Running Popes

Ressurection of the Blog!!

2011-02-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

Wow has it really been three years since I have posted? Well so much is happening. So instead of recapping it all let's just do a little bit. Natalie ran her faster 5k this year just under 38 minutes. I ran my fastest 5k ever in 29:14 and Chris is running again. We are heading to Arizona is about 9 days and I can't wait!! I hate cold, I hate dark, I hate winter! So at least in Arizona I can get rid of cold for a while and Chris will run his first half marathon in about 3 years.

I have dropped out of the marathon to the half because my training was lacking (enter excuses here: broken toe in November, cold, snow, dark) I am excited to exit Utah for a while though!

Natalie is doing wonderfully in 1st grade. Academically and socially, although her superb social skills get her in trouble more often than not, but hey she is essentially still pulling straight A's so I don't complain too much.

Loren LOVES preschool and can't wait for school to start. He has decided he wants morning kindergarten and I am not surprised. I can never wake up, go potty, and sneak back to bed because some boy is already bright eyed and bushy tailed just waiting for the first signs of life in the morning.

I have quit teaching and I LOVE IT!! Finances, and other things made Nuclear medicine next to impossible right now so I am a substitute teacher and a stay at home mom. And guess what?! I cook more, I spend less, my house is cleaner more often and we are so much happier as a family.

Chris teaches in Priesthood and is a cub scout leader. I am now teaching the 5 year olds in Primary. It is close to my nursery class reincarnate!

Hope to see you soon! Until then life, love, liberty, and the prusuit of running!

My Closet

2008-02-19T13:54:00.001-08:00

Look at this stuff, isn't it neat! Wouldn't you think that my bedrooms complete? My closet almost is. The picture with all my blankets showing is the center closet and the two other sides will eventually have a clothes rack put in. There is a close up to the handles and then showing you one unit of drawers. I have three units total so there are six little drawers and three big drawers. My bedrom is almost done but I still have all the stuff to put back on the wall still through the whole house piled up in my corner, but I am working on it and it should be done ......well sometime. I did hang one thing up today.

Chef Natalie

2008-02-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

Natalie was such a good help making no-bakes the other day. She is so cute. Also look around her, check out my new island and my new cabinets and countertops. I love my kitchen. I am still waiting for my new microwave though.

dsl baby

2008-02-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

I love dsl and I love being ablt to work with my pictures now. This is Nana and Loren sitting in a box they found(Their seats)Right now they are watching little mermaid and Loren screams, "NOOO" Everytime there is something bad going on. They also have their carpets. We cut pieces of our leftover new carpet for mats for them and they haul them everywhere. It is really cute.

Happy Birthday Loren Paul

2008-01-21T01:44:00.001-08:00

I can't believe my little man is 2 already. It's so sad, but luckily he doesn't look it yet. He got a 2t outfit from Gymboree from my sister Julie, and I was able to put the pants on Natalie. They were even long enough for her, just a little tight in the waist. He may be wearing these for a while!

Loren had a wonderful birthday Friday. We had a Cars party. We had a 5 ft mater on the wall that everyone took pictures with. I think I am going to put it in his room now. He got a huge mater balloon, well two actually because Natalie and Elisa were able to pop the first one within the first 5 minutes of bringing it home. We had a Baskin Robins ice cream cake, cause that is what grammie in the mountains would have made had we been there for it. He got four new cars on his cake.

We went to go get him a cars bicycle and after I had paid for it and we were leaving the store he wouldnt come. He was laying in the isle next to the cars bikes display saying, "Mine, Mine." I had to show him that I had one and that we were carrying out of the store before he would leave. What a silly goose. He was able to blow out his candles all by himself. We also got him a cars bedding set. (Grammie in the mountains paid for most of it) He went to bed just cuddling his new Mater pillow.

It was a wonderful and we had so much fun, but we were tired. Grandma and Grandpa with the birds were there along with the Habels, and Parkes.

