Sorry about the month plus absence from the blogging world, Allison and I both have been equal parts busy, forgetful, and lazy.... when it comes to our blog. But this will be the restart and hopefully we can get some interesting things down and out to you, our loyal followers... or something.
The end of finals week was killer. I was able to learn a lot in the class, but there is much that I still want to accomplish in the digital media. I love digital illustration and being able to work on the computer creating art is a really interesting feeling. (I wrote this back at the end of June)
Now, I have just finished my mid-term for my new summer class, which I have been uploading my progress on my art blog more frequently.
4th of July happened and Allison and I ran a 5k, my first race and probably not my last.
Allison's parents came into town for a few days
and this is a start....
sorry we have just been really busy and not that interesting as of late
Showing posts with label Running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Running. Show all posts
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Breathing Room?
Well, I am now done with my portfolio submission to Nickelodeon Animation Studios' Nick Artist Program. It is a summer internship that I am excited about. I don't think that I will get it this year, but I loved the challenge of getting a portfolio ready. I also have entered finals and have been busy with those, but I am not stressing out about them this time around I just have one more on Friday.
We have been up to Salt Lake 3 weeks in a row now and may end up there sooner than later. The Grandparents came into town on a trip through Utah, sightseeing, and on through to California. It was unexpected, but welcomed. I enjoyed seeing them since I usually only see them on holidays maybe twice a year.
Allison is still doing amazing in her classes and we are both super excited about a new app we have started using, MyFitnessPal, you can enter in what you are eating and it shows how many calories you are eating, plus other nutritional facts as well as your workouts and how many (presumably) you are burning. We'll keep you posted on how well it works.
We were sorry to hear about the tragedy that occurred at the Boston Marathon on Monday. Our prayers go out to those effected in the aftermath of this sad event. We have some friends that run marathons and they were our first thought, luckily they are training for another event that they are going to next week in Virginia. Hopefully they will figure out the exact reason and who did this soon.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
2012 Christmas Letter
We've been meaning to write a blog post, but things have been a little crazy since we made it home from the Northwest. So, to make up for it, here is a copy of our Christmas letter. Enjoy!
2012 has been a rather productive year for the Smith family. Here are a few of the highlights.
Allison became a reference librarian at the Provo Library in January and is absolutely in love with her new position. She rarely asks for time off but on Saturday, June 9th she took a day off to run the Utah Valley Marathon. She trained hard throughout the year and it was tough, but she finished in less than six hours and received her finisher’s medal. She can finally mark “run a marathon” off her bucket list. In August Allison decided she wanted to further her education and become the best librarian she could by receiving her Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS). She applied to San Jose State University and was accepted. She will begin classes in January 2013. Finally, in November, Allison decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. She did it! Allison can now claim to be a novelist, even though it’s unpublished and may never see the light of day. That’s just one more thing she can mark off her bucket list.
Ezra went to California for a week in March with the Illustration department from BYU. They visited animation studios, video game studios, some fine artist personal studios, grad schools, and museums. He has a stronger drive to work in the animation industry but also continues dabbling in electronics and mobile app development. Having always been a little ADD when it comes to hobbies, he has had difficulties in choosing a major and sticking with it while in college.
We took our anniversary trip in August to visit Allison’s family, then toured various places in Oregon such as McDowell Creek Park, Enchanted Forest, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Then we traveled up to Washington, went zip lining, and saw Ezra’s family. It was a fun vacation and we look forward to planning next year’s.
To end the year, WE’VE MOVED! It was sudden but necessary because of some unfortunate circumstances with our home at [Address not available online]. Our new address is:
[Address not available online.].
We call it our best Black Friday deal because that’s the day we found it. We were finally able to start moving in on December 8th and are actually still in the process. We’ll officially be out of our old place on the 19th. This was definitely a move we needed to make and our new home is wonderful in all the ways our old place was lacking. Though the actual process of moving hasn’t been very fun, we really like our new home and it fits our needs well. Hopefully we’ll be staying here for quite a while.
