Marathon 2007

Everyone knows by now I LOVE to RUN! And every year I decide to run MARATHON. I had planned on the Logan marathon on Sept and found due to my great allergies that was not going to happen....so once again I was sucked into the Las Vegas Marathon. A group from Kelly's work ran it this year so they invited us and i just could not say no.

Kelly ran the half marathon due to his Achilles tear, and I ended up being the only one running the marathon out of the entire group that went to Vegas. Everyone had a reason why they could not do the full marathon so I was on my own.

Kelly was awesome this year he ran a 1:36 half marathon at a 7:22 mile pace! Wow I was impressed. He had this great idea to drive instead of flying so he could take his bike and after he was finished running come find me on the marathon course. After running a GREAT half Kelly rode his bike 8 miles and found me at mile 18. He brought the video camera so I got some great footage of my marathon and it was fun to have him with me the last few miles.

It is good to have it over with and have a small break before I start training for the Ogden marathon. I am thankful for my ability to continue to put my body through such grueling training. I could never do this without help from all my family (Kelly for training with me, the kids for taking care of themselves on Sat mornings, for SAM who picks up my kids and runs them when I am late during my long runs!!!, for everyone who takes care of our kids when we are at the marathon...countless names!)

Running a marathon is an emotional thing, I have found that talking to many marathoners that you get a little teary eyed after you cross the finish line and even after FIVE I still cried.
I think it is because during the marathon you go through a wide variety of emotions. I find ANGELS along the course that keep you motivated; The volunteer at mile 6 that cheers your name and tells you your amazing. Mile 11 I stopped and walked because my leg was cramping and this lady yells my name and says " Jennifer take a banana it will help!" I wish I could have found this lady after the marathon to thank her. The bands along the course with ROCKIN music that make you run harder. Spectators are awesome without them I LOVE THEM! My husband that tells me how great I am! By the end I have been happy, sad, frustrated, in pain, and angry. I guess that is why you cry! Mile 24 I was at 3:58 time I was on track for my 4:20 marathon. Somewhere in the last 2 miles I struggled and ended with a 4:31 better that last years! So I am happy!
Enjoy the video!!!!

Thanksgiving

wow......I love tradition! It was fun to hang with the Williams Clan! We had the ever traditonal dinner in the hottub room with the fireplace blasting! the football game, store ads strewn out all over the place, and gingerbread houses being put together. how can you mess with tradition.

We had a great time and went home to sleep for an hour before we got up the next morning to hit the stores for GREAT DEALS!!!

We spent Saturday with my family doing non traditional, however WE HAD FUN! Lunch at chuck a rama and then went bowling. Good times

My goal is to get through the weekend and then we get ready for vegas marathon......

dresses

Everyone loves little girls...and when they arrive in our lives we tend to smother them in PINK and bows. When you see the little girl with the cute dress and a big skirt you tend to stare and love that she is such a cutie. Most girls understand the "twirly Skirt" when you spin it just sticks out and you feel like a princess.

Having two girls I always dressed them in big puffy dresses with shoes and bows to match and every Easter and Christmas we would go dress shopping. And the fuller the skirt the cuter the dress.

Anyone who has read my blog recently understands I am now going through parental changes and i find it excited and sometimes very tearful. Today I went dress shopping and it made me a little teary...I bought big girl dresses for my baby girls. No more large bows tied in the back around the bodice and no more pink spongy rollers in the hair to make it curly. No more large bows protruding from under the blonde curly hair or cute little heart tights..........that chapter has closed and I leave it somewhat sad however its time to start the next book.

It was so fun to pick out trendy dresses! Stuff that I would wear shoes that we can all share. Seeing them change from baby girls to teenagers is going to be a fun road. I am excited for the journey.

CHEERLEADER MOMENT!

This is a TOTAL brag story! After having to delay my long run due to weather and health issues I finally got out today. I generally do my long runs with Kelly. After looking at our schedules and the weather forecast I knew we were on our own!!! I made several attempts at finding a friend to run a portion with me and with no luck I was on my own.....I don't do long runs alone!

So today I sucked it up and put on my cutest running clothes filled the MP3 with great tunes (who cant enjoy a little ABBA "Dancing Queen" mixed with a little OZZY?) turned on the GPS and out the door I went.


It is amazing that I needed to get in 15 miles and all the people I encountered
at first it was the psuedo excercise group. Moms in strollers causaully walking and the new runners just trying to get mileage, then the INL government workers out for a "LUNCH" jog (of course we all know then they take the 30 min lunch after the hour run) and then to my surprise, nursing homes drop the elderly off for a stroll around the greenbelt. Is that safe?

