Patron Saint of Slow Runners

I feel like the patron saint of slow runners.

I ran the St. George Half Marathon this morning. In previous races, I had always started way back in the pack; there's always a long wait to get to the starting line and then I spend the first 10 minutes dodging and weaving my way past clumps of walkers/slow runners before I settle into my pace. This time I decided to start nearer to the front of the pack, on the theory that I would not have the hassle of having to avoid all the slow runners. So I started about 20 feet from the leaders, you know - those guys that are super skinny and have bulging leg muscles and probably run 10 miles before breakfast everyday, including today. Yeah, that was as close as I got to them the whole day; oh, except for when they had completed the loop in the course and were on their last (12th) mile and passing me when I was only 7 miles into the run. So the good news is that I did not have to waste any time dodging and weaving slower runners. Turns out that everyone else had to go around me; I was the slower runner. The entire race. Ugh.

But that's okay. I found my nice slow pace and I stuck to it. Didn't walk once, even though I was sorely tempted over the last couple of miles. I felt like one of my main purposes in the race today was to make other people feel good. I could almost hear people thinking "Hey, as long as I passed that guy I must be doing okay; he looks like he's in shape; he's even wearing a St George Marathon shirt." Of course by the end of the race I heard on more than one occasion a pair or a group of runners carrying on a conversation as the passed me about going so slow. "I'm sorry" one woman would say to the other; "but I really haven't trained enough and you're so good to run slow with me."

That's okay. I'm the patron saint of slow runners.

But, I did slightly better than I was hoping for. I finished the course in about 2 hours 8 and 1/2 minutes. Just under a 10:00 minute per mile pace. Not bad.

And I made a whole lot of people feel pretty good about themselves.

Star Wars Family

Our kids have now officially seen Star Wars. We had a family movie night and we watched the original, episode IV, a New Hope.

It helped that our kids have recently discovered the Lego Star Wars game for the Wii that we got them for Christmas, so they were familiar with a couple of the scenes and some of the character names. At various points during the movie they would exclaim "I remember this part from the Wii!" It was kind of odd.

When Darth Vader first showed up in the movie, Katie exclaimed "it's Zurg! . . . oh wait, I mean Darth Vader."

Later in the movie, she asked when Luke was going to find out that Darth Vader is his father.

Just to show you how much these movies have pervaded our collective societal subconscious.

Still Crazy After All These Miles ...

I'm running again, trying to prepare for the Painters Half Marathon in St. George on January 17. Yes, I'm a little crazy. Especially when getting up at 5:00 to run in this cold. Ugh. More details of my exploits over at my running blog.

Overheard at the Breakfast Table:

After settling an argument between herself and Parker by appealing to Katie's judgment call, Rachel explained her reasoning by saying "Katie's in 3rd grade, she knows everything . . . well, not when the dinosaurs died."

Huh, good to know.

I Survived!

I'm still alive!

I finished the St. George marathon yesterday morning. It's taken me 9 long months of training to be able to say that. Now, I am in much pain, but have a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I was quite an experience to be running with 7,000 other crazy people at 7 in the morning amid a constant rain.

I have chronicled my experience on my marathon training blog. You can reach it by clicking HERE.

A Typical Drive

We drove home yesterday from southern Utah on our way back from the Beatty family reunion. The drive home was a little more crazy than normal, but still typical of most of our drives.

We stopped in Cedar City to gas up and get some lunch for the kids.

We then stopped at the first exit outside of Cedar City because Emily would not stay in her car seat buckled up.

We then stopped at the very next exit to put the crying Emily back into her car seat and buckle her up.

We made it all the way to Fillmore before we needed to stop for a potty break for all the kids.

Then we had to stop in Nephi because Rachel had tried one of Emily's sugar baby candies and decided she didn't like it, so she tried to regurgitate it back up her throat, but she inadvertently sent it back up and out the nasal cavity instead, where it lodged and was stuck about an inch from coming out. Much crying and bleeding of the nose. Thinking we'll just get home and take her to the hospital. Much drama from Rachel.

By the very next exit she had succeeded in blowing the sugar baby out her nose.

In between all these stops many melt downs from various kids for variousd reasons.

Nice to finally make it home and release the pent up children to the back yard to work off much excess energy on the trampoline.

Traveling is too much of an adventure at times.

Photo Update

Have posted a few pics of the kids from our weekend trip and also a link to a gallery of photos from my Mt. Whitney trip. Scroll down to view.