We hope this letter finds you well and wish you a wonderful holiday season.
Best wishes,
Ezra and Allison Smith
2012 has been a rather productive year for the Smith family. Here are a few of the highlights.
Allison became a reference librarian at the Provo Library in January and is absolutely in love with her new position. She rarely asks for time off but on Saturday, June 9th she took a day off to run the Utah Valley Marathon. She trained hard throughout the year and it was tough, but she finished in less than six hours and received her finisher’s medal. She can finally mark “run a marathon” off her bucket list. In August Allison decided she wanted to further her education and become the best librarian she could by receiving her Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS). She applied to San Jose State University and was accepted. She will begin classes in January 2013. Finally, in November, Allison decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. She did it! Allison can now claim to be a novelist, even though it’s unpublished and may never see the light of day. That’s just one more thing she can mark off her bucket list.
Ezra went to California for a week in March with the Illustration department from BYU. They visited animation studios, video game studios, some fine artist personal studios, grad schools, and museums. He has a stronger drive to work in the animation industry but also continues dabbling in electronics and mobile app development. Having always been a little ADD when it comes to hobbies, he has had difficulties in choosing a major and sticking with it while in college.
We took our anniversary trip in August to visit Allison’s family, then toured various places in Oregon such as McDowell Creek Park, Enchanted Forest, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Then we traveled up to Washington, went zip lining, and saw Ezra’s family. It was a fun vacation and we look forward to planning next year’s.
To end the year, WE’VE MOVED! It was sudden but necessary because of some unfortunate circumstances with our home at [Address not available online]. Our new address is:
[Address not available online.].
We call it our best Black Friday deal because that’s the day we found it. We were finally able to start moving in on December 8th and are actually still in the process. We’ll officially be out of our old place on the 19th. This was definitely a move we needed to make and our new home is wonderful in all the ways our old place was lacking. Though the actual process of moving hasn’t been very fun, we really like our new home and it fits our needs well. Hopefully we’ll be staying here for quite a while.
We hope this letter finds you well and wish you a wonderful holiday season.
Best wishes,
Ezra and Allison Smith
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thanksgiving
This past week hasn’t been too terribly eventful.
I registered for my first masters classes on Tuesday and then bought my books. I’m so happy to be furthering my education. I never felt like a BA was enough for me, so knowing that I’ll get an MLIS makes me really happy. I have the best job in the world and I want to be the very best librarian I can be.
Ezra and I donated blood Friday morning and then saw Breaking Dawn part 2 in the afternoon. I’m not a huge Twilight fan, but I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I think this was one of the rare cases where I prefer the movie over the book.
I’ve been making some major progress with my NaNoWriMo. Last night my word count passed 31k. I’m excited to be over half way done, but I know that my novel will need some serious revisions. At the moment, I’m just writing to get words and ideas on the page, regardless of how ridiculous it is. A part of me hates the novel right now just because it is so rough, but I know that if I take the time to really rework it I might just end up being proud of it. Maybe.
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I want to take a moment to share something I’m extremely thankful for. Ezra (stop now if you want to avoid gag inducing mushiness). He is my very best friend, and his support and encouragement has meant more to me than anything else. Ezra has always loved me for who I am, flaws and all. While we’re always trying to improve ourselves, he never judges me or makes me feel bad for my shortcomings. Instead, he encourages me and supports my efforts to be better.
Before I ran my marathon, there were times that I didn’t want to get up and go running in the mornings. He would ask me how important that day’s training was. It was always important, and so with that reminder I would get up and hit the road or the treadmill. He got up with me at 3am on race day and helped me get ready and gave me a kiss as I headed out the door. I texted him at every mile marker to let him know where I was, how I was doing, and he would text back words of encouragement. It was something I really needed once I hit mile 20 and felt miserable. Then, when I finally ran past the library Ezra was there on the street corner cheering me on. Without his love and support, I never would have completed the Utah Valley Marathon on June 9, 2012.
