Now I know what a hamster feels like....

I have been in one of these!!!! On Wednesday I had a slightly horrible day, it was just one of those days where nothing is wrong, and yet everything is wrong...ya know? Well, to take my mind off the crappy day and to cheer myself up, I went for a run to Freestone Park and back (even though I told myself no more running until official training in May, but whatever. It was an emergency). So anyway, I'm running along the gravel path and way up ahead I see three people rolling this huge white thing across the path, right by Freestone. So I'm thinkin like what the hey? So I get to where they are a couple minutes later and I see that it is a huge hamster ball, just like the one in the picture. It was that big, too! So I ask them (they seemed about my age) where they got it and they got it from New Zealand! Then the girl asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in it, of course I said yes!! So I took off my watch and my shoes, because they put water in it so that you don't get rubber burns. They held it while I got a running start to jump through the tube that was just big enough for a person to squeeze through. Took me a couple tries, but I finally got in and noticed that there was straps inside so you could strap yourself in. Well, one of the guys said that it is much funner without the straps, then he pointed me in the right direction and said RUN! Welp, I started running for about ten steps, then lost my balance, almost drowned in the water that was on the bottom, and then it started going really fast! Everything was a blur, only because it was almost dark and I couldn't really see anything around me. All I know is that when I got to the bottom it stopped and I had a huge wedgie from sliding around! It was a blast. I kind of wanted to run around in it, but it was getting dark and I needed to get home, and I didn't want to take up their time by playing with it. Seriously though, it was sooooo much fun!

I wonder how much they cost?

ah-maze-ing Sat-ur-day

Saturday morning- me and Chels did Pat's Run! Although I will admit that Chelsie beat me, and I didn't do as good as I thought I was going to- it's all about having fun though, right? Chelsie did it in about 40 minutes, while I came behind at 45 minutes. I kind of wish we had people at the end taking pictures of us, but we made my mom take a couple when we got home!

Aren't we so hard core? Ha ha. The reason I think I didn't do so swell is I ate a Clif Bar about an hour and a half before, and since I haven't eaten one in a long while, and they are kind of heavy and filling, my stomach freaked out on me and I had stomach cramps for most of it. I still had a blast though, running with 20,000 people really makes it a great experience! I took it easy for the first half, although I took it a little too slow, because I was three minutes behind my goal time at mile three. The last 2.2 miles I tried to speed it up. I would look ahead, spot a "victim", and attempt to pass that person. Then, I would pick a new victim. This is actually a fun strategy only because I am slightly competitive when it comes to these things, and picking out different people to pass was pretty entertaining! All in all, it was the biggest event so far (people-wise) and I had so much fun. Good job Chelsie on beating me!

Then, I had about three hours to shower up and get ready for our big kayaking trip. We had twenty people, and we were lucky to get 18 kayaks and a canoe. It was so much fun! I love just chillaxing on the kayak on the slow parts, and chatting with people throughout the whole thing. Braden was a punk and jumped on my kayak and completely sank me! Now, first of all. I hate the river water. Hate it. But I hate the river bottom even more. Nasty algae and moss and fish and dead bodies....NASTY. So of course I screamed bloody murder as my kayak sunk from under me. It tipped over, and I hauled myself on top of it, trying my hardest not to touch the nasty bottom. I saved my shoes and my paddles though! Then I commanded the people nearby to drag me to shore. Everyone was laughing pretty hard, and I definitely was too! I don't get mad about things like that, I just laugh along with everyone else. After Julie's friend Isaac was nice enough to help me empty my kayak of water, we were on our way again. Overall, it had to be one of the funnest kayaking trips ever, only because there were so many people!

Needless to say, i was pretty exhausted after waking up at 5 for the morning's event and then kayaking, but I still had to go home, take a quickie shower, then go to the benefit concert at Gilbert High. The concert was for the family in Gilbert who were in a small plane crash last August, and the mom has horrible burns over most of her body. She has extensive medical bills, so the concert was to raise money towards that. There were so many awesome performers, including Jordan Bluth, Debbie West Coon, and......Brooke White! Now, I wasn't exactly a huge fan of hers on American Idol, I just thought she was alright. But after seeing her perform four songs live, and seeing her hilarious personality (the girl is a spaz!), she has grown on me. Her voice was so much better last night than it was on AI, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole entire night. After that, I went home and crashed at like 10:30...first time in forever that I have been to bed that early!

Well, I hope everyone had as amazing a weekend as I did... Sunday has been awesome too!

Through rain, sleet, or snow...

