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.

Ragnar Del Sol 2012

Introducing the

SPARKTACULAR SIX!!!

Six as in instead of 12 members on our Ragnar team, we had six.

So because we had half as many, we ran twice as far.

And slept half as much too.

As if getting less sleep is possible right? Well it is.

We sparkled up our van.

This Ragnar was amazing. And key to that was the girls.

Can you imagine being stuck in a van for two days with people you don't care for?

Luckily we did NOT have that problem.

Let me introduce the players:

Moi

(great picture I know!)

Marie

Carolyn

Breezy

Jasmyn

and Erin

And let me tell you, silliness ensued.

For instance here, I am hiding behind this lush bush to jump out and scare an approaching runner.

front seat sandwich making

And don't ask what I'm doing behind this random play pool we found.

But I might be on my way to find a spot to do the same thing here too.

Let's just say I only hit the porta pottys once over the two days. The rest of the time, I was getting to know nature.

Or what about when our van broke down, and we thought it was all over for us?

We also had road side rolling, and thank goodness for Carolyn, I was there to flag that car away.

Impromptu Justin Bieber dance parties.

I'm adjusting my britches here to make sure I'm always modest.

Right girls???

When we finally finished, we were a little sad it was all over.

It was such a fun bonding experience for six sparktacular ladies.

Who are also some of the toughest girls I know!

Been busy!

I've been out of commission. Scrambling to get things done before the end of the semester. That's right the END of the semester!!! Today is my last day of classes and then the dread of finals. This is always about the time that I'm tempted to just drop out of law school. Not really. But kind of. ;)

Ryan started a new job, the Taylors were in town for Thanksgiving week, and my washing machine broke. That's something I've taken for granted. When was the last time you hauled off eight loads of laundry down to the laundromat? Me? Saturday and the Saturday before. But my new one is super sexy, and it comes tomorrow!!!

Also, remember a couple of posts ago when I was running like crazy? I did the Nike Women's marathon, then five days later Ragnar Las Vegas, and then the following weekend the Red Mountain Half Marathon. It was a lot of running. Well wouldn't you know it, my crappy osteoporosis bones didn't love it. I tried to run hard for the half, but after four miles, couldn't keep up my pace because of the pain. Why? oh, just another stress fracture. This one in my left FEMUR!!! Yep, the biggest bone in your body. While stress fractures to the femur are not nearly as common as other bones, it's almost always because of endurance running.

That means it's time for a break. And while it's hard to come to grips with the fact that I won't be running the new course for PF Changs Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon this year (tear), I can at least still ride my bike and swim. And I really need to be serious about resting and getting healthy because I'm signed up for this:
IRONMAN ARIZONA 2012!!!!!!

I'm so excited, and scared, but mostly excited!!
So excuse my absence from posting again, but I'm going to buckle down and study and hope to not fail out of law school.

Vegas Baby!!

Ahh Ragnar, sooo much fun! This one was especially fun because it was a family affair. Tawnya and Kolby, Tara and Andrew, Ryan and I; and Cec and Clint, Misty, Justin, and our new friend Joseph.

And what do you do when you have kids and you all are going to be running all day, all night, and all day?? The Taylors and Collards brought their kids to Vegas with them and then had Grandma's watch their kids. We opted for leaving our kids home with a very responsible babysitter. (she really was awesome, and the kids LOVED her) That way the kids could still go to school, do soccer, and practice for the Primary program.

Also something to consider when you're doing a destination Ragnar. If you are starting first thing Friday morning, you'll have to spend the night there Thursday night. Well I, ever being the cheapskate, booked an $18 hotel room.

Well, not until we were driving there, and I was telling my mom about our sweet deal, did the gravity of the situation start setting in. She asked "Can they even wash the sheets and clean the room for that cheap?!" Umm, no way! Crap, what did I do? Then as we were driving to the hotel, in a seedy part of town, we kept passing bail bond shops, and XXX stores, I vowed never to book a hotel that cheap again.

But, much to our surprise, we walked into a nice new lobby, and we were so thankful when we found that not only was the lobby re-done, but the rooms too! Clean towels and sheets!!! Yes! So I'm happy to recommend the Plaza Hotel (the one in all the old Vegas movies) to anyone looking for a cheap room in Vegas.

Okay, back to Ragnar. Our team name was "How the West was RUN", and we dressed up as cowboys and Indians. (I realize that dressing up as Indians is offensive to some, and I apologize to you if you are offended... but we ARE Indians, and I'm proud of who I am, so I'm totally not offended. In fact I love it! Just like the team "Curry in a Hurry" who were the India-Indians team.) Our girly van was the first van, and the manly van was van 2.

One little, Two little, Three little Indians...

Ceci was our first runner, heading out an hour late. But we couldn't help it. Our sixth girly runner wasn't able to make it out because of flight delays and travel problems, so we got a late start after figuring that all out. That meant that us girls had to pick up her legs too! We ran A LOT!

And here's Tara coming in from her first leg. Tara did awesome! In fact it was Tawnya and Tara who talked me into doing this Ragnar. (not that I took much convincing) It's so fun to be able to go running with my sisters!

This was in honor of Destinee, who couldn't make it. We dubbed her the Wind Runner.

And here's our team (minus Justin who was running) at the first major exchange. By this time, the boys had slept in, ate breakfast and went out to lunch. Us girls had gotten up super, duper early, and hadn't had a single meal! We totally got the short end of the stick!

This picture was from my night run. It was off on some trail in the middle of NOWHERE in the pitch dark of night. I could only see what my headlamp pointed to. And this trail had CUH-RAZEE hills. But the cool thing about it, was that at the top of each hill, I had a spectacular view of the city. I couldn't get a picture to turn out, but you get the idea.

Can you tell we're sisters?
Why is Misty pulling up her skirt over here? What was going on?

Um yep, that's what you gotta do during Ragnar.

And yet again, it is us girlies who welcome the sun on day 2.


And here's Tawnya, finishing up the last leg for us females.

Do you have any idea how nice it is to see that blue sign?!
And finally, finished.

And then a nice relaxing night at the Paris (after hanging out with the Wevers) and an easy Sunday drive home. Thank goodness the kids didn't burn down the house while we were gone.