wasatch back 2012

Cori and I had a blast this weekend. Every moment of ragnar adventure and misadventure was made better and brighter by the great company we kept. Our experience started Friday afternoon at Liberty Park in Eden. Nothing like a row of about 30 Honey Buckets to get the show on the road.

Cori, Me, Cory, Brittany, Tiffany, Ethan

The Van 2 runners ready to go. Cory's Grandpa let us borrow his sweet Chevy van for the race. That thing has a TV/VCR (watched The Princess Bride for the first time in years - classic), reclining captains chairs, a backseat bench that reclines into a bed, extra head space, mood lighting, and a 40 gallon gas tank. Now it also has a window that won't roll up, a door that wont open, a battery that could give out at any second, a speedometer that doesn't work, keys that wont come out of the ignition, and about 2 bottles of glass chalk decoration. We are grateful to have been able to use it and more grateful that it held together just long enough to get us to the finish line.

Cori kept a smoking pace on his runs. I was super pleased with mine as well. It felt good to run strong as this was the last race I plan on registering for for a little while.

We had to resuscitate the Loafermobile back to life once. Again, so grateful it held together long enough to carry us all the way.

The whole course was green and gorgeous. All of the exchanges were at lovely locales. We finished our first round of legs at Snow Basin and had fun hanging out there for a while before going to crash at Cory's sister's house.

Tiffany rolled her ankle pretty badly in her first run on a trail up in the resort. She stayed tough though. She and Cory and Brit switched some runs around and she still ran 2 more legs. 

 We found another pair of antlers to add to our crowd before we left.

 Ethan finishing strong.

 Cory heading out on the final leg of the race.

All the Loafer Mountain Loafers together. 

We finished 273 over all and 231/686 in our division. Not bad!

Our total time clocked at 32:27:35.6
If my math is correct, that puts the overall pace for our team at 9:56. This is 4 seconds faster than we predicted our overall pace would be.

Cori and I laughed about how this was like a little vacation for us. It really was. We had so much fun doing this together.

Following is a bunch of technical stuff I'm noting for when we do this again someday. 

This was my 1st leg. My goal was to PR my best 5K time. This meant that I needed to run at or below a pace of 8:49. Based on my training runs and then considering the elevation difference (our neighborhood sits at about 1500 ft., this run was at 5000) I had just about given up on making this goal. Miraculously, I had my fastest mile ever in the first mile of this run (6:53) and just tried to keep my legs moving after that.  I finished with an average pace of 8:15 and cried a little tear of joy once I caught my breath.

This was my second leg. A lovely 10 mile run at 2:16AM along Echo Reservoir. My goal for this run was to match or best my half marathon pace of 10:00. Looking at the map, the incline didn't look too bad, and the course directions mentioned that part of the run would be on a trail. Running it, the incline and the elevation had a more noticeable effect on the old legs. And the trail was a bit cumbersome in places. I finished with an average 10:20 pace and was really happy with it.

My last run was the first chunk of the famed Ragnar Hill. The first 1.5 miles aren't bad, but then begins a grueling 1500 foot climb over the next three miles. My goal for this run was primarily to survive it. Once I got into it, I pushed myself to 'jog' the first mile of the climb up. Those minutes watching the tenths of miles tick away on my GPS watch were some of the longest I can remember. Once I hit 2.6 miles I switched between walking as fast as I could and jogging (mostly walking). The hill is pretty ridiculous. My average pace for the whole spread ended up at 14:37. Bleh. Hopefully I'll get another crack at it someday, and I'll have this time to beat. My quads were absolute toast. Still are, matter of fact.

This was Cori's first run. All his stats are on his phone, so I may have him enter them here later. I just remember feeling so proud of my run, and then hearing his pace... I was really happy for him too. He is a speedy one.

 Cori's second run.

