Resolutions

It seems the harder we try to do something, the harder it becomes to accomplish it. I don't know why, but since I started this blog, I had two car accidents (minor hits from behind), but enough to hurt my back so I could not run. Then I ran a 1/2 marathon that I did not prepare for as well as I should have and hurt my ankle for a few weeks. Then I started a new job as a sixth grade teacher and that has fully consumed my time.
I was talking to my dad a couple of weeks ago and he asked how my running was. I answered that I get out maybe once every 2 weeks, if lucky. Otherwise, once a month. Then he reminded me of something I read and related to him a year ago. It doesn't matter how long or how much you run every day, as long as you go out and do it. I remember reading an article that said you should try to run for at least 10 minutes a day, or however much time you can allow. I think the point is, once you get out there, you can determine whether or not you want to continue or stop at the allotted time you gave yourself. So, my new resolution is to not think about it so much, just do it.

At the Beginning

So, I decided to go to the BYU indoor track last night and time my mile (not pushing it). I came up with a time of 09:05:58 (mm:ss:msms). Definitely not my best. I think I could run a 7 minute mile in high school, but that of course was when I was on the soccer and volleyball team. However, I am not discouraged. I have a ways to go, but I have lots of resources and I am going to start using them more often. For now, I am just going to work on getting into the habit of running consistently. I am going to go running outside today, probably 2 miles. I need to get back into the swing of things gradually, or I will injure myself and damper my progress.

The Transformation of a Runner

I have been a runner all of my life, but the frequency of training has ranged from very good to very bad. Recently, I was talking to my Uncle Dave at our family's annual Easter Egg hunt about all the running that I had done in the past years.

• Rex Lee 5K Run four times (2002, 2003, 2007, 2008)
  
• Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Race with some other crazy people (June 2007)
  
• Freedom Run 10K (07/04/07)
  
• Deseret Morning News Marathon (July 24, 2007)
  
• Spanish Fork half-marathon (09/08/07)
  

At the time I was just happy to complete all of these races, but it has instilled a desire to now work towards better times, better health, and overall a better life as I learn to set goals and reach them. I kind of joked with my uncle that it might be good for me to set up a blog site so that I would have to post my progress and be accountable to write up my runs.




I just ran the Rex Lee 5K for 2008 on March 15th. I wanted to beat my time last year, which I did (2007 - 28:39.53 vs. 2008 28:01), but it wasn't enough. I really want to run a 5K where I can win my division. In order to do that, I need to run a 5K in 20 minutes if not less. That means that I need to get my mile down to a 6 minute mile. I even had my brothers (age 14 & 16) put together a playlist of running songs that would help to motivate me. Even with that I was not able to reach my goal this year. I was really bummed, but I had to remember that I had bronchitis for 2 weeks beforehand and was not allowed to train properly. On the positive side I have next year and lots of other races to run in between to get ready for it.

I now have a goal to run the Boston Marathon someday, which means in order to qualify, I need to run a marathon in 3 hours and 40 minutes. My first marathon was run in 4 hours and 35 minutes. Not bad for a first time runner and very plausible to get my time down. I would also like to run a marathon/race in each state in the USA. I am signing up for at least 2 more marathons in the next year, St. George & the Sedona, AZ marathon (which I will run with my good friend Lachelle, her husband Rob and her father). Within that time I will look for 5K's, 10K's and half-marathons to help me train and keep up my training.

I am going to use this blog to write down my efforts and I hope that my friends and family will use it to give me pointers and encouragement throughout.

"When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." -Elder Thomas S. Monson, Improvement Era, Dec. 1970,

This is only the beginning. . .

Annual Halliday Family Easter Egg Hunt, Spring 2008

I am going back in time. I actually started my blog on the 6th of April, but this was the activity that started it all. We were at the Annual Halliday Easter Egg Hunt on my Grandpa Halliday's Ranch. This was where I started talking to my Uncle Dave about keeping a running blog. I am writing this as a preface to it like Section 1 of the Doctrine & Covenants was written as a preface after a lot of other sections had already been revealed. I wanted this to be a running blog, but it has turned into a "Running the Race of Life" blog. It's more about what is going on in my life, which is fine. That is why I wanted to post these pictures of our Halliday Easter Egg Hunt. I love my family!

Trent, Mom, Jonelle, Chalyce, Lisa, Mel, Jennie, Grandpa,
Grandma, Torie, Heather, Ann, McKay, Paul, Dave, Janet, Mike

Bohne's, Marshall's, Berezay's, Halliday's, Bunch's

Trent, Jonelle, Chalyce, Torie, Jennie, Grandpa, Mike,
Grandma, Mel,  McKay, Heather, Paul

Grandpa & Grandma - The tradition starts here

This wasn't a tradition, just this year.

But it was fun to run through the paper. I guess Trent didn't care. :-)

Jonelle & Jennie searching

Melanie & me searching

Paul searching in the trees

I am really trying to find that Golden Egg

Jennie looking around

Mike & Heather among the trees

Trent is hiding

Jennie & Mike (Mike is contemplative)

Trent takes his time, he has a strategy no doubt

Heather, me, & Trent (We are following him because he has a plan)

Mike

Mel with Lisa & McKay in the background

Trent is still looking for the Golden Egg

Too bad, Jonelle found one of them

Reach! Can you see that golden beauty?

Why look anymore when the Golden Eggs are found?
Heather, Jennie, & Torie

Heather, Jennie, & Torie looking for all the eggs

Heather is bored

Gotta find them all before Grandpa finds them with his tractor

Look at the horde of goodies we got!
Jennie, Heather, Torie, & McKay

The Final Score
Chalyce, Paul, Jonelle (Golden Egg #1), Trent, Mel,
Mike (Golden Egg #2), Torie, Heather, McKay, Jennie

I love all of the memories that we make out at Grandpa's Almond Ranch (80 acres). We have it good out there. We have had numerous Easter Egg Hunts out there and later on spent hours driving the go-carts through the trees. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the memories and the future ones to come.