I Did It!

My jacket!

The end of the race - finish line in sight!

Super cool plaque:)

I finished all of the races in the Triple Trail Challenge!  Got my jacket!  It's a nice jacket too I might add.  A black Marmott that's actually fitted for a girl instead of being all big and bulky.  Now I'm anxiously awaiting cold weather so that I can actually wear it:)

So the last race of the series was on Saturday.  It was the Mid-Mountain Marathon.  There's an awesome single track trail that goes all through Park City, and the race was on that.  You start at Deer Valley and finish at the Canyons.  The race actually went really well.  I started out nice and easy, which I think helped me in the long run.  The whole race has lots of ups and downs in elevation, but miles 15-20 were pretty brutal as they were pretty much all uphill.  That's a hard part of a marathon to have be uphill because you're pretty tired at that point.  I was tired, but I didn't let myself walk.  I knew that if I walked it would be hard to get going again.  So I just put it in low gear and kept trotting along.  I only walked up one pretty steep hill that was right at mile 20.  Who puts a steep hill at mile 20 anyway?

The last five miles were actually pretty fun.  Usually this is the part of the marathon where you think you might die, but for some reason I was loving life.  These miles were all downhill, but last time I did this race I was so tired at this point that I didn't go very fast.  This time I cruised down the trail.  It was awesome!  I was passing people all over the place.  I had a negative split, which means that I ran the second half of the marathon faster than the first half.  Let me tell you, that's the way to run a race.  Its way more fun to pass people at the end than to be passed for sure.  It ended up being a pretty hot day, so I spent a fair amount of time at all the aid stations.  In true Spjute fashion, I overheat quickly.  So at every aid station I drank like 3-4 cups of water and then dumped one over my head.  I'm sure everyone thought I was crazy, but you do what you gotta do, right?

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I fell.  That's right, tripped and slammed the left side of my body into the mountain.  Super cool.  Don't worry though, people were falling all over the place.  When you trail run there's tons of rocks and stuff to step over.  When you get tired it gets a lot harder to pick up your feet and you end up taking a dive.  I saw like four people fall and one lady told me she herself had fallen four times.  So my whole left side is bruised and my right leg feels like it was sprained or something.  Good times.

The results of this race?  I cut 10 minutes off my time from two years ago and finished in 4:25.  Nothing super fast, but I'm happy with it.  I got seventh in my age group for the marathon.  But here's the big news.  I somehow placed second overall for the girls who did the Triple Trail Challenge!  That's right, they announced my name and everything.  I have a plaque sitting on the table in the entry way.  I might leave it there forever.  Feel free to come by and see it:)  No, actually, none of my times were crazy fast.  Apparently though there aren't a whole lot of girls who sign up for the whole race series, so the competition wasn't too tough.  However, I passed two of the girls who were in the running to place in the last two miles.  Suckers!:)

Okay, I'll stop telling you all (the two of you who read this blog) how fast I ran.  It was a good race series and I'm proud of myself for doing it.  Before this year I wasn't one for trails.  Going uphill for long amounts of time was hard for me.  I worked hard though, and now I have my jacket:)  Will I do it again?  Probably, but not for a while.  Too many races that made it so we couldn't do a lot of camping or anything else as a family.

Anyway, I'm off to try on my jacket again....

Swiss Days!

Chaos in the kitchen

The kids chowing down

The goat kept everyone entertained

Jake's family enjoying some good bbq

I love Swiss Days!  Some people hate it and leave town, I just think its fun.  It cracks me up how many people come just to shop at boutiques.  Craziness.  Every year, early Friday morning, I run the 'tour of Midway'.  This allows me to see all the crazies getting here at 6am.  I also get to see all the crazies already fighting over stuff.  I love it:)  I must admit that I do love walking around the booths to see the goods, and I usually end up buying something.  I would like to think that I would not be one of the 'crazies' if I didn't live here.  I also love working at Swiss Days.  There's just something cool about working together with fellow Midway residents, knowing that none of us are getting paid for our time.  This year I helped the youth with their assignment of cleaning off tables.  I ended up being on my own during the lunch hour.  It was pretty crazy, but time definitely passed quickly.  I even got to wipe off President Uchtdorf's table.  It took me a second to recognize him dressed all casual.  Good times.

A side note about Swiss Days.  It is put on by the church.  Thus the reason its not held on Sunday and there's no alcohol served.  Half of everything made by the food booths goes to the church.  And let me tell you, this is not a small amount.  So next time you spend lots of money on a swiss taco, you can feel a little better about where your money goes:)

To finish it all off we had our annual Swiss Days BBQ.  This year it was bigger than ever.  Both of our families came, and it was fun to have everyone here.  My neighbor made his super yummy smoked pork for us so I didn't even have to worry about too much food.  We all ate tons and then the women headed to swiss days while the men pulled kid duty.  In case you were wondering, Saturday evening is the best time to go to Swiss Days.  Way less crowds, and sometimes the vendors will even lower their prices.

