let the games begin

lotoja is a road cycling race held annually on the first or second saturday in september. the race is believed to be one of the longest single-day road cycling race in north america, if not the world and is the longest one-day race sanctioned by the usa cycling or the united states cycling federation. lotoja starts in logan, ut and travels into southeastern idaho and finishes in teton village, wy. the current course covers 206 miles and includes three mountain passes. the total climbing during the race is nearly 10,000 feet with the race finishing about 1,800 feet higher than it began in logan.

this race is something i've heard about since i was a kid. as i young lass, i thought it sounded like an insane thing to do. as i approached adolescence, i thought it sounded like a really cool thing to do, but never thought of myself as being an individual able to accomplish such a task. as i am approaching my 30th year of life on this earth i've decided to take the plunge and participate in this dauntingly exhilirating event. i have been mentally preparing myself for about 8 months now. last september i had an epiphany that the celebration of my 30th year needed to be a unique sort of revelry. i've been thinking about it ever since. i made it through the first step - the lottery registration. this was a feat in and of itself. now, on to the training. i've started long rides each saturday. i've also started interval training each week. i've tried to become more proficient in riding in pace lines with a group - a definite work in progress. starting to train again for something has been a welcome change. after last year's half ironman, i had a lapse of motivation to train for any type of endurance event. as most people with an addiction, i've relapsed, and i'm back on the training bandwagon. i'm trying to be a bit more realistic about this training. fitting it into the balance of the rest of my life is the task at hand. it's been a gratifying challenge. i've still got a few months to figure it out. we'll see how it pans out. at this point i'll just say, let the games begin...

things to do in the rain...

enough said.

wrinkles

interesting. i am not yet 30, and i have wrinkles. i fondly remember living in hawaii a few years back. i was 23 years old and at the prime of my life. when we would go to the store, angie would always look at the wrinkle preventing lotions. i couldn't figure out why she was worried about such things. it seemed to me, a waste of time and money. six years later, i get it. (sorry for judging, ang. you were right, i was wrong.) i now have wrinkles and there is no going back. i'm not going to sugarcoat it and try making it sound better than it is. i'm getting older - not much wiser, but older. i'll embrace it.

mile high city

okay, for all you fans who have wanted to see pictures of christian, you can check them out below. we took a little trip to littleton, CO to watch his brother, paul, play in the the MCLA tournament. byu made it to the final four...

the game ended sadly, but we all still looked great in the pictures afterward.

come on baby, light my fire.

wink, wink, nudge, nudge...

we made it to mile high stadium to watch a professional lacrosse game.

we heart art. this orange masterpiece was outside the art museum in denver. you can't see the tears in my eyes, but there were definitely tears. i hit my head really hard on the breathtaking orange steel. i must have been distracted....

there you have it, my weekend in colorado. for more details, please feel free to contact me on my cellular device.

where everybody knows my name...

knock, knock - who's there? ralph waldo emerson wasn't, even though this is his pad.

apparently touching john harvard's gold foot increases intelligence. i'm just sayin'...

josh and whitney are one of my role model couples. they have definitely made my top 10 favorite couples list. .

i just really loved this red door - and whitney makes the cutest pizza delivery girl i've ever seen.

i love to see the temple.

i'm slow on this post. however, i feel okay about it. i am historically a slow person. i 've never staked a claim on being fast. speed is not my forte. i go at at steady, even pace. endurance is more of a skill set i consider my own. having said that, here i am, posting pics from my trip to boston, about three weeks after my return to utah. i headed to boston, where everybody was supposed to know my name, for about a week. beantown was an adventure. i was on the last leg of my walking pneumonia when i got onto the plane. it was kinda rough. i felt good about the fact that i was sick BEFORE the plane ride. it helped me feel confident in the fact that i didn't contract the swine flu on the plane. i thought my sickness was over because i'd been sick for four weeks, to the doc twice, and through one set of antibiotics. i was feeling a little better, but the plane ride just didn't help. the week was full of a lot of coughing, a low sexy voice, mucinex, a few bags of ricola cough drops, schmoozing with clients (did i mention this was mostly a work trip with a few days of fun with whitney and josh tacked on to the end), and some great sight seeing. whit and josh are phenomenal friends. monday night they came to my hotel. whitney had a care package in hand and josh gave me a blessing. i felt the spirit so strong the moment he started the blessing. i knew i'd get better..and i did. i stayed sick throughout the week, but i did slowly get a bit better.

some of my favorite memories of boston include:

• the union oyster house - the oldest restaraunt in the U.S.
• walking down the cobblestone streets of boston along the freedom trail at night feeling the solemnity of the historical city i was in and putting on my "mean face" so that nobody would mess with this "little girl in a big city"
• practically walking to cambridge with lori while we were trying to find the tram station to cambridge
• running into the sister missionaries on the streets of cambridge
• cvs stores and dunkin' donuts every 50 feet
• the girl from nepal i met near fanuel hall and quincy market who sold me a hand-made journal
• meeting up with whitney for fro yo and to walk around harvard square
• a weekend with my sweet whitney - talks about our families we love so much, pride and prejudice w/ popcorn and hot tamales, walk/jog along cambridge river, the sacred grounds of the temple, the homes of ralph waldo emerson and nathaniel hawthorne, the historical grounds of lexington and concord, author's ridge, inspiring conversations w/ whitney, our shopping splurge at target, dinner from a little turkish pizza place, watching nascar with whit and josh, and church at the infamous cambridge 1st ward

there it is, my trip to boston.

nascar

i just barely rolled into town. i've been in boston for a week. i plan to post some pics and highlights of the trip at a later date. for right now, i just need to express my gratefulness to josh and whitney cutler for sharing with me their love for nascar. for the first time in my life, i watched bits and pieces of a nascar race on television. i am amazed and grateful for two things i heard the announcer say while watching the race. "dag gum right it is, " was the first lovely phrase. the second came as the race finished. drumroll please..."cut the chees and pour the wine." what?! who says that? only nascar ladies and gentlemen, only nascar...