Sunday, May 17, 2009

2009 Ogden Half Marathon

I have waited SOO long to be able to do another race since breaking my pelvis last year and not being able to run for 6months while recovering. The anticipation I had for this race since March has been crazy and I often wondered if I was "really" going to be able to run as good as I had in the past.? It has been a rough time getting through those painful days of having a broken Pelvis but I was determined and I knew that I could do it I just had to set my mind in the right place of running again and really listening to my body and taking it easy for the first while of training. I began training in March for this Ogden Half Marathon and I have felt absolutley great ever since I started training. I have also had the chance to train on Saturday's with one of my best friend Emily who is an amazing runner and she just had a baby 8wks ago on the day of the Marathon! Emily and I did the full Ogden Marathon last year and we had the BEST experience so this Ogden Marathon will always be one we will do every year its a great course and very well organized.

So here is a look at my week of the race:
The week of the race I ran 18miles through the week and ate carbs non-stop all week long so I could have those carbs in my system and ready for me to burn through the race on Saturday.
Friday the day before the race I met my good friend Jackie in Ogden who also did the race with me and not to mention she fractured her ankle 6wks prior to the race. Jackie and I picked up our stuff for the race and then headed to Fazzoli's for a carb overdose of pasta and bread, I usually dont eat alot of Pasta so I was a bit nervouse on how my stomach would handle the heavy load of noodles setting in my stomach all night/morning long, but it didnt bother me much so thats good.
After Dinner I stayed the night at Jackie's house which is about 15minutes away from where the buses where going to be to pick us up for the race in AM. I went to bed at @10pm and had a million things running through my mind like if I was going to be able to run as good as I wanted to, if I was going to be sick from all the paste I had just piled into my mouth and oh my HELL what if I sleep through my alarm clock that was set for 4am.? Well, I did get a few hours of sleep and I didnt sleep through my alarm in fact I woke up at 3:38am wide eye'd and ready to get the show on the road. I took a quick a shower and lathered myself in Body Glide which is an Anti-Chafing cream and got all geared up ready to go and by 4:30 Jackie and I were ready to go meet the bus for the ride up the Canyon. The last bus leaves 5am and the race doesnt start til 7am so for 1.5hours we were up the canyon in running shorts and long sleeve shirts standing around the fire pits waiting for the sun to come out and for the race to begin it was a cold morning and 7am couldn't come fast enough. At about 6:30ish Emily showed up and we chatted and made some goals and made a lil' game plan that we would not let each other stop or quite we had a goal of finishing the race before 2hrs I didnt care if it was 1:59:59 just had to be before the 2hr mark.
7am the race began Jackie,Emily and I all ran beside each other for about the first mile then I took off ahead of them to tackle the mile long hill in front of us and the whole time I held about a 7:45min/pace up the hill and keep thinking "I love Hills, Run with the Hills, Dont stop"and before I knew it I had blown up that hill and felt great. Mile 3 Jackie caught up to me and we ran side by side for about a mile then her ankle was hurting so she slowed down, Mile 4 Emily caught up to me and we ran and we ran quick and good! It felt good to have her by my side like we are in sync with each other we held a consistent pace of 8-8:15minute mile and that pace was just right for us not too fast not too slow PERFECT pace!! Mile 7.5 we had decided to forget about the 2hr goal we are now changing our goal to 1:50. Thats right was I really hearing myself say 1hr 50minutes I couldnt believe what I was thinking, "could I really do this?" Mile 11 Emily went ahead of me but not by much I could always see her infront of me so I knew I could not let her out of my view because that meant I was slowing way down so I always keep an eye on her. Mile 12.5 I knew I was close to being finished it was great all the people were cheering us on playing loud music! I could see the finish line and off to the right of me out of the corner of my eye I spotted Terry,Aage and Tripp all cheering me on Go TIANA Go T!! I picked up the pace for the last 1minute and gave it all I had and I crossed the finish line at 1:50:04!! I could not believe I had just put myself mentally and physically to the limits of that, that was the best feeling ever! I knew I had it in me but I think I was just scared of letting myself down incase I didnt meet my goal!! I guess just shows mind over matter which I always tell myself!! Emily crossed the line about 45seconds before me and we hugged and high five each other and were so happy to have just set a new "Personal Record" it was so great! Jackie did a amazing job as well and she came in about 10minutes after us! I just have to say this was such a amazing day/race I was with 2 of my good friends the weather was perfect the race well organized and the route was beautiful! Most of all I felt so blessed to have had this ability to run so well! Thanks again to my support team of my family and friends!! Now stay tuned during the next few months as I will have many more races during the summer!!
I am so happy here!

