Ragnar Relay

Last weekend Jake and I ran the Ragnar Relay. It was so fun. I love it. Seriously one of my favorite races to do. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I'll give you the low down. You get in teams of twelve and run 180 miles from Logan to Park City. Each person runs three legs varying from 3-9 miles each leg. You're split into two vans and each person in your van does one leg and then you get a break while the other van goes. It takes most people over 24 hours, so you can imagine that you're pretty tired when you're done. Run, sleep, eat, repeat. That's pretty much what you do. Although the sleep part is minimal.

Last year we ran the race with all of my sisters. I'm so glad we did it because I have so many good memories from it. Linz was definitely on my mind during the race. This year we ran it with some old friends, the Shipleys. Our team was called Ship's Wreck. We finished in the top 15% overall and fourth in the corporate division. Great times were had by all. I totally plan on doing it again next year.

VikingMan 1/2 Ironman

Well, this is Jake writing this one because I don't have my own blog and I wanted to write this entry...See the video before if you don't want to read the blog. (The music is a song entitled "Dream Big" by Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band.)

Ever since I was in high school, I've had a goal to complete a long distance triathlon. This past weekend I accomplished one of my goals in this by completing the VikingMan 1/2 IronMan in Idaho.

One of the biggest steps in triathlon is racing the 1/2 Ironman distance. It is the longest distance other than the full Ironman that is competitively raced in triathlon. The race begins with a 1.2 mile swim in an open body of water. Upon exiting the water you immediately head for your bike and ride a 56 mile bike ride (or in this case it was almost 57). After finishing the bike you get off and change your shoes to run a 1/2 marathon length of 13.1 miles.

The road to the race...The road to even get to this race can be grueling to say the least. Living in Midway with a race in June you can only imagine the challenge the winters bring. This winter brought 5 feet of snow to the yard (that didn't melt until about 3 or 4 weeks ago) along with -20 degree F temperatures. Living behind Timp also brings challenges because you don't get much daylight in the winters either. The training process begins years before this race as you take time to build up by doing smaller races and a lot of building muscles and bones to avoid long term damages to your body and about 6 months before the race you start your full race specific training, putting my timing right in the middle of 2 foot snowstorms and utter darkness.

Typical training days included running through blizzard conditions wearing mountaineering head socks, two layers of tights, two and sometimes three coats, thick gloves, and listening to lots to music just to keep your mind off the freezing cold temperatures. Biking was long and tedious as a lot of it was on an indoor fluid trainer. Swimming was in abundance during the winter at the local pool and consisted of many workouts nearing 2 mile swims about two or three times a week.

I was more than excited for the temperatures to start rising and be able to ride and run without 5 layers of clothing. Needless to say, it still is only getting up to about 60 degrees most days and has been raining nearly every other day. That still left time in the dry days to get out on my bike though.

The Race...June 7th, 2008 was the date that was set for the VikingMan 1/2 Ironman Triathlon in Burley , Idaho. The race start was only about 35 degrees air temperature. The water temperature was only 58 degrees (mandatory wetsuit on this race). The wind was probably about 25 mph. For the start of the swim, I had to slide down a really steep bank into the water from a vacant lot between two houses. Once you're in, you're in and there no turning back!

The Swim...the swim was a brutal swim with white caps all around you. When I would look up, I got pretty disoriented because the waves were so large in all directions and if you tried to breathe you were just breathing in the water. I tried to keep my head down and that seemed to be the best strategy...like Dora in Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" After a while I seemed to get in a rhythm and it really felt pretty good.

The Bike...Ahhh, the incredible bike ride. The most ugly ride of all time!!!! The winds were absolutely incredible. The first 23 miles of the ride were a headwind that would nearly stop you in place at times. I'm guessing 25-30 mpg right in your face and just a tiny bit uphill. Most everybody was rolling at only around 10 mph because it was so brutal. (One thing about triathlon is that you can't draft or you get penalized 4 minutes the first time, 8 minutes the second time, and a DQ for the third.) Taking 2 hours to go the distance I'd planned on only taking about 1:20 was pretty emotionally taxing. I noticed I wasn't the only one that didn't plan to be on the bike that long as towards the end, most of us were out of our nutrition (taking food with us on the bikes). I can now say that I understand when other long distance triathletes say you go from an emotional high to low and back as at one point on the ride I actually said out loud to myself that I was totally high. 10 minutes later I thought I could totally die! The ride back was really nice in places though as it was pretty fast. Every time you had to hit the cross or head winds it was a really drainer on the energy though.

The run...Wow! I'm not feeling too bad right now! I think I may actually finish this race! That was easy to think for the first 7 miles or so. After that first loop I realized I had yet another loop to complete at the other end and the first part of that loop was straight uphill on gravel.
All in all, I ran until about mile 7 and hadn't stopped at any aid stations for anything longer than to grab water. From mile 7 to mile 13.1 it was a complete mental game. Anybody who has done this length of race can attest to that. You are ready to be done at that point. Your stomach says so, your legs say so, your head says so. Then you just start ticking off a block at a time. Then you start ticking off a few steps at a time. Then you get to mile 13 and realize you have enough in the tank to run hard to the finish from somewhere deep inside of you!

All in all, it was a great experience! I smiled most of the way and just tried to enjoy the race. Will I do it again? Laura says no but I think so and I think I'll still plan for the even bigger eventual goal of full IM. Lessons from this race...eat better for several months prior to the race for optimum nutrition and body weight, lift weights for better strength into the wind, train more!

Good luck to anybody out there trying this race distance in the future and thank you to all the volunteers and race staff that made this race possible. Most of all, thanks to my family for letting me do this as it takes a ton of time away from family.