I’m thankful that Ezra and I can be goofy together, serious together, that we can sit on the couch in silence and simply and make faces at each other. I’m thankful that we agree on the important things in life and that the things we don’t agree on are so small and trivial I can’t even think of one right now. I’m thankful that, because he listens to me so well, he seems to know me better than I know myself at times. I’m thankful that he always looks on the bright side, that he remains optimistic even when I start to freak out. I’m thankful that he can keep calm and be reasonable when I know I would be freaking out (such as that time he talked a woman out of giving me a parking ticket when we were geocaching).
In short, I’m thankful for my amazing husband, Ezra Smith, the most wonderful man that I’ve ever met. I love him with all my heart and am so grateful we get to spend eternity together.
Mushiness over.
Ezra and I donated blood Friday morning and then saw Breaking Dawn part 2 in the afternoon. I’m not a huge Twilight fan, but I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I think this was one of the rare cases where I prefer the movie over the book.
I’ve been making some major progress with my NaNoWriMo. Last night my word count passed 31k. I’m excited to be over half way done, but I know that my novel will need some serious revisions. At the moment, I’m just writing to get words and ideas on the page, regardless of how ridiculous it is. A part of me hates the novel right now just because it is so rough, but I know that if I take the time to really rework it I might just end up being proud of it. Maybe.
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I want to take a moment to share something I’m extremely thankful for. Ezra (stop now if you want to avoid gag inducing mushiness). He is my very best friend, and his support and encouragement has meant more to me than anything else. Ezra has always loved me for who I am, flaws and all. While we’re always trying to improve ourselves, he never judges me or makes me feel bad for my shortcomings. Instead, he encourages me and supports my efforts to be better.
Before I ran my marathon, there were times that I didn’t want to get up and go running in the mornings. He would ask me how important that day’s training was. It was always important, and so with that reminder I would get up and hit the road or the treadmill. He got up with me at 3am on race day and helped me get ready and gave me a kiss as I headed out the door. I texted him at every mile marker to let him know where I was, how I was doing, and he would text back words of encouragement. It was something I really needed once I hit mile 20 and felt miserable. Then, when I finally ran past the library Ezra was there on the street corner cheering me on. Without his love and support, I never would have completed the Utah Valley Marathon on June 9, 2012.
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| Ezra took this photo on race morning. He was exhausted, but nevertheless supportive. |
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| Right around here our texts went something like this- Allison: "Dying" Ezra: "Keep it up, you get a fabulous massage tonight" |
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| Because of my husband's support, I managed to run a MARATHON! |
In short, I’m thankful for my amazing husband, Ezra Smith, the most wonderful man that I’ve ever met. I love him with all my heart and am so grateful we get to spend eternity together.
Mushiness over.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Photo-a-day Project 2012
So I've been doing a photo-a-day project on facebook, and I thought I'd post the photos that I have so far, along with their captions for those who aren't on facebook. I know a lot of the pictures are kind of grainy, I've just been using the camera on my phone since that's the camera most readily available.
