St. George

Brent and I spent this past weekend in St. George. It was the perfect weekend-getaway. We left home Friday morning, made a couple stops along the way, and arrived in southern Utah just before 5. We had good weather and sun during the drive and 60-degree temperatures during the afternoons throughout our stay. It was so nice to be able to walk outside in short-sleeves and without a coat or jacket.

One of our big motivating factors for this destination on this particular weekend was the St. George half-marathon. I've had my sights set on this race for the past two years and have not been able to run it due to injuries. But this year, I did it!! It was awesome.

The morning started off quite cold, it was 32 degrees when we got to the start line but it warmed up quickly and the sun was out the whole time, no clouds at all and no wind. The course was great; it was scenic with the perfect mix of uphill and downhill segments.

Start Line

I had no idea how I would run this race. I had maintained my long runs through the fall so I knew my endurance was up to par, but I slacked off a bit on my speed work and tempo runs so I felt a little unprepared. I set a goal for myself to finish in 1 hour 40 minutes but I told myself I shouldn't be disappointed with 1:45.

As I started running, I felt great, my energy level was high and my pace was much faster than expected. I decided I'd just run at whatever speed felt good. I finished in 1 hour 33 minutes and 20 seconds, good enough for 1st place in my age division and 9th out of 650 women. (There were a total of 1060 runners that finished the race.)


I got pretty cold pretty quick once I stopped running. Brent and taken all of my gear to the car so I had nothing dry to put on. Thank goodness I have a husband that had a big jacket with him and wasn't cold enough to need it. Thanks Brent.

After the awards ceremony, we headed back to our hotel, showered, ate lunch and then headed out to shop. We hit the outlets, and can I just say, I've never seen Brent shop the way he did. For some odd reason, he actually WANTED to take the time to try things on to make sure they fit well. We spent a couple hours shopping. This is so abnormal for Brent, usually, he walks into a store, grabs something, pays for it and leaves (forget the "trying-things-on part); and he goes through this entire process in a matter of minutes. In fact, at one store I was the one bugging him to go. Brent left with a pretty good haul; five or six shirts (that I got to iron when we got home, lucky me), and a couple pairs of shoes. I didn't do nearly as well, but I did get $20 off a new pair of running shoes as part of the prize for winning my division.

After our shopping trip, we went to dinner, ate way too much, then went to a late movie. (Mall Cop is pretty funny.) After the movie we went to Wal-Mart. Yup, once again I drove for hours just to go to Wal-Mart. While at the greatest store on earth (If you disagree thats fine, but DON'T leave me a comment or send me an email saying so.), we stock-piled food and snacks so we wouldn't have to go anywhere Sunday.

We spent all of Sunday hanging out in the hotel just being lazy. We took naps, watched TV/movies, and ate. We did venture out for a walk before it got dark.

We slept in a little on Monday and then hit the treadmills in the hotel's fitness center (yes, both of us). After packing up and having breakfast we headed home to frigid northern Utah. I spent the better part of the weekend trying to talk Brent into opening a dental practice down south. I'd move there in a heart beat. I do much better with heat than cold.

Oh, we did witness one incident on the way home. We were on I-15, just in to Payson, when this pick-up truck pulls onto the freeway. He was several hundred yards ahead of us but we could tell that his truck was loaded up pretty good with furniture and housewares. He had a mattress wedged into the back of his truck and as soon as he picked up speed this mattress started flapping around. When the wind hit, it caused the mattress to go flying out of the truck along with a bunch of what looked like board games. This mess was scattered across all the northbound lanes and we happened to be the first vehicle to approach. Brent was driving and he had enough time to slow down enough to move onto the shoulder to avoid running over the junk in the road. We didn't stop, and I'm not sure if the pick-up driver cleaned up his mess or not, but I just hope that it didn't cause an accident for anyone behind us. So, what do we learn from this? If you're going to drive down the freeway at 75 mph with your truck haphazardly loaded, take a few extra minutes to TIE THINGS DOWN!!!!!

Anyway, my mom watched the kids for us--thanks again, Mom and Ellie got to stay at the kennel. I tell ya, that dog was SOOO excited to come home this morning. The kids, on the other hand, were not excited for us to return. Damon started crying. At least I know they had a good time.

Let me just say, this weekend is my idea of a perfect vacation, not too long, not too short, not too close to home and yet, not too far away.