Marathon!

You guys! I did it! I am officially a marathoner!

Neil and I drove down for the race on Friday night, since there was only packet pickup the night before (!!). My parents were SO kind and offered to watch our kids so that he could be there with me, and I was so grateful! It was so so good to have Neil there with me supporting me and running interference on things.  Anyway, I was getting so nervous the night before the race—I had an awful stomachache, headache, and felt like I was going to throw up all night. I didn’t sleep very well (which is a shame because we had a beautiful and HUGE suite) and woke up an hour before I needed to in the morning.

Neil drove me to the starting line and I found the 4:10 pace group and lined up with them. I wanted to run it in less than 10-minute miles so I didn’t want to go with the 4:25 pace group. Frankly I was hoping to be way faster when I originally started training (my half-marathon time would have predicted a 3:50 finish) but I have been sick through so much of training that I have really struggled to go quickly—if I go under 8:45/mile I start coughing like mad and can’t stop—thanks to the double-header combination of bronchitis and strep midway through training. And, quite frankly, I haven’t been as careful about what I’m eating as I should be and so I’m not at an ideal racing weight.

Anyway, I LOVED running with the pace group! The two pacers were so incredibly friendly and really worked to create a sense of community within the five or so of us that were running with them. We had other people sort of ebbing and flowing and it was nice to talk to them as well, but there was a sort of core group that stuck together for most of the race. I spent about fifteen miles talking with another woman (we had the same first and last name!) and we got to be good buddies over the course of several hours! One thing I really liked so that our pacers insisted that we walk through all of the water stops to make sure we got enough water (it was pretty hot by the end of the day and I started taking one cup of water to drink and another to pour over my head) and then they would check to make sure everyone was there before we started running again. After about fifteen or sixteen miles I was so looking forward to those walking breaks! It really helped me mentally to know that I could walk for those ten or so steps as long as I just made it to the water stop, and I was able to avoid walking anywhere else on the course, which made me feel pretty good. It’s always nice for my internal motivation to be running past people who are walking up the hills or whatnot. 

Mile 22--I was super focused on never letting this girl catch up!

Another thing I loved about the pace group was the ability to maintain a steady speed without having to worry about it myself. When we first started off it (of course) felt way too slow and it was really good for me to have someone telling me to hold back (and then of course we passed all of the people who sprinted out). I loved not having to constantly check to see how fast I was going and worry about whether I should speed up or slow down—I just kept pace with my new friends! And it was so good to have people to talk to—we were literally about eight or nine miles into the race before I started paying attention to how far we’d gone.  

I felt really good for the first fifteen miles or so. After that it started to get incredibly windy and we were pushing against the wind the whole time. I dropped back a bit and focused on catching up to the pacing group at waterstops—that took me through miles 18-20. Unfortunately, those miles were easily the windiest of the whole course—we were running along a straight road with no trees lined with giant buildings and so the wind just funneled right down it pushing us backwards. It was sooooo exhausting! I finally decided that I would just run at my own speed and not worry about staying with the pacing group. I dropped down from 9:30 miles to about 11-minute miles, but by that point I was just thrilled to still be running past all of the people walking with their heads bent against the wind. I was worried about hitting the notorious wall but I never did—I was so thankful! I definitely slowed down but I just kept on going and let my legs go at the pace where they were comfortable rather than trying to push it too hard.

The last six miles were kind of unpleasantly hilly. By this point it was quite hot and still really windy! Neil caught up to me about mile 22 and biked alongside me off and on for the next three miles. It was so good to have him with me talking to me and giving me something else to focus on. And it was also nice because he had cold water instead of the awful lukewarm stuff at the last aid station.  He peeled off at mile 25 so that he could meet me at the finish line and that’s when I realized it was a 3/4-mile looong uphill all the way to the finish—and the wind was back! I seriously felt like I was taking two steps backward for every step forward.  I just kept going and plugging away—I passed a LOT of people on that last uphill—and I was so grateful for all of the people cheering there because I focused on saying, “Thank you! Thanks for being here!” instead of mentally griping about the awful wind and hill. And then it was downhill to the finish line for the last two-tenths of a mile! It was so exciting and I felt great as I finished—I think I raised my arms and cheered as I was running downhill.  The two pacers from my pacing group were waiting at the finish line and they hugged me and congratulated me and pointed out where Neil was waiting on the sidelines. 

It was a great experience. I definitely was more worn out by the end than I was hoping to be and slowed down more than I was planning to, but I felt like it was a good decision with the heat, wind, and hills. I was most worried about hitting the notorious wall and I never did—I just kept plugging away with my same slow and steady pace. I was passing people all through the last six miles of the race and that felt great. And I was so, so, so grateful that Neil was there—he biked around and met up with me every so often and handed me a couple of Kashi bars, took my jacket, and had water when I needed it most. It was so great to have his support.

