Wasatch Back

After last year, I swore I'd never do the Wasatch Back again. Well, I got sucked in. See...it's not that hard to talk me into things! I ran with the eBay corporate team, and it was actually pretty fun. I did a better job of working eating and sleeping around the running, so that made me less cranky. Also, the eBay team's name was "eBay It Forward", so they gave us each a $25 gift card to give away to people we saw that were helping others out or just having a great attitude. It gave us a chance to interact with a lot of other teams, and that was pretty fun. My van was awesome and they were great supporters, giving me hugs and Gatorade after each of my runs and making sure I had a Diet Coke at the finish line. What more could a girl ask for? It would have been nice if my team took the "running superhero" costumes as seriously as I did...

Happy Father's Day!

Hope you have a wonderful day, Dad!

Utah Valley Marathon

I ran the Utah Valley Marathon on Saturday. My IT band has been acting up, so I was just hoping to finish around 4 hours. I woke up at 2:45 am (yikes) to get to the buses at 3:45, and ride up Provo Canyon to the start line. It was a cold and rainy morning, which isn't my favorite for running. The race started at 5:30, and we were off. I went out too fast (typical) and hung with the 3:40 pace group for a while, but I knew it couldn't last and I would pay for it later. And pay for it, I did. Both of my IT bands were tight at the 5-mile mark, but I pushed through it because I'd told Chad and Jordan that I would be at the finish line around 9:30. I ran into a friend at mile 18 and we ran together and caught up for about 5 miles and then I told him to go ahead. The last couple of miles were painful with my tight IT bands and my calf muslces cramping up. But, I finished...in 3:58. I think it was my awesomely bright running shoes that pulled me through. Chad and Jordan were super supporters, cheering at the finish line and then we all headed out to enjoy pancakes and french toast at IHOP.

Salem Spring Triathlon

Chad and I decided to celebrate National Doughnut Day by doing a sprint triathlon down in Salem. Well, not really, but Chad was almost as excited about doing his first tri as he was when he got his doughnut. My friend Jared was in charge of the water safety, so I let him know that he if let Chad drown, we would no longer be friends. Chad's wave went out 20 minutes before mine did, so I knew if I got to transition and his bike was still there, something didn't go according to plan. Not to worry, Chad did great! If he gets any faster in the water, I won't have a chance of beating him since his bike and run are so much faster than mine! Maybe I'll start giving him tips like, "eat a giant plate of fettucine alfredo minutes before you hit the water."

All in all, it was a beautiful day for a race. I finished with my fastest bike split ever (averaging 20.3 mph), and had a great swim and a good run. Chad lollygagged in the water a bit, but finished with a strong bike and a super strong run. Way to go Chad! I managed to edge him out by a minute in my 20th tri, and his first. Anyone else out there I can suck into triathlons? It's so much more fun to do them with friends and family!

National Doughnut Day!

Usually I am behind the eight-ball on stuff like this, so I thought you all should know that TOMORROW, JUNE 4 is National Doughnut Day.

"National Doughnut Day is not a creation of the snack-food industry but actually started in 1938 as a fund-raiser for the Salvation Army. Women of that organization started America's complicated love affair with the doughnut during World War I. As part of their effort to bring a little bit of home to U.S. troops in France, the Salvation Army served coffee and doughnuts."

If you want to try out the original recipe, and invite me over, here you go.

Famous Salvation Army Doughboy Doughnut

7-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup lard
8 eggs
3 large cans evaporated milk
3 large cans water
18 cups flour
18 teaspoons baking powder
7-1/2 teaspoons salt
8 teaspoons nutmeg

Cream sugar and lard together, beat eggs, add evaporated milk and water. Add liquid to creamed mixture. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in large sieve and sift into other mixture. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll and cut. Five pounds of lard are required to fry the doughnuts. Yield: approximately 250 doughnuts


If you look at the side of my blog, you'll see I've burned enough calores for more than 180 doughnuts, so almost the whole batch of Salvation Army doughnuts...you'd better get making the doughnuts. Or, if you head out to Krispy Kreme, they'll just give you a free one...