178 miles... June 23, 2007

That's how many miles Chris and his teammates for the Wastach Back Relay ran in the past day and a half.  Wow!  I'm so proud of him and them.  Chris is really turning running into a passion of his and having a lot of fun doing it.  This year he has run a bunch of 5ks, which for me would be an amazing accomplishment in and of itself, but for him, it's a fun, short race.  His goal for this summer with 5ks was to get under 20 minutes, and he did it.  In fact, he's gotten so much better than last year that his best time this summer was 19 minutes and 3 seconds.  This is better than the best time he got running in high school when he was in track and he's 32 years old now - an old fart.  I'm so proud of him!  For the Wasatch Back Relay he ran a total of 14 miles in 3 different legs, one that was in the middle of the night.  After getting a total of one hour of sleep all night long, he ran the hardest leg of the race this morning, which was literally 4 miles up a mountain (over 1700 feet of elevation gain).  He said that 99% of the whole 4 miles was up a really steep hill, and that after he was done it only took his heartrate about five minutes to recover.  He's in such great shape!  He routinely runs up the hill on Antelope by our house and I'm amazed he can do that, let alone 4 whole miles of that.  I'm so impressed.  Can you tell?

Noah and I went to the finish this morning at Park City.  I love going to races, and I'm so glad Chris brought this little bit of richness and appreciation into my life.  Races always make me choke up.  It's just so neat to see people who are really pushing themselves, putting so much raw determination and energy into a goal, and then accomplishing it.  As a spectator, I always get a little emotional watching them do it.  Today was no different.  Chris snatched Noah up and ran with him in his arms through the finish line.  It was great!

Noah and I had fun staying busy while Chris was running the relay.  We spent hours at the Treehouse Museum yesterday with Linda, Mason, and Kim.  They have a new fire truck there and he loved sitting on the front seat, pretending to steer, and wearing the plastic fire chief hat.  He liked it so much the only way to get him to go see something else was to let him take the hat with!  Last night I rented a bunch of chick-flicks and I watched them last night and this morning while I  cried and ate junk food. 

I have to put in a few obligatory pictures of Noah from this morning.  He must have been missing his daddy because all this morning he'd stop playing and cry a little and say, "dada" in a really sad way.  One of these pictures is of Noah trying to blow his nose on the ball Grandma gave him.  He knows where his boogers are (don't know who taught him that one!) and will point to his nose if you ask him where they are.  Also, just now I was explaining to him that if he crawls under our kitchen table and stands up he will bonk his head.  (This was after he did it three times in a row...and cried).  He looked really intently at me while I was explaining it and then said, "bonk!".  It amazes me every day what he learns.  Is it just me, or is he brilliant for 18 months?  I can't even count how many words he's said...