Back To Back Trips to Utah (Trip 2)

Trip 2: Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I missed Utah so much that I decided to go back after only 5 days! I headed out on Friday, October 28th and flew back to Colorado on Sunday.  It was a quick weekend!  Aside from getting to hang with my family, the whole purpose of this trip was to torture my body by getting up super early and running 13.1 miles down a canyon road.  Fun! I promised I would do it if Jessica and Marcela signed up, so I am a women of my word.  I was looking forward to running with Jess and helping her reach her new personal best time, but she dropped out and was unable to run due to a stress fracture.  Bummer! It was fun to hang with Marcela though who flew in from Seattle just for this race.  

I got up at 3:45am (I think I got about 4 hours of sleep that night which is about what I got the previous night as well- awesome!), got dressed, and headed down to Provo to catch the bus which took us to the top of the mountain.

5:30am and oh so happy

Marcela was rather chipper at 5:30am and looking forward to running!

Mike joined us and he even got into the spirit of Halloween!

We were to the top of the mountain by 6:30am and the race did not start until 9am.  We had a lot of time to kill, but we were entertained by seeing all the crazy costumes people came up with.  It was freezing though, so it is a good thing we found a nice spot right by the heater in the tent they set up for us. 

The race started pretty close to on time and we were off! The first 5 miles is extremely steep and then it is a gradual down-hill slope the rest of the way.  Needless to say I flew the first 6 miles and it felt great.  My first mile was run in 6 minutes and 55 seconds! I'm not sure if I was going so fast because I was freezing and wanted to get warm, or if I simply wanted to get this race over with, or if it was because it was so steep, but nevertheless I was off to a good start.  I crossed the 6 mile mark at 44 minutes and 37 seconds which may be a new personal record for that distance.  I was not able to maintain that pace though since it was around the 6 mile mark that my hip started hurting. :^( That made the remaining 7 miles pretty painful.  You can tell I was hurting since my times gradually increased to 9:28, 10:40, and 11 minute miles. 

Since I didn't train much for this race... seriously, the farthest I made it was 6 miles and I ran that the Monday prior to the race which was held on Saturday.  Awesome! Anyway, since I knew I wasn't in good enough condition to break my record of 1:46:44, I made it my goal to complete it in under 2 hours. 

Here I am making my way to the finish line.

I am happy to say I made my goal and came in at 1:55:58! I was worried I wasn't going to make it since every step hurt the last 7 miles, but I did it!

Obligatory Pose at the End

I am very proud of Marcela who finished in 1:52:04.  You are an animal! That is a great time Marcela!

It is always the best feeling to cross the finish line knowing you have a fan club waiting for you. Such a cute fan club I have, too!

Pictures at the end of races show the joy of being done, but they do not reflect the pain I was in.  I was hurting pretty bad and Mom definitely had a good time making fun of me when I couldn't walk very fast and had a really hard time putting on socks the next day! Why do I do that to myself? I don't even like running!

So, yes, I did it, but I don't recommend running a half marathon with little training.  You can do it, but it is hard and you will definitely be paying for it for a couple weeks!  

Thanks for making me do it Marcela.  This has given me motivation to actually start training again.  The new goal is to run one mile under six minutes.  Totally possible!

Back To Back Utah Trips (Trip 1)

Trip 1: Park City Vacation

Great timing to hold a Mother/Daughter weekend (sad that Jenny couldn't join us, we missed you!) three days after I started a new job, but I'm so glad it still worked out that I could go.  I hopped on a plane early Thursday morning, October 20th and when I landed the fun began! Jessica was there to greet me at the airport and we were off to pick-up Mom.  Mom was in a very cheerful mood, which quickly set the tone for the entire weekend. 

