Finals week is over!

So one of the bad things about living in Provo, and especially about living near BYU is that everyone else finished their finals about two weeks ago, before I was even getting started!

This past week is what I like to call "Hell Week" because I had five final exams (there was only one of them that wasn't comprehensive), two papers, a presentation, and a project. Oh joy!! And of course, me being myself, I don't study until the night before for each test. It may seem crazy but the whole cramming session TOTALLY works for me. I have all the info in my head, and as soon as I take the test, I swear I can feel it disappear through my ears, making room for the info for the next days tests. It all paid off in the end because I ended up getting all A's by the end of finals week (except for one measly B, an 88%). Needless to say I am VERY happy!!

On Saturday I took a little time off studying and went for a fantastic hike up behind Mt Timp, which is quickly becoming my favorite mountain. The hike we went on was called Stewart Falls, and I am a huge fan! It was short yet just long enough for us to enjoy being outside.

Well, since I can now blog on my phone (although adding pictures on here makes no sense to me) I can see myself doing it more often, so hopefully I can keep track of all my adventures this summer! I do believe it will be a great one. :) tomorrow I drive down to my beloved Arizona for some much-needed family time and down time. So excited!!

Salt Lake City Half Marathon recap

This had to be one of the funnest race weekends I've ever had! On Friday afternoon I headed up to SLC to meet up with Annie, Shantelle (my roommate) and Brooke (friend from AZ). Me and Annie picked up our race stuff (shirts, number) at the expo then headed over to the brand spanking new City Creek Mall, which is right across the street from Temple Square. Beautiful mall, with awesome stores. It's an outdoor mall that has a roof that can close when it rains or snows. How cool is that? Anyway, we met Shantelle at Cheesecake Factory to carb load it up, and my was it the most delicious carbo-loading I have ever done! Haha. I even splurged and bought a slice of their famous cheesecake. It was heaven. Then we walked around the mall, we kept marveling at how nice it is!

Me and Brooke outside good old H&M

We stopped by temple square for a little bit, it is absolutely gorgeous in the spring time!! Love!

Love all these girls!

Annie (roommate from freshman year) and Shantelle (roommate from this year!)

 Well, onto the race recap:) I stayed with Annie and her husband and baby Jack at her grandparents house, just a couple minutes south of downtown SLC. We got a bit of a late start in the morning and made it to the starting line with barely ten minutes to spare! Needless to say, we jumped in the porter potty line, and I was actually still in the porter potty when they did te countdown. Haha! No biggie, there was so many people that it took me a couple minutes to even get to the starting line!

And then we were off! The first couple miles were downhill, which was so nice because it got me used to running so early in the morning. At first I was planning on shooting for a 2:15 race at least, since it was my first race in about 6 months and I didn't really think I was in that great of shape. But to my surprise, I fell into a pretty fast pace fairly easily, and so I decided to see what I was really capable of.

My first splits were pretty good, and in the middle of the race I was throwing out 9:45 and even 9:30 miles, which is UNHEARD of for me! There weren't any real hills until between miles 4 and 5, but they were pretty gradual and I kept pace. The course was so great, all through residential neighborhoods and even through Sugar House, where I threw out my fastest miles around miles 8 and 9. Mile 10 we ran a lap around one side of a huge park, and there were some people holding some hilarious signs (including a great "That's what she said" joke) that got my energy back up. Those last three miles were mine! By that time I was on pace for just under a 2:10, which meant a new personal record was within reach!

And then at mile 11.5, it appeared. The hill that went on for what felt like an entire mile. I'm sure the race directors were cracking up when they decided to take us up State Street, because that hill was AWFUL. I had to walk, I was so mad!! It was so long that I couldn't see where we were to turn off of State Street onto South Temple, not until I was getting closer did I see people veering towards Temple Square. Then I finally turned the corner, and there it was, only half a mile away! The finish line! Looking at my Garmin watch, I realized I would have to sprint for it if I wanted a new PR, so sprint for it I did.

