1/2 marathon

We did it, our 1st half marathon!

http://www.srtiming.com/files/HALF.HTM
Here's the results check them out.

We trained, we prepared, and we conquered! A little over 2 1/2 months worth of gearing up for this 1/2 marathon and we accomplished our goal, to FINISH! For myself I did great all the way up to the 11 mile. Then those last 2 miles I thought I was going to die! It was tough but I finished in only 2 hours and 45 minutes. This isn't my official time, they should have them posted soon. Michael on the other hand was booken thru the whole race. Finishing a whole hour before me (tells you how slow I run) came in under 2 hours at 1 hour and 50 minutes. WOW! To top off our race Michael won 2nd place for his age group. To think we were just going to leave and we decided to wait and hear the results. Also accomplishing this race were our good friends John and Cindy. They did an awesome job as well, first 1/2 for them too. It was a beautiful trail to run and a perfect day for running, not to cold and not to hot. We ran along the Sacramento River on a paved trail. This was a ultra-marathon, marathon, and 1/2 marathon. We think we might try a team marathon or team ultra marathon next time. Maybe! It feels great to have accomplished something we both worked so hard to do. To think, I never thought I would ever run a 1/2 marathon let alone ever be a runner, in all my life. Now it's going on 4 years since I started running. Feels great!


We finished
John Robison, Michael, Wendy, Cindy Brink before our race

Michael wins 2nd place!!!!!!

I must say, I am very proud of my man! He worked hard!

At the finish line. We all finished!

This is all out of order, but here's me running to the finish line. Or sprinting to the finish line.

Here I come, in deep thought. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it! Just a few more feet!

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween! This year the boys were superhero's and Napoleon Dynamite characters. Cameron was Kip and Garrett was Napoleon, hence the eyes on him. Morgan was some kind of black knight I think and Dallin, obviously the HULK! The weather was actually warm but rainy so we didn't get to do to much trick or treating. I didn't mind that at all, meant less candy in the house for everyone. Plus Halloween was on a Friday so a lot of the neighbors weren't home, probably at party's, or just out because it's Friday. Cameron went to a Halloween party and had a great time, didn't miss the fact that he didn't get any candy.

PUMP IT UP! RACE

I did my first 10k (6.2 miles) race today! YEAH! In 1 hour and 12 minutes. As I was running I kept thinking, and I'm going to do a 1/2 marathon. It's always awesome when you can see the finish line and finish without stopping. It's always fun to have incentive/purpose for your running everday other than just trying to stay fit and healthy. Mike was going to run it as well but we had baseball conflicts and so he volunteered to take care of the kids while I did the race.

JUST BEING DALLIN

SCARED!

ANGRY!

HAPPY
SAD

Dallin worked on feelings in speech therapy a couple of weeks ago. Now he is always telling us how he feels and showing us the expression that goes with it. For example when he is throwing a temper tantrum, we tell him Dallin's sad and he will immediately say "no I not, Dallin happy" and try to put a smile on his face.

Dallin has always been a little delayed in the speech area but not in expressions or acting. He loves to act out movies he has seen. He's pretty good too.

I came around the corner to the front door the other day to these 3 cute pups. They were all begging to come in the house. Dallin keeps us laughing!

Biking along the American River

In a little over a month from now Michael and I will be running our 1/2 marathon. We decided to go checkout the running path so we took the boys on another biking adventure. This bike ride was along the American River. We started somewhere around Folsom and then just road until we or the kids got tired. We took our little adventure with our friends the Robison's. With all the kids and some hills hear and there the kids were definitely tired when we were done. Along our ride we stopped many times to either catch up with one another or to checkout the surroundings. One of our stops included Cameron and Garrett climbing a tree. Well you know what that means, Morgan had to climb it too. Well he was doing just fine until he held onto a branch that couldn't hold his weight, which broke and he fell. It was ONLY about a 6 foot drop! He amazingly walked away from the fall shook up and a some scratches. NO broken bones, which I thought for sure had happened. So the very last picture shows Morgan back at the car when we were done with our ride. He only applied I think about 10 maybe 15 band-aides. Poor kid! He just wants to do everything his older brothers do. Other than that injury we had another great day riding bikes.

We could see the top of the Sacramento Temple from the bike path

This is the tree Morgan fell from! OUCH!

Golden Gate Bridge

Took the boys to ride bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge today. It was a beautiful day. Couldn't ask for better weather. We had a great time! We arrived about 12:30 and unloaded the bikes. The marine layer was blowing through the parking lot and on the beginning of the bridge. As we road along the sun came out and it was shining brightly. We all actually got hot from riding. Lots of people walking, running and riding bikes over the bridge. Beautiful scenery and lots to see. The boys really enjoyed it. After we left San Francisco, we headed towards Oakland and checked out Michael's Grandmas place that's up for sale. Just around the corner from there is a really cool park called Joaquin Miller park. So we stopped ate some dinner and then took some really nice pictures.

My first TRIATHLON!!

http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?orgID=218713&rsID=70137

Check it out I'm # 730 for over all results

So I came in #720 for my age group and my finish times was 1 hour and 47 minutes. YEAH!

Running my legs off! Even though I look like I'm walking in this photo
SUPER JANE (WENDY) I FINISHED! 1 hour 50 minutes I think? Still waiting for them to post it.
Me, Julie, Dena, and Heidi. At the finish line
Proud of our medals!
It was great! I would definitely do it again!

Pictured with SUPER JANE!

I did it! My first Triathlon Today

So I went to bed at about 9:30 last night to assure I would be well rested. Woke up the next morning at 5:00 am to be sure I arrived at the race on time since it was in Pleasanton. The race officially started at 8:00ish, but there was lots to do before the race. I met 3 other friends there, Julie, Heidi and Dena, they went up the night before. #903 was my tag number to put on my shirt and they gave us electronic chips to wear around our ankles to keep track of your time for each event and total time for the race. I learned that with these chips that the time doesn't keep running during transition time, which could really add a lot of wasted time especially if you don't know what your doing(like me). To start the race off we swam 400 yards, they had us go in waves(what they called it) by age groups. First of all I thought they had closed Shadow Cliffs off to the public for unsafe water (I grew up going here for the water and water slides). So when I entered the water I was deceived by thinking I was going to continue walking on sand, and before I knew it I was up to my knees in SLIME! GROSS! Every 4 minutes they started a wave, my age group was somewhat large and when they said go I was a taken by surprise of being kind of trampled on, over! So I just waited until I had a clear path and took my time with the breast stroke and back stroke. I would have to say the swimming was definitely the hardest for me, and I can swim just not competitively. So after the swim was the 11 mile bike ride once again I was slow and stead. I kind of felt like I was in the Olympics, all along the way they had the police patrol traffic to clear the roads for us, it was awesome. All along the run they had water stations and people cheering you on and tell you which direction to go. So I headed for the finish line where everyone was cheering and they said your name and number over a loud speaker. My friends finished before me so they were on the sidelines cheering me on! Again way fun! When you came thru the finish line they awarded you a medal that said SUPER JANE! Hence the name of the race was See Jane Run! My friends took lots of pictures I hope to get soon, so I can post them here on my blog. I am not exactly sure yet but I believe my time was 1 hour 45- 50 minutes, I am waiting for them to post it. So over all I would definitely do it again, I would probably train a lot more in the swimming department next time though. Two times of practice didn't cut it. I will post my correct time when I get it. Check out the website and you can see the map of the race. http://www.seejanerun.com/ then click map.