We made a few detours before actually making it to Park City... one was to Mom's new school.  It was fun to see her new library and all the fun bulletin's and creative decorations she put up.  The second detour was to go to Dad's grave.  It had been a long while since I had been there, so it was nice.  (Side Note: I jotted down some great quotes from the weekend which will be scattered throughout the post.  I'm sure they will not be as funny to you, but trust me we were rollin'!) As Jessica was heading into the cemetery she first started to turn into the exit only, so we just continued heading down the middle lane until the entrance which was about 100 yards up the road.  Well, the truck behind I'm sure was very confused as to what was going on and I made a comment about that to which Jessica replied, "We're going to the cemetery Jules, look tearful!" (said as the truck passes us) It was hilarious!

It was a beautiful day and the cemetery is in such a beautiful area. 

We stayed at the New Park Resort Hotel and it was fabulous! I was a fan of the private hot tub on our balcony!

We weren't however a fan of finding our way out.  Here we were trying to be good and take the stairs, but you couldn't get out that way! So, we stayed with taking the elevator in and out from that point on.

Trapped! You could exit if you wanted to set an alarm off!

We were not in the hotel for long since there was shopping to be done!!! We got some amazing deals and another phrase that become a joke of the trip was Jess saying, "I have a coupon for here" or "Do you have a promotion?" Seriously, just by asking a simple question she scored 20% off for all the people in the line at that time.  Sweet!

Friday was our first full day of adventures.  We took a picture right before we headed out for the day... pretty darn cute if you ask me!

Our first stop was to the Olympic Museum.  It was awesome and brought back so many memories.  Salt Lake really did a great job!

We sat in the gold medal winning bobsled! Go us!

We held an Olympic torch!

We saw the big puppets they used in the opening ceremony...

And we saw the training facility...

 ... and the gorgeous view of the canyon!

After the museum we headed down to main street park city where we found a great BBQ place for lunch. 

After lunch we were energized to do more shopping. I was on a mission to find some new shoes... one because I wanted them, and also kind of out of necessity because my feet were killing me since I was wearing Jessica's shoes that day.  Good news is I found some cute boots and because they were miss marked on the price I scored myself a great deal with an additional $30 off!

We had to laugh since it seemed everything we bought we simply put on and added it our outfit of the day.  So, we looked very different then when we started this morning!

Mom and Jess both bought the same white vest, and Jess and I bought the same hat.  So, we put it on so we could be twins!

I also bought a beautiful framed picture which will look great in the house I am about to buy! I'm sure that will be a future blog post- stay tuned! The only problem is the picture is in Park City and I am in Denver... hmmm... minor details!

Saturday morning was spent doing some more shopping of course.  I had to find a new suitcase so I could get all the stuff I bought back home! We also treated ourselves to a message! This was the first time for Mom and I so it was kind of exciting.  I was very much outside my comfort zone, but I'm not going to lie it was also very nice!  

Mom was waiting to get called back for her massage... isn't purple a relaxing color?

Sadly enough our trip had to come to an end.  We packed up Sunday morning and made it home in time to go to church and me to catch my flight later that evening.  We definitely know how to vacation right... no agenda, hang with great people, eat good food, sit in the hot tub, and do A LOT of shopping!

Thanks for the great memories Mom and Jessica! 

Here are some other great stories/quotes from the trip:
For lunch one day Jessica and Mom got a turkey sandwich from Kneaders.  It was a good sandwich and Jess said, "It's like off the turkey!" to which she quickly followed up with "Get with it, you need to start saying dumb stuff!"

We all know that Jessica is lucky at getting great parking spots.  Well, now we know here secret... she told us the story of a time she was driving around the parking lot and was unable to find an acceptable spot that she almost went to another store to find a parking spot to her liking!  Oh Jess, you crack me up!

Friday morning Jessica and I were wide awake at 6:30am.  Why you ask? Because Mom was up at 4:30am and decided she was bored and didn't want to be the only one awake anymore.  Seriously??? We're on vacation!!! It got better when Mom told us that she was trying to find things to do, "but it was cold on the balcony at 4:30am!" Yep, you are in the mountains Mom! 

I bought a new purse which is super soft leather.  I said, "I could stroke this purse through the store" and Jess said, "me too!".  Yep, I made the quote board!

