I was thinking about all of the things I want to do this summer, and though it would be fun to come up with a "Summer 2012 Bucket List"!
I'm thinking about running this 10k, mostly because it's a night run and looks like a lot of fun! Not too serious! I've lived in Utah my whole life and I have never hiked Mount Olympus or visited Delicate Arch in Moab, so those two items are must do's this summer!
Each time we visit California, we always try and do something, or visit something new. On previous trips we have visited Huntington Beach, Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach and Santa Monica. We've also visited the Hollywood Bowl, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and multiple trips to the Happiest Place on Earth. We've attend an Angel's game and even eaten at The Oinkster that was featured on Diners Drive-ins and Dives, and poolside at the Cabana Club Cafe at the Beverly Hills Hilton. We've had a great time on our visits to California.
This trip, we knew most of our time would be spent attending all of the graduation festivities. It was also a holiday weekend, so we figured the beaches would be packed on our free days of Sunday and Monday. After discussing it with the fam, we realized we just couldn't leave California without some type of visit to the beach. Plus, Uncle Kevin made Madison promise she would dip her feet in the ocean for him! T's girlfriend Stephanie is from Irvine, which is incredibly close to Balboa Island. She has spent quite a bit of time at the beach (her Dad also grew up on Balboa Island!), and suggested we spend the day there.
We did.
And we are so happy, we did.
Can you say gorgeous?
Check out these houses that are right up against the beach:
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Could you imagine living here?
The flowers alone were FABULOUS!
Check out this pier/dock:
Stephanie and her parents met us at the beach with kayaks, paddle boards and the popular Cornhole game!
Madison and I, going out on the paddle board:
Madi and George coming in from a jaunt in the kayaks:
Stephanie's dad also loves to build sand castles, and he is really good at it!
He whipped that bad boy out, in no time!
Stephanie and Tyson got schooled a few times in cornhole! By their dads, and by Madi and George! They were not happy about it!
All in all, we had such an amazing time!
We loved spending time with Stephanie and her family, and appreciate all they did to make our day on Balboa Island, such a huge success!
I hope you had a great weekend! I had fabulous one! More about that in a minute.
I just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts this past week. My laptop crashed (for the 2nd time!) and I'm not a big fan of our desktop computer. It's slow and is a pain in the ass to blog from. Right now it's making crazy with this post! Oh well.
That's life, right?
My posting the next week or so, will also be sparse, due to the college graduation of this boy from The University of Redlands!
I can't believe it's been 4 years already! I will have a lot to post about as soon as we return from California!
Now, on to the 5k recap!
On Saturday, I ran the 30th Annual Law Day 5k
I work for a law firm, and the firm paid for employees to run in the race. I'm not a HUGE runner, but lately I have been trying to run more and more.
I have a secret goal of running a marathon, ½ marathon and the Ragnar Wasatch Back some day, so I am trying to run some 5ks this summer!
It was a beautiful day on Saturday. Perfect for getting outside and running/walking/whatever!
The race was held on the campus of the University of Utah, which is really beautiful, with view overlooking the city.
I was a bit nervous about this 5k, since the first mile of the race is mostly all uphill. I've been battling a quad pull, and was worried how it would hold up.
The starting line:
*warning, crappy cell phone pics ahead!
When the race started, I felt okay. Each step was met with a slight pull of my quad, but I was determined. The first uphill stretch was not fun. It was crowded and I knew I started out a bit too fast, going with the other racers. I ended up walking just a bit of the hill, until the course leveled out for a minute. Literally, 1 minute! Then it was back to a huge climb, toward the sun, and it was HOT! I walked up most of the hill. I tried running, but it just wasn't happening.
Once we hit the top of the course, about 1.5 miles in, things went much smoother. The course was a little flat and we weren't running straight in to the sun. At about mile 2.3 the course was more downhill than anything. That part was nice, but you can really feel downhill running in your knees and my quad was really bothering me the last mile. Knowing that Carl and Madison would be waiting for me at the finish line was a huge motivator! I told Carl I would probably cross the finish line somewhere around 40-45 minutes due the uphill parts of the course slowing me down. I checked my watch to try and gauge how I was doing on time, and it seems to me I was hitting the 40 minute mark with at least .5 miles to go.
I was annoyed.
But I kept on going.
Finally, the finish line was within in sight! All the people along the race route were cheering on the runners and that makes it sooo much easier to keep going! Right before the finish line I spotted Carl and Madison. Carl had my cell phone out ready to snap a picture! I gave him my cheesy smile:
And then I crossed the finish line:
My "official" time was: 36:04.25 I was 11/21 in my age group and finished 252/594
Not too bad.
I'll take it!
It really was fun, and I felt like I could have gone another couple of miles!
The rest of the weekend consisted of dinner out with Carl's family on Saturday night, which was fun!
Sunday was a day of addressing my brother's wedding invitations in calligraphy! I can't wait for his wedding in July!
Hope you had a great weekend!
I will spend the next few days getting ready for our trip to California and Tyson's graduation!