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| 1 January 2012 This is on display in the HFAC. It was part of Ezra's final project in his illustration class. It's a big honor to have your piece chosen to go on display, and his was! When Ezra showed it to his class someone commented that it reminded him of the move Mr. and Mrs. Smith... Ezra informed him that "Smith" was in fact our name. |
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| 2 January 2012 We've been cleaning up the living room and trying to find places for all of our books. I've been asking Ezra repeatedly if we could use the fireplace, and today he said we could. So, we lit a fire! We have lots of old decrepit books that would be going to the dump, so we decided to use some of them as kindling (phone books work great!). |
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| 3 January 2012 Two new book cases!!! We needed them so bad. Finally our floor isn't covered with piles of books. :-) |
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| 4 January 2012 Tried a new recipe tonight for dinner. It was an orange chicken type thing. We had salad with salsa on the side. It was good, the two didn't really go together, but it was food, and we got our serving of veggies. :-) |
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| 5 January 2012 Roasting marshmallows by the fire. :-) |
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| 6 January 2012 We had some random boards that we wanted to use as firewood... we couldn't break them, so we tried a lot of different methods of cutting them. We never made it through and it took Ezra forever to get even this far. |
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| 7 January 2012 Kinda dark, but this is a regular occurrence right before bed, Ezra's doing stuff on his phone as our kids (the stuffed animals) wait to be put away for the night. |
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| 8 January 2012 We don't have a table in our house, let alone a desk. This is Ezra's work space, the living room floor. Ezra likes to spread out, but he's good about getting it all put away before bed. :-) |
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| 9 January 2012 We have a crazy neighbor that always gets angry about where I put my garbage can. Here is proof that I am NOT in his driveway, or even in his way. My car is blocked, not his. He says he's going to report me to the city. I called the city and they said this is fine. |
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| 10 January 2012 Ezra likes ninjas... we have a stuffed ninja Mickey Mouse. Ezra thought it would be funny to give him a sword. Ninja Mickey protects us from crazy neighbors by guarding our window. |
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| 11 January 2012 I always win the dinner battle, but sometimes there are casualties... like my poor wooden spoon that is now chipped. Sad day! |
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| 12 January 2012 I walked into the kitchen and saw Ezra standing on the counter... he was trying to figure out perspectives for a drawing he wanted to do. |
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| 13 January 2012 Since our lives really are kind of boring, I thought I'd introduce you to some members of our family. Today, I'd like you to meet Thelonious, or Thelo for short. I had a roommate that named all of her plants, and when I got Thelo I sort of picked up the habit. He's the first plant I got while in Utah. |
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| 14 January 2012 Meet Bat! He's one of our aloe vera plants. Ezra named him. Bat had some arms that curved around the side of his pot that Ezra though made it look like bat wings. |
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| 15 January 2012 This is our second aloe vera plant, Owl! I felt like since Ezra gave the other the name Bat, I wanted this one to have a similar, night creature name, so I call her Owl. |
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| 16 January 2012 Hello Peter Parker! He's our first spider plant, and Ezra thought he should be called Peter Parker since he's a spider. |
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| 17 January 2012 This is the newest addition to our plant family, Doc Ock. He's still just a baby, but Peter Parker had a start growing from him so I decided to put it in water and grow another spider plant (I love them so). I thought another Spiderman character would be a fitting name, so He's our little Doc Ock. |
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| 18 January 2012 So The Woman in Black came in for me. A group of us in circulation have a little book club and this was the next book we wanted to read, since the movie is coming out (and the movie has Daniel Radcliff). I'm excited to have a scary book to read. I don't typically choose something like this for myself. Update: 26 January 2012 Good book! I finished reading it today. Chilling, thrilling, and just some good scariness. Nothing graphic or violent, just creepy make you want to look behind you and hide under the covers. |
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| 19 January 2012 I was really missing gardening so I made a little container garden on one of my book selves. I don't know how the plants will do, but my fingers are crossed! |
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| 20 January 2012 So I went on a long run today, and about half way through the miles I was supposed to be doing I gave up because I was hurting like crazy. I knew my shoes were getting bad, but it took me a while to concede. I got off the treadmill and walked over to 26.2 and bought myself a new pair of running shoes. Here they are! |