Cori's last run was the rest of the Ragnar Hill. He took my GPS watch for this one so I have his stats up to a point. The watch died when he had about a mile to go. But he plowed his way up that hill. His average pace for the first 3 miles was 13:00. He jogged a lot of the last mile, so his average pace time would be faster if we had the info.

so far

 

Our little garden experiment is coming along. This is a picture I took a little less than a month ago. We trained the cucumbers up some tomato cages and the pumpkin and watermelon had just started to take off.

Then it started getting really hot. The garden plot sits in complete sunlight from early afternoon until sundown. Between the black plastic, the cement wall and the blistering late afternoon heat, the young plants were beginning to fry. The plant growth seemed to come to a stand still. After going through a few ideas, Cori rigged up a great shade for the plot that keeps nearly all the plants sheltered all day long. It seems to have done the trick. Things are growing again.

So far, our harvest tally comes to 13 tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, 2 chile peppers, and 1 gourdish squash. The pumpkin and watermelon plants have a load of blossoms, but nothing seems to have set yet. We will see...

As for our citrus harvest, things were looking dismal indeed. The lemon tree has nary a fruit set on it. The orange tree has a handful of oranges growing. And the dwarf orange tree has a solo piece of fruit hanging on one of its very petite branches. But the dwarf grapefruit tree is laden. Yipee! We have read that it is normal for citrus trees to take a few years before they start cranking out fruit. I was so ready for gallons of lemonade... maybe next year.

The grapes have started ripening. We find purple ones here and there. We have taken to munching on them while we are out swimming. Grace will rummage around the leaves and find us the best ones. I doubt any of them will ever see the inside of the house.

quick weekend

Mom and Dad were able to stay just a couple of short nights, so we made the most of it. Saturday night found us at Chase Field for Star Wars night with the Diamondbacks. The parentals donned their Reno Aces hats in support - the Aces are the Diamondbacks' farm team. The Dbacks did a good job against the Oakland A's which made it easier to leave the game a little early.

We did the usual things during the rest of the visit; swimming, wiiing, reading, angry birding... and, of course, Gracie's recital. We were glad that our good bye's will be short lived as we will be seeing them again next week.

a few more pictures of grace lately

Grace's enrichment teacher made her this bookmark that now lives in her Harry Potter book. I think it is so sweet, and so Grace!

Her dance recital was this last weekend. She was over the moon for the costume. "So. Many. SPARKLES!" Grammie Marla and Papa Jeff were able to swing in for the weekend. Her class did a cute tap routine to Jackson 5's "ABC". 

 I've been asking her what she wants to do next year- if she wants to continue with dance, or try something new. At first, she told me she wants to play football. Once I made it clear that this isn't an option, she started tossing between gymnastics and her school's swim team. But reaching the end of the dance season has been a sad thing for her and she has a good friend at church who is in a ballet class that Grace would like to try... I'm glad to have a couple of months off. We'll take a break and figure it out before school starts.

 Me and Grace on our date at the High School production of Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

With her piano teacher, Miss Jeanette. Grace doesn't run to the piano to practice anymore (I figured that wouldn't last long) but she still enjoys playing. Miss Jeanette has been a great fit for us. She is very well trained and taught for years before taking a break to raise her 5 children. She is just getting back into teaching now, Grace was her first student. We are glad we took a chance on her! She is so patient with Grace and enthusiastic about their lessons together. And, she comes to our house for lessons, a convenience which has been a great blessing to me this year. We are really happy about the progress Grace is making.

still life: happy national running day :)

ready for 1st grade

Grace had a great year of kindergarten. Things sure got busy towards the end of the year. At a school assembly, Grace got an award for "always asking thorough and interesting questions."

Her enrichment class completed a unit on animal habitats. All the children selected animals to make diorama habitats for and then parents were invited to a special zoo fair where we were able to tour the habitats and ask the 'experts' any questions we liked about the animals. Cori took a cute video of his interview with Grace. He wasn't asking good enough questions because she kept prompting him, "Don't you want to know how many fins they have? If they give live birth? How they breathe? If they are even MAMALS?"She wanted her diorama to be like looking outside a submarine portal. I helped with some tracing and hot glueing and wrapping the outside of the project, but the rest was all Grace. 

