Moab Half Marathon 08

Running for Our Lives



Well, where do I begin? Kory and I began our journey down to Moab on Friday afternoon. Almost the entire way down Kory was trying to convince me to change our regisration from the half marathon to the 5 mile run. I was concidering this option somewhat seriously since neither of us had ran since the beginning of February. During our break I was trying to let my IT bands heel, and Kory was having really painful spasms in his back. The thought of running 5 miles did sound quite nice, but I wanted the satisfaction of knowing I ran a half marathon. We got to the check in place and we felt sooo out of place. We were surrounded by tall skinny people with really long skinny legs...you know the type! They gave us our bag of stuff we told them how un-trained we were. They just kept saying, "Well you are runners though, right?" It was really awkward and funny.




Kory and I went back to our hotel and and tried on our gear. At this point it was really setting in, we were about to run 13 miles and we were scared. Kory kept trying to sprain his ankle and making up all kinds of crazy reasons why I would have to run without him. He was mostly trying to be funny, but deep down I think he would have done almost anything if he thought he could get out of it. (It was actually Kory's idea to sign up for this)


I asked Kory why he had such a sad face in this picture and he told me it was because he thought it was going to be his last day alive. :)




We woke up Saturday morning and waited with over 4,000 other runners to be bused up Moab Canyon to our starting point. Kory and I ran together until Mile 10 then I had a sudden burst of energy when I realized that I only had 3 miles to go. I started running super fast and left Kory in the dust. I finished 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes and Kory finished in 3 hours. We didn't set any records, but we did pretty good concidering our lame bodies and lack of training. All and all we had a fun time and are sure glad to be alive to tell about it. Today we are really feeling the consequences of running 13.1 miles. You should see us trying to walk up and down our stairs :)




We made it to the finish line

First off, I want to start out by telling Megan sorry for taking so long to respond to her tag. Second of all, I think after doing this tag I will be all tagged out for awhile :)


1. What was the best thing you cooked last week? I made a really good crock pot chicken dinner. It was really easy to make and it lasted for several meals.

2. If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who? I have always wanted to go to New Zealand and lately I have been thinking abut how cool it would be to go to Egypt and tour through an ancient pyramid. I would for sure take Kory. Wait, wait, wait! I changed my mind. If money were no object I would for sure go to space!!!

3. When was the last time you cried?I got a bit tearey eyed while watching President Hinckley's Funeral.

4.- Five things you were doing 10 years ago? Well, I guess that means I was in 7th grade. At that time I was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities. I was taking gymnastics, soccer, piano, and karate. I also probably a scared little 7th grader.

5 - Five things you were doing 5 years ago?Five years ago I was in 11th grade. I was dating, driving, having fun at school activities, retiring in my gymnastic adventures, and running for student body historian.

6- Five things you were doing 1 year ago? Going to UVSC and applying to get into the elementary program, figuring out if Kory and I were going to move to Denver for the summer, going to Arches National Park for presidents day, living in Orem, and shopping at macey's ;)

7 - Seven of your favorite hobbies: scrapbooking, taking pictures, hosting friend and family get togethers, camping, hiking, watching TLC, and making decorative crafts.

8 - Five favorite foods: Lasagna with garlic bread, oreos, Alice Spring Chicken at Outback, brownies, and a BBQ chicken salad at Rumi's

9- Five places you've been: Disneyland, Hawaii, England/ France, Virgin Islands, and China.

10- Five favorite memories:I have a lot of fun memories but I'll just name a few broad areas. Getting married, elementary school, my senior year in high school, going to cedar city for a year at SUU, and family trips

I am not sure who has been tagged to answer these questions, so if you haven't and you would like to, feel free to answer the above questions?

I was recently tagged by my sister-in-law Jenny, and I am supposed to list all of the items that are currently in my purse. This could get scarry! Here I go.

1. One dried up wet nap
2. Library reciept of books checked out.
3. Rough draft of Valentine Poem I wrote for Kory.
4. Three hair elastics
5. Seventeen bobby pins (Thats were they all went)
6. Two Chapsticks, and Three Lip Glosses
7. Five pens and one mechanical pencil
8. Ripped up voided check
9. Chinese coin purse
10. One whole comb, and one broken comb
11. One stale and shattered piece of Winterfresh Gum.
12. Two wrappers with old chewed up gum.
13. Fingernail Clippers
14. Wallet ( Credit and Debit cards, Receipts, Library Card, Expired Drivers License, Current Drivers License, and two expired temporary drivers permits, a little cash, UVSC ID card, etc.)
15. Check stub from Home Depot.
16. Cell Phone

WOW! That was really good to finally clean out my purse!

I am going to tag Michelle Watkins Smith, Jill Jackson, and Ashley Sorenson.