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| 21 January 2012 Cringe! Okay, I know it's gross, but I didn't have a better picture for today. This is one of the many reasons I needed new running shoes. Right between my big toe and the smaller toe, the callouses had built up a lot. Great, lots of padding, right? Well, it's fine until your feet dry out and the callous splits... right down to the really soft tissue. It's been hurting so bad! I can hardly walk and when I do it's with a limp. I've been using liquid bandaid in the crack to try to encourage it to heal. Fingers crossed! |
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| 22 January 2012 On Sunday's I love to take time and cook something fun. Banana bread has been my favorite recently. So I thought today I'd get a picture of my collection of cookbooks, dilapidated discards from the library and otherwise. |
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| 23 January 2012 My plants are already sprouting! I've got some peas and flowers that have popped out of their dirt. |
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| 24 January 2012 I had to clean out my locker in circulation. I found this in the pile of papers I pulled out. It was from Halloween, when circulation became "Library High." |
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| 25 January 2012 First day as a reference librarian! Really my badge and name tag hasn't changed, but I was just so excited to be moved over to reference! Really though, I do miss circ. I like knowing what I'm doing and at the moment, I don't all the time. But I suppose that's how it is with any new job. |
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| 26 January 2012 I fear you may get lots of plant updates for my photos. I love my little babies, they make me so happy! Anyway, the plants that have already sprouted are thriving, and some dill started sprouting overnight! |
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| 27 January 2012 Ezra doesn't yet know that I grabbed another one of his drawings to post... hehehe. Anyway, he was setting this one up because he wanted to draw our feet with us in our wedding clothes. So we were sitting on the couch, he set up his camera on a timer, and I was bored. I got out my kindle and was reading a book while all of this was going on, ha ha. He liked the picture so much that he drew the whole thing. :-) |
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| 28 January 2012 Ezra's first experience painting. He's having a lot of fun making a mess in the living room. It's supposed to be me, walking up our steps after working out. |
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| 29 January 2012 Not man on wire, but bunny on glasses! Hopson was walking around Ezra's head. |
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Hooray for Black Friday!
We had a really fun Thanksgiving with Ezra’s sister, Casey, and her family in Salt Lake City. We had dinner with them on Thanksgiving and stayed the night so we could go Black Friday shopping in Salt Lake. We hit up Target (Vacuume! Kindle!), RC Willey (Blu-ray player!), Best Buy (DVDs!), Kohl’s (Clothes!) and Old Navy (More clothes!).
I ran another 10 miler last Monday, and tomorrow I have to do 13 miles. I might die.
I’ve been having fun playing with my new kindle as I learn about and use eBooks. I used to be firmly against eBooks but after learning about them at the library I’ve really wanted to use them more, and now I am. I feel like I’m doing research for work, as well as reading for pleasure. I still love my physical books, but really, eBooks are awesome.
We’ve begun pulling out Christmas decorations. I pulled my tree out and decorated it with my many ornaments. The poor tree is loaded, but I feel like the tree represents my life… and now our life. At the very top of the tree is the “Our first Christmas” ornament my mom bought us. Our stockings are hung over the fireplace, and other random decorations are out. We also had a bit of snow today… ‘tis the season!
Friday evening the library had an Author Link event with Christopher Paolini. He gave a 45ish minute presentation about himself and writing, then signed books. I was able to get his newest book personalized and signed, as well as Eragon signed. I've never met such a major author so that was kind of cool.
Ezra officially has his application for the illustration program in and now we play the waiting game. He pulled an all nighter to get his portfolio done and ready, yet he seemed conscious when I saw him the next morning and throughout the day, which I thought was weird. He completely crashed the following night though and he's pretty much caught up on sleep now.We should hear back about the program before the end of the year. We've got our fingers crossed.
Friday evening the library had an Author Link event with Christopher Paolini. He gave a 45ish minute presentation about himself and writing, then signed books. I was able to get his newest book personalized and signed, as well as Eragon signed. I've never met such a major author so that was kind of cool.
Ezra officially has his application for the illustration program in and now we play the waiting game. He pulled an all nighter to get his portfolio done and ready, yet he seemed conscious when I saw him the next morning and throughout the day, which I thought was weird. He completely crashed the following night though and he's pretty much caught up on sleep now.We should hear back about the program before the end of the year. We've got our fingers crossed.
Saturday evening after work Ezra and I went to a BYU ballet performance. It was a really fun date (especially since we haven’t been on one for a while), and we got Costa Vida afterwards. Overall, a successful evening I think.
