16 more days...

til Ironman!!

I'm so excited and scared all at the same time!

I've been watching all kinds of Ironman videos on Youtube to get pumped, and this one is my favorite so far.

I cried.

I will do this!!

and in other news...

So I have been away from the blogging world for the last couple of months because things have been crazy busy.

I'm finally finished with school, and the last thing I want to do is get on my computer.  In fact I haven't even turned it on since I finished school until now.

So here's the Reader's Digest version of the last few months.

Where I left off I was just about to take the MPRE.  That was crazy.  See this little adorable boy got a raging case of pink eye days before the test.

 Then the morning of the test I woke up with the worst case of pink eye I had ever seen.  My eye was swollen almost shut, and there was so much pressure on the eye that I spent the first few hours before the test in the ER getting medication for my eye.  Then I took the test with one eye.  That was hard.

But luckily I PASSED!

Then I went to Nebraska for Spring break.  I took a class out there.

 Pretty, no?

 Then Drake started baseball.

He's pretty good at nailing the ball!  Generally he hits it on the first or second pitch.  And his outfield dancing is to die for.  He may have even caught a ball in his hat rather than his glove.

 I did the El Tour de Mesa.

Tres fun.

Marquee Olympic Triathlon.

The Taylors were in town and we did some family pictures.

 Just look at these adorable kids.

Then finals started.

Would you like to know how to add even more stress to law school finals?  Go run Ragnar SoCal right in the middle of it.  But as much stress as it added, it was also a good brain break.  

80's Ladies and Some Dudes rocked it!  

Gwen did her first duathlon.

So cute I could die!

At the same time Drake and Ryan were camping for fathers and sons.

You know, just catching mice and killing snakes.  Fun man stuff.

Then I finished finals and also my paper that I spent months procrastinating.

Holy cow, I can't even put into words how elating it is to be finished with my SECOND YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL!!!!!!

I've celebrated by going on a crazy cleaning spree.  

My house is in a constant state of deterioration throughout the semester, so come the end of school I have major cleaning to do.

To reward myself, I did the Rio Salado Olympic tri yesterday.

My BIL Gavin did it too.
I know that nobody looks good in a swim cap.  I'm embracing my inner ET.

 It was a super fun way to kick off the summer!

So here's to summer break!!

No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.

Hahahaha!

Phoenix 1/2 Marathon

This was a good one.

I knew that I had wanted to run this, but wasn't 100% since I knew it'd be the weekend after the Ultra Ragnar. Since I had never run 34 miles in a 24 hour period before (like I did for Ragnar), and having just recovered from stress fractures in my femurs, I didn't know how I'd feel or what condition my body would be in. But I was pleasantly surprised at how good I felt after Ragnar. My right knee was sore, but I'm sure it's just IT band stuff, so I wasn't too worried about that. And I know my legs weren't at 100%, but felt like I could still do the half. So I drug Ryan with me to the start dark and early.

My pre-race breakfast:

wheat toast with peanut butter, bananas, honey and chia seeds.

Mmmmmm... I'm addicted.

I usually eat two pieces, but I didn't want to be burping it up while I was running, so I stuck to just one.

How cool was this? The bagpipers leading the runners to the start up on Usery Pass.

So we started towards the front, and I wasn't sure what kind of pace to try. I felt good, but I also wanted Ryan to be able to keep up, and he hadn't been running much at all.

So for the first 4 miles, it was a decent down hill and we did about an 8:05 pace.

Mile 5 it leveled out, and I tried to maintain that pace, but I was worrying about Ryan.

So right when we hit mile 5, Ryan gave me the go ahead, and he hung back.

I debated just staying with him since I knew I hadn't trained for, and my body wasn't in shape for a PR. But I also just wanted to run at a fast but totally comfortable pace. So I just kept going.

And that was my strategy for the rest of the race. I found another runner who was running at my pace, and I just stuck with her, and didn't look at my watch until mile 12.

When I finally did look down, I saw that I was totally going to get my PR. CRAP!! Why didn't I run faster?!

So I surged ahead of her, and pushed up the last hill to come in just barely still at 1:48.

Then I hit up all the goodies!

This race had the best finish food! I got a giant cinnamon roll for crying out loud! As well as strawberry Rocket Fuel (my favorite post race drink!), Jamba Juice, granola, fruit, cookies, yogurt pretzels, the list goes on.

They know what runners like.

Then I ran back to the finish to look for Ryan.

He came through at 1:58 and just said, "water!"

He rehydrated, then made his way to the medic tent to get his knees iced.

Silly boy. He doesn't train for these things, but comes with me anyway.

I appreciated that though. I was worried he'd back out that morning, but nope, he ran. Untrained. And still PR'd!

It was a perfect morning for a run.

The race was well run.

And I am definitely doing it again next year!

Oh, also I got my new shoes!

I tried the Brooks Pure Flow hoping to find a cheaper natural running shoe. But sadly my feet didn't like them. I can wear them for shorter runs, but over 5 miles, and I'm hurting.

So back to my beloved Newtons. I guess you just stick with what works.

So pretty.