Thanksgiving Part one

I started my Thanksgiving day out with a little run. I went down to my secret thinking spot. I can't tell you were it is. Well it looks like there may be some houses going up soon over part of it. There used to be llamas there, but now it's just horses.
On the dirt road stretch that takes me back to a main road, I came across two cows outside of the fence. Apparently they are not partial to runners. They freaked out a bit even though I was keeping my distance. So I ended up jogging with them for a bit. So I decided to try and walk past them. No, they still didn't want me anywhere near them.

Next strategy is to run really fast and pass them. Really bad idea. The one cow freaks out and tries to climb through the barbed wire fence and gets stuck. Now I feel horrible and figure I'm going to get trampled trying to help it out of the barbed wire. It manages to pull out though and starts running again.
Well that apparently scared the crap out of them, literally. Now I'm walking/jogging along side a trail of stinky, steamy, runny cow matter. The one cow makes another break for the fencing and gets through, but the other cow made it almost to the main road. I was very concerned about this happening and causing an accident, but there was a dirt road turn off just before the main road.

That was probably the most exciting part of the day. The rest just included eating, playing games, and wrangling the children. I actually did well for dinner. We eat at noonish. I walked away just satiated. I was going to wait 30 mins and have pie part one.

The traditonal brain jello, shows up at any holiday I remember to bring it to.

I volunteered to clean the turkey up and get all the meat off it. Bad idea. This turned into Turkey part 2, which then made me slightly uncomfortable. Shortly after they started cutting up the pies. So Turkey part 2 was followed to closely by Pie part one. Then I definitely ate too much. I'm pretty sure I didn't get any where near the national average of 4,500 calories though. I grazed on rolls, turkey, and crackers & cheese ball the rest of the day. I would estimate my caloric intake for the day to be under 2,500, but still way too much. I was never in any extreme discomfort, just the "oh, I didn't need that last bite" level of overeating.

Don't try this at home

I was determined to get over to the old ruined building up Little Cottonwood. This time I parked at the trail head further up the canyon. It was probably a good idea since I did a lot of backtracking off trail. I don't want to promote stupid behavior, so I'm going to encourage you to only try this with a group or wait until warmer weather. If you do try this on your own, I recommend trekking poles, toe/hand warmers, good hiking shoes, and decent gloves.

This is the spot I crossed at. I mentioned before that I was serious about crossing over the creek. One of the only smart things I did was tell someone where I was before I started. I did not cross over the log. I just used it to grab if I lost my footing. I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants, and crossed the old fashion way. I'm not going to lie. It was cold. However, that is not the most uncomfortable my feet have ever been. I knew from a previous experience that I could go at least 2 hours without any circulation in my feet and not have permanent damage. Once I put my socks (technical, moisture wicking) back on, I was fine. I didn't really feel any heat off the toe warmers, but my feet were numb for a while.

It might have been helpful to have a topo map too. Then I would have realized that downstream where I crossed turns into a hill or some rocky sort of cliffs over the river. I had to back track at the rock/cliffs and hike up the steep hill. Then I had to get down the big steep hill to the ruins.

As seen in this picture, I slid down the last 20 or so feet. This was not voluntary. Fortunately with the snow, I just slid somewhat ungracefully and got my bum all wet. I recommend pants that are not levis, like ski pants or good hiking pants.

I didn't go into the building because I had noticed there was a tunnel that goes from the creek to under the building. With the snow and rocks and everything I didn't want to accidentally fall into anything. I didn't find the GC. I'm blaming it on the snow.

That's a hole in the building. I was wondering where it went to. Not going to explore that on my own though.

Wandering around off trail (not smart, not encouraging it), I saw a lot of tracks. It was actually interesting to see the little tracks with bigger tracks following them. I saw a lot of different tracks. I'm not a huge tracker, but if I were it would have been really exciting. I know at least some were deer. I'm guess squirrels or rabbits might be the little ones. I think the ones following the little tracks were some kind of cat.

