Sunday, June 14, 2009

Oh that Dam Marathon!!

The Teton Dam Maraton to be exact! Every year in Rexburg they have the Teton Dam Marathon around the anniversary of the Teton Dam breaking! So a few months ago a friend of mine, Brittany, asked if I would sign up to run in the Teton Dam Marathon with her and a few months ago it sounded really fun!! So we signed up to do the 10K, 6.2 miles, and set up a training schedule!

I have to explain that I hate to run....hate it!!! You hear that you don't like it until you get into it and then you love it, nope...not me!! I have been where I can run for miles but not once have I ever really liked it! I love how I feel after but not during! So the whole time I was preparing for this I kept asking myself why I signed up!! Well last week it dawned on me that I only had one more week until the actual race and I got a little bit nervous. So this past week I worked really hard to get as much running in as possible! On Wednesday I decided I wanted to give the course a try before the actual race on Saturday!! My goal was to do it in 1 hour and 30 minutes. Now I know that sounds like a weeny of a goal but I felt it was a good goal for me without over doing it! Well I finished on Wednesday in 1 hour and 26 minutes.....totally inside my goal!! So after that run I started to feel more excited than nervous for the race!! The big day came and I had prepared myself every possible way!! I followed all the instructions given to me, made sure I had a good carb filled dinner the night before and a good breakfast about an hour and 1/2 before the actual race!

I met up with Brittany and got all warmed up!! And then we were off!! It is amazing how different it is when you are actually racing, energy was amazing!! I was glad that I had run the course a few days before...I didn't have any surprises! I finished 16 minutes faster than I had run it the Wednesday before, finishing in 1 hour and 10 minutes!! What a cool experience this was!! I was so glad to have been able to accomplish something that I had actually worked hard at!! It was fun to be part of something that big and exciting!

Finishing strong!! WAHOO!

This is me, Brittany, and her mom Cindy!

And this is what I was left with....two big ole blisters!

As silly as this sounds, I think I may just shoot for the half marathon next year! Granted I still don't like to run and who knows what state I may be in a year from now but I definately am considering it!

So a quick update on Matt and I since it has been so long since I last posted! Over Memorial Day Weekend we went up to Henry's Lake and Yellowstone with our friends Brannan and Brittany! The weather wasn't the best but we were able to enjoy some fishing! Yellowstone was amazing as ever! I love it there! We saw a cinnamon black bear eating a fresh kill while we were there! It was probably 25 yds from the road and of course we all had to get out and see! While we were watching it Brannan decided to do a little elk cow call, just to see what the bear would do. The first call the bear looked up, he had definately heard it...the second call he totally stood up and stared right at us! As cool as it was to see him respond, we realized how big he was and decided it was a good time to go!

The fish were spawning and I got a picture of some eggs, I thought it was pretty cool!

This is the cinnamon bear we saw....pretty sweet!

This is almost the whole group in Yellowstone!

Matt fishing away....of course!!

No other big trips or events have happened....we do have an exciting summer planned, if we ever get there!! We have had constant rain for the last 2 weeks or so! I feel like I am back home in Seattle! I won't complain though, we did have some sun peek out quite a bit today!

Work is just fabulous! I love my job, I am having so much fun working with the management! Matt is plugging along in school, bless his heart! He has a pretty decent load this semester but after this it should be an easy ride to graduation! I am pretty sure he only has 2 more classes to graduate but he will be taking 2 additional classes to become GIS certified! Not a tough fall semester for sure! Other than that life is pretty normal! We are continuously having way too much fun!