THANK YOU

2008-01-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

These thank you's are for the bestest people in the whole wide world! Grammie and grandpa in the mountains! They came all the way to Florida just to be able to help watch the kids while Chris and I did all of our running. They were so much help and we had a blast. We even had some fun while we were there. We were all pretty much beat by the time it was over. Grandpa is not so sure he wants to do this with us again, at least not for an extended amount of time. But there was no way we could have done it without them.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Micky Marathon Madness

2008-01-21T00:26:00.000-08:00

Okay this is delayed but I am finally going to tell y'all about my wonderful experience in Florida. First off, I was scared to DEATH over doing this, thinking the goody challenge was probably one of the dumbest things I have ever decided to do. (I have since vowed never to let a medal motivate me to do something crazy). I had three reason to be scared,
1. training was hit and miss
2. 5 weeks post gallbladder surgery
3. 3 full days wandering around disneyworld could be enough to sap all my energy before I even start.

So the half comes around and I am so excited, especially when I saw the food at the starting line. Oh wait this is Disney, you had to pay for it. Bummer. The first few miles were really tough and I was afried I might not even be able to keep the 16min/mile pace requirement. But after about mile 3/4 I finally started to relax and feel good. Running through the magic kingdom was amazing and I was surprised by all the characters I saw along the race. Which inspired me to buy a disposable camera to carry for the marathon. Around mile 6 I started running with a girl who had started out too fast and was having troubles but she was able to stick we me great and we had a blast. It was"brilliant" She is from london and we had so much fun. OH yeah, I wore my tigger ears through the whole race:) We finished with time to spare a 14.30 average and vowed to find each other the next morning.

Well marathon morning came and I couldn't find her I was so dissappointed and nervous that I made Chris promise to run with me until I loosened up again. One more time I had a rough start and thought I wasn't going to make it. but yet again around mile three and my first potty stop, (In a REAL bathroom in Norway) I decided I was going to make and sent Chris on his way-who later finished under 4 hours......................... But luckily around mile 4.5 Sally, my new friend, recognized my tigger ears and came to run with me again. YIPPEE. We had a "brilliant" run and laughed and joked and posed for pictures with
mickey
minnie
donald
daisy
goofy
pluto
chip n dale
mater
alice
wicked step sisters and mom
baloo
rafiki
king louie
ariel/prince eric
snow white
pochontas/john smith
wendy/peter pan
a turtle
a goat
and a hawk and probably some I missed.

It was really warm and there and i love it. (Day two I had brought money and carried it with me) and around mile 23 I felt a popsicle was in order so in Disney Hollywood studios I found a push cart vendor and took a detour and bought a strawberry popsicle. It was wonderful, a few thought I was crazy but for the most part most were jealous, that is until we were running through mexico and they peeled off to buy margaritas and beers 1 mile before the finish line. My last mile was 2:30 faster than my average and I felt great until I crossed the finish line and something happened and I could hardly walk anymore, but who cares! I AM GOOFY.

I would have beat my park city marathon time had I not paused for the photos but it was only a few minutes slower. What I truly loved about this race is I have never been in a race where I wasn't so spread out and far behind that I have basically run it by myself, but here I was surrounded the whole time. I have never had so many spectators and cheerleaders yelling my name (which was printed on my bib). And the best part of all, this made me feel like a million bucks, When we got back to the hotel and walked into the lobby, EVERYBODY broke into applause for us. I will never forget this race. I was a champion and I loved it!

Laurie Pope
official goofy runner!
PS, I'm definitly cutting back on the marathons this year, I think Portland will be the only other one I am going to run.

The Goofy Challenge

2008-01-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

The Disney World marathon and half was a great race. I take it nice and easy for the half because I was running the marathon the next day. I ran the first 11 miles at an 8 min mile pace. The last 2 I picked it up for fun. Mile 12 was 7:39 and mile 13 7:07. One of my faverite parts of the half was running throught Tommorrow Land in the Magic Kingdom. It was about mile 4 or 5 and it was still dark. They had all the lights on in Tommorrow Land. The weather was great also, some where in the 70's. After finishing the half I met my wife Laurie at about mile 12 and ran her in for fun.

