First Triathlon

In September Jordan, David and I participated in our first triathlon. It was a lot of fun! It was very challenging too. We did the "I Can Tri" Triathlon in Sandy. It's a short little race with a 400 meter swim, 9 mile bike ride, and 5 kilometer run. We thought we would start out small, and work our way up.

I've been running for years, my first official race was a 5k during Strawberry Days with my dad and sister when I was about 11. I've done several half marathons, so a 5k is cake. I've been biking for a couple of years, and thoroughly enjoy 50-100 mile rides, so 9 miles didn't scare me at all.

But swimming... swimming is tough. As a child I would get sick with uti's whenever I went swimming, so swimming lessons were out. As I got older, I was able to go to the pool, but I never learned to really swim (as in, with my face in the water). I could swim enough to keep from drowning, and I was able to muscle through the requirements to become scuba certified, but it wasn't pretty. So I had to work really hard to prepare for the swim portion of the race.

I was really excited when Jordan and David agreed to do it with me. We decided to just stick together during the race to support each other. Unfortunately this meant that David and Jordan waited for me for at least a minute after the swim. I kind of fell apart in the pool. The pool I practiced in was 25 meters long, and the one I raced in was 50 meters long. After about 30 m on each lap when the edge was nowhere in sight, I would lose my rhythm. Plus there were about 100 people in the pool at a time, and the water was really moving. I was used to swimming in calm. I ended up doing about 3/4 of it on my back. Oh well, at least I finished, right? I'll do better next time.

Then it was time to bike. That was the easy part for me. Jordan borrowed a road bike from my friend Anna, which was nice, because his mountain bike is really heavy. Jordan kept up really well. David screamed ahead at that time because he figured we would overtake him during the run. The bike course went up a steep hill for about 2 miles, then was downhill for about 3, then we repeated it again.

Finally we started the run. Wow, it was hard! A 5k is cake, unless you've just finished swimming and biking. Plus there was a San Francisco style hill that we had to go up twice. It was really steep! Jordan and I caught up with David at the top of it the second time. That's when Jordan decided to leave us old folks in the dust. He's been running cross country, and he's fast! David was really tired, but I pushed him to finish strong. Every time he caught up to me I sped up a little bit, so pretty soon we were really running hard. Finally we were done! We felt a great sense of accomplishment to have run a triathlon! Jordan says it really impresses the girls.

I finished in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 10 seconds. 29th in my division, 69th out of 129 women. The things that really hurt my time were my transitions (where I finished almost last place ;) and my swim, both places where I can easily improve.

Jordan finished in 1 hour, 23 minutes, 14 seconds. 8th in his division, 71st out of 102 men. Jordan did really well on the run.

David finished in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 21 seconds. 14th in his division, 74th out of 102 men. He did the best on the bike, and he really would have beat both Jordan and I if he hadn't waited after the swim.

It was such a great experience! We're planning to do another next year.

Savior of the World

Kallai, Taliah and I had the amazing opportunity to participate in our Stake production of Savior of the World. Savior of the World is a play about the events leading up to Jesus Christ's birth, and then the events following his death.

Kallai played the part of Nathan, a shepherd boy, I played the part of Salome, one of Christ's followers, and Taliah played an angel.

When I heard about the auditions, I wanted to try out, but decided that my plate was full enough and I'd be crazy to add one more thing. My good friend Kelly was one of the directors and she convinced me that I should do it anyway. I talked Kallai and Taliah into joining me. What an experience!

I am not an actor, so my seven small lines were quite a challenge for me, but in the end I think I did alright. My favorite scene was the one Taliah was in. It was the manger scene. The shepherds go to see the baby Jesus, and after they leave, all the angel children go down to watch over the child. It gave me goosebumps every time I saw it.

Kallai was the big surprise. Who knew he had such a beautiful clear soprano voice!? And no fear at all! He was in several scenes, had lots of lines, and 3 singing solos, and he did a great job!

The whole thing was such a spiritual experience, and I made so many new friends, and it was so fun to do it with my kids. Thanks Kelly for not taking no for an answer.

The bright side

I've had a couple of rough months filled with more than a little stress. I haven't posted anything, because I've been too busy... and my mom always said "If you can't say anything nice...", but as I looked through my pictures of the last couple of months, I realized that I was focusing on the low points, and forgetting about the many high points. Yes we've had a couple of rough months, but we've also had a couple of wonderful months depending on how you look at things. I'm choosing to look at the bright side. Stay tuned to read about some of the fun things we've been up to.

Coming soon:

Savior of the World Play

Thanksgiving at the Beach

New cars!

Christmas Joy