I drafted our first family Christmas letter today. I’m going to let it sit for a bit so I can make any other modifications with fresh eyes. It was kind of fun, thinking back over the past year and all the things that have happened. It’s strange to think that so many major events happened in the space of just one year. I can’t wait to get Christmas cards out and start that tradition. It’s one that daunts my mom every year, and I’m ready to go through the same stress, making sure the major events have been included so that people know what we’re up to.
I can’t wait to get started on and see what I’ll accomplish this coming week. It’s going to be a good one!
Monday, November 7, 2011
10 Miles Later
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| Don't let the time and calorie count fool you, the time resets at 100 minutes and the calories reset at 1000. How did I survive this run? I watched two episodes of Dr Who on my mp3 player. Small screen, but it kept me going! |
This morning was kind of a big deal, at least to me. Last week I ran 8mi on Monday, today I ran 10mi. Way back when, when I sort of ran regularly (ha ha), 5mi was my max. On my long run days I would hit 5mi and be done. Today I doubled that! I was scheduled to run for 115 minutes, just short of 2 hours. In those two hours I ran 10 miles, which is about 11:30min/mi. It’s not a very fast pace, but the point is I kept going.
Some things that happened today:
*Ezra gave me one of his Indonesian sports jerseys to wear while running so I don’t have to wear my cotton shirt. Chafing was becoming a serious and seriously bloody issue, no chafing on my upper body at all today! I was thrilled! It’s my new favorite running shirt!
*My feet aren’t so lucky. I really need to get some synthetic socks because cotton is killing my feet. When I was preparing to start my running training I kept hearing “cotton is rotten!” and I now understand why. Going from a cotton to synthetic shirt was wonderful, but my poor blistered feet aren’t as lucky. Synthetic socks are just so darn expensive! I can by some nice cotton socks, 3 pair for $3-4. But running socks? The good ones that will save my feet? $8-15 PER PAIR! That’s ridiculous! And yet, an investment I will be making soon. My poor feet can’t handle another day like today.
*I ran out of water. I run on a treadmill at the Provo Recreation Center (since as a city employee I get in free, and can take a friend too! Anyone want to come?) so I’m not far from the drinking fountain, but if I pause the treadmill for too long it resets, so at mile 9 when I ran out I figured I could survive till the end, and I did (obviously). Still, I’ve never downed my whole water bottle in one run before.
For the next two weeks my runs decrease a bit. I won’t be pulling another 10 miler until the end of the month. I’m sort of happy about that. Today was killer, and my poor body needs a break. My longest run next week is 6mi, which compared to today will be a piece of cake. Maybe I can work on increasing my speed. Fingers crossed!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Run for your life!
Halloween is just around the corner and I still don’t know exactly what I’m doing in terms of costume. I think I’ll probably go as Hermione again this year. I’ve got the costume, so why not? Ezra wasn’t big on the idea since I did it last year. He might be going as Charlie Chaplin again though, so I don’t feel too bad about using last year’s costume again.
Anyway, I thought “Run for your life!” was an appropriate title for what I’ve been doing lately. Running. And doing a lot of it. I decided a while ago that I wanted to be able to run a marathon, so I’ve begun training. Assuming all goes to plan and I don’t have any injuries or setbacks, come February I’ll be able to complete a 26.2 mile run all in one shot. My hope is that I’ll be able to stay in marathon shape throughout the summer so that I can register for and compete in multiple marathons. 2012 will be the year of the marathon!
When Ezra and I had first decided to get married and were discussing how we wanted to raise our family, we agreed that we wanted a healthy family. We were both overweight as children. Ezra lost his on his mission, I lost most of mine when I came to college. We want to have an active and healthy family and I feel like this is a good step for me to become the athlete I need to be.
I also really love watching the Biggest Loser. Their end of the season challenge is to run a marathon, and I figured, if these people who were so unhealthy before can end up running a marathon, so can I!
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