So, another Swiss Days gone.  The end of summer.  And an end to our annual Swiss Days BBQ I think.  Its too busy of a weekend to ask people to come up here who wouldn't do so otherwise.  I think in the future we'll just open our house up to anyone who decides to come shop.  Hopefully everyone will stop by to say 'hello'.  Those of you who wouldn't come to Swiss Days without the BBQ can now truly enjoy your labor day weekend:)  Now, I'm off to enjoy a dinner made up mostly of things from our garden.  You gotta love fall:)

Baptism!

Zack and Jake

The three oldest cousins (Marcus, Zack, and Megan)

The grandparents (of course I forgot to take a pic before Zack changed)

Zack got baptized last Saturday.  Craziness!  I can't believe I have a kid old enough to be baptized.  It was a great day.  He was able to be baptized at the same time as his cousin Megan.  That made it extra special I think.  We had lots of family there and it was just a good day.  The Spirit was strong and I'm sure there were lots of extra people there we couldn't see.  After the baptisms we went to my dad's for yummy cinnamon rolls made by April.  It was fun to sit and visit with everyone.  Thanks to everyone who came!

First Day of School

Cutie Kate

Big-Z

Look how big they are!!

School is here!  Yay!  A week ago I had mixed feelings about this.  I've kind of enjoyed sleeping a little longer and not having to kill myself every morning to get everyone out the door.  But then last week happened and boy was I ready for school to start today.  My kids suddenly went crazy, I went crazy, and we were all ready for school to start.  Very ready.  Its interesting how that happens every year.  It seems like there suddenly comes a time when summer needs to be over.  We need to get back into a routine.  Something.

This year Zack and Kate both go to school all day.  Crazy, I know.  Zack is in third grade, Kate in first.  I totally remember third grade.  I can't believe he's that old.  Sounds like the day went well.  Kate loved her teacher, but said it was a long day.  I don't blame her.  These poor kids suddenly go from a couple of hours of school to lots and lots of hours of school.  Zack liked his teacher and class, at least from what I got out of him.  He doesn't offer up much info about things like that.  When he describes his day he uses super descriptive words like 'stuff' and 'things'.  Very helpful.  By 3:00 Sage was on her bike outside, waiting anxiously for her brother and sister to get home.  She gave them both big hugs when they got home.  Poor thing.  Stuck with her mom all day.  Good thing she starts preschool in a few weeks.

By the way, this year I have five hours per week of no kids.  That's right, no kids.  I'm sure I will lay on the couch eating bonbons the whole time....right.  What I'm sure of is that the time will fill up quickly.  Still though, maybe I'll actually be able to run or bike during the day once in a while instead of crazy early in the morning.  I can always hope, right?

Two Down...

The fun girls I ran with (Emily, Sara, me, Mylissa)

Race number two....check!  Did the Park City Half-Marathon today.  It was a great race.  Definitely had some hills, but not too bad.  I finished in 1:43, just under the 1:45 I was hoping for.  So I'm happy!  I even got to run with some fun girls.  Definitely a good time:)  I highly recommend running the half.  Not so sure about the marathon.  Might be kind of brutal for 26 miles.

One race to go and then you'll (the one person who actually reads this) see a picture of me in my new jacket!:)

Last The Best

Heavy heavy hang overs with grandma and grandpa

Always happy with food in her mouth

Three years old!

We are officially done with birthdays.  Ok, mine still hasn't happened.  But lets' face it, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't count.  Sage had a great day.  She was soooo excited for her birthday because she had to see Zack and Kate celebrate their's before she had a turn.  She's so cute when she's excited.  I kept asking her all day how old she was.  She would think for a second and then say, "Three!"  The next day I asked her how old she was and she said, "I'm still three."  We managed to get through the day with no spilled paint or any other crazy happenings.  All-in-all a successful day I think:)

One Down, Two to Go

coming down from the peak (don't look too close at my flaws:)

I signed up for a race series this year.  It consists of three trail races, all within about a month.  Upon completion of these races I get a super nice Marmot jacket with the triple trails competition logo embroidered on it.  I can't wait to get the jacket.  Yes, there are easier ways to get a jacket.  But this is way more fun.

This is the first summer I've done this much trail running.  The more I do it, the more I love it.  Its definitely a different beast though.  Five miles on a trail is a lot different than five miles on the road.  Harder, but way prettier and less pounding.  The first race of the series was a steeple chase.  We had to run eight miles to the top of Jupiter Peak, and back down.  I was most nervous for this race because I've never done anything like it before.  While I enjoy trail running, running uphill like that has never been easy for me.  I've been training hard though, and I think it paid off.  The race was super hard, but fun too.  At one point we were seriously climbing single file along the edge of a peak.  Even the fastest people weren't running here.  It was all anyone could do to put one foot in front of the other.  Beautiful though.  The way down was fun.  I finished about when I thought I would, so I was happy.  I was even happier the next day when I looked at the results and saw that I finished 16th out of almost 200 girls.  Wahoo!  I'm not trying to brag, really.  But I trained hard for this race and it wasn't easy.  So there you go.  First race done, Park City half marathon next week.  Bring it on!