Wild Things

We live on old farm land. There is still a field at the very corner of our lot. Except for maybe the first year we've had sightings of garter snakes on our property. It's usually while mowing or weeding (not my favorite) or even sometimes just walking out to get mail. I've only noticed maybe 3 mice in that time.

So it was interesting to me that this year Ethan found a garter snake and managed to capture it and the very NEXT day Savannah finds and catches a little brown mouse. This is all find and dandy, I suppose, but they each brought them into my house! I will NOT allow reptiles (mostly snakes) to live in my house. A wild mouse is just as bad...they can both escape! I don't want the job of finding either one of them!

Ethan held onto the snake for about 20-30 minutes before I told him to let it go by the garden boxes, near the empty field mentioned earlier. Savannah, however, gets waaaay more attached to things much quicker. Well, I don't blame her since the mouse was quite cute. BUT! She found a cardboard box, an empty Puffs tissue box placed upside down for shelter, ripped up toilet paper, found little plastic objects to hold water and cheese, within 1/2 hour of capturing the cute pest. To top it off the mouse was given the name Chester.

The evening was approaching as well as a rain storm so guess where I found out the mouse was moved to? That's right. Her bedroom closet downstairs. Oh! But she closed the lid on the box! It's not like a mouse can't chew through cardboard right? Well, I explained how easy it is for mice to escape and suggested putting the mouse in the window well, right outside her bedroom window so it would be protected from the wind bringing the storm. She could even use the screen from the window to put on top the box.

The next morning we realized how talented mice can be as it had escaped both the box and the window well. Savannah was NOT happy. She thought for sure her parents had let the mouse go and staged the whole scene it had left. I told her I was way too tired to go out in the rain after she had gone to bed to do such a thing and how happy I was with the decision of making her put that thing outside!

Here are some photos of our adventure with the creatures.

Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay 2011

I'm doing something different here. Instead of going straight to Facebook, like I always do, I'm going to actually post something on my blog with a few more details to our adventure. :)

Let me start at the beginning of this story...Around the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011 I was getting kind of tired of hearing everyone talk about running and the races they were competing in. That, and to be completely honest, one person in particular seemed to be doing everything I wished I could do so I decided to do at least ONE of them...run Ragnar. Jon had run a few of them already and wasn't wanting to do another but I convinced him to do it one more time with me. Actually, I told him I was going to do it and he decided on his own that he would do it too. I think it was just so he could witness my misery first-hand. Hahaha!

Maybe I should explain a little how this race works. You have a team of 12 people, you split your team in half: 6 in one vehicle, 6 in the other. You have an assigned start time (All teams are staggered throughout the morning of day 1; anywhere from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and van 1 starts running. Van 2 keeps in contact with Van 1 near the end of their shift to make sure they're there (the Exchange Point) on time. Van 2 takes over while Van 1 can rest, eat, sleep and also makes their way to the end of Van 2's first shift. This repeats until both vans have had a turn to run 3 times. As runner #12 is finishing their last leg, the rest of the team is anxiously waiting about 100 yards from the finish line to run across all together. So there you have it. Hopefully that made sense!


I had a whole 6 months to train so I figured it would be do-able. My obstacles to overcome: schedules of little children and bad knees. I started in January on our 12 yr old treadmill that doesn't go below 3% incline. I also was trying to cross-train at the church with women from the ward. The church thing didn't last too long because a lot of what they do was affecting my knees more-so than running. The treadmill was OK, but it's hard to stay motivated on a treadmill and mine also had problems with the button to slow it down. So, in April (I think) I got a brand new, fancy-schmancy treadmill that has a touchscreen, with iFit Live and google maps so I can see where I'm running (it can be anywhere in the world!) and can even run my legs of the Ragnar race. Super cool.

Speaking of super cool...let's talk about the weather this year. This was a record-breaking wet and low-temp Spring along the Wasatch Front. That meant not a whole lot of chances to practice running outside. I was able to run 3 times outside to get a feel for it. I actually quite enjoyed it. Not so much the bugs in my eyes and near-misses to my mouth but it felt good to be in the elements. Looking back now, I wish I would've practiced a little more for the unfavorable elements since it ended up being exceptionally cold at night for the race.

