Marathons and Yellowstone: Longest Post I have ever done!

I completed the full marathon in 3 hours 59 minutes!


Livee looking pretty. I know that this picture is
over exposed but I thought her eyes looked pretty.


Emmi looking out the window at the baby
buffalo. I had never seen babies but they were
awesome. They were brand new because we
could still see the umbilical cord.


Emmi and Livee had just woke up from a nap. They
love me when they just get up. This is at Old Faithful.


These pigs were so funny in one of the
shops in West Yellowstone.


Ryan and Livee in Yellowstone


Ryan and Livee put some makeup on me
and I thought it turned out awesome


Livee and her Prince


Emmi at the SLC marathon


I love old trees


This was a cool hot spot. Lots of cool colors.


Old Faithful blowing some steam off

We have been staying pretty busy. Ryan has been really busy doing his concrete lifting business. It is nice that he has so much free time for the business this year because he has been going to school year round for the past couple of years and only been able to do it for his few weeks off. It is fun to make money and not live off of student loans. Wait, we are saving all of our money for graduate school so I guess we are still pretty poor. But we love each other!
I ran the Salt Lake City marathon in April and it was a nightmare. I had trained so hard for five months and I was so ready. I will explain what happened. So, I was keeping my pace of like 8 to 9 min miles for the first 19 miles. My foot started to cramp around mile 16 but I kept going thinking I would see Ryan. Ryan and my dad were supposed to meet me at mile 6, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23 and the finish. Well, I still had not seen them by mile 20 and it was cramping up so bad so I had to stop and ask this lady if I could use her phone to call Ryan because I knew that if he rubbed it out I would be okay. I called him and he said he was coming. The lady asked if I wanted it to be taped and I said sure. So she called the paramedics to come. They were so slow! They got there and they were firemen, scared to even touch my foot to see what was wrong. I was so annoyed but they taped it up (my dad said it was the worst taping job he had ever seen, and he has seen a lot of taped feet!). Ryan was still not there so I just started to go again. My foot was still cramping so I had to walk. I was pissed to say the least. About 45 minutes after I had called Ryan (10 after I started again), he finally found me and rubbed my foot for a couple minutes. It felt so much better so I took off and finished. Not in good time but hey, it was my first marathon. My foot was really sore for 2 weeks. I iced it everyday and it is completely better now. By the way, my foot was hurt because the roads that are in the avenues of SLC are not flat and so one foot was higher that whole time and my foot was not used to that.
Eight weeks later I did the Utah Valley Marathon. This one I decided a good goal was to finish in under 4 hours. I did it! On the way up to the marathon we took buses because it was clear up the Provo canyon. Well I sat by a guy from Kenya and don't you worry, he won! He didn't talk much English but his plane had been delayed and he hadn't slept yet. I thought it was bad that I had got 3 hours of sleep (we had to load the buses at 3:30am). Anyway, it was pouring rain for the first 20 miles. But I paced myself and it was a beautiful run. It was so wet that my feet were squashing in my shoes. Ryan met me at around mile 20 and rode his bike with me the last bit. It was so much fun because usually you hit a wall around mile 20 and it gets really hard but I felt so good. Thanks to Gatorade, Hammer gel and caffeinated jelly beans! I was still keeping my pace of 9 min miles and I finished strong in 3:59. My GPS watch said that it was 26.42 miles. Not 26.2 and lots of other people were really mad about that but I didn't care because all I wanted was under 4 hours. My marathon goal for next summer is 3:40. I know I can do it because it is all a mind game.
Sorry if that was boring to everyone but I am writing this down for me.
We went to Yellowstone a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome! It was so green and I have never seen so much wildlife there. The baby buffalo were so cool. They were light brown and much more playful then the big ones. They run like dogs, look like goats and sound like pigs. Old Faithful was cool. It was the same as it always is, ha. We went to some little restaurant in West Yellowstone and after we had gotten our food the waitress came and told us that this older guy in the restaurant had asked her if she knew us. She said no, and he said he didn't know us either but he was paying for our meal and the tip! We felt so good inside. So much that I hear now is negative things about everything so I have been trying to be positive and not live in fear. There are bad people but I think most people are good people.