TWENTY SIX point TWO

The Marathon

(belated post, but still cool)

I can't quite yet grasp that I ran an actual marathon.  

I understand I ran that far, but the fact I am now apart of the .5% of Americans is pretty unbelievable.

Yes, that's right, only about .5% of the US population has run a marathon before. Boom! 

That's pretty freaking cool. 

So there we were, Tim, Annie and I at the top of the Pine Valley mountains (I think), freezing our Nike's off!!   Holy crap, I wasn't prepared for that at all.  Thousands of runners huddled around multiple campfires wearing shorts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and.....garbage bags? 

Yes, garbage bags.  I assume it blocks the wind. Regardless, it reminds me 

of Silver Linings Playbook. 

At first, it was amazing to be around the fire and get a whiff of hot air.  Slowly but surely we began to get closer to the fire, which meant we went from ice cold to our legs burning off on multiple occasions.   Unfortunately Annie waited in a life-long line for the restrooms the whole time Tim and I were around the fire, trading positions whenever our shoes' rubber was about to melt off.

Compared to the cold, it hurt so good!

Annie (left) and me waiting for the race to start!

Clearly we are toasty warm.

We were probably in the first 1/3 or so of the racers and then we heard cheering and then people began moving.  Holy crap, it's started!

It was so strange.  The time was going by so quickly and I just knew I had only ran like four miles.  I was feeling really good, my music was good, and I was ready to go!  Come to find out, I was approaching an Aid Station and I just realized they had the mile number on them.  

I was at mile 11! 

Ps.: For those of you who don't know, 11 is my lucky number.  I shows up more times in my life than I can recall.  So I was stoked about that. It made me feel really good about the rest of the race. 

For awhile, I was running with the 4 hour pace group and was feeling good.  

Then what pumped me up later on was looking over on the side of the road and seeing my family!

Dad, Grandma P, Grandpa P, Aunt Jennifer, Dan and Haley!

Just in time too because the Veyo hill was just ahead, and it was kind of a beast. 

Good thing the Breaking Benjamin "Blow Me Away" came on as I was approaching that thing.  

(Look up that song.  The beginning is pretty humorous if you apply it to looking at an intimidating beast of a hill ready to take on that challenge)

After that hill, I started to feel really tight in my thighs. It was so annoying and they felt like they needed to be stretched.  So for the rest of the race I had to stop and stretch them quite a few times.  

It was so frustrating watching people pass me as I sat on the ground trying to get rid of the discomfort.


As miles went by I began to wonder, When am I going to see Mark and the Millers??
I conquered the Veyo hill and went a few miles past it, when I look over and see my family again!  I was so pumped every time I passed them.  Then, about 10 seconds later, I saw my husband and his awesome family.

Seeing Mark smile at me as I ran past, with the look of "I'm so proud of you" in his eyes was fantastic.

Clearly, I was doing great at this point!

I got to mile 20, and that is when things began to get tough.
My legs were still tight and un-stretchable, and that was the thing that held me back the most.
Not my endurance, but my freaking legs. Ugh.

My lungs kept telling me I could go for days.
My legs begged me to stop.
I was conflicted.

I trudged on! Grabbing a cup of water and an orange slice (or Gatorade 'Gu' crap) every four miles or so helped me a bit.
Side story: I accidentally grabbed a Mocha flavored 'Gu', and I absolutely hate the taste of anything coffee related.  I forced it down with everything I had, but it was disgusting.  
Lesson learned: stop running long enough to make sure to NOT grab Mocha.


Miles 23—26.2 were, shall we say...
HELL. 

My lack of true, dedicated training started to show.
Every mile felt like an eternity.
When I saw the sign "Mile 24" I almost cried.
There is NO way there is another 2.2 miles left. Lies!
It was tough.
No really.
Guys....I'm serious.

I had to stop and walk a few times those last few miles.
Strangers were cheering all of us runners on, (in the area I did terribly, and they all totally missed the first 20 miles when I dominated!  Typical...)


I finally see the FINISH LINE!

Holy crap.
Should I sprint?
No, it's too far to sprint. 
Okay I'll wait until I'm closer...
I think I'll sprint now!
So... change of plans. My legs won't move any faster. 
Guess I'm going to jog past the finish line. 
Yep, that seems alright to me!


I heard the announced say my name!
Though he did say "Here comes Shauna Bass!"
 (dude... it's Shaaannnaaahhh.  I'm too exhausted to care.)

I ran past the finish line, through the mister (which was heaven might I add), and met up with my family and chatted and took a few photos.
Tim and Annie finished awhile before me, so I decided to go find Mark and those two.