Mom's admirer was a little on the possessive side and had given his previous wife the nickname which combined his and her name.  So, we did the same for Mom and had a good laugh at what we came up with, I'm Judlie, no I'm Judles" (Judd Less-- thank goodness!)

When I got home from the trip I new my week was going to be a little hectic and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get my blog updated before heading to Utah the following weekend.  I obviously did not get it updated as soon as I hoped, but when talking to Jess and telling her this she said, "That's okay Jules we'll just relive the wonderful vacation in three weeks when you get around to updating your blog!" How right you are Jess! It was fun to relive the great vacation, I just wish it could have lasted longer!

Rugged Maniac

Well, I am officially unemployed.... until tomorrow that is when I start my new job! Friday, October 14th was my last day with the NPS and it was sad to leave, there are some great people who I will miss.  Since I am still in Colorado I can at least go visit, so that made it easier to say good-bye.  There was a great crowd that came to my going away lunch...

Yesterday (Saturday, October 15, 2011) my friend Deanna and I participated in the Rugged Maniac 5K Race.  It was the hardest 5K (3.1 miles) I have ever done in my life! It was a lot of fun though once we got past the first mile which was nothing but hills! I took my camera along so there are a lot of pictures- enjoy!

We got our bib number written on our leg in case the bib fell off during the race.  I kinda felt like like a convict who no longer has a name, but is known as a number. 

This was a very steep hill that we just ran down! It was very slick and quite scary!

Running through the tires... I did get knocked around a bit, but I made it through!

Our goal for this race was not to do it for time, but to have fun... so we did! Deanna jumping off the boulder having a good time!

We came to a muddy pit that we had to get through.  It was like quick sand and I sank deeper and deeper with ever step.  My shoe almost came off, but we both made it through with our shoes and about 10 more pounds of mud to weigh us down!

There were several places where there was a wall or a steep hill to get up.  Nice of them to put the rope there which made it much easier!

There were also several walls to climb over.

This was probably my favorite obstacle... climbing through the muddy swamp under the barbed wire.  It was soooo hot that it felt good to climb through the water.  Side note: I had my camera with me and couldn't get it wet, so we fastened it to my hair.  I'm sure it looked mighty funny to see that, but I kept it safe! 

This next series of pictures cracks me up...

My head is almost over

 My head is finally over

Almost there (this picture freaks me out... can you see the weird divot in my knee?)

And finally over, but I got my head chopped off.  Deanna said, "I think it's artistic!" Too funny!

 The next obstacle was to jump across these stumps.  I was pretty proud of myself, because I did not fall once!

I had to include this picture... another one where my head got cut off.  It makes me laugh!

This picture cracks me up, too.  Deanna is literally saying, "How did you do this?"

She made it over just fine!

There was one more muddy swamp with barbed wire that we had to made it through.  It was fun!

We climbed up a cargo net...

and jumped onto a soft mat. 

When I run down a steep hill I just go... arms flailing and full speed ahead! If I tried to go slower I think I would hurt myself.

The last obstacle I was unable to get pictures of since I had to put my camera down and go back for it after the race.  It was really close to the finish so it wasn't a big deal to retrieve it.  Anyway, the last obstacle was climbing up to a big slide and sliding into FREEZING water and making your way over these log things in order to get out of the water.  It is a good thing it was 80+ degrees yesterday, because anything cooler and I think I may have gotten hypothermia.  I hit that water and my body instantly went into shock and I couldn't move it was so cold! I don't think I was expecting it to be so deep and so cold, but I made it through!

We finished in about 58minutes 45 seconds.  Our goal was 45minutets, but with as much as we stopped to take pictures, fix my hair to secure the camera, and time to dry the hands so I could carry the camera again I'm sure we could have easily made our goal of 45 minutes.  This year was for fun and now that we know what to expect we will actually have to train for next year and do it for time!

Here we are at the finish. We are Rugged Maniacs! Muddy and wet from head to toe. It was a lot of fun!