It was nice that the High School finished up their year before Grace's school because I was able to get a sitter and attend the assembly and her 2 class parties (One for her kinder class, and the other for her enrichment -PM- class). At the Kindergarten awards assembly, Grace was recognized for 4th quarter perfect attendance (A serious surprise. We don't stress about perfect attendance around here.) and for a perfect score on the 70 phonogram test. They gave all kindergarteners 4 chances to reach 100% on this test and Gracie aced it all 4 times.

She and her class mates gave cute presentations at both parties. They sang songs and chanted out some of the dozen or so recitations they had memorized over the year. The schedule got switched up at the last minute and resulted in ice cream sundaes at 9:50 in the morning. The students were all pretty excited about this. 

Above, Grace with her Kinder teacher, Mrs. P. Below, she is with Mrs. F. her enrichment teacher. Class of 2024? That blew our minds a little.

On their first and last days of school, we let the kids choose what they would like to do for dinner. On Grant's last day, we made a trip to Chick-fil-a. Grace chose Olive Garden. They received one end-of-the-school-year gift each in the form of some summer reading.

Grace wasted no time. This book lives in her hands or under her pillow. The putting of books under her pillow is a little habit that formed a couple of months ago. Her reading level climbed rather abruptly towards the end of the school year. Once she was reading on her own, there was never enough time to read everything she wanted to before bed. So she would mark her page and stash the book under her pillow so she could finish it first thing the next morning. So often, I would go to wake her (around 6:30) and she would be stretched out atop her made up bed, legs crossed, reading away. This became more regular as she stepped into chapter books. She loves the Magic Treehouse series and has no problems reading those solo. Harry Potter is more slow going for her when she is reading it alone, but we have been reading together at night. And I have to read through some of Hagrid's dialogue a couple of times myself before I totally understand what he saying... 

Grace is already very excited for 1st grade. She is totally enamored with being a student and summer break has been a sad reality slowly creeping her way. I'm armed with crafts,  work books, and our library card. Here's hoping she will love summer as much as I will love having her home with me all day. 

blessings

It was a busy weekend. Saturday started early with Bountiful Basket pickups. I tacked a flat of strawberries onto our order this week and Grace and I spent a chunk of the morning turning it into freezer jam and smoothie cubes. We participated in a baptism, ran a few errands, and Gracie had studio pictures for her dance recital. Cori helped with a move (for the third weekend in a row, ah the life of the Elder's Quorum president) and the kids were good and ready for bed after a family swim. Once the night air had cooled off a bit, Cori and I took turns running, getting our last miles in for the week. Nap time after church yesterday was nonnegotiable. It is great to be anxiously engaged, and then to have time for a nap. Other blessings I'm counting:

• From all reports, our Papa Ray is recovering well from his operation. 
• Sara, one of my two brilliant sisters, received the good news that she passed the California Bar exam - arguably one of the most difficult in the country. She said that even though she graduated a year ago and has been employed all this time at a patten firm, she is finally feeling almost done with law school (just the patten bar exam to go!). So happy for her and all the good things happening in her life right now. 
• Thea, the other of my two brilliant sisters, is going to be joining me and the kids in southern California with my mom in just a few weeks. We love us some auntie time!
• Cori and I leave for our Ragnar adventure in a week and a half. We are looking forward to the whole weekend with his family and are a bit anxious to see how our training carries us over those elevation changes. It will also be nice to reclaim our free time around here. It takes a considerable amount of time for the parents of small children who cannot be left at home by themselves to run 20+ miles each in a week. But it has been a fun goal to work on together. 
• My parents are coming for a quick trip this weekend. Hurray!