First Rule of Marathon Finishing: Do not stop moving. Walk around for awhile. Keep your legs going.

Guys... I stopped.
And let me tell you, my legs have never been so sore or near immovable in my entire life.

Oh well!
I found Mark, Tim and Annie
( AFTER I got a free rocket popsicle)  Freaking life saver that thing was.

WE DID IT!

Congratulatory husband hug

My legs were sore for days. 

It took a lot of effort to stand up, sit down, and walk down stairs. Not gonna lie, I needed assistance from time to time.
I ran it in 4:42:24 ;  not too shabby for my first.

But it was awesome and I am thinking about doing another one:]

Snow Pup

It snowed today. 

Lily has never seen snow before...

She loved it!

For some reason or another, my camera would not go into sport mode, and I have yet to master any sort of manual mode settings so photos with movement will be still and in focus. 

Unfortunately, the blur will have to do. 

 This is her, "I'm about to jump as high as I can," face. 

I am in love with this little gal. 

Because I love Lil as much as I do, I can't even imagine what I'll be like when I have a child. 

Seasonal Plans

Fall is my absolute, without a doubt, 100%, favorite time of the year.

Halloween

Cool, Crisp Air

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fall Fashion

Orange, Red and Yellow Leaves

Cozy Sweatshirt and Jackets

Crunchy Leaves

Thanksgiving

Mark and I met in the fall!

Quite honestly, fall has this fantastic feeling to it.

 Mark and I created a list of things we want to do this season!

Some are not "fall-ish," but Mark wants to do them anyway.

Haunted Houses

We need to go to every single haunted house we know of in Salt Lake City.

Corn mazes

Getting lost in a corn field is actually better than it sounds

Pumpkin Carving

We did this once last year and mine was a fail. 

We also never put a candle in them and we got them at a 

grocery store... not a pumpkin patch.

This year, as far as pumpkin carving goes, could be described as a "redemption year"

Bake Pumpkin-y Stuff!

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and bread!

Watch Scurry Movies

Tis the season for fearful eyes and ghost stories

Jazz Games

I hope our team improves every year.  Let's hope my wish will come true this time. 

Golfin

Mark's latest obsession. 

Find our engagement photo place

The lady had us follow her there and she wouldn't give us the address...

So it is our duty to hunt it down and take fun photos ourselves with our pup and reminisce!

Take Fall Photos

fall colors make for great photos

J-Dawgs

A Provo hotdog place.  We have been once almost a year ago and have never gone back because of how far away it is. So freaking good!!!

Jump in a pile of leaves

childish?.... never.

Watch football

Denver Broncos will take home the Super Bowl title this year!

Buy smell-good pine cones

Funny story.  Last year, Tim and Annie had just gotten married when we visited them in St. Geezy and we all went shopping.  We stopped by a craft store and they were selling this bag of pine cones that smelled amazing!  They bought some for their house, and Mark and I were ridiculously, obscenely jealous of them and their married life. 

(We had 6  months to go) 

 It is time for out own bag of pine cones!

Buy super awesome and ridiculous fall-time socks

warm, cozy socks are necessary

Make homemade chili

Chili on a chilly day warms the soul 

Make our own scarves

Neither of us know how to knit or make a scarf.  

Color-Me-Mine

We made plates there once and we love them!

Gotta go back and make another masterpiece

Run a marathon

I'll be running, and Mark will be cheering 

Play football!

My passes look like a dead duck.  I hope to improve 

Pumpkin-Pie Blizzards

These are seasonal.  AKA limited edition!

Your next cord biting, pillow snatching, cuddle buddy, scared of vacuum pup of a senator 

wishes you a Happy Fall!

Two Weeks

Holy Crap!

Great Scott!

Ermahgerd!

The St. George Maraton is 14 days away. 

Mixed feelings about this one. 

My training has gone....well.....let's just say I don't think I am as ready as I want to be. 

I had some serious motivation problems and I had the hardest time lacing up my shoes and 

leaving the house to run.  I don't know why.  It boggles my mind how hard it was.  

On the bright side, I know I can do it. 

I will do it.

One really awesome thing about it is that my family is coming down to watch and I have 

family already down there to support me, Annie and Tim!

Mark, Dad, Aunt Jennifer, Grandma, Grandpa and the in-laws!

It is going to be amazing to cross that finish line with so much support!

Serendipitous Days Off

Ever since getting my first full-time job, I feel like I live in that house.  Sometimes I wonder if I spend more time there than my own home!
Needless to say, when I found out that some how, some glorious way, I was scheduled 4 days off in a row while still getting in my 40 hours, I was ecstatic.