My goal for the marathon was to run under 4 hours and I knew that would be easy to do. But then my wife wanted me to run with her for the first 3 miles because she couldn't find her new friend she met yesterday during the half marathon from London. Guess who she ran in to at mile 5? That's right her new friend. I left my wife at about mile 3 1/2. I ran the first 3 mile at a 15 min pace (which means I have 18 mins to make up in the next 23 miles to make a sub 4) and picked it up to a 8 min pace. For the rest of the race I was passing runners by the 100's and by the end I think I passed about 10,000 runners. At first I felt I was running the wrong race and I know everyone was thinking that I showed up late to the race because I slept in. There was no sleeping in for this race. Ther race started at 6:00am. That ment getting up at 3:00 am. I ran at an 8 min pace till about mile 17. I felt great so I picked it up to a 7:30 pace. In the end I got my sub 4 hour but it took some work.

I ran back about a half mile of the marathon and run Laurie in. I have run at least the last mile of all her marathons with her. Some times she has need the extra boost by having me run with her. But most of the time she is doing fine. Even though it was my slowest half and my slowest marathon by one min it was a lot of fun running a half and marathon back to back.

Half Marathon 1:45
Marathon 3:53

M-i-c,k-e-y, M-o-u-s-e

2008-01-08T03:24:00.000-08:00

We are getting ready to go to "Mickey Mouse House" as Natalie says. She is so excited about going and has been a helper packing. She even pointed out that we didn't have tickets to get on the airplane. She found her swimsuit and had her care bear all ready to go. She is also so excited to get to see Grammie in the mountains again.

We are as ready as we can be for the race so hopefully all goes well. I ran 10 miles last Saturday, that's a far cry from a marathon but not bad for a post surgery training.

Natalie got stitches put in on Dec 19th, she hit her head on the shopping cart at Kohls. When we went to get the stitches put in the nurse asked what had happened and she said, "I cracked my head open and I need a band-aid. NO SHOTS!" I took them out on Christmas eve, and then sweet little Loren took a fall on my bed and split his chin open on New Years Eve. You could even see the fatty tissue it was pretty bad. He wasn't the easiest patient either but it worked.

Ok the house, we have ordered the countertops, (way way too much money but I guess it happens) and that cabinets are almost done. I can't wait, I am starting to get the nesting bug just to get out of my construction and have some order once again, but nesting DOES NOT include another little one yet.

We all got our haircut on Saturday, I chopped mine to my chin and dyed it. I love it! I look so cute and Loren looks so handsome with his little boy hair dude. He has grown attached to his lightning mcqueen/mater brief underwear and has to wear them over his diaper. I love that silly little boy.

only 19 more hours until we leave for disney, I can't wait, I told Chris I was going to get a job there and never come back to this freezing place (Average temp for the month of December was 27 degrees F--YUCK)

OH Christmas! Natalie got a sleeping beauty barbie from Santa. She says santa brought it because Papa doesn't buy barbies!
I know this is random but it's a recap of the last month.

What's in an organ?

2007-11-30T03:34:00.000-08:00

Apparently in mine a whole lot of stones. Turns out it's genetic and so I blame mom. Same thing happened to her at about the same age. I am now trying to get in for surgery as soon as possible so I can recover and get back to training for the DisneyWorld Marathon. I will have my gallbladder taken out on Dec.10,2007.

The new room is almost sheetrocked and we are ready for inspection again. Our kitchen cabinets are coming out on Dec 8 to make new for the new ones.

Natalie turns 4 on Dec. 3 and we even sent out real invitations and she has some friends coming on top of family, so it's like her first real party. It's a pony party and we got a pinata and I was afriad she wouldn't want to break it but any time someone comes over she shows it to them and tells them she will WHACK it and all the candy will come out. So much for that concern. I think it will be a great day!

Remodeling Continues at Breakneck Speed

2007-10-29T03:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, we had a great weekend. Laurie's Dad and brother Justin came out and did so much work on the house for us! They came prepared to do insulation and sheet rock but because we didn't get an inspection scheduled in time we got them to help with a bunch of other stuff. In just three days they got the roof put on the addition, a fence built for my whole yard and an extra slab of concrete next to our driveway. This will keep our cars from blocking the sidewalk and also reduce the number of inter-family vehicular mutilation when we hit our own cars.

