It feels good to be home

or back I guess. I am so excited to finally sit down and write to you. I have been enjoying life so much lately. And I want to talk about it, because I don't have anyone to really listen to me except this computer screen, but I've really been trying to focus at school and not "waste" my time on the internet so I just have a bunch of pent up happiness. The thing that's really making me all moody is that the sun is out, and it's Friday afternoon. Let's see, what has happened since Mike's birthday? (by the way, he's 29. Yeah, he's not THAT old)

Alright the most exciting thing I've done is run in a race. It was a relay race, you may have heard of the Ragnar Relay Series. The Wasatch Back from Logan to Park City had some 650 teams in June, and me and some friends went to Las Vegas for their first down there. It was last minute, and a bit of a drive, but the opportunity presented itself and I needed to take it. The race was 171 miles, covered by 12 team members. We each ran 3 times. I ran 15 miles total, and I heard in the running world, if you run some distance within in a 24 hour period it "counts" as a single run. So I ran a half marathon? Cool. I ran 4.5 easy at 11 am on Friday, which was hotter than I'm used to, but I was fresh so I was ok. My next leg was 5.7 hard and I started around 9:30 pm at Lake Mead. It had been a long hot day, and I had a splitting headache so I was pretty nervous about running. On top of that, I never work out that late (or run hard twice in a day anyway) so I was definitely stressing. I was texting Bill (trainer/second father) and he reminded me I wasn't trying to win, just finish. So right before I started up a 6 mile hill, I pretended I was trail running with Bill and Jo and I just relaxed. I got so pumped. I ran so hard. It was by far one of my best runs period. The sun had gone down, which helped tremendously. I turned off my ipod and just listened to the silence out in the Nevada dessert. The dessert scenery is pretty ghetto compared to the mountains in Utah, but at night I didn't mind it at all.

I passed the slap bracelet to Karlie Anderson, and while she was running, Chelsea and I had the time of our lives. We had our glowsticks out and we danced on the roadside in the dark cheering on all the runners. I haven't had that much energy in a long time. It was a riot. I also did that to distract myself from my stomach. My friends say "you haven't run trails, until you go to the bathroom on the trail." I think it's safe to say I HAVE run trails. Our van passed off the baton to the second van around 2 am. We then made the drive to the next exchange where I would start my third run. Around 4:30 am my body had been purged of all liquids and solids.

I ran the last 4 and half hard miles on will power and stored fat. It was a pretty weak run, but I finished. And the sun hadn't come up yet so I was thanking the heavens for the blessing. I'm addicted now. I didn't run Monday or Tuesday, and on Tuesday I crashed hard. I was super depressed. I like to think I was having endorphin withdrawals (or something) (don't correct me Mike) (just kidding.)

This race made me realize how much I love taking that beating. I have always thought marathons are overrated, but I think I'm coming around. I might run one before I turn 25. We'll see.

My team

This is what happens after being up for 36 hours and running fifteen miles. I couldn't stop it...

1 last painful mile to go

Exchange 18 with my homegirl (time: 3 am)

Exchange 6 with Karlie. We are so hot right now.

Runners from the second car. You may recognize Sarah Standing...

And another one of me during a happy time of my life

The other thing I'm excited about is job hunting. It's weird, but I am so excited to be like "look I worked for 4 years, and I have a marketable skill. Want me to work for you? Sweeten the deal..." I'm not sure why I have suddenly decided that this is not the scariest thing in the whole world that could ever happen, but I'm glad, because I tend to stress waaaaaay too much. I wish I didn't, but such is life. That's why I run. Speaking of which, I can't wait for the next one.

This is me trying to blog. My roommate left me a bag of treats because she thinks I have been working hard every night on campus. This is just another reason I run. So I can eat. A lot.