 I crossed the finish line in 2:10:23, a measly FOUR SECONDS from beating my time at the Halloween Half, which was a big deal for me since the Halloween Half is a much faster course. But I was so happy with it!! Best race yet!

Picture time--- it says "proof" in big letters because these are screen shots from off of my phone...yes, I did steal the pictures. Whatever. They charge too much anyway.

This was at mile 10 in the park, the camera guys were trying to get us to look happy and celebrate, so I did:)

Sights set on the finish line.

Brooke's mom caught a picture of me sprinting by!

Annie freaking rocked this race, got a 1:49, and she gave birth in November!! Super woman!!

Shantelle came out to watch us, she's basically the best roommate ever!

Oh hey there, Elder D. Todd Christoffersen. Just chilling at the finish line in his Apostle attire!  (Yes, we are those people who take pictures with Apostles. Don't judge.)

Anyway, this race taught me a lot about myself, namely, that I can push myself more than I thought. it made me so excited for the Utah Valley Half on June 9th, that race will be rocked, mark my words!! Now, it is finals week and then home for almost two weeks!! CANNOT WAIT.

100th Post!

The fact that it's taken me this long to get to 100 posts is a little pathetic, I mean I've had this blog since I started running back in 2009, three long years ago! My life has changed plenty since then. Most of my friends are married (no surprise there), I am now living in Provo (NEVER in my life did I think that would happen!), I'm studying physical therapy (a far cry from my original plan of animal science), and I've ran two full and two half marathons, with a smattering of 10K's, 5K's, and a Ragnar Relay.

I'm pretty happy with how my life has turned out so far. I absolutely love school and all the things that I am learning just makes me super excited to be working as a physical therapist assistant in just a year from now (hopefully!!). For now, I'm just running my little heart out, flirting with every man I can, and learning to love Utah as best i can. But let's get real, Arizona is the greatest place in the world and I count down the days every time I get to go back.

In other news, I have a theory about the Hunger Games movie. If you haven't seen it yet, please get off the computer and go see it NOW because it was freaking amazing. It was one of the best book-to-movie that I have ever seen. I got tickets last minute to the midnight showing and I was so glad I did! Anyway, my theory: so, by making the Hunger Games into a movie, the makers of the movie basically turn us into the citizens of the Capitol. Which means that the way we react the the violence in the movie, the way we react to seeing children kill children, shows what kind of people we are. Are we really like the citizens of the Capitol, who relish in seeing the violence unfold, or are we purely disgusted and quite a bit disturbed by what we see on the screen? I was definitely part of the latter group, I was flinching and gasping every time a tribute was killed, even if it was a tribute who you wanted to hate because they loved to kill, such as Clove or Cato. And yes, a tear was shed when Rue was killed, even though I knew it was coming. She was just the cutest thing ever. Now, there were people in my theater who were cheering at every death and who were acting just as I would imagine the Capitol citizens would act while they watched the Hunger Games on television. It was very interesting to see.

There was someone on facebook who posted that they weren't going to see the Hunger Games because they didn't condone violence. Okay, first of all, they obviously didn't read the book, because in the book you are so disgusted at what is happening to these kids, and the violence isn't at all glorified. In the movie, it wasn't like a normal action movie where the violence is totally glorified and there's blood and gore everywhere. Yes, the violence was there, but it was pretty muted and I thought the other themes of the movie stood out more. So basically what I'm getting at is if you didn't see the movie because you don't "condone violence" then I feel that's pretty self-righteous. Because obviously the only reason I saw the movie was I just couldn't wait to see kids kill each other. Riiiiight......

Anyway, rant over and the next two weeks are going to be crazy so let's hope I make it out alive! Then I have a weekend in Moab and then a short week in Arizona before I start 12 weeks of a crazy, insane school schedule! Wish me luck!!