Emily and I so happy to have done so well!!

Terry so happy for me!!

Jackie and me so happy for each other!

Me just so happy!!

My 28th Birthday

My Birthday was on May 6th. As you know Terry has been working like a dog the past few months and I wasnt sure if he even knew what day it was or let alone my Birthday was coming soon because he's working 80-100hrs a week which is just insane amount of hours for one to take on but he DID he remembered my Birthday!He surprised me on my Birthday at 5am with a new digital camera and a very sweet and personal love letter and a card that was the kind that sings when you open it and the card was perfect it had playing in it "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"which is funny because our first Dave Matthews Concert we heard Dave sing that song and right there T fell in love with that song so it was the perfect song to have in my card! Later that afternoon my Mom, Sister, Tripp and me all went to my favorite place Brick Oven for lunch it was great! I got too spoiled from everyone my sister Tania gave me a framed11x14 picture of me and T from our new photo session we had the week before which is amazing, Mom gave me a gift card to my favorite running store so I get some new things for running, my sister sent me a pair of Big Star Jeans and a super cute shirt, and his parents gave me a gift card to Buckle my most favorite store ever!! What can I say I am spoiled and am so greatful for everything I have recieved! My mom also watched the kids that night so that T and I could have a night alone at dinner with no kids it was great and we hit up PF Changs it was a great time!! Thanks everyone for making my Birthday so special and thanks T for going out of your way to give me all that you do! I love you all!
Happy!!

Me and my favorite lil' person

my best friends

my family

My favorite time being with T!!

New Family Pictures

Here are our latest and greatest Family pictures we just had done from my "Amazing" cousin Denise/Bella Blu Photography. The location is "top" secret but its not hard to figure out just where we are in these and if you dont know then I guess you will just have to let Denise tell you or maybe even show you! I had a fun time doing the pictures since its been quite some time since we have had a family one taken but Tripp was not having fun and so most of the pictures he looks grumpy and onery which he was, which is so not like him. I guess he's just not a fan of the camera!! Enjoy!













Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tycee's Special Day

On May 2,2009 Tycee Marie Strange was Baptized by her Grandpa Aage and Confirmed my her Grandpa Wendell.
Tycee was the only from our ward to be Baptized this day so it was very fun for me since I got to plan the whole program. I made special programs for it and it was all printed up on some very cute scrapbooking paper and had in big BOLD letters on the front " you are my sunshine" it was so cute then on the otherside of it was the program it was so cute and Tycee really liked it since it wasnt just the same ol' boring white paper they usually use. I had our good friend Mandy Sittler sing a song she wrote herself and she sang that and played the piano. Mandy is so talented it was such a beautiful song and we are so greatful for her talent and that she was able to do such a beautiful job singing for us! Thanks Mandy. Afterwards we had small luncheon(sandwhiches,fruit trays,veggie trays,chips, and of course the most raved about item some delicious cookies that Terry's sister Tami made) at our house with some of our dearest friends and family Thanks Tami for those cookies and brownies now if I can just get the recipe from you that would be great!
I just want Tycee to know that I will remember this day forever and that I am so proud of her and so is our whole family! Tycee again "you are my sunshine"
Tycee this day is a day to remember forever and hold sacred in your heart as I know I will FOREVER!!
Tycee going into the water to be Baptized

Tycee is so happy after getting Baptized

Tycee in her cute new dress

Us- except for Paige she left too soon

Grandma and Grandpa Strange

Tycee and her Dad

Tycee and Grandpa Wendell

Grandma Lan and Grandpa Aage and Tycee

the whole family

Grandpa Kerby and Tycee

Our first time going to Thanksgiving Point Petting Zoo.

A few weeks ago Tripp and I were invited to go with some of my friends and neighbors to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Tripp and I have never been there, infact, I haven't even taken the girls there either which is sad because we live like 5miles from the place. Tripp had so much fun he loved petting the animals and would walk right up to the BIG ones like Cows, horses and Goats and put his hand right in their mouth or on their noses he thought that was pretty cool but I was a bit nervous the last thing I wanted to have happen that day was to loose a finger or too so lucky for Tripp he left with all his fingers intact!

MOO!

Trying to see the Pony's BIG teeth.



Pulling the goats ears

Tripp "trying"to be a cowboy! not really he hated this pony.