Race Day Finally Arrives!
The weathermen had said for most of the week that there was going to be thunderstorms and rain the two days of the race. I was not excited for that since the race even without bad weather was going to be grueling. By some miracle the weather was perfect! Well, except for the very cold night and headwind the next day, that is, but I'll take it over rain!

The remaining four members of our team met us at our house to decorate the van (this is pretty much mandatory for these races) before we headed to our first exchange point in Eden.

 This is our crew for Van 2. From L to R: Beth (Jon's sister), Sherri (friend from Murray), Taylor (Sherri's friend), Me, Jon, and Sam (Jon's brother). We are all wearing orange since the team is mostly formed from Murray High track alumni and the school colors are orange and black. The team name is Cho Mamas. There is a little debate on how the team name originated. Some say it is from the knee strap the track coach wore which is called a Cho-pat Knee strap. Others say it is from some kids that were American-Indian that would yell out to them "Cho!" as they were practicing. It is believed to be a well-wishing term, but who knows?

 This is Jon right after completing his first leg around 9 p.m. and Sherri in the back.

 Beth is completing her first leg running uphill the whole 3.2 miles.

 Yes, this is me. This is my 2nd leg that I started around 3:30 a.m. in 35°F. temps. This is the one I was dreading the most with a good size hill or three that seemed to go on forever. This is when I realized that iFit lied to me. The hill was much steeper and longer than it trained me for. I still did pretty well. I predicted finishing at a 12:15 pace and finished a touch slower at 12:22.

 Jon's 2nd leg started around 6:45 a.m. and was 8 miles. Here, he is waiting for Taylor to finish his 10 mile run.

 The hand-off from Taylor.

 This is the very end of my 3rd leg. This, even though it was mostly flat, was my hardest to complete by far. My muscles were screaming at me the entire 4.2 miles and I had a head wind bullying me. I could see my team as I was rounding the last corner and I still had to stop to walk. I was soooo tempted to walk the rest of the way to the hand-off (to be funny of course ;) ), but decided I should just suck it up and run. This is me running the last 100 yards. "It is fun".

 See how fun it is? See how happy I am? This is a look of "Boy that was pathetic" and also "I am SO glad I am done!" I predicted to finish at a 10:30 pace but finished at 10:57 pace. I was determined to keep it under 11:00 minutes!

 Now really, I have nothing to complain about since this was Jon's 3rd leg. 4 miles of the most grueling uphill climb on the 192 mile course.

Some of this course was hard for even the van to accelerate. I couldn't really take a picture of the worst parts since I was the driver and I couldn't pull over in those areas.

 He ran the whole way, not even slowing down to take drink.

 It's hard to see in the small version of this picture but Jon is down about half-way of this stretch. This was one of about 2-3 downhill/level parts.

 Sam about to throw a snowball waiting for Jon to catch up before we leapfrog ahead again.

 Getting closer to the top. Yes, this was the middle of June. Can you believe all that snow?

He finally made it! He did 4 miles in 49 minutes. This leg of the race is called "THE Ragnar leg" since it is the most difficult.

 Sam was runner #12 and coming for the finish with the rest of the team.

 Team Cho Mamas.

 Jon and I right before heading home.

 It is known that after running such a race you can eat anything you want. Jon's choice was to go to In-N-Out and order a 6x6 hamburger. This means 6 patties with 6 slices of cheese. (He tried this but their max is 4 so he got 2 patties on the side and added them himself.)

 He had to eat it "Bottom, Middle, Top" since it was so tall.

 The last piece.

 All done! He actually finished that before I could finish my single patty burger. Of course, I was the one taking the pictures so he would have proof to show his friends.

 My reward. The thing is heavy! It also doubles as a bottle opener.

 The t-shirt with the medal.

How convenient that Ragnar chose orange as one of their colors this year. I had to get a picture of my nail job with the shirt.

I would say that this was a great experience. I thought it was a lot of fun. The worst part was not being able to sleep. I tried soooo hard. I just couldn't turn my brain off cause I kept thinking about what had already happened, anticipating what was going to happen, and just noises around me. The more I think about it the more I find myself wanting to do it again next year. I need to get faster but at the very least need to train for longer runs so maybe that last one won't beat me. Best of all, I am proud of myself for setting a goal and achieving it. I'm not normally good at that so that is my biggest accomplishment.