Much Needed R&R

My family got to go to St. George over the weekend for some much needed time away. Alicia had some friends who were super nice to let us use their house. We hiked, ate, swam, ate, played games, ate, and then ate some more. Who says food doesn't offer comfort? Even with not the greatest weather, we had a great time and I wish we were still there. These are the kind of memories I like: happy fun ones. I know Linz was proud of us for having some good ol' Spjute Family fun.

After the trials come the blessings

I title this post as such to strengthen my faith. I know this is true, and as a family we've seen many blessings, but that doesn't mean it isn't still hard. We have definitely been blessed in the midst of our trial. The acts of kindness from family and friends are pushing us through this experience. A big thank you to all of you for your kind words and gestures. They truly mean a lot.

The funeral was wonderful (if you can use such a word to describe a funeral). It felt like we were surrounded by angels. A local newspaper wrote a pretty good article summarizing the funeral if you want to take a look.

So now I'm back home doing normal things, but life isn't normal. It's different. I'm not quite sure how to go about my every day tasks with a hole in my heart. I suppose I just plug along in hopes that some day it will get better. I know it will. Knowing that Linz is happy is a huge comfort. Knowing that she wants me to be happy pushes me forward. So I'll keep plugging along up this mountain in hopes that I can someday reach the summit and enjoy the view with Linz.

Lindsey Spjute

Lindsey's the second one in on the left.

I got one of those calls last night that everyone dreads. My sister Lindsey has been serving in the England, Birmingham mission. Early this morning she went running with her companion and collapsed. Her companion did CPR, but it didn't work. My sister passed away.

I feel like my heart is broken in a million pieces. I thought maybe writing about her would help.

Lindsey was honestly and truly one of the greatest people I've ever known. I keep thinking I'm grateful we had her for as long as we did, but why did He have to take her so soon? She's one of those people who made everyone feel important. I'm sure everyone who knew her felt like her best friend. She had a love for life that was contagious. She was always happy and always willing to serve. She seemed to always befriend those who other people didn't like as much. People were just drawn to her.

Lindsey was my outdoor adventure partner. She was a natural athlete and loved to be outside camping, hiking, snowboarding, etc. I was so looking forward to doing all of that with her when she got home. I know the first time we go out on our boat this year I'll cry because she loved doing that with us. She hasn't been on her mission that long, but I was already counting down to when I could do that with her again.

I'm so grateful for the memories we made together and so sad for the ones we lost. Just having her on a mission has been hard on our family as she has left a big hole. I think God sent her on a mission so that we would be a little used to her being gone. I'm grateful that she died doing what she loved. She was such a good missionary. I know she still is. I can't imagine going through this without the gospel and the knowledge that we'll see her again. Now I need to live better so I can be where I know she is. I keep thinking that the one thing she would love for us to do in her honor is share the gospel. So that's my invitation to all of you. In memory and honor of my sister, talk to someone about what you believe. Tell your friends how it is we can keep functioning when things like this happen. Tell them about the Savior and his plan of salvation.

Night Shifts and Kids

For those of you who don't know, I just took a position as an RN at the Heber Valley hospital. I was just kind of looking at available nursing jobs one day and saw this one. I only have to work one shift a week and it's really good money. I don't want to leave the kids even one day a week because it's just hard on them (these are 12 hour shifts), but I thought if I did night shifts then they wouldn't really even know I was gone.

This month has been crazy with all of the training. They're making me train two shifts/week during the day for a month. My poor kids have had to deal with a lot the last couple of weeks. I would never keep doing it if it was always this way, but I just keep looking ahead to May when I start just doing one shift/week.

So, Tuesday was my first night shift in like six years. The concept of working nights so I can be home with my kids is great, but I had no idea if I would really be able to handle it. Since I got married I haven't been to bed after 11:00. Jake goes to bed early, so I do too. So the idea of staying awake all night was a big change. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours Tuesday afternoon (Kate slept and Zack watched Dora), got the kids fed, and then headed in to work. It actually went pretty well. I was tired, but not so much that I couldn't function. When I got home I was feeling pretty good so I took care of the kids, cleaned the floor, and jumped in the shower so I could take the kids to story time at the library. I was doing great until I sat down at the library, then I started to die. So as soon as we got home I took a quick hour nap while the kids ran around crazy and then I was good to go.

The moral of this long story is that I think I'll be able to handle night shifts. I'm excited to get my brain working again and to be able to get a break from the kids without having to leave them with a babysitter. The extra spending money is also an added bonus. I'm definitely grateful for a degree that allows me to work such crazy hours and still be home with the kids.

Easter Fun

I'm finally getting around to Easter. If I don't do it now it will never happen. Easter was good, somewhat crazy really. On Saturday we took the kids to the Heber city easter egg hunt. It was basically 30 minutes of chaos for 30 seconds of frenzied bliss. I'm sure you all know what I mean. At least the kids were happy with their candy.

Sunday was good, but not exactly what I was hoping for. The kids were both unusually unhappy that day. We stayed home, so of course I had to make a nice easter meal. It turned out well, but stressed me out more than I had hoped. I felt a bit like Martha (or is it Mary?). Next year we'll stick to hamburgers.

Church was good, but I was a little preoccupied. Zack has had long terms issues with diarrhea (skip over this if you don't want to hear more). Well, right during the sacrament, when it was really quiet, he filled his pants and did it quite loudly. Then, of course, he had to tell me that he pooed his pants, again, quite loudly. Luckily he was wearing a pull-up. I was so embarrassed that I seriously considered not returning to the chapel. Zack solved that decision for me when he pulled open the door and ran inside. I followed him and just tried not to make eye contact with anyone.

Anyway, the day ended well. Let's just say I learned what not to do this year. Here's to a lifetime of better easters!