Category Archives: friends

the end

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If you are visiting from Runners’ Lounge, just check out the training segment (video number three). This is a quick (and funny) what not to do when training for your distance races. If you are preparing for your first long race and want a little knowledge about what it’s like (if you are slow and under trained), you can check out my other videos on this post and this post.

For the rest of you, just a warning before watching. All of these are kind of offensive. I sing in two of them (and it’s awful, out of breath, out of tune singing) and swear in one, and there’s a crazy old guy dancing in another. If you don’t want to watch them, that’s okay. They give even me nightmares. Although, the “training” video is pretty funny.

My personal favorite…the training segment. (Not for young ears…don’t tell my dad). My other favorite thing is the lame-o behind us at the end, hoping for 10 seconds of fame. Where? I don’t know. It’s not like my blog is going to make her famous. I have never understood people like that.

This is just some nut dancing at the end of the race. It’s kind of long and, at first, you can’t see him. But I still wanted to share.

Here we all are, the morning after; exhausted from both the race and our crazy hike after it (yes…we thought hiking to Delicate Arch would be a good idea).

Anne’s parents are my favorite. Seriously. They were fabulous for the marathon (the full in St. George) and it was so fun to drive up to Anne’s house and see this sign in the window! Thank you! Thank you!

And with that, I end my half-marathon posts (I still have some Moab stuff). I hope you have enjoyed the video journey of an under trained runner. If this has not convinced you to train before attempting distance races, I’m not sure what would. Although, hopefully, you can tell that I was enjoying myself.

the half marathon of death

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Okay, not really. Nobody died (at least, not that I know of). I thought I was going to a few times, but I didn’t. In an effort to document what it’s like to struggle through a half marathon having done a horrible job training, here is (after the pictures) the first in a series of videos (they take forever to upload and use lots of memory, so I’ll post a couple at a time). This is the beginning of the race, where I introduce “the band” and the buses. I hope all of all of you readers realize how much I love you, because these videos are not a good look for me (early morning, no makeup, sweating buckets, etc.), but I decided to post them anyway.
This is me, showing off my cute “frozen” look. The gloves are a new addition to the running wardrobe, and a welcomed addition they were. It was freezing!

Our fabulous feet! Can you name them?

And the band (clockwise from top left), Christy, Anne, me, and Jen . For a spoken intro, watch the videos.

I just wish that you could hear the guys behind me. They talked the entire way about what time they were hoping for on the race, how cool they were, etc. It was fantastic!
You know I love you when I publish a video where the frame that shows looks like this.

My favorite video moment is still to come, where I give advice on how to train for your next half marathon. Good times. Good, good times.

running with friends

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So, I have lots to post about from this weekend, but since I would also like the pictures to go along with the post (actually, the pictures will probably be the post), it will have to wait. What I do want to write about was my running this weekend. First of all, I now officially hate snow in the winter. California was an ideal place to grow up. It cooled off in the winter, but to get to snow, we had to drive a few hours. Perfect.

When I knew I would be headed to Vegas this weekend, I got in touch with Cropstar. She is one of the three women with whom I will be running the Canyonlands Half Marathon in less than three weeks (in case you are wondering, I will probably die running this half marathon). She graciously drove to meet me up in my brother’s neck of the woods (or desert, as it were) and off we went. Can I just say how fabulous it was to be running outside at 7:30 am in a tank top? It was fabulous! A little chilly to start, but I warmed right up.

Sadly, I think my nano battery is dying, so I had no music and no Nike+. Happily, I had Cropstar to keep my company and her Nike+ to tell us how slow fast we were running. She was a champ and let me run as slow as needed. We ran a total of 6.28 miles. The farthest run I’ve done all winter. While it was not my fastest 6 miles ever, it did make me feel a little better about running 13.1 in three weeks (a little).

On Monday, I decided to try running without music. I just wanted to see what it would be like to run without any idea of how long (distance or time) I had been going. I was inspired by my friends over at Runners’ Lounge.

Inspiration aside, it was awful. It was 30 minutes (which I knew when I got back to J’s) of me listening to myself breathe, thinking about how miserable I was. I can now say that I’ve tried it and so I feel completely justified in never doing it again. Sure, if there’s someone there to talk to, I’ll leave one headphone out…and I even enjoyed my run with Cropstar without music. But no music and no company = no running for me.

brie en croute with caramel and walnuts

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(I also threw in some dried cranberries)

  • 1 8 oz. round brie cheese
  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup chopped toasted walnuts (I forgot to toast the walnuts…and it was still delicious)
  • ¼ cup dried cranberries (optional)
  • 1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp of water

Thaw out the puff pastry dough according to package instructions. When thawed, put on lightly floured surface, unfold the dough, and roll it out. It should be about two inches longer and wider, both.

Cut brie in half horizontally. Put the bottom half in the center of the puff pastry.

Spread brown sugar, walnuts, and cranberries on the brie half, and place the other brie half on top.

Trim the pastry dough so that there is a 4-inch border around the brie.

Brush edges of pastry with the egg wash and fold pastry around the brie, pressing the edges together at the top.

If you want, cut shapes into the excess pastry dough and use them to decorate the outside of the brie.

Brush egg wash over the outside of the pastry.

Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 400 F for 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden.

Serve warm with crackers and pear slices.

The rest of these pictures are from the engagement party Sarah and I threw for Richard and Bre on Saturday night. We decided to go with a very simple, but oh so elegant, spread of various cheeses and carbohydrate media with which to eat the cheese, a fruit platter, and red velvet cupcakes.


The reddish glob at the bottom of this picture is actually delicious and very simple. Just take an 8 oz. pkg. of cream cheese and cover it in the pepper jelly of your choice. I prefer medium heat, as opposed to mild, since the dairy of the cheese tempers the heat of the peppers.

a little mika love

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The Mika concert was amazing. After spending over TWO HOURS in line in the freezing cold, we discovered that the reason the doors opened at 8 pm, rather than the 6 o’clock time we had been told, was that Mika’s instruments and costumes were not in Salt Lake, but somewhere on the road. Happily, Mika decided to play the show anyway, despite his insurance company’s recommendation to cancel and it was the MOST AMAZINGLY, INCREDIBLY FUN concert I have ever been to. The video above is the Grace Kelly (I started filming a little into the song) and at the end is Mika’s fabulous welcome (oh, and he’s British and a musician, so he swears).

I got a few songs on video. The best song, without a doubt, was Lollipop (a song I didn’t get on video). He went right into it from another song (a song whose tempo is quite a bit faster than Lollipop’s) and he was all about audience participation. Sadly, he didn’t play Big Girl (You Are Beautiful), but other than that, I can honestly say that I have never been so pleasantly surprised in my life.

Before he came out to play, Sarah said, “This better be an amazing show after standing in line for two hours just to get in the door.” Neither one of us was disappointed at all. And, due to the delay and lack of the “real show”, we were all refunded $10, making it that much better. Hopefully Sarah will mention all of the zoobies that were in line with us. All I can say is that if you haven’t experienced life in Utah, you just can’t know what you are missing.