pedicure that afternoon (my very first ones!) but they ended up having to cancel the appointment because they were short on workers. I was already out to go, so I stopped and ran a couple errands and then headed back home. Even though it was a Tuesday night, we had some friends who had our kids come over for a little while so Jeff and I could go out for an early dinner to eat to celebrate. It was the night before the first day of school so we didn't go out real long, but we were able to enjoy a yummy dinner at Texas Roadhouse and get some pants at the store for Jeff on the way home.

We were back pretty early so we could get kids all ready for their first day of school the next day, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm so grateful for a husband who loves me and puts so much effort into a birthday. It was one of the best birthdays ever!

(Jacob's a pretty good photographer, and the kiss photo wasn't planned-Jacob thought that was pretty funny. :)