Saint George Half Marathon

Yesterday I did something I had never done before. I ran a half marathon. That is 13.1 miles of running. And it was AWESOME!

I did it with some friends from work and my roommate. We did the Dirty Dash earlier and now we did the Saint George Half. It really did feel good and I had a great experience doing it.

Tonya and I went down to Saint George with our friend Jeff from work and his wife, Julie. We talked and laughed the whole way down to Saint George.

Tonya and I stayed at one of our favorite hotel chains, Knight's Inn. We stayed at one in Denver, but this one was a lot more well kept up. It was nice for us (and not too expensive)!

We woke up early yesterday morning and ate some yummy breakfast. I had some oatmeal and a banana. Then our room was a little bit cool, so we got back into our beds and too a little nap until Jeff and Julie came.

So here is our before-race photo. Dad, I don't know if you can see it or not, but I am wearing my Crooked Pole Tipi Works viser. I think it was lucky!

Our orange shirts say CTL. Every year the CTL buys t-shirts for everyone at work and this year we asked if we could get some tech-shirts for running rather than the regular cotton t-shirts. We had to pay a little extra, but they are fun to wear. I like the color too!

The course was interesting because part of it went through the city and then it went out along the river and the freeway in St. George. We looped around a couple of times. I guess I must have been deep in thought throughout the whole race because I was listening to a book on my iPod. I listened to the first three chapters of the book two times and all I know about the book is there was a picture of a boat on a wall and it looked like the waves were really moving and some boy's cousins were coming to visit and he liked to torment them. (Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis. I'm sure it is a really good book!) Other than that, I was listening for the voice in my iPod that says "one mile completed...You are at the halfway point. Only 6.5 miles to go...one mile to go...400 meters to go...congratulations you have completed a half marathon. Time: 2:23. Distance 13.1 miles. Rate: 11.02 minutes per mile. Thank you Lori, Jordan, and Mckenzie for the running chip. It works great! And those were my stats. I felt fine about those, especially because I ran last weekend the same amount of time, but only ran about 11 miles. I felt good about it!

Here is the post-race picture. Kj and Jessica, I loved the water bottle belt. It is really handy to carry water and the phone and snacks and whatever else you can fit in it. It is great!

We don't look too much different from our pre-race picture. It was exciting! Tonya and Jeff finished about 30 minutes before I did, so they came back and met me where I had about 1/2 mile left.

I am really glad I did it. While we were there, we signed up to do the Utah Valley full Marathon in June, so we will be spending the next few months training and increasing our distance so we can run a full 26.2 miles. It really will be awesome!Who would have thought?

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and took the best shower ever! It felt so good! We went and ate at Cafe Rio and then went to the outlet mall and found some nice shirts for $2.99. Then we drove home. Today I feel great! I have been so hungry though! I have eaten a lot of meals and snacks!

Bubble Wrap

Do you love bubble wrap? I opened a package the other day that had a nice bubble wrap around it. So I have the bubble wrap on my desk next to my keyboard and every few minutes I have the urge to pop a couple. It relieves a lot of stress. I suggest everyone should have some. It makes you feel so much better after you pop some. The big bubbles are sometimes even better, but I feel that I get more pleasure out of the small ones.

Last Day in Hawaii

It was a sad (not too sad though) day! We had our last Hawaii adventures today. We wanted to do a lot of things so we would be able to sleep on the plane home, so we started early. We drove to the south east side of the island and climbed up Koko Head Crater. Koko Head is a volcanic crater that was formed a long time ago. It has a railway track that goes up the outside of it that is no longer used by rail, so people have started climbing up it. It has 1,048 steps up. The first part of the trail is not too steep. Then it crosses over a bridge that doesn't have any dirt under it (but there is a little trail off to the side where I went up). The second half of it is really steep. By the time you get up, you are pretty tired. At the top, you can look off over the interior of the crater and then down into the ocean. It was an amazing view! It was a really fun hike to do. At first I was tired, but then I started enjoying it a lot. Coming down was slower than going up, but we made it just fine.

