The Great Half Marathon Adventure or "Houston, we have a problem."

13.1 miles is longer than you think it is. And that's scary considering how long it already sounds. But I learned how long it actually is on Saturday morning when I tackled my first ever half marathon. The adventure was not without a few missteps and unexpected twists and turns...but I survived and it was totally worth it.

The first unexpected twist came Friday night when my poor, sick running partner finally admitted defeat--she would not be running. This came after a few weeks of me announcing to a number of people, "I don't know how anyone could run such a distance by themselves!" Ha ha...life is funny that way. So on the eve of this crazy long run, I had to face the reality that I was doing it solo. As "solo" as one can be in the midst of thousands of other runners, but still!

Anyway, my awesome little brother kindly agreed to get up before dawn to go with me to the starting line and then meet me at the finish line. He's a trooper...and that's what I call love, ladies and gentlemen. He is The Best.

The first 6 miles were easy. I passed some weird looking people, stayed hydrated at the water stations along the way, and enjoyed the tunes on my iPod. Mile 7's only highlights were the gawking construction workers, replaying Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" over and over, and the bathroom I finally sighted at the end of it. With a bathroom break behind me, and Gatorade in my blood I continued on.

When I hit Mile 10 I said to myself, "Wow! This is the farthest I have ever run! And there are only 3 miles left which is like a quick morning jog!" With a sense of optimism I ran past the mile marker and immediately felt my diaphragm seize up, making any deep breathing almost impossible. And thus passed the next two miles of voluntary Hell on Earth. I had to stop and walk until I could breathe again and then I'd pick up the pace to a run until I had to walk...again.

As the last mile approached I vowed to run all of it. It was one mile. One. I could do that as long as I just kept the bottom part of me moving! And I did. I made it to the Gateway with enough energy to "kick it up a notch" at the end. I made it across the finish line with an official time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 51 seconds. And that, my friends, is pretty much awesome. I feel no shame at all in declaring to one and all that I...am a Rockstar.

And I am totally going to do it again.

Blug

I've been trying to Blog for days now. But nothing seems to be working. In fact, I just posted a blog and then deleted it. If you're a lucky reader who uses the Google Reader program, you probably got a chance to read that ill-fated post. Maybe you should copy it off and have me sign it. As an "out of print" edition, it could be worth money someday. Probably not the best retirement plan, but its a start.

I considered writing about my love of Popchips because really--I love them. They might be the best creation since Macaroni & Cheese in a box. If you haven't tried them yet, you are missing out. I like the Original flavor the best. At 120 calories per serving, they are a dieters dream snack. I can usually consume three servings in a sitting, but that's still only 360 calories! SKIDOOSH!

Maybe my readers would be interested to know what I do during the day--the daily schedule of a public school teacher? But then I realized today consisted mostly of surfing the World Wide Interweb for offbeat news, and halfheartedly correcting a few assignments. Not the most thrilling things to share.

I saw the Hannah Montana movie over Spring Break and I am not ashamed to admit it. I downloaded "The Climb" and have committed to learning the Hoedown Throwdown. What can I say? Love me some Hannah Montana. But I can't turn that into an entire blog post.

I binged on treats last weekend--yay for the end of Lent!--and I considered sharing with y'all what I ate--including lots of Easter candy, Toll House pie, 3 kinds of cake, and the most delicious of cookies at Ben's. That's still not a bad idea, but its also rather embarrassing to admit I had 3 kinds of cake in one weekend (or...day...).

Anyway, the basic story is that you shouldn't blog when there's nothing concrete to say. So here's the major news in my life: Tomorrow I'm running the Salt Lake Half Marathon with my sister, Abby. I am PUMPED and EXCITED and NERVOUS and totally READY. Its gonna be big and I'd have to say its definitely worth blogging about. Perhaps in the future...

We sing, We dance, We Quilt things

This past week I achieved another First in the world of crafting. I made a quilt! A big thank you goes out to Erin for helping me almost every step of the way. Another thank you to Will Smith, who's Hitch made Evening #1 of the quilting process go by much more quickly.The quilt is a gift for my lil' sister, Abby (she's in the middle in the pic above, between older sister, Jen, and mi madre), who will be getting married in July. I sewed the quilt (Evening #2 of the quilting process) and the ladies got together Saturday night to tie it (Evening #3!). We're not entirely done, but its coming along nicely. These pics of our Saturday night Quilting Bee come courtesy of Meredith...who is pictured in NONE of the photos. Go figure!

Here I am with my sister-in-law, Kiana. We owe Kiana a lot for having some actual knowledge of putting the quilt on frames. The rest of us were basically winging it...and doing a poor job at that!

And here are my sister, Allie, and nephew, Spencer. Al did a great job tending to Spencer who wanted to be in on the quilting, but instead spent most of the evening chilling under the quilt with Fisher Price people and High School Musical 3.

Confession

For reasons I cannot explain, I really want to watch this:

Even though I know* I would give it one of these if I was a movie critic:


I confuse myself sometimes.
*sigh*

*I know because I've already seen it three times. In the theater. True story.

On My Mind

I worked at Jamba Juice for two summers during college as a Blend Specialist. The second summer our boss allowed us one free smoothie per shift. My favorite wasn't on the menu. I'd just take the Peach Pleasure and instead of peaches and bananas, I'd add peaches, strawberries and mango. DELISH! So imagine my excitement when Jamba added the Peach Perfection to their menu--just like the one I created. Woot! I truly enjoy the Peach Perfection smoothie, and I've been drinking a lot of Jamba lately so I've been thinking about it. Oh so good! But on cold spring days/nights...smoothies just aren't as good. They chill me inside and out and I have the hardest time getting warm. Bring on the spring so I can drink more Jamba!

Speaking of being cold and the late arrival of spring, I'm sick of Utah's supposed "spring" weather. Its snowing outside. Happy April. The forecast is for more snow on Friday as well. I hate snow--a fact I think I have documented well over the past year or so on this Blog. SERIOUSLY. But things are looking up--I am assuming the weather will be near perfect next week. I have an almost fail-safe way of calling such things. Consider if you will...

My roommates and I take weekly turns parking in the garage. Every three weeks, I get to put Blueberry in the warm comfort of the garage each night. The two weeks I park on the street are almost guaranteed to be cold, snowy, rainy, windy nastiness. The minute Blueberry is inside the garage, the weather will clear up. Thus we see that every three weeks, the weather will be beautiful. Its a bittersweet system, but there you go. Enjoy the warm sunny weather next week--brought to you by Blueberry, my garage, and the letter F.

Finally, here's a shout out to my amazing students who continue to amuse me, challenge me, and make me happy {almost} every day. Though I fervently hope they never come across this Blog and connect it to me, I have no problem with the Internet community at large to know that I think my kids are pretty keen.