I looked at Mark and said, "We NEED to go somewhere!"

Then just like that, I text my family and told them that we should all go camping and boating in Flaming Gorge for those days.  Surprisingly enough, it worked out for my dad, aunt and grandparents so we got planning!

Flaming Gorge

Boating

The first day I got burned on my thighs pretty badly.
So I wasn't exactly in the mood for tubing the rest of the trip and having my legs slap
against the tube multiple times.
Which was a bummer, but we still had fun:]

Fishing

Mark and Lily attempting to catch fish

Unfortunately none of us caught any fish. 

The worms we had got heat stroke and died so they were unusable. 

Bummer.

S'mores

every single night

Or maybe that was just me...

Complete with peanut butter

Tis' divine my friends. 

Water does not equal Acid

Lily is unaware of this fact.

Funny Story: Mark and I were on the edge of the lake swimming around and we brought Lily with us. 

She would swim and then get onto the rocks and steer clear of the water. 

We tried to coax her in with beef jerky.  It worked only a little. 

After awhile of practicing swimming (which looked a lot more like Mark and me putting her in the water and her trying to escape), we decided to swim back to the boat. 

We put Lily in the water and she was right behind me bee lining it to the boat hard core...or so I thought. 

Apparently she was aiming for me.  All of the sudden I feel her climb onto my back and sit there refusing to go back in the lake. 

My dog hitched a ride on my back rather than swimming to the boat herself.

No words.

Running Around on the Beach

After being on the boat for a few hours, she was ready to run around.  

We let her loose and she went crazy.   

We played fetch with a ball that could float, but she would get so nervous when it bounced off the sand into the water. She would inch towards the ball making sure to not get in too far, and once the tide rolled in, she would jump backwards and chicken out.

It's a work in progress. 

Needing to lick her nose in mid-run apparently. 

More Fun

Mark cliff jumping

`

Loving Life

On July 11th Mark and I headed to the golf course so we could practice our putting and chipping.  Heaven knows we need work.

It was in the middle of the day, and there we were sweating, when suddenly I remembered it was 7/11...SEVEN ELEVEN.

FREE SLURPEE DAY!

It was so refreshing to slurp on one of these puppies on a hot day. 

We discovered there were two 7-Elevens on the way home...

You better believe we went for Round Two

Luckily, 7-Eleven had Piña Colada as one of their flavors!

Favorite. Flavor(and Drink). Ever. 

Is it weird I almost went for #3 on the way to work?

A few weeks ago, it was Mark's birthday!  If you guys remember, I informed you that Mark came from a family who was not very fond of cake.  I have known them for over a year now and I still don't get it!

Cake is the best. 

So for his birthday, this is what he had:

Happy Birthday Mark!

And last but not least, recently I have been making smoothies from fruit around the house, which happened to be strawberries and blueberries. 

I know what you're thinking..

"Did she drink that out of a....mason jar..?"

Dang straight I did. 

Life is treating us well my friends!

Training

Training for the St. George Marathon has had it's ups and downs

There are some days where I am ready to run and ready to give it my all. 

Ready to sweat, breathe heavily and feel the soreness in my legs. 

Ready to feel exhausted and succeed. 

Then there are the other days...

Which consist of me trying to find my way out of it and feeling zero motivation. 

"Well tomorrow is my break day but today I have to run...But what if my rest day is today and I run tomorrow? Yeah!  That sounds great!"

No. Not great.

In certain circumstances, that plan would actually make sense. 

For example, if I have work but I have to run errands that day and I am just not finding time, then that is a legitimate idea, at least in my opinion.

But if I am just being lazy for really no reason, then there is no excuse. 

BUT, my husband has been great with pushing me to do what is necessary.
A few weeks ago, he text me while at work and said "I have a surprise for you."

Apparently, while with his parents, he scouted out a running route for me!

I had to run 5 miles that day and I was excited for what he had in mind. 

So he drove me near a golf course and said "Stay on this road and I'll see you toward the end," and
proceeded to drive away leaving me in the dust. 

This is where he dropped me off at about 7:30am

I wish I would have taken more photos!  It was a beautiful golf course, gorgeous neighborhood and a view that overlooks Bountiful and the Great Salt Lake. 

I saw quite a few deer on the way as well!

I wasn't quite sure where it was going to end, which was the exciting part. 

I wasn't counting laps around the track (can I just say that when you're on the track having to say "45.......46.....47" it is so mentally frustrating and it sucks so bad!),  I was just running for the sake of running.

Then I came up on this:

If you'll notice, the Bountiful Temple is right there in the distance!

I had a feeling that would be the ending point. 

What a fun running path that was!