After the concrete got poured Loren tried to bypass grandpas truck (which was put there to keep him out of the concrete) and got about two feet in before people heard him whining, ugh, ugh, cause he was stuck and couldn't get out. About 5 minutes after that was repaired the neighbor girl Bailey ran through it as fast as she could, and even lost a shoe in the middle. Her dad then spent two hours finishing up the concrete and left it better than Bailey found it. We later joked and said,"Tell Bailey thanks for us."

I know Justin and Dad are beat, but man, it was amazing seeing everything they got done. We really couldn't have done it without them. They are the greatest!

WE LOVE YOU BOTH!

The remodel

2007-10-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

This post is not available at this time, it is under construction.

St. George race report

2007-10-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

The St. George Marathon was great this year. Paula (Lauries' mother) came down with us to take care of the kids while we ran the race. She was so helpful and we can never thank her enough. I know it was no big deal to her, she got to spend time with her grandchildren.

October 6th
3:40 A.M.
We got up, put on our race gear, ate breakfast, packed the drop bag, and headed out the door. I should say tent door because we camped at this RV park. It was a lot cheeper than getting a hotel.
4:20 A.M.
Some friends of ours pick us up to take us to the start.
4:40 A.M.
Got on a bus to the start. It was cold.
6:45 A.m.
The race started and where was I (Chris)? Taking off my warm ups, and keeping the body glide from Laurie. We ran in the dark for the first 5-6 miles. I love running in the dark.

It was a great day for a marathon. It never got to hot and we had alittle wind. Laurie ran her fastest marathon this year and ran this years St. George Marathon 25 min faster than last year. She ran a 5:52. I ran about 1 min slower because of minor set back 4 weeks before (foot pain). I ran a 2:58.17 and placed 177 out of about 5,155 runners.

Okay Laurie's Part, I was doing great but was starting to get tired at about mile 18, I still had so much further to go, so I decided it was mind against body, so I start to talk to myself. "You are great, You rock, this is so amazing, think about what you are doing, this doesn't hurt, this feels good, you like this!" And funny thing it worked and I never slowed down and even got a little faster. When Chris met me to run the last mile I told him all of this and he looked at me and said "Really?" I said, "NO, I feel like $&*%@!"

It was a beautiful and I am happy for my accomplishment and I got my Grand Slam marathon, for running 4 marathons this year! Oh yeah baby, and I'm a toe nail short and have a scar running across my chest from chaffing with my sports bra(Remember Chris had the body glide which prevents this from happening) He kind of felt bad for me.

The kids hated it when Grandma left, I can't image why? It just like being Christmas or something. They love her to peices and even Loren learned that Grandma was a better choice than Papa to try and get something.

2007-09-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

1st Running Pope update

2007-09-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

You all know we are planning to remodel. Well flooring costs came in lower than expected and it looks like construction might come in a few grand cheaper too! Oh nice! I hope to have carpet installed by the end of September.

The kids and I are going to California on the 6th and will be coming back on Sunday. We are going out for my brother's elopement party. Chris is going to be pacing an out of towner for about 30 miles of a 100 mile race that weekend depending on how his foot feels, it has been giving him problems lately.

Natalie starts preschool the Tuesday after we get back. She is so excited and her teachers name is Miss Sara, just like her last teacher. She is going think all of her teachers name are Sara. Loren is getting big and talking more. Things like spoo (yogurt), chocolate, mine, no, shoe, Na-ie (Natalie), and just about anything he hears so be careful.

We went camping for the Labor Day weekend and Loren got two bloody noses and just as he got his second one the Park Ranger guy came by to hit us up for 5 bucks for parking the car there. He just stood and waited and tried to talk to me for a bit while I was taking care of Lorens nose. Come on people, come back later please!

Next big race: St. George, Utah, Oct 6, 2007, let's hope the best for PR's(personal records) for both Chris and Laurie.