Top Of Utah Marathon: Coming Full Circle

Two weekends ago I ran the TOU Marathon. I loved it. It's a really good course. But mostly I loved it because I had 2 good reasons for running it.

1. My older brother, Jeff, has enlisted in the army and leaves to basic training in a couple of weeks. Jana and him decided to run this marathon as a final "big event" before he leaves. Naturally, I said I was in. My shirt said, "Good Luck Jeff" on the front with an American flag, and "Go Army Band" on the back. I loved all the people who asked me about my shirt and was super proud to tell them it was my brother who had just enlisted.


2. I ran this marathon with Jana. We started this marathon journey nearly two years ago. In Oct. of 2007, we decided to run the SLC marathon. It was to be our first marathon. Then shortly after our official training started, she got prego with Cooper. (Love him!) Needless to say, she didn't run the marathon. When I did run Salt Lake, she jumped out on the course and finished with me. After all, we started that journey together and it seemed only natural to finish it together. So a few months ago when Jana decided to run TOU for her first marathon, there was no way I was missing the chance to finish what we started before and run a marathon together! I was thrilled to be able to run her first marathon with her. She did GREAT! She did not need me there at all, she is a marathon pro! We felt great the whole time and finished with a time of 4 hours 28 minutes. This could be my favorite marathon so far. :)





My army brother.




Also, my good friend/neighbor/running buddy Kristi also ran the race. She had an amazing race and got 4th place in her division. She got a fun moose trophy and I had fun posing with it. I can only dream of winning a trophy. *sigh* :)




Things I don't want to forget about the race.

1. Barking man at the start. Haha
2. Crazy pre-race stuff. I only say I want to remember it so I don't repeat the same mistakes!
3.Seeing the 52 marathons in 52 weeks guy cheering us on, after he had finished the course and was running it backward!
4. Super fun blond girl rocking out, singing to us as she passed us in her car.
5. Yelling out "Ba Bam" as I turned the last corner and saw the finish line.
6.Giving Kyah a kiss at mile 17.
7. The two times I cried on the course. :)
8. Waiting for Jeff to cross the finish line and watching a precious moment of Jana holding him up.

Big Day

We were in Logan last weekend for the baptism of this little cutie!




And, while we were there, I finally got a picture of this little cutie. (I've been trying since he was born!)





You have to admit I have some pretty cute nephews!! I love them!

Tiny Dancer

Kyah has started a creative dance class and she loves it! Showing me her curtsy Her second cousins Samantha and Amy are in the class.

Burn Baby Burn

Our idiot neighbor parked his motorcycle on the sidewalk. Gage was riding his bike and tried to get by it, but accidentally bumped his leg up against the exhaust pipe. It melted the skin right off his leg. This happened 2 1/2 weeks ago and I'm happy to say that his burn is healing nicely and didn't get infected. PHEW! Here is a picture of the burn after about 2 days.