Obviously that's not really me because I'm the one taking the picture, silly.

Last Saturday I ran 13 consecutive miles. On purpose.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it. After my 12 mile half-naked run my right knee was shot. After a week of rest I could barely make it three miles – the pain was terrible.

Two days before the race I considered not going at all. Why waste my time if I couldn’t even run three miles?

Fortunately, my wonderful sister in-law who talked me into doing this in the first place (my pain is your fault Heidi!) convinced me that I’d put in too much time training to not even try. So off to Logan I went.

The race

The next morning I was up at 5:50, put on a knee brace, overdosed on Motrin and got on a school bus to go up a canyon (note: people over six feet tall should not be forced to ride school busses – ever). There was a lot of excitement amongst the hundreds of people who showed up to put their bodies through a grueling ordeal so early in the morning.

Everything was fine until about mile six when the knee started to get a little tender. I said a number of prayers to the effect of, “Take pain I would have experienced here and give it to me tomorrow. I just want to finish.”

Prayers are answered! Sunday I couldn’t bend my knee.

I finished the race in 2 hours 10 minutes which is roughly a 10 minute mile. I’m pretty happy with the results all things considered.

Thoughts from the race

• I was surprised how many happy tingly feelings I got from all the people who sat along the side of the route and cheered us on. Even if they were holding up a sign that said, “Go Jennifer!” it was still very motivating.
• There was this great lady who had a sign that said, “Don’t think, just run.” Excellent advice.
• Nike+ EPIC FAIL. First the app on my iPhone died so I spent another $60 to buy a wristband which worked great – until the day of the race. I looked down at it and it said I was running a four minute mile. At the end of the race it said I’d gone 21 miles. Piece of crap Nike stuff.
• The person who won the race did it in 1 hour 16 minutes and that’s just not right.
• I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to see my beautiful wife and family at the finish line.

Later that day my father in-law asked me what my favorite part of the race was.

“The end.”

Courtesy of ragesoss

As new homeowners of a new home, finding window coverings is of utmost importance. I mention this only because we don’t have any at the moment and I think our neighbors have probably already seen us naked. This is awkward as it usually takes several weeks of knowing someone before we don’t care if they see us wandering in the buff. Any earlier than that is just trashy.

Courtesy of StevenM_61

It’s officially official. We own a home. It’s not the one pictured above. Hahahahahah! No, no. That one only had the one pool.

We closed on Friday, moved in on Saturday (thank you in-laws!), came home to a power outage Sunday and are getting settled today.

It’s getting late and this homeowner is tired so I’m just going to hit the high points:

• The kids love it. Haven’t had any troubles going to bed in their new rooms. This is a huge blessing because my son freaked out when we got rid of our old TV. I thought getting a new room in a new house in a new neighborhood would be more traumatic. Apparently he really liked that TV.
• The washer and dryer 1. work and 2. fit into the laundry room.
• I love that I have a garage.
• I love that I have a garage door opener. I kinda geek out about that.
• I love that I came home for lunch today.
• I love that my commute has been reduced from 50 miles roundtrip to 10 minutes roundtrip.
• I love that my wife has a house to be in.

Things on the to-do list:

1. Get some kind of window coverings. Skin and tan animal hides if necessary.
2. Unpack.
3. Figure out where our mailboxes are.
4. Meet more neighbors.
5. Eat some peanutbutter ice cream. (This has nothing to do with the fact that we live in a house now.)

Overall, it feels like we’re visiting a rental property but had to bring all our stuff in order to use it. It definitely hasn’t sunk in yet. That being said, we’re very excited. Tired, but excited.

Image courtesy of jon starbuck

Saturday night I ran my longest distance to date: 12 miles. Being somewhat of a masochist I decided to run up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Stupid, David. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

By the time I made it to the top of the Temple Quarry Trail I was pretty spent – 7.5 miles into my run. By this time the sun had set completely and there are no street lights nor a shoulder on the road on which to run. This was problematic as I was wearing a black shirt and white and black shorts and didin’t want to die.

But how to make myself more reflective?

I had a flash of inspiration.

I took off my shirt, exposing my hidden-from-the-sun-for-a-decade torso to the moonlight. I became a beacon of whiteness, hovering three feet above the ground.

It worked. I’m happy to report I wasn’t hit by any cars and made it safely home.

I’d also like to apologize to anyone who was driving down Little Cottonwood Canyon Saturday night between the hours of 9:00 and 10:00 and can only justify my actions as some kind of twisted form of self-defense. I beg your forgiveness.