More Wasatch Back

Remember how the last post was just the first leg? Well, there's still 2/3 of the race to go! And a good chunk of that was in the dark.

"You mean we have to do this again? In a few hours?!"

But at least we had a few hours. We grabbed a bite to eat and drove past all the runners to wait at the posh comfort of Snow Basin Lodge - home of indoor plumbing, hot water, soft couches, and tired, sweaty runners sprawled *everywhere.* Sooner than we were ready for we got the text that the last runner of the second van was getting close. Our turn would be up soon.

Yes, that's me wrapped in the blanket. It was cold!

Jason was up. And boy was he ready for his 8.5 mile run up and down the mountain. It was a string of bobbing lights, and Jason gathered road kills willy-nilly as he flew down that mountain!

Is that him? I'm not sure. Taking pictures in the dark while in a moving car and the runner is moving=very bad pics.

There he is!

Staying warm with our teammates. Oh, yeah! We're bonding now.

My turn for the leg that I'd been dreading for weeks. 8.1 miles uphill at about 2:00 a.m.

I didn't even check my pace, just kept telling myself to keep going. Just make it through each song on the iPod and keep going. I did chalk up a good chunk of road kills, too. (The team renamed me "Night Stalker") I pushed it hard and finished in way less time than I expected. And after I was done my legs decided they were done, too. I couldn't get into the car. Jason had to push me in.

Our van's 2nd leg was finished and we went to a "Sleep Station" to try and catch a little sleep. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...

Let's just say it's really hard to sleep while packed like Sardines with 500 other people on the hard gymnasium floor of a high school. Jason said it's the closest he hopes to come to sleeping in a homeless shelter after a natural disaster. It's like a human orchestra: shuffle, cough, whisper, creeaaak (the door squeaked), zip, footsteps, shuffle, snore, cough, creeeaaak, whisper, cell phone alarm, clatter, laugh, creaaaak, SNORE, shuffle, cough, SNORE, creak, shuffle, SNORE... There was a guy on an air mattress less than 10 feet away from us and next to him was a guy on a cot. And they were pretty comfortable, pretty tired, and seriously LOUD SNORERS. And I mean LOUD!

I lay on my side with one ear pressed to my pillow, my iPod in the other ear, and my sweatshirt over my eyes to block out the light of the constantly opening and closing door. To say we got an hour of sleep would be realistic--and probably a gross overestimate. And to help matters by that point I could barely move. Up and down the stairs required hanging onto the banister for dear life. We finally gave up on sleep and met in the cafeteria that served spaghetti and peanut butter sandwiches, but no breakfast. So we had breakfast from the back of the car.

Notice I'm not the one wrapped in a blanket now? Barry will forever hold the nickname of "Old Man Graff" after breakfast. And boy, did we think it was funny. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Everything was funny! (The poor runners trying to sleep on the grass by the car sure didn't think it was funny, though.)

On to Leg #3.
And on to another post, I think. This one would get too long if I were to finish the rest of the race.

Tales and Tears of the Wasatch Back - 1st Leg

It's the post you've all been waiting for! (Now that I got photos from teammates) Over Father's Day weekend Jason and I ran a 188 mile relay race. It went up and over 4 mountain passes across the back of the Wasatch Mountains. Jason had been asked to be on a team from work sometime in January. A month before the race one of their team members had to drop out so they asked if I'd fill in.

Would I? I've been wanting to run the Wasatch Back since I first heard of it.

Our team was called the A-Team (for Alpine School District) and we even got dubbed new racing names.

I was "Juice."

And Jason was "Hammy" from the movie Over the Hedge.

Along with new names we also got rockin' matching T-shirts, and great window decorations.

Van One/Juan
(One of our team members is from England and when she says "one" it sounds like "Juan" - so it became a joke. Ok, I'll admit, on 1 hour of sleep *everything* became a joke.)

The "Eat Our Chalkdust" was a genius idea for the back window. (Wish I could claim it.)

We thought we were pretty styling until we met up with some of the other vans, like the Striping -- I mean, Stripping Warriors. (Note the teeny tiny little "p" smashed in there when they realized it was misspelled)

We started at 2:00 in the afternoon and had 650+ teams ahead of us. That's a lot of potential road kills (people you pass) to chalk up on our windows. *rubbing hands together*

Jason was Runner #1 and got us off to a great start.

How was the first leg of the race? "Very hot," Jason replied. We would all have liked a little more hot the next day when we finished in a monsoon.

The rest of the runners in our van ran through some truly gorgeous back country.


My first leg was early evening up and over the summit of Avon pass and down the other side on the oh-my-gosh-I'm-going-to-break-my-ankle-and-did-I-really-just-run-past-a-severed-deer-leg dirt road that was more like a rocky creek bed.

The end of the run. Finally!

This is what waited at the exchange.

Yes, that is a Lambourgini.
And see how close I was? That's my leg in the corner as I stretched. *giggle*

And next to the Lambourgini were...

2 yellow Corvettes. Suh-weet!!

Anyway, back to the race. I'm happy to report that on the first leg we started getting road kills, ran into some people we knew, and I didn't throw up after running. So... success!

I've realized this would be a really long post if I were to do the whole race so I'll tell you more about the rest of it in future posts.

One of those days

I've been saving this email a friend sent me for a day just like today!

Tough Love vs. Spanking – One Person’s Perspective

Most of the American populace thinks it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of "those moments."

One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, iPod, etc.

Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.







*Don't lie. You're totally laughing, aren't you?*

Happy 13!

Happy Friday all! Not only is it a bee-you-ti-ful Friday weather-wise (bring on the sun!!) but it also happens to be my anniversary. 13 years with my awesome husband! *sniff*

The traditional 13th anniversary gift is LACE.

And yes, that is my husband whooping and cheering in the corner. He likes this year better than, say, year 7 which is the wool and copper anniversary. That was an easy year for gifts. Steel wool anyone? And it came in so handy for that pot where I got involved writing that fight scene and forgot I was steaming carrots... *Note: I didn't really get him steel wool, but wouldn't that have been an *awesome* idea?!

He won't be nearly so happy when he unwraps that package of doilies.

Treadmills are not toys

A fact which Princess is now convinced of. I'm afraid I have a child that has to learn things the hard way. *sigh*

This is 2 days after the incident.

What's missing in these pictures is her face. Imagine mouth wide open and emitting a wail to rival a siren. She's okay as long as the bandages are on. Once they come off the wailing begins anew.

For those of you who are concerned, she's doing pretty good. Nothing broken, just missing chunks of skin. I think the treadmill won this round.

Peel a banana the right way

Very useful! I'm not kidding.

I need a laugh

And this made me chuckle. Enjoy!

Steve was in trouble. He forgot Valentines Day. His wife was really angry and she told him, “Tomorrow morning I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in less than 10 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!” The next morning Steve got up early and left for work.

When his wife woke up she looked out the window and, sure enough, there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway and brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Steve has been missing since Friday. Please pray for him