This is a perfect representation right outside of my house of our winter this year. I have a few adjectives – artic, bleak, depressing, horrid. Thus NO running outside for 3 months. 

All winter I’ve known I am running the Moab half.  Every week I thought the inversion would lift, the temperature would rise, the ice would melt and every week it didn’t.  I have decided I loathe the treadmill for any farther than 5 miles, so that’s all I did in running training and not very often. I was still exercising, just not running.  March was cold and snowy but at least not an inversion so three weeks before the run, once a week Lelu and I ran seven, eight and nine miles.  She lapped me a few times so I am sure she went farther.  The point is, going in I was totally unprepared and I knew Melinda was over prepared.  But I went anyway.

Drew, Mel, Lelu and I were running the half and B and the twins the 5 mile.

This year they gave out medals. So glad to be done!

Lelu did awesome and finished just over 2 hours, Drew did awesome, Mel did awesome and I enjoyed the run until about mile 8 when my feet started hurting – so ouch ouch ouch I walked/ran the last 5 miles. Not my best race.

Me, Lelu, Lelu’s friend Aubrey and Ari went on the hummer ride with Mel and family. Porter loved the back seat along with my squealing girls.

Rock climbing around Canyonlands

B and the twins had good races.  TT finished 6 minutes faster than last year.  Ari ran with a friend and had fun the whole time.

All the way driving home, I knew I could have kept up and ran with Mel had I trained properly. Slowly but surely I put myself into a total funk.  On Sundays I love to watch “Super Soul Sunday”.  I tape it every week.  I usually watch it while exercising on Monday mornings but I decided I needed to watch it that night.  It’s on OWN network and it’s Oprah interviewing all of these authors, philosophers, preachers etc.  The woman on that day was Dr. Brene’ Brown.  Google her.  I am going to read all of her books when this semester is over and I have time to read what I want. This woman talked about a quote by Theodore Roosevelt. I just sat there with tears of gratitude knowing that it was a message just for me in that moment. And to remember in many moments.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”