When I left, I went the rock/cliff way. I sort of rappelled down the 10 rocky cliff using some branches of a tree. I never could have climbed up it, but going down was ok. I found some other people tracks that went further down creek than were I crossed. I eventually found a log that they had crossed on. It was kind of icy and snow packed, but there was a second log I could grab. It wasn't so bad.

While I got a great sense of satisfaction getting over to the building, hiking around and finding my way there was just as fun. If anyone knows anyone hiring exporers or adventurers, I will work for cheap. Seriously, I can't think of anything better to be doing. The GC may feel safe for now, but I will be back. Oh, I will return.

The best day in November

Ever have one of those days just seems perfect for no particular reason? I had one last Friday. I went for a hike up the Quarry Trail in Little Cottonwood. I was just hiking along and enjoying the scenery and I felt really, really happy. It occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't be so happy. I've been unemployed for a year, I have two broken cars, I'm very, very single, etc. But I didn't care. Still not to phased by any of that. It was a happy day.

I don't know what plant this leaf came from but they were amazing. They were like little opaque or white stained glass leaves. Way cooler in person than in the picture. Everything was dusted with a bit of snow or frost.



I thought the snow on the trees looked like lace.


It was kind of magical. I didn't see a lot of other people a couple of guys on bikes. But if a winter tree sprite or an ice fairy started ice skating down the river, I wouldn't have been surprised.



I like it when I am still warm in my coat or layers, but the cold air kisses my cheeks and nose. It doesn't sting, but still feels sharp. I always feel so alive when I breath in the crisp air. It's a fine line between comfortable cold and too cold though.



I came away with a quest though. I've always wanted to get over to the ruins on the other side of the creek. It's always been to high in the spring and summer. It's quite a bit lower, but I had a hard time finding a log or rocks to cross over on. I scrambled up the shore for a ways but didn't really find a good spot. I would best describe my mindset as hell-bent to cross. I thought about taking my shoes off and rolling up my pants even. I tried at one place, but I got halfway across and realized the rocks in the middle were covered with a thin film of ice. I put my hiking pole down and the water was deeper than it looked. It occurred to me that since I was past where the trail ended and there weren't really any people around this was a stupid idea.


I actually sort of slipped and got wet up to my ankle on one foot. I made the prudent decision to let it go for that day, but I already had a plan for getting over another time. Soon. Very soon. My plan involves survival hand warmers and rolling up my pants. Yes, oh yes. Did I mention there's a GC over there? Lovepirate2 will find you, GC1RK1F.



There was an old truck I found up in the rocks away from the trail. It was mostly all rusted away. Kind of cool though.

Geocaching

Now that I'm done with racing for the year, I've turned to geocaching to keep active. I started geocaching this year. I'd heard of it before, but finally gave it a try this past spring.

Geocaching is kind of awesome. People hide things and post the coordinates on a website. Then people go out and find them. It could be anything from a small pill bottle with some scraps of paper for a log, to a ammo cases or tupperware container with tradeable items (pins, coins, small toys, etc.) and notebooks for logs.

I've found 12 caches so far. My first one was up in the mountains by Eden. I can't even describe the excitement of finding your first cache. That green camo box might have well been a pot of gold.

My first few caches I found by searching the latitude and longitude on google maps. Not the easiest way to find things. There has to be a major landmark nearby so I know within a few feet where to be looking. There were a bunch of caches that were in wooded areas that I just didn't stand a chance finding.

I figured out how to upload the locations onto my Garmin Forerunner 301. It's a running computer but it's got GPS. I tested it out yesterday and it worked pretty good. If I went under lots of trees it got confused. I found 3 of 4 caches. The 4th one I gave up on because it was under trees and it was getting too dark to see. I'm going to go back another day.

The Pioneer Woman

The Pioneer Woman is a blog run by a woman named Ree Drummond. It's delightful. Not only is the food to die for (and probably will kill you if you don't exercise some of the calories away), she has a very for real and funny way of writing. Oh, and step-by-step pictures that keep you salivating.