I think the hardest part of the race for me was miles 17-19. I still had a long way to go and pushing against that wind was miserable! By the time I made it to 20 I knew I was getting close, and once I hit 22 I felt great—I knew I had it in the bag with only 4.2 miles left and I’d gone past the dreaded 20-mile mark without hitting the wall. I made sure to walk around a lot after the race and even stopped in the massage tent, and so far I feel pretty good! Definitely stiff but not in horrible pain (although I did take a healthy dose of ibuprofen before I fell asleep last night).

All in all, it was amazing. It was so good to be able to finish something that I have been working on for SO long and was such a huge deal! I am so grateful for all of the people who made it possible—I still kind of can’t believe that I ran a marathon!! My final time was 4:17:55, so I came in under my goal time and still have lots of room for improvement if I decide to do another one some day.:-)

Sunday night Settlers

Every single Sunday night after the kids go to bed, Neil and I play Settlers of Cataan (our favorite is to play Cities and Knights).  I look forward to this all week--I love playing with just the two of us because the game goes super fast and we can just hang out together for a couple of hours.  The best part about playing on Sunday night is that we don't feel the pressure to be doing anything else--nobody's thinking about homework or working or doing laundry or mowing the lawn like we would any other night of the week.  All we have to do is just be together (and maybe eat something tasty).

books, books, books

Last week I went around our house with a laundry basket and filled it up with some age-appropriate books for Abigail, then reorganized our bookcases to give her a couple of shelves replete with fun Abigail books.  As I was doing this, I just felt so excited about watching her launch out into the wonderful world of books.  So many fantastic books!  So many wonderful characters!  I love reading so much, and I was honestly getting a little choked up thinking about how excited I am for her to discover all of these stories and characters and worlds.  It has been so neat to watch her just explode into this passionate little reader.  She told me today, "There is one world, and so many stories in it." 

So anyway, today was the first time I've ventured out with myself with all four of the kiddos.  We went to the health food store and the library, and it was so great!  Luke slept the whole time (which is why it went well) and it was so nice to be out with the kiddos stocking up on pumpkin seeds and fairy tales.  And teaching Abigail about how to use the library catalog, and how to find your books, and watching her get just as excited as I was to see that there's a library sale this weekend...she and I are dissimilar in many ways, but we definitely bond over our books.  :-)  I've been reading scriptures with her in the evenings lately (we trade off reading verses) and it's one of the nicest parts of my day. 

And speaking of books, Jules and Isaac each have a stack and are waiting, so I'm off!

spring fest 2011

One of our favorite weekends here is the second week in April, when the whole university turns out to show off all the cool things that they've been doing in their various departments.  It's pretty geared towards kids, which is awesome! 

I mentioned in my last post that Neil got up super early to get to work so that I could run the 5K.  For the last few years, he's been heavily involved with the electric vehicle go-kart Grand Prix, which has a pretty big setup at Spring Fest (more on this later).  He's been working long and late to get ready for this doing all sorts of hard things like test-driving supercharged remote-controlled electric cars up and down our street, disassembling aforesaid cars all over the house, etc.  (which is a fairly facetious way of saying he has been working really, really hard, and it was really sweet of him to rearrange his whole morning so that I could run). 

When we got to campus, we went straight to the evGrand Prix tent and Neil spent half an hour or so troubleshooting and fixing problems with the circuitry of the demo vehicles (if you know him in real life, he's something of a mechanical genius and completely in his element doing things like this).  After the girls had sampled all the available candy and tied balloons all over themselves, we deserted him for the tent where they were giving away free cotton candy and popcorn (my children thought they were in heaven). 

Then we went to the animals tent, where Isaac truly did not know where to look first.  It was like all his wildest dreams come to life--the kid is absolutely obsessed with animals (one of his first recognizable words was "duck").

 

And there were ducks.  Boy howdy, were there ducks.

(About two seconds after I took this picture Isaac tried to pick up the duckling by the head.  The duckling was not happy.  I was extremely relieved that the duckling survived, because he was very determined and enthusiastic about grabbing that duck, and I honestly thought for about five seconds that the duck was toast.)

And there were piglets.  Which was about the most exciting thing ever for Abigail and Juliet, who have been playing Charlotte's Web every single day for the last month (I am so not exaggerating, although I wish I were.  Juliet always wants to be Templeton the rat...she came to me in tears during a playdate last week when her friend didn't want to be a rat with her.  And we are no longer allowed to dispose of spiders in our house in case one of them might be one of Charlotte's children). 

