I Ran and I Ran Fast-ish

 

I ran the fastest half-marathon of my life!!  I still can't stop smiling about this.   I've been running for a long time so to get a PR is not something I ever thought I could do.  But I beat my fastest time from twenty years ago and it felt awesome!  

I've been training hard and stacked up the miles on my long runs pretty early so I've had a few extra weeks to really feel prepared.  I've done all my runs on trails/roads around Sammamish which means a ton of steep hills so my pace has always been slower than what I'd like so I decided for my last long run I'd run along the race course which is a paved trail around Lake Sammamish and it's super flat.  I ran the ten miles almost a minute faster per mile than what I'd been doing on my previous runs and still felt great.  That's what gave me the crazy idea to go for a PR and not just try to run the race.

The night before the race I sat down and calculated that if I ran an 8:38 minute mile I could break my record half-marathon time of 1 hour and 53 minutes.  I've gotten a 1:53 in two races but those were literally twenty years ago!  Yes, those race courses weren't as flat as this one but who cares!  Like a true pro, I wrote the times on my arm so I could do my best to stay consistent.  I woke up feeling great and loved having a friend with me so I wasn't lonely at the starting line.  

 I wore an old race shirt to keep warm until the race was about to start, then tossed it in the trash before I started running.

I started strong and I finished strong.   The weather wasn't terrible although it rained on us most of the race.  At each mile marker I was within a few seconds of my predicted pace, which was so awesome to be that consistent.  I stayed with the same group of runners until about mile 10 and then people started to drag.  Right about then, my friend surprised me by showing up to cheer me on and took the photo above.  It was just the motivation I needed so I cranked up my music, prayed, and picked up my pace.  I felt Lindsey right beside me.  She was always my favorite running partner.

My much younger friend Tami, finished about a minute in front of me and here's her cute family cheering on the runners.  

At the finish and I was still feeling good but so glad I was done!  I'd been following that girl behind me the entire race but she started to drag when I dug deep and passed her.  Boy did that feel good :)

I got to ring the bell!!

Here's me at Target a couple hours later, sporting my race medal.  Yes, I was that proud that I wore it all day!  I wasn't even sore the next day and that felt like a huge win too.  Hip, hip, hooray for old ladies doing hard things!

The Utah Trip I Didn't Go On

Randy took the boys to Utah to celebrate his parents finishing their mission in Cove Fort, Utah.  I stayed home so I could attend and speak at stake conference.  I thought I'd get a little tired of the quiet house but it turns out even this extrovert is quite happy being home alone.  We are talking I couldn't stop smiling.  I kept myself plenty busy and enjoyed all the extra time on my hands from not having to clean and re-clean the kitchen.  Turns out that besides driving my kids everywhere, I spend a lot of time cleaning the kitchen over and over again.  

Anyway, they went to Utah and it had just snowed so they had fun sledding and skiing.  Actually I'm not sure how much fun the skiing was.  My college boys enjoyed being with the family and everyone finally got to meet Marcus's girlfriend. Her name is Alea and they've been together a couple months and we really like her and no, they don't know if they are getting married and Marcus doesn't even like that people are asking that :)

Marcus's dorm room

BYU Lacrosse

My boy plays lacrosse at BYU. I love saying that!  It's pretty cool to know a college athlete and even cooler to have raised one.  Marcus plays defensive middie and the first game of the season was here against U-Dub.  We were so excited.  It was on a school night and the weather was terrible so I was so impressed with the large number of friends who drove into Seattle to cheer Marcus on.  BYU won the game with a score of 23-6 or something crazy like that.  As the game wore on we began cheering for the other team's goalie because he was just taking a beating.  BYU trains at the level of a D1 team but are still considered a club team so they really dominate against most other teams.  They're about halfway through the season now and still undefeated.  

Practice starts at 5am which is early but crazy early for college boys.  I admire their grit.

Marcus's fan club and we were even missing a few for the picture

I'd recognize those quads anywhere!

Randy bought a bunch of BYU fan gear for us to wear but you can't see any of it because we were bundled up.  I can't remember the last time my toes were that cold!