Then we decided to go over to Diamond Head crater and hike it again. I like Diamond Head because it has a well-groomed path and there is a handrail all up the trail. At the top, you can look off and see all of Honolulu and Waikiki beach. The ocean really is amazing!

The next thing we had on our agenda was to go swimming, but before we did, we decided to go to Chinatown to drink a bubble tea smoothie. I really like the bubble tea, but I prefer it without the bubbles. Today I got a mango pineapple one. It was so yummy and very refreshing after our two hikes. Then we drove back to the north side of the island, but before we went to the beach, we stopped at Ross to see if we could find some good deals. We had heard they had some cute sweaters that were inexpensive. I found a really cute brown skirt like my black one and I brown sweater. I am kind of excited about them.

By the time we finished and drove back up toward La'ie, the wind was blowing, so we hated to get in the water because it is cold getting out and the beach wasn't that warm really. So we walked along the beach and watched the waves come crashing in. I really am amazed and intrigued by the ocean. It was fun! Then we met Tonya's friend Nichole at our favorite dinner place - Surfin' Taco and ate one last dinner. MMMMM-good! We went back to our place and showered and stuffed everything into the luggage and hoped everything would fit okay. Then we left to come to the airport.

We are now sitting in the airport waiting for our flight home to a very cold, snowy Utah...Hmmmm, Maybe there is a job for me here in Hawaii...Someday!

Top of Waikiki and Chinatown

Yesterday we worked in the morning. We went to eat lunch with Mike Griffiths that we used to work with in Provo at the CTL and had a good visit with him about what he is doing and the direction he sees his job going here at BYU-Hawaii. After we finished, we picked up Tonya's friend Nichole who is doing an internship here and we went down to Waikiki. Unfortunately it was windy and the waves were pretty strong, and a little bit rainy and cool, so we didn't do much. We were trying to decide where to eat, and happened to be walking by Top of Waikiki. So Top of Waikiki is a revolving restaurant. It takes about one hour for you to go all the way around. It is a more expensive restaurant than I thought, but the food was really good. We all just got little dishes and ate a little bit, but it was still about $20 each for all of our meals...I ate crab cake and thought it was really good though. Then we tasted everyone else's stuff and it was all really good. So that was a fun and unique experience for us. Then it rained on us as we walked back to our car. It was a fun day.

Today we worked in the morning. Then we went to eat lunch at a fish restaurant in North Shore with Paul from the Testing Center that we have been working with. I ate some ahi tuna and salad and rice. It was so good! It tasted really, really good.

Then we left from there and wanted to go down to Waimano falls, but the trail was really steep and I didn't really want to do it that much. We turned around and went to Chinatown. We had talked about going there a few different times, but we never made it. So we went and wandered around the different shops was a lot of fun. It made me a little bit nostalgic for China. One of the things we bought there was a boba (bubble tea). This is a smoothie with fruit and then it has large tapioca balls in it. We used to drink them all the time when I was in China. Except I prefer to not get the tapioca balls in mine. Anyway, it was refreshing and fruity and something new to try. I liked it a lot.

We went by Costco to buy some gifts to take back with us and then went to Kaneohe on the way home to try a Korean restaurant that we heard was really good. It was not as good as we thought it might be. I have had much better Korean food. Oh well. Sometimes you try something and it's great, and sometimes you try, but it isn't very good. It was a fun day!