Walking away from this baby cow was very difficult for Isaac.  He came back four more times for just one more pat. 

 

This grasshopper is an origami creation.  Isn't that awesome?!  There were a dozen or so different origami insects--really impressive.

Another thing Isaac was really, really, really excited about--bees.  We were tasting all different kinds of honey when Isaac looked up and said, "Bug bug bug bug bug bug BUG BUG BUG BUG!!"  This is always one of my favorite exhibits--there's a honey tasting, live bees, and then a pretty extensive display (all of which you can touch and pick up and heft) about the process of beekeeping and extracting the honey from the hives.  And lots of helpful people eager to answer questions.



The highlight of the day was when we returned to the evGrand Prix tents so that Neil could check up on things.  The sun was finally out and the rain had stopped, so he got out the Power Wheels and the kids went crazy.  Fortunately there weren't too many other kids around at this point, so Abigail and Isaac spent almost an hour in the cars (Juliet accidentally hit the gas with her foot climbing in, ran into a bench, and was done for the day...we tried three more times, but she froze up and started crying each time she climbed into the car).

Abigail was a total pro--she started teaching younger children how to use the cars, which I thought was really sweet (especially when she would drive over, climb out, and offer them not only instruction but the use of the car she was driving).


Isaac was initially sitting with me eating his lunch, but very quickly decided he wanted to drive too.  Neil put him in one of the cars and was manually working the gas and the steering wheel, and it took Isaac only a few minutes to figure out how everything worked.  The next time I looked up, Isaac was zooming around chasing Abigail (with a watchful Neil nearby to pick up the car and flip it around when Isaac got too close to pedestrians).

I think Isaac had the time of his life--when we finally took him out, he went completely boneless and cried the whole way home.  Poor kid...we'll have to go visit Daddy at work sometime soon.

this is my thousandth post

I post all the time about food, and cooking, and how much I love cooking. And I thought I should share a little bit of what dinnertime ends up looking like about half the time...


Q: What to do when your parents have spent almost three hours working on a really elaborate dinner?

A: Cry. Refuse dinner.



Eat snot.

this is my husband, part II.

Yesterday I asked Neil if he could finish up the dinner preparations. I hadn't gotten very far--I'd started the dough rising for rosemary rolls, but I was in the middle of a project that I wanted to finish before we ate dinner.

He asked what we were having, and I said I was making up a soup recipe and I wanted it to include onions, garlic, carrots, celery, white beans, and kale. He began cooking, and I flitted in and out, occasionally adding ingredients.

The soup was really good, and we decided that we needed to be able to replicate it. He noted that the rosemary I'd added midway through and the lemon juice I'd stirred in as a final brightener really elevated the soup. I complimented him on the delicate infusion of garlic.

Then he told me, "I cooked the onions and garlic in a tablespoon or so of butter." At my shocked expression (I always use [minimal] extra-virgin olive oil), he added, "Wait, you haven't heard the best part yet. I added about half a stick when I put in the carrots and the celery."

I dropped my spoon and said, "Aaah! I thought this was healthy!" and he said, chagrined, "But Rachael, Julia [Child] made me do it!" And then he quoted, verbatim, the part from My Life in France where she says that even the simplest carrots taste divine when they are cooked in the very best butter.

I had to laugh. Oh, how I love that man. And the soup was really soooo good.

(ps--while I was typing this, he came in and asked me to taste a red onion vinaigrette he's concocting for dinner. seriously, love that guy. love that he's just as enthusiastic about cooking as I am. also love my funny little Abigail, who requested a "feta and sprouts" sandwich for lunch. Interesting combination...)

better things

1. My house is finally clean again for the first time this week. I do love that husband of mine, who said, "Make a list of everything that is bothering you, and we'll clean it all" (this list also included clean children, btw).

2. Isaac has the most adorable laugh. When I was undressing him tonight, I put him up in front of the mirror and he was so entranced by that roly-poly baby staring back at him. He gurgled and laughed and chortled for a good ten minutes.

3. Neil has hot chocolate waiting for me. And I am wearing his pajamas, because they make me feel small and dainty, which is especially important on a day that I never had time to exercise.

4. Abigail folded all the "kid laundry" today and Juliet folded all the dishtowels and washcloths. And then they put it away without being asked. That was really nice.

5. I am teaching myself how to poach eggs. It's a lot harder than you'd think. My guess is that the tasting panel is going to rebel about all the eggs in the near future.

6. I am really grateful for my parents and sisters. I love them all so much. I am especially grateful for the fact that despite adolescent drama, my mom and my sisters are my best friends now.

7. Despite what I yelled into the bathroom wall after Juliet used up her sixth pair of pants today, I really do love my life.