My sister-in-law Jenny tagged me on her blog. I am suppose to list 6 habits and then tag 4 more people. I am having a hard time figuring out my habits so I am going to list some weird things about me and maybe I'll think of a habit or two as I go.

1. So you know in musicals like "Hairspray" and how throughout the movie the actors break our in song and dance? Well, I have always thought it would be so fun if that actually happened in real life. I would love to be walking along and break out in song and have everyone around me just happen to know that song and dance that went along with it and join in with me

2. I have a bad habit of creating scrapbook pages and never journaling on them. I don't like my hand writing so I tell myself that I will just type up what I want to write and print it out. Well, that rarely happens and so about 50% of my scrapbook pages do not have writing. I am really going to work hard on correcting this habit!

3. This shouldn't bother me but it does. I don't know why but I get annoyed by people who are so worried about getting assignments done super far in advace. It's a good thing to not wait until the last minute to get things done, but to worry about them way before it even matters just is weird and annoying to me. ( sorry if i offended anyone)

4. Okay, so I am super fascinated with outter space. Since I was little I have always wanted to be an astronaut. So far I have not made it to space, but I have recently discovered that the stars and planets actually make sounds. The sun and stars pulsate like a heart and make beating sounds and the planets make constant sounds made by natually sound frequencies. It's confusing to explain, but very interesting. (go to NASA's website to find out more!)

5. Whenever I get excited I do a little jig without even knowing it. Kory told me about this...that's how I know i do it.

6. I have a bad habit of loosing my chapstick. There was a certain period of time in high school when i was loosing my chaptick all the time. I kept buying new chapstick over an over again and loosing it. One day before church I was trying to find some chapstick to take with me. I couldn't find any, but while I was at chuch I felt like organizing my scripture case. Guess what I discovered? I found (honestly) at least 7 chapsticks in my scripture case. I felt like such a dork.

Well, It has almost been a month since our last post so I thought I would get typing. Well, Kory and I haven't done anything super exciting lately but we have been training for the Canyonlands half marathon on March 8. Neither of us are runners, but we thought we would try something new and get some exercise while we are at it. We are running about every other day at the Orem rec center. The past few times we have gone running the sides of my knees and the bottoms of my hips have been hurting sooo bad. I finally decided to slip on my protective eye goggles and do some research! After looking at countless leg diagrams and reading several medical journals, I have come to discover that I have Iliotibial Band Syndrome. This band runs from your hip abductor to the top of your tibia. Every article I have read said to stop running for at least 4 to 6 weeks to allow them to heal. Since the marathon is going to take place in just over a month, I don't think that is going to be an option. Oh well! If I end up walking the whole thing it will still be fun anyway! We are actually running it with my brother and sister-in-law so it will just be a fun memory making experience if not anything else. Wait a minute....did I just say FUN memory making experience? It might just turn into a painful memory making experience instead:) Either way I am looking forward to the whole experience. ( If any of you know about IBS or how to cure it fast, just let me know!)

Christmas in Virginia (part 2)

This is one of the main buildings at Southern Virginia University. Isn't it beautiful!(above...not the temple below :)

The Washington D.C. temple is so pretty to see at night. We didn't know before going, but the temple grounds are covered in Christmas lights just like temple square.

We spent New Year's eve day in Washington D.C. visiting all the sites. We had a lot of fun. My favorite part was going to the Air and Space Museum. (I have always wanted to be an astronaut !)

We had a lot of fun spending time with Kory's family this holiday season. We were lucky to be able to ALL meet in Virginia and spend so much memory making time together! We were there for Casey's basketball games, Kristen's birthday party, Jaymes's homecoming talk and Christmas.

Christmas in Virginia

Our 10 day Christmas adventure in Virginia all started when we left with Kory's brother Bub, his wife Danielle, and their little girl Hailey to Las Vegas to catch our flight. After a 6 hour drive to Vegas, and a 4 hour delay, we were on our way to Michigan. Because of our delay in Las Vegas, we missed our connecting flight in Michigan. After waiting another four hours in the airport, we were able to get stand by tickets on a flight headed to Maryland. Once we got to Maryland Kory's dad picked us up and be were finally on our way to Buena Vista, Virginia. At this point I thought our traveling was finally over. Boy was I wrong. We still has 3 hours of driving to go. By the time we got there we had traveled for 24 hours.

Reunited at last!

We couldn't all get together and not have some family pictures taken!

On Christmas Eve we went to the local ice cream shop and met up with Santa Claus. Luckily he had just enough time to let us sit on his lap before he had to leave!

These are some of our cute nieces and nephews! Jaden, Hailey, Max, and Alissa

Every year on Christmas Eve the Longenecker family acts out the nativity story. This year I got to help with the directing and Kory got to be the photographer! This kids all did a great job acting out their parts!

Santa Came!

We gave to Jenny and Alan this Year