NOT! Ha ha. This morning I drove to Chelsie's house to do our last long run before Pat's Run next week. It was raining hard when I left my house, but I figured it wouldn't be too bad at Chelsie's. I forgot to account for the freezing coldness of the rain! We set out of her house, determined to run our four miles, but before we had gone 50 yards decided it wasn't worth it. We didn't much feel like getting hypothermic and wet, so we ran to the end of her street and back. Which is probably about an eighth of a mile or so. Ha ha! We are such wimps! But really, it was freezing. So, we set to work in Chelsie's living room doing random strength training workouts in my Running for Mortals book. This turned out to be a decent workout, at least my sore legs tell me so!

Then, later in the morning, the rain stopped. This is what I was waiting for! I set out at around 1 to finish my goal of four miles. It was definitely challenging, since my legs were already tired from that morning, not to mention they were cold and stiff! There a zillion puddles that I had to dodge on the gravel trail, which meant that I got my shoes a little muddy and I also had to run on the grass for a little bit. All in all, it was a slow but meaningful run, and I did a lot of thinking too, which was nice. I came up with my own mantra, kinda like my personal motto. I realized that I haven't run with my iPod for awhile, because I noticed that I run slower and I don't focus on form, foot turnover, or anything when I listen to music. So, my new motto is:

I don't need an iPod to enjoy a run. The steady pounding of my feet is music enough.

Inspirational, eh? Well, at least it is to me! I love listening to my own footsteps and my own breathing as they create perfect rhythm with each other. It is kind of like a song. I love the feeling of empowerment when I realize that I am two miles from my home, and I managed to get there under my own willpower and by my own two feet. It is an awesome feeling when you realize the power that you have stored up inside you, just waiting to get out and propel you toward your goal.

Wow, I'm feeling pretty poetic!

I am so looking forward to Pat's Run next week! It's going to be such an experience, so much emotion and willpower and just all around love, all in one place. It's like you are surrounded by thousands of your closest friends. That's why I love these running events so much!

The week of amazing-ness....

So this week actually went really good. I got a new Runner's World issue, complete with my own training log and runner's guide. And I got my Running for Mortals book that I ordered on Amazon two weeks ago. I love getting stuff in the mail! Haha. Also, I ran with Chelsie a couple times this week, which is always fun. We ran 3 miles on Saturday, which is actually the farthest I've ran since January, so props to me! Ha ha. Also, I was crazy enough to want to do an interval workout on Wednesday. I say want because an interval workout is a speed workout that you do on a track, and it is pretty difficult for those like me who have poor running form and are not very fast. At all. So, what me and Julie did is we ran one lap around the track at max speed, took a recovery walk lap, then did it again. All in all, we did four running laps with the cool down laps in between. It was horrible. But I would definitely do it again. The sense of empowerment I got from this workout was so uplifting! This week I want to do 8x200, which is just half a lap, but you have less recovery time and you are running 8 times instead of 4. So, still a big challenge!

This week for one of my runs, I think I just want to explore. I'm going out to Chelsie's house twice this week, since I made her come out twice this week to mine. I think we'll just take an easy 3 and a half miler or so, and just explore her neighborhood and find good places to run. Sounds like fun to me, mostly because I usually have a set place in mind that I want to run to. This will be nice to just let loose and go.

This week I made some big improvements on my running form. Julie taught me some good stuff on Wednesday! I am now trying to use my larger leg muscles like quads, hamstrings, and gluts more in order to give my calves and shins a rest. My shins take some serious beating every time I run, so I'm hoping this helps a bit! Something about the way I run is making my shins hurt a lot, but even making improvements just this week has helped already. I feel like my strides are longer, but I'm still using about the same amount of energy. So, basically I'm being more efficient- going farther and faster, but not using more energy than I was before. It's great!

I'm missing the rec center! Since I'm no longer injured (as badly), I can now do my regular running workouts, instead of spending stupid amounts of time on the bike machine (which I hated, by the way. You don't go anywhere!). So now, I don't need the rec center. I might pick it back up in the summer when I might be able to pay for it myself or something, but right now I'm just gonna have to do ab work and pushups at home.

That's probably why running is such a wonderful sport. You don't need a gym or a special field to do it. You just walk out your front door and GO. All you need is a decent pair of running shoes. Now, when you want to start doing races, that's when it gets expensive! I spent 70 bucks this week when I registered for the St. George Marathon, but the good news is, is that if I don't get in then I get 65 bucks back. So, it's not a complete loss if I don't make it into this marathon. Although I would still be sorely disappointed!

Conference!! I LOVE General Conference. Although I need to rewatch Elder Oak's talk because I missed half of it while outside picking all the lemons. My dad said it was good, though. Can't wait for the Ensign!

Sorry for the long post, but I guess I'm just putting off doing my homework. ;)