Perky Blonde...

In January, I signed up for the Lehi - Thanksgiving Point half marathon on April 26, 2013. That was about four months to train. I could totally be in great shape for it, right? After putting together a detailed running plan, all I had to do was stick to it and I'd be jogging through the finish line like a malnourished Kenyan marathoner.

Except I didn't stick to my plan. Two jobs and school leave very little free time. I did jog three-five miles at least once a week. But my diet? The usual take outs... sigh. So you'd probably understand my panic as I approached the half marathon start line. And then it was go time. Below is a summary of my "journey"

At mile 3, my legs wanted to give up

At mile 5, I was passed by an elderly couple

At mile 7, I finally stopped jogging and started walking (halfway up a hill mind you)

At mile 9, I was still walking

At mile 10, I started jogging and caught up with a perky blonde.

At mile 12, perky blonde and I are running/walking while trying to beat each other

At finish line, perky blonde passes me two steps away from the finish line

Considering my current physical state, this is the most ambitious physical activity I've attempted. And while I wanted to give up between mile 7 and 10, I'm glad I did it. Who knows - I might sign up for another one...  And if perky blonde is there again, it's on!

Picture: Lee, Paul and I recovering after receiving our finisher medals...

5-6-7-8

Now that the tri-ward single adult general conference dance is over, I'm excited to get some free time back. If you don't live in Happy Valley, this is a major semi-annual social event for three local Polynesian single adult wards. At each dance, all three wards perform numbers/skits related to an underlying theme. Not sure why but I volunteered to teach a step routine in line with this year's theme of Boot Camp.

Random Fact #1: I was on a step team in college (bet you didn't know that...)

Random Fact #2: I enjoy teaching (maybe you knew that...)

Given both facts, I thought this would be easy. We probably needed a couple three-hour long practices, right? Wrong. In total, we practiced 23 hours these last two weeks. I yelled, shushed and barked 5-6-7-8 a million times (seriously tho...) And then it was the night of the dance and my ward was up:

Sure, there are a bunch of mistakes... But the raw energy and unity is infectious (how about that random person jumping in at the end???) My ward tore it up! And while I'm happy to have my week nights back, I'll definitely miss counting off 5-6-7-8 to these knuckleheads. Salt-Lake Se-cond (stomp clap!)