After the game we took lots of pictures and did lots of celebrating before heading over to the team hotel where we fed the team dinner.  We had so much food!  And now I know the next time I cater event how NOT to do it.  I ordered more meat but this place also gave us all the sides that go with the meat so we ended up with enough lettuce, cheese, jalapeños, and salsa to feed 100 people and not 45.  Lesson learned.

Someone Isn't Growing

Something big happened to little Henry.  He's started taking daily growth hormone shots.  This has been in the works for almost a year.  All my boys are short but Henry is much smaller than all of them have ever been.  I did research, talked to people in similar situations, and was ready to not take no for an answer.  The doctors always just tell me since Randy and I are short, we are going to have short kids.  And they are correct.  But neither of us are crazy short.  And don't get me started on why it's so impossible for even one of our kids to be a little taller than Randy.  Seems like most families have kids taller than the parents but not us.  We are cursed.  

Anyway, I took Henry to a pediatric endocrinologist and she said all the same things about not being concerned about Henry but she'd do some tests to check things out.  After another x-ray of his hand, an all-day growth hormone test, and an MRI, we found out Henry actually doesn't produce hardly any growth hormone.  His pituitary gland is working just fine so we don't know the cause but we do know he isn't growing.  Even his baby teeth aren't falling out so everything about him has just stopped.

The good news is insurance is covering the shots which are $30,000/year.  The bad news is that Henry has to have these daily shots in the butt until he hits puberty which will be about 10 years from now.  The other bad news is the shots will only help him to be two inches above or below the average growth rate of Randy and me which is 5'8".  That means Henry could only reach 5'6" or as tall as 5'10". That's hardly worth it but when I said that to the doctor, she said if I don't do the shots, Henry won't even hit 5'6".  So shots it is!  

Eventually Henry will be able to do them on his own but for now, he acts like it's a big deal and it's a two-man job where one of us gives the shot while Parker softly pats Henry on the back.  It's so cute! Grow Henry, grow!

The first box of growth hormone supplies.  I can't wait to see the picture of him with the last box!

January Little Things

January was pretty uneventful.  We didn't have a lot of rain which I appreciated because I'm training for a half-marathon and the weather determines how pleasant/unpleasant the training experience is.  Every once in awhile on a pretty day, I take a picture to send to my college boys to remind them how beautiful WA is and how ugly Utah is so maybe one day they will want to move back home.  Temporarily, of course.

The daily grind of piano practicing is back in full swing.  Henry is actually really good!  Parker is too but he loathes the piano.  Marcus and Henry will probably be my only piano players.  So sad.

Landon is so good about putting in the daily grind of practicing lacrosse and one time Henry decided to go with him.  These brothers are so cute!

We still can't get over all the fallen trees when we go on mandatory Sunday walks.

Randy spent a couple weekends buying tools/supplies to build a temple in the garage.  

The seminary kids will fill in the walls with popsicle sticks that they earn by reading their scriptures.

I've been influenced!  I bought a weighted vest and Parker was having fun with it.  I think it's supposed to help with perimenopause stuff but I just liked the idea of wearing it around when as I do laundry and clean the house or for going on walks with friends.  I haven't noticed any benefits but do I like it?  Yes!!

Parker is playing rec basketball and he's actually pretty good!  We go to the church a couple times a week to work on his shots so he can be an actual weapon on the court.

I signed Henry up for lacrosse.  None of my boys have started this young but Henry needs stuff to do since he doesn't have a neighborhood full of kids to play with.  He's actually pretty good!

I went skiing and that's Parker in the red coat

That's Henry in the green trying to block Parker from being in the picture.  Oh Henry! 

I love my pink goggles!  And skiing with these two was pretty fun!

Marcus played on an intramural inner tube water polo team with his girlfriend.  I got all kinds of excited remembering when I played at BYU.

WE won!  And I still have the championship t-shirt to prove it.  Also, back then if you wanted to swim in the BYU pools you had to wear one of their standard issue swimsuits.  They were always baggy so we'd often wear our own swimsuits underneath them.  Kids have it so easy these days!

Henry is such a good reader!  He's actually way above his grade level and it's so cute seeing him read at Parker's basketball games.  We both bring books to read when Parker isn't on the court.