Top of Zion Relay

Our Van, excluding me, I was running. 

Back when we signed up for the Top of Zion relay, we knew full well that it was a week later after our half. Which we thought we would've been okay and not hurt because we have been training so long for it. We both we the most sore we have ever been in our lives the few days following and Kurt's achilles wasn't doing so well either. So we were nervous for the upcoming race. It started at Capitol Reef and ended in Zions, a total of 195 miles for 2 days. Since we were in the second van, we didn't have to be there until around 2 on Friday. We didn't know anyone except for the girl that put it together, which was in the other car. So we didn't know the 4 people in our car. The first car started at 8 that morning. We met up with them in Boulder Utah. I was the 3rd person to run and Kurt was the 5th. So we had a little bit of time stretch and get ready. My first leg was 6.5 miles. It wasn't too bad at first, but then it got hotter and hotter as the day went on I felt like. It was scorching hot and Kurt and I don't train in the sun because I work, so we run in the mornings before the sun is even out. I felt really good for the first half, but after that I died, the sun drained all my energy out. I had the longest run out of the whole van. I thought I was going to be dehydrated because it was so long and hot. But I finally made it. Kurt's first leg was only 5 miles, but still in the sun. Our van finished at 7 that night so we were all able to recuperate, rest, and eat some real food, not just snacks. A kid in the other car had a house in Escalante and we were able to get a few hours of sleep there. (Some of us at least)

Night Run

We had to be at the next exchange at midnight. It was cold and we were all still tired. I only had 5 miles for the night run, and started around 2 am. It was a lot less cooler and nicer to run. Kurt started his run at Hole in the Rock, it was kind of a bummer that it wasn't during the day so we could see it better and take pictures. He had 4 miles that night and he did so great! Our whole van was doing so good, given a couple of injuries and the hardness of some of the runs. We finished our legs that morning around 7 and were able to get lots of sleep. The first van's last legs were really short so they ran them super fast, we started our last leg around 10. Our total number of miles on our last leg all together was 36 miles, this was our longest set yet. I once again just had 5 miles, it was around noon, wasn't very hot yet, so that was nice. But it was on a dirt/sandy road that was very uneven and had lots of sand at some places. It was my least favorite run. It was not very pretty either. Kurt's run was 7 miles, on the stupid dirt road, mostly uphill. His achilles was hurting a little bit so he was nervous about it. He ran 4 miles and took a rest, so I ran a mile and another kid ran a mile and then Kurt finished his last mile. We were really lucky that his achilles didn't start killing him until the last leg.   He did awesome on his first legs, you wouldn't even had guessed he was hurting. While the one kid was running a mile for Kurt, he hurt himself and he was after Kurt. Luckily he only had 4 miles, I ran his second mile and another girl ran his 3rd, and then we had one more mile to go, which he wanted to finish.

The whole team finally done!

We finished around 4 that afternoon. We finished fourth overall and second in the men's division. We only had 3 girls so we were able to qualify for the mens team. We were so happy to be done. It was a lot of fun, we made new friends, had a good support system. But we wont do that again unless they move it to another time of year. It was super pretty at so many parts, but the sun was just deathly hot that if you were running, it was hard to enjoy it because you were too focused on not getting dehydrated and just making it to the end. We definitely will not have any long races until our marathon is over. Too much of a risk getting hurt and the recovery.

Our Wall of Fame

In Zion after the run.

American Fork Half Marathon

Support the fight against Cancer

Back in February, Kurt and I signed up for the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon with my sister and brother. Which both couldn't do it in the end and had to get some friends to do it. This is the one that is about our half way mark for our marathon. It was really rough getting up at 3 in the morning to catch a bus ride up to the canyon at 4 and waiting at the top for an hour until it started. I was feeling really good about it too, I had just ran the Ogden half a month ago and I felt pretty good on that one. This one was 7 miles brutally down hill, and 6 miles running on a paved trial through neighborhoods. I hate running through neighborhoods while during a race. I wanted to beat my Ogden time because I felt like I was more prepared for this one and in better shape. Which I was, but the downhill was pretty steep and killed me by the time I was done with it. I didn't finish with what I wanted, but I still beat my Ogden time. Kurt did really good, he ran it in 1:43:29 and I finished in 1:56:01. Having a run like this makes me really nervous for the full. I hope though that I will be really prepared and can only pray that I don't get hurt and that my feet don't blister early on like they did with this on.

8 months of Kazi Bear

She was so little

No way Kurt could do this now.

From day one, she has loved our pillows.

Always trying to fit into everything

Kazi is 8 months now and hopefully fully grown. She used to be this cute little puppy, and now she is this cute big monster. She was her good days, and then she has her days where she unleashes(chews) on everything that she sees in front of her. We will come home to find that she has been chewing on things that she has never before wanted to chew on. It is getting hard because I feel like there is nothing that we can leave close to the ground that we don't want her to chew on. Living in an apartment with a high energy dog that likes to chew on things, is not the greatest thing for her or us. We did get her fixed (poor dog) she was so out of it the whole day. We have never seen her like that. We heard that she wouldn't have as much energy once that happened, but I think that is a lie, she still has just as much. But all the bad things that she does, there are still good things that she does. Kurt was sick last week and I had to work and she was really good for him. She just slept with him all day. She probably needed the rest just as much as Kurt did. And she still continues to do things every day that makes us laugh. She has such a funny personality, we couldn't have gotten a better dog.