MILE 7.5 I pretty much feel as if I am amazing
Mile 10 ok maybe it hurts, My mind wanders to my kids and them cheering me on at
races....GO MOM...They are great motivation.
mile 11 AM I STUPID? who pays 100$ to run marathons and have to train for them?
Mile 13 Ok you can do this!FOCUS!!!
Mile 14 one more (it does not matter if you are running 5 or 15 or 26 the last mile
I think is the hardest, Just finish!

Mile 15 I think I am pretty much a super hero! And I do have to thank GOD daily that
I have the body and the ability to run and feel like a SUPER HERO!

Technology love or hate

Ok this is just a quick thing!
I have become quite dependant on my Garmin GPS unit when I run. Not very often do I have problems with it, and if I do it is always the fault of the user (me). I LOVE that I know my mileage, pace, overall pace and other various types of information.

this weekend on a long run I lost signal some where AHHHH! I was really angry about this. I heard it beep at 10 miles so I knew I was on track for my goal for the day. Kelly stops me about 3/4 miles later and asked me what my mileage was because his was wrong! Can you believe it had actually subtracted miles from my total! I was robbed!!

Those darn satellites! If I ran those miles I want credit...............Thanks for listening

catching up!

I received an email from my cousin that reminded me that it had been a while since I have posted..........................

the first reason was our Internet connection that we were borrowing required a password and I was not given the password! So I had to go back to my crappy dial-up connection, and I found to post was almost impossible. So I have been looking for high speed Internet. I finally found the right provider for me. And for you that think my borrowing is dishonest, i have left mine unsecured for all the months that I borrowed. Just to make it fair.

Second, our lives have been CRAZY! Kelly's job has been getting a little more time consuming and he was spending more time at work trying to make deadlines.

Third, OUR SUMMER!!!! If we had the time to fit in one more thing we would have tried! From the moment that school got out in may until school got back in until august we were out of town and BUSY! We did just about everything you could do! It started with out of town baby blessings (Clifford Fell and Lucas Williams), weekenders to sun valley, star valley, gooding, boise, and palisades. We took a GREAT vacation to Disneyland and stopped in Vegas on our way to California, spent some time in Cour 'd Alene at the Lake. And between girls camp and high adventure those took two weeks of vacation from Kelly and I. Kelly brought a calender home with out summer schedule and we maybe had 2 weekends open, then Kelly,s brother announced his engagement to get married in the summer. We got home from girls camp just in time to make it to the wedding. Then you have the annual Williams Family Rodeo, and the work party in the same weekend. And we spent Labor Day weekend with my family in Yellowstone.

I have never been happier to see a summer end. We are now getting ready for the Vegas marathon and I hope not to leave town again until then.

So now with great Internet and Kelly being home a little more, and our family being home more I will post more often.

Driving

Recently I have become a mother of a teenage driver. It has been quite a roller coaster, literally. In January Kolton got his permit and enrolled in Drivers ED. May he finished Drivers Ed and was released to his Idaho Mandated 4 months of supervised driving. When i received my license you just got to drive, trial and error none of this crap of driving with a parent. I think this is punishment for the parents. My very favorite day was almost rear ending 2 cars, moving over to oncoming traffic so the driver behind us could get around since we were making a left hand turn, and merging onto the hwy 20 without yield for the semi that was skidding so he would not hit us. All of these things happened in a short 5 mile drive to the river. WOW!

It is true that the things you learn in the Barnyard make you a better person, It was great to see the Driver Kolton became after moving to the farm. I don't want the details nor do I ever need to know how far he went alone, but wow it was much improved. I thought we were making progress until the day we let him take out the old beater truck we bought for him to drive. (83' ford ranger stick shift) I had this bright idea to let him drive Kelly and I in "the truck" to pick up the pizza. As we leave the parking lot he decided to dart across the road to the other parking lot. this road is 5 lane traffic and we have people coming at all sides! That was it, I am done.

I went to work and complained about my parenting woes, and my great friend turned on my light bulb. she said " I just got to the point that it was better that they just drove alone because they were going to be scary if I was with them or not" What a profound statement.

Last Monday Sept 24 Kolton PASSED the drivers tests and is now a proud owner of a license!

Not only did he pass he got 100% of the driving test and only missed 1 on the written. I commented the the instructor how he must have nerves of steel to do this job, his reply was "not very often do I give 100 on the driving portion he did great" I was along for the ride and I did my "hand thing" as Kolton would call it many times during the drive. SO I am obviously a little more nervous than I need to be. Well now another chapter closed in my book of life. On to the next.....