Mommy's new haircut

A first look at Candice's haircut. All of the highlights have now all grown out (so she says)

The Childrens Museum

While uncle Kris and Co. were up visiting we went to the children's museum on the way to the airport for a couple of hours. It is a giant "playground" of sorts for the kids, with kid sized toys, some science games, and kid size make believe stores and restaurants. It's fun to see them "imitate" how they see us do stuff. Trying to get Rachel to clean at home is like pulling teeth, but put her in a fake restaurant and all she wants to do is "pretend" clean. Go figure. I always tell her she can always play "my sims 3" in real life by cleaning up here actual room, but she says it's not as much fun.

Family Picture 2009

We normally take this around Thanksgiving or Christmas time, but this year Kris will be in Mexico doing an IronMan Triathalon during Thanksgiving and will be down with Jen's family for Christmas so we took the family picture in the summer. Grandpa is still around, but is missing from this years since he was in Texas. You can see how we've grown over the years here.

Minnesota Half Marathon

When I started running two years ago I couldn't even run 1 mile without walking, and had to bring my camel back with me (water on my back). I remember thinking that a 5k would be years out, a 10k would be impossible, and a marathon was inconceivable. I ended up doing my first 5k a few months after running back in 2007, I did 10k's for practice last year, and spent the last 3 months training for the half marathon (13.1 miles for those tracking at home). As I type this, it is still had to think that I finished it, but here is the play by play.

For the weeks leading up to it I did everything possible to make sure I didn't injure my self, especially my back. It's interesting to see how many times you can almost injure yourself when you really try not to.

I had felt great in training, running 10 miles as my longest run the Saturday before the race. The Monday and Wednesday before the race I was in Austin TX and ran twice and felt terrible. It might have had something to do with the fact that Austin is about 20 degrees warmer than Lakeville, but it didn't help build my confidence. It did help me decide to run with my camel back though, which I am extremely glad I did because I wouldn't have been able to finish with out it.

I started the race with Kris but we were going to run at different paces, so I started off slower trying to keep my own pace. It's always hard to run at your own pace when in a giant crowd of people, but my trusty Garmin GPS made sure I didn't go out to fast. The interesting thing about running is seeing all the different body types and running styles, especially when you see them running past you, or way out in front of you...

The first 6 miles went by pretty quickly (the first hour), but then the mental games start. I started to hit some of the uphills, and the "I'm not even half done yet" thoughts started to creep in, so the ability to turn off the mind became really important. Plus I was listening to General Conference on my iPOD for the whole race as it makes me think about stuff rather than think about running.

By mile 8 I stopped at the first water station and started walking for a minute. By now I was also in my "pack" - a group of runners that stayed pretty close together and kind of cheered each other along. It's funny how total strangers can really help each other along, and just a little encouragement can really provide a lot of strength.

By mile 10 my camel back was empty, I was drenched and was passing the kids and Candice at the spectator area. The kids ran out to give me high fives, and I dumped my sweaty camel back on Rachel :) .

The last 3 miles felt longer than the first 10. We actually passed the finish line at mile 10 and had a 3 mile loop to finish. Passing the finish line with 35 minutes to go wasn't easy. By this time I was so thirsty I couldn't drink enough, yet my stomach was so full it was actually sloshing when I ran. I saw Kris going the other way on the loop almost finishing and figured he was about 20 minutes ahead of me at that point (which is never good to think). The last mile I was able to actually pick up my pace and finish pretty strong, and Michael and Rachel ran up and met me and then ran the last 100 yards with me. That was fun to finish like that. By that time I was so exhausted though that I just needed to find a place to sit down and drink and drink and drink. It was a great experience, wasn't fun, and don't want to think about doing it again for a while, but I would recommend it to anyone!

Results are at
http://results.pttiming.com/raceresults/101163-Run_Half_AgeGroup.pdf

Uncle Kris comes to visit

My birthday each year always falls on Dell's mid year training seminar held in Austin TX. So I got to spend some time with them in Texas, and then fly home on my birthday. This year I had also signed up for my first half marathon and to help me along, uncle Kris and family flew up to visit and run it with me. Jen got to sit in my seat up in first class with Alex, while Kris, Addie and I were relegated to the back of the plane. Once back in Minnesota we took them to one of the lakes by our house to show off the nice summer weather here.


Here is our newest cousin "Alex Kaye".


Megan watching her cousins.


Rachel is super babysitter with Alex. She loves Rachel.


Megan and Addie playing in the lake.


Uncle Kris helping build the "perfect" sand castle.


The "perfect" sand castle.


Kris and me at the lake.


The cousins - Addie, Megan, Michael, Rachel, and Alex.