PCC and Temple

Today was a rainy day in La'ie and all over the island it looked like. We worked all morning on our projects, trying to make some progress on them. Then about 1:00 we left and went back to PCC. If you have a ticket, you can go back for the next three days after. There were a couple of shows that we didn't get to see. So first we went to the Hawaii one where they taught about the hula. I didn't know that the hula is more about the hands than shaking your hips (like Tahiti). Then it was time for the canoe pageant where they have dancers come out on a canoe and dance through the river running through the PCC. The other day we were sitting on the very end so we didn't see any of the dances, but today we sat smack dab in the middle and we saw it all. It was a lot of fun. The students are so talented! Then we went to Fiji and they did some chanting and dancing for us. We were going to get "tattoos," but we were going to go to the temple right after, so I didn't think I would have time to get it washed off. After we walked around some more, we went to some of the shops and then we left.

We came back to our place and changed back into our skirts, ate some salad, and then Tonya and I went to the temple. It was so neat. It is really beautiful! I enjoyed it a lot and it was neat to be there. The rooms still smell new. It really is a beautiful temple. I am so glad we got to go! It was a great day!

Beach Relaxation

This morning we went in to work early and got busy. I worked on some screens for the Student Ratings management site we will be building. Then I did some reading for American Heritage. Tonya and I went and met with one of the guys that we used to work with us at the CTL who moved here with his family. We wanted to talk to him about a program that he is using for his online classes and then we were talking with him about his plans for where he sees the program here going. It was interesting to talk to him and to see the work they are doing here. He invited us to go to the devotional today where the student body presidency spoke today. It was really good. I was impressed by their talks.

We went back to work and I read more for American Heritage and then I wrote some discussion questions for the lecture tomorrow. I hope he will use them. It always takes me so long to write decent questions. Then when I do, and he doesn't use them, I feel bad. Oh well. It does me good to read the articles and to think about them and the most important messages from them. I am learning a lot about politics and government, so that is good for me.

After I finished, we talked to one of the guys in Provo that we work with to discuss our projects and how to continue working on them. Then Tonya and I went out to the beach here in La'ie. It isn't a very big beach, but it was nice and quiet. There weren't very many people there. We found a tree swing that had about a five-foot seat, so we sat there and watched the waves come in and just talked and laughed. Then we started walking to the next town to get some exercise. We almost got there and Tom came and picked us up so we could go eat at our favorite restaurant - Surfin' Tacos. Mmmmmm Good!

PCC

This morning we got up early and went out running around the campus circle. It was a nice morning to run. There is only a small difference in temperature between early morning and daytime. It is really amazing to me. Then we got ready for work and were there by 6:00. We got busy and started working. Part way through the morning, Paul from the Testing Center came in and asked when we wanted to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We told him whenever he thought would be better. He said that the rest of the week was going to be rainy, so they got our tickets for today. So we worked until noon and then came home and changed into our comfy clothes and walked over to the PCC, which is right next door. Throughout the day we can hear the drums and activities, we are that close.

What an awesome place! They have six different villages set up, one from each of the main island groups. In each of them they have shows and then activities for people to try. They do dances and then they will teach you to dance too. They also teach ukelele lessons and how to make bracelets and leis. We went to see most of the shows in the different villages. In some off time we looked at the shops and watched the canoe parade with dancers from the different countries. What an amazing feat to teach everyone the dances and to make sure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there. They also got us tickets to the luau and night show, so we went to the luau next. We ate rice and Kalua pork, fish, taro rolls, salad, pineapple, and coconut cake. I thought it was delicious! Then Tonya and I came back to get our sweatshirts for the night show. We went back over and watched Ha: The Breath of Life. Amazing! I think that a word that comes to mind, but it is hard to really explain it. It is the story of life and death, and overcoming challenges. It is all done through dance and music from each of the different islands. The last act was the fire knife dancers. Wow! They were awesome! So talented! So fun to watch! I am so grateful we got to go. I enjoyed it so much. With our tickets, we can go back again. We didn't get to do everything, so I hope one if the days I can go back again to see some more of the stuff in there. It is just such a fun place.

When we got out, I was grateful that I didn't have to drive anywhere. Traffic was busy! It was nice to just walk back to our cozy little apartment. What a fun day!