Memorial Day Weekend :)

 Memorial Day weekend started early for me. Friday was my birthday so I took the day off, of course. We made crepes for breakfast with all the delicious ingredients. Had lunch planned with my grandparents at Mimi's Cafe, but it turned out to be practically the whole family, which was a nice surprise. And for dinner I wanted to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory downtown at Trolley Square. We have eaten there twice now, and they are so good! We left Kazi at my mom's house for the rest of the weekend, so that was a nice little break from her and for her.

On Saturday, we had some friends from out of town come and had dinner at a delicious Thai place near by. This was one of my friends from Hawaii and I haven't seen her for about a year. It was fun chatting with them and catching up on life. 

On Monday while Kurt was doing his studies, (with Kazi) I was thinking about our terrible back room that seems to be overflowing with junk and I don't know what to do with it. I've been wanting a bookshelf and haven't really found any on KSL that I liked. I found one at Target for only $20, and I figured might as well buy a brand new one for $20 then a used one for the same price. Turns out we still had some left over wedding money to Target (yes a year in a half later we still have giftcards that I always forget about). We ended up buying more than just a bookshelf. We wanted more counter space and wanted to find something we could put our microwave on and they had the perfect thing. I built the bookshelf and Kurt built the microwave stand. We both think they were really good investments.

Overall it was a very relaxing and eventful weekend. 

May

Since we have been back from California, it has been a little hard adjusting to working again. Kurt started school on the next day after we got back. At that time we were still waiting to hear if he was in the Business program or not. And we finally found out on Thursday. Kurt is officially in the program. He is such a hard worker and if he continues to take a full load, he might be able to graduate next spring, given that he would have to still take 4 classes over the summer. We are both excited about that, because that means only a year of school instead of like two. So we are hoping and praying that all works out and he passes his classes in order to that. We celebrated Kurt's 23rd birthday on thursday by going to eat at Cheesecake Factory at City Creek and then just wandered around there. It's sad that we live so close and that is the first time that we have been there since it opened. We didn't get the chance to look in any stores, but it is a really cool mall and plan to go there again in the near future.

Like I mentioned in past posts, my friend from work couldn't do the Ogden half marathon, so I took her place. It didn't really hit me until yesterday, and that's when I started getting nervous. Kurt and I ran 10 miles two weeks before, and that was rough, but we still did it. I was just super dead, and there was no way I could've run 3 more miles after that. My sister in law Amy was running it too, so luckily her parents live in Ogden and so we were able to stay the night at their house, or else we would have to of had to left super early this morning, because we needed to get on the bus around 5:30. Which means we had to wake up at 4 this morning just to eat breakfast and get ready. It was super cold after we got off the bus in the mountains in Ogden. I clearly did not dress warm enough at that time but it was all good once I started to run. The first couple of miles my feet were still unthawing from being so cold and numb. But the view was so pretty. It was a small decline practically the whole way, there was one small little hill, but for the most part it was really good. Around mile 6, I finally got into my groove and was flying. Which is weird for me, because you would think that by that time, you would be slowing down and a little bit more tired. But I felt really good. It wasn't until mile 10 that I just kept telling myself that there were only 3 more miles left. Because around that time my feet starting killing me and I knew I would have some gnarly blisters on my toes and feet. And the last 3 miles were out of the canyon and on some small trial, which does not fit a lot of people on it. I felt like it was the beginning again, weaving in and out of people because there was not a lot of room. When my watch hit 13.1 miles, my time was around 1:58, however I was not to the finish line yet. By the time I hit the finish line it had been 13.4 miles and my time was 2 hours and 55 seconds. It is better than may last half that I did a year and half ago and still pretty good considering I only found out I was doing it  4 weeks prior, but I still like to stay my time was 1:58.  I just hope that this run better prepared me physically and mentally for my next half in June.

California

Kurt and I were lucky enough to take a vacation the week in between spring semester and summer semester. We stayed the night in St. George for two nights to see his family and then headed to California. It was a nice break and didn't seem like that long of drive because of the split. I tried to plan out our week in advance so we knew what we were doing most of the days. We stayed at the Welk Resort in Escondido, wasn't right on the beach, but it was close enough. The weather was beautiful while we were there and we got plenty of sunshine! Neither of us had been to six flags, and so we decided to go. It was the perfect time too, because it was in the middle of the week, school was still in session, and so it was not very crowded at all. We did not have to wait long in any line, however because most of the rides are roller coasters, I got a little sick because we were going from one roller coaster to the next within minutes of each other and not letting my insides calm down. We were able to ride all of the rides that we wanted to, only once though, because by one of the last roller coasters, I was trying so hard not to throw up, but as soon as we got off, I couldn't hold it in any longer. It was definitely a fun day though, and glad that we did it.

On Wednesday, we made a trip out to the San Diego Temple. I think it is now one of my favorite temples that I have been in. It is so pretty inside and outside. We also met up with Kurt's mission companion, Gregson. He lives out there and Kurt wanted to learn how to surf, so he taught him how. Kurt got up on his first try and was really excited about that. He got up a couple other times too. He had a lot of fun not just learning to surf, but just being in the water and catching up with his mission comp. Sadly enough, I wasn't able to get any pictures of Kurt up on the board.

On Thursday we went to the San Diego Zoo. That was one of my favorite days! It is such a big zoo and we spent practically all day there. There are so many animals there, many I have never seen nor heard of. Our favorite animal was the panda bears. We had to go see them twice because we loved them so much. This is definitely a zoo that you have to go to at least once in your lifetime. 

The rest of the days that we were there, we just laid out by the pool, went shopping, played tennis, and just relaxed. It was nice to get away from school and work and just be able to spend time with each other and not have to worry about anything else. We left Kazi at my mom's house for the week, so that was nice taking a small break from her. But we found ourselves still thinking about her and missing her from time to time.