The Other Half Marathon in Moab

There are typically two different trains of thought when you here the words "Stake Conference".

The first is, "Well golly, what a wonderful chance to be spiritually fed."

The second is " Hell yea, a vacation without having to find a substitute to teach my 14 year old Sunday school class"
Last weekend, we went to Moab.
Megan ran The Other Half Marathon.
It was not a personal best time, but she loved the course, even if it had a difficult profile.
God put the uphill sections in just the right places, and the scenery was beautiful.
She posted her fastest mile for the last mile and was excited to finish strong.
After we gave her enough time to take a quick shower, we went and hiked around Arches for the rest of the day.
The next morning, we woke the kids up at 5:45 AM and hiked in the dark up to see the sun rise over Delicate Arch. When i proposed the idea the night before, i was expecting a lot more resistance, but everybody was in for it. Sure we paid for it on the drive home that afternoon with some tired kids, but it was worth it. They even asked if we could "Race the Sun" again when we went on our next vacation.

Heber CX Race

#1 dusted off her bike, put on some bling and threw down for her first cyclocross race of the season.
She pulled off a podium finish even though she doesn't do it to win. She just does it to have fun.
Big foot showed up wearing vans slip-ons and handing out the washingtons to the junior racers.

Human Pinatas and Home Grown Produce

CX season '09 begins with a painful bang

I was not first and i was not last
Moving up a category and doing 60 minutes instead of 45 is A LOT longer. At about 45 minutes, i started feeling some fatigue and started getting sloppy through the barriers. I made a little bobble and the guy right behind me ran up my back with his front chainring finding my calf.
Does anybody know how to tell if a wound is infected?We need moisture because breathing dust for 60 minutes can't be good for the respiratory system.
Fox was there handing out the Washington's and making it fun.
The Dr. strategically dropped off the back of the pack a little bit so it would be easier to grab the bills. He has heard that weddings are expensive so he is doing what he can to cash in.
Tip of the week: Don't change to a different kind of pedal right before a race. DC, shown here leading our pack, broke his collarbone in 3 places when he wasn't able to get out of his pedal coming into a barrier.

Daddy Daughter, Daughter, Daughter, Daughter Date

Megan left us this weekend to go and spend a relaxing weekend in lake Tahoe doing things like getting sagebrush and dirt-pack spa treatments.(Thanks for rushing over to help her up Lindsey)

Me and the girls were left here in Utah to fend for ourselves.
And by fend for ourselves, i mean, Megan had all of our clothes picked out, all of the meals planned, and our schedules laid out to the minute for the whole weekend.
We did deviate slightly from the schedule, but everyone is still alive, so i count it as a win.

Megan has only been away from our family for more than 24 hours, 2 times since we have been married. At one point or another during the weekend, all of us cried a few tears because we missed her.

I got the girls off to school without missing the bus.
I did the girls hair.
We went up to Snowbird and hiked around with cousin Kevin, who's wife also left him for the weekend.
We were only 3 minutes late for church. My mother told me she was surprised and that she wasn't expecting me to show up until church was half over.

#4 proved that although she may look like the nieces and nephews from my side of the family, she acts more like Megan's side.
I think that Megan is entitled to a weekend away from us once every 6 years, and i look forward to the challenge again in the year 2015.

Another Year, Another Couple Hundred Miles

During most bike races, at some point or another, i think to myself...."Self, remind me why we are doing this again?"
Unfortunately, during a race that takes over 9 hours, those thoughts tend last a lot longer.
Fortunately, within seconds of the race ending, i can't remember having those thoughts and can't wait to do it again.

We started at 6:37 with a lot of guys from the team in my start group.We knew it would be fast and painful and that most likely, not everybody would hold on to the lead group.
The only person from our team that could hold on to the winning move half way up the strawberry climb was the Robot. He killed it and had a great ride this year taking 5th.
The rest of us regrouped into a couple of different packs and chased for remaining 160 miles.
I dug a little too deep trying to stay with the leaders over the first climb and paid for it the rest of the day.
I spent much of the day looking at cousin Kevin or DC's butt. We eventually got into Teton Village 3 minutes slower than i did last year with a 9:46.
Despite it being a long and stressful day for the wives, Megan did a wonderful job setting a personal best for feeding me.

After seeing a bunch of friends finish and spending a little time in the icy stream, we made our way over to the Hotel.
We showered, changed and found a restaurant that would take 20 of us for Dinner.
I ordered everything on the menu and we finally made it back to our rooms around 10 o'clock for some much needed sleep.

It wasn't until just after midnight that the fire alarms started going off and we got a frantic knock on the door saying we needed to evacuate the building.
We hurried and got dressed and made our way out into a smoke filled hall, and then outside the building into the parking lot with a couple hundred other drowsy hotel guests.The fire department was called and eventually started trickling in 15 minutes later.
After about a dozen Volunteer Firefighters eventually showed up and made their way in and out of every room a few times and checked the whole building twice, they came out and announced that it was safe to re-enter the building, but if we heard a fire alarm during the night, that we should take it seriously and evacuate the building immediately.
As megan and I were making our way back to our room, I saw the hotel manager waiting at the door of Cousin Kevin and his wife, who were a couple doors down from us.
Apparently, after dinner, Jenn was either cold, or Kevin wanted a special mood set, so he lit a fire in the fireplace in his room. There was a little plaque in the rooms on the mantel that told how to light a fire in the fireplace in every room except Kevin's. Someone had stolen it so all you could see on his mantel was a little bit of glue left over from where the sign was. Unknowingly, Kevin neglected to properly open the flue and ventilate the fire so it started a backdraft and after a few hours of smoldering, the smoke eventually started seeping into the hall and rooms surrounding his room. One of the guests woke up and called the front desk, which led to a frantic manager running up and down the halls with a fire extinguisher, knocking on everybody's door and telling them to get out.
On behalf of me and the other 300 guests that were able to stand in the freezing cold parking lot in the middle of the night, after just riding our bikes 206 miles, I want to say, THANKS KEVIN!

We eventually got back to bed around 2:30 AM.

FYI: if you have a comb-over, even if you are evacuated from a building in the middle of the night, make sure your comb-over is combed-over

#3 goes to school

It is a strange concept for me to tell my kids when they are doing something bad that if they don't shape up, i won't let them go to school...it works though.
They love it and i am ok with that. At least they are not smoking crack.
#3's first day is a teddy bear party. She is very excited because this year she goes for 3 days a week.