Reaching a Goal...

This past month has been pretty busy, but today I figured it was time to update the blog...

So today I finally did it! I ran my first half marathon! I was a little hesitant to tell people about it just because I didn't want to end up telling people I didn't follow through. I started training in February with the mindset of running the half today. But once school started in April, my time to train got a lot more limited. Homework all of a sudden has taken up a lot of my time. Go figure?! And...a few weeks after school had started, my running buddy got pregnant! So there went almost all of my motivation to do the race. So my training became 3-4 days a week. A few weeks ago I ran into a lady from my ward that has 3 kids. One is about 5 and the others are a set of twins about 2. Her and this other lady with a child said they were registered for the race and told me I should just do it. And so the next day I gave into that peer pressure and signed up. I figured that if 2 people that have young children find time to train, then I shouldn't be making excuses. After signing up I had 2 more weeks to train. I thought I would step it up a bit, but I definently stepped it down! This week I ran one other time besides today. My goal was to get under 2 hours and to not stop running. Let's just say I stopped a couple of times, but I reached my goal of under 2 hours! I do not have my official time yet, but it was around 1:48 and took 4th place in the age group 18-24. I hope to find out how many that was out of and let you know in the next post. I was very happy with that time knowing how unprepared I was. I wish I could do that with tests! But running this half marathon has helped me realize that I am halfway to my goal of running a marathon 'someday'. I have always wanted to run a full marathon, but have never been diligent or motivated enough to actually dedicate myself to train for one. But now that I am halfway there, I just might be able to do it. So these same 2 ladies want to run the full Top of Utah marathon in September. Word has it that 20 of the miles is downhill and you drop 1,000 feet throughout it. Sounds like the best one to do to me!!! So let the real training begin...

Thank-you Luis for being okay with late dinners, sometimes making the dinners, and being there for me at the finish line. The biggest thing any runner needs is support, and I am so lucky to have that. Maybe someday Luis will run next to me...'someday'...

This is me and my prego friend Lisa. Even though she didn't end up running the half, she helped me train (as much as I did). She is 15 weeks pregnant and did the 10k! Go Lisa!

And here is a really nice girl that let me run with her. Before I met up with her, I was doing a horrible job pacing myself. I would run and then have to stop and catch my breath. But when I just made myself slow down a little bit and run next to her, I didn't have to stop. Let me just say that running with someone after 8 miles by yourself is a MUST!

This is a post by Luis.

One day we wanted to play a game. And then Valerie suggested Yahtzee. So we played. I won the first game, and then I won the second game. Valerie got so mad that she refused to count her score. So being the stubborn man that I am, I had to know what her score was. She went into the bathroom and I asked, "HEY! Did you throw it away?" And she said "Why don't you look around!" So I looked around, and finally found it in the toilet. What a sore loser! More importantly, she got a score of 128.

Here are the beautiful flowers Luis got me for being together for 3 years.