Her blog has become so popular that she did a cookbook. She's doing a book signing tour and was in Salt Lake today. Misti knows everything going one with her and her family. Big fan. I'm not quite so up to speed with the Drummond family, but still like her. We figured we'd just show up, buy the books and get them signed. Maybe 2 hours.

We showed up 30 minutes early. Right at that moment a woman announced all the tickets for the signing had been given away. Its November, not too cold, but not warm. We figure we'll take off for a bit and come back later and see if the line dies down and we can get in anyhow. We go for cheesecake.

We get back to the King's English Bookstore (lovely place, I'd like to go back and peruse) a little after 8. It's still packed. Let me illustrate a bit. Almost the entire block is full of people. The entire front lawn of the store, local businesses, and even some people loitering in the street. Pretty cool that she's this popular. Who knew?

Mom & Misti know we're not going to get in any time soon if at all, so they take off. I stick around and make friendly with all the groupies for another 3 hours. I found a little group of runners and we all swap stories about different races we've done. We even inspired one lady to start running. Hurrah.

Rumor is Ree will stay and sign everyone's books even if they don't have a ticket. I figure I have nothing to lose. It's not like I have to get up in the morning for anything. Around 10, someone who decided they'd just take off gave me their ticket, so now I know I'm definitely in.

One of the highlights of the evening was when her mother-in-law came out to chit chat with people outside. She was pretty cool. She told us how she's trying to help the kids learn to swim. Apparently all of them are having a hard time with it. They can't even float after multiple lessons. Anyhow, it was really funny when she told it. A couple of the recipes in the book are hers.

So after 3 hours of hanging around I finally made it to the top of the line. I said some dumb things about some of the recipes I liked and giggled nervously. She was super sweet. Oh, and she's gorgeous. You wouldn't know she eats as much butter as goes into her cooking by looking at her.

I've never gone to a book signing before, but it was fun. I met a lot of nice people. Got to talk about running and food all evening. Good times.

Happy Birthday!

I've been having a great birthday. There were many years as a teen on through most of my twenties that I didn't even care about celebrating my birthday. I wasn't anti birthday, I just didn't make anything of it. I've loosened up more the last few years and now I milk the birthday good times for as long as I can. Presents are not a necessity, but I'm always very touched when I get them anyhow. I consider quality time/talking time with the people a good birthday treat. If there's something I really want, I'll ask for it or get it as my birthday present to me. :)

We have 5 birthdays in the family within a week. Jason & Vee are Oct 27th. Kiana and I are today. Lizzie is tomorrow. That's a lot of birthdays to celebrate all at once. Usually we get a cake the kids will like (Shrek was 2 years ago), or a cake with sections. This year, mom went above and beyond and made us all our own smaller cakes.

Another trick is making sure everyone gets what they want for dinner. We usually do Chinese or pizza. This year we had both. It's not conventional, but everyone got what they wanted. We had pepperoni & Hawaiian pizza, a gong bao chicken pizza (hybrid, it's pretty tasty), sweet and sour chicken, rice, and fruit salad. Everyone was happy.

All I wanted for my birthday this year was hugs and kisses. I also wanted people to do nice things for other people. It's not too late. I accept belated birthday gifts all year round. :) What better feeling can there be than knowing you had an impact for the better in the world. I'm a woman of simple wants.

I asked Livi if she thought I was going to get any hugs or kisses today and she said "no." She's such a teaser. Spencer came over and gave me a great big giant hug and a nice wet kiss. He's the sweetest. Later Livi did give me a big hug. Seriously, such a little teaser. I got good hugs from Vee's kids too. It was a good day.

It really has been a good birthday. I got to be with my family who I really like. I've talked to a lot of friends that I love that are not nearby and miss like crazy. I've been taken out and have more dining plans through next week. Overall, I've had a great birthday. I'm happy. I'm glad to be around another year. I'm lucky to know all the great people I know.

I did get some great presents too. Misti took Liv & Spency with her to help pick out my presents. It's like our minds are all one. They got me exactly what I wanted. The board game Candyland and the Curious George Christmas DVD. That's soooo me. Then they helped me open my presents. They are such helpful children.

I've decided to try and dedicate my next year to doing more kind acts to others. More adventure. More real living. And more sharing the joy.

Provo Halloween 1/2 Marathon

This was a fantastic race. I have a few complaints but overall good times.

Even though the 8:00 start time is later than most races, I was still whining and grumpy about getting up so early (5:30). We got to the shuttle rendezvous spot and it was freezing. In August this seemed like such a good idea. Somewhere in the back of my mind I think I knew it would be colder than most races I do, but it was still shocking to be in it. They didn't have very many buses going, so we waited in line for almost 30 mins. We complained about the cold the whole time. :)

Fortunately they were able to get the dining hall at Sundance for us to wait in before the race. It ended up starting a little over 30 mins late cause they didn't get all the runners up on time. That gave me plenty of time to check out the costumes of the other runners and chat with people. I actually ran into an old acquaintance from when I taught in China, Shannon. So fun.

The course was fantastic. The sun had come out by start time. We were in the shade for most of the canyon still, but the lighting was great. Wish I could have taken lots of pictures. It was like being in a Bob Ross painting only even better. Magical. Rocky out crops, snow cap peaks, happy little trees. There were low clouds too hanging in the pines that made it very mysterious.

The first 5 miles of the course are the steepest. I tried to hold back and just take it easy. I have a tendency to push too much at the start of a 1/2 M. We came out of the canyon to Sundance at that point, then crossed the road. It meets up with the river trail at Victoria park about a half mile from there. I took that rest stop to stretch my quads and calves a bit. I took my first energy packet here. I went with a Cliff Mocha gel. One of my new favorite flavors. It's everything chocolate was meant to be in a gel. I also started pushing a little harder at that point.

I took my second gel at about mile 8.5. It was a Powerbar Tangerine. I like the texture of the Powerbar gels the best cause they go down pretty easy. I decided to only take 2 gels this time. I ran the Provo River 1/2 M and took three. I got some sever intestinal discomfort after the third one on that race. Maybe it was the raman noodles for dinner the night before. All I know is I was surprised at the finish line that I hadn't left a trail of energy gel behind me. Anyhow.....

I gave another push at mile 9ish. I'm not sure what mile it was exactly, but there's a spot in the Provo River 1/2 that you make a u-turn and go back uphill a little over a mile. When I passed that spot I gave a little woo-woo out. I can't tell you how happy it made me to not go up there. I think the total elevation gain for this course was 39 feet. So nice.

The last aid station I passed they said it was only 2 miles left. My first thought was these guys have no idea what they are talking about. My garmin had me at 1:31:something. That put me on pace for around a 1:50:00 finish time. I thought "no way" cause that was 10 mins under my previous PR (Personal Record) (Ogden 1/2 this year, 2:01:30). I knew this would be a fast course, but Ogden is mostly downhill too.

The last 1/2 mile was where you turn into the Riverwood area. And there ahead of me I see a red shiny cape. D & I both went as Wonder Woman (I had several girls tell me they liked my costume and one guy thanked me), but she had a cape. That totally got my adrenaline up, so I pushed as hard as I could to catch her. I cut the distance in 1/2 but didn't completely catch her. I think she had me by about 20 seconds. Oh, and she was pregnant. I did my best ever and still got beat by a woman 13 weeks pregnant. She's kind of a really good runner though, so I was actually happy about that.

So my chip time was 1:52:18. That's about 9 mins off my previous PR. Some of that was due to being so much downhill and part was having lost 10 pounds since my last 1/2 M. But some of it was definitely due to training hard and pushing myself. I have to say I'm really happy with my performance today. I've been dreaming of breaking the 2 hour time all year. So much for just running for fun. :)

Stats
Chip time: 1:52:18
Overall place 227 out of 727
Gender/age category 28 out of 113
Overall women 112 out of 499

I was 41 mins slower than the 1st place runner. That's just crazy to me. I'm super happy with my results though. I'm a little sad though cause I just can't imagine doing better than this ever.

Happy Halloween!