Mammoth Races

Come along with us on our weekend journey. Thanks for the picture Cheri.

We made reservation at the KOA in Garden City for Friday night. This is the set up....well part of it. Doran and I took our trailer and Chelsea and her family stayed in the tent. I think they wanted to see if it was rain proof. I am still wondering if Chelsea REALLY knows how to set up her "trailer".

For the past while I have been following Cheri Crane's blog. From her posts I realized that she lived by where my brother lived so I commented on her blog and found out that she knows Jon & Denise. Then when I found out about the Mammoth Marathon Race and was thinking of running, I contacted Cheri to see if she was going to be around so we can meet. They were thinking of going camping the opposite way but ended up coming to Garden City to camp. Yeah!! So after we set up we were going to go meet them for dinner. As we were trying to get out of the KOA park, (I won't tell you we couldn't figure out how to get out of the park) someone was following us. After a couple of times around the park we figured out that is was Cheri and Kennon. Eh heh. We then FINALLY made it out of the park and over to a pizza place for some pasta and pizza. I always hear that pasta is good for the night before a race so......since I pretend to be a runner, I went for the pasta.

Take my pichow.

This is Cheri & Kennon. I was so thrilled we got to meet them. They are so fun! I can't wait to get together again!!

A family portrait

After dinner we headed back to camp. Cheri went to grab her git fiddle so she could entertain us. Not only is she an awesome LDS author, she is fabulous on the guitar. So fun!!! I could have listened to her for days. AND she has written some of her own songs. Too bad she lives so far away, or I would make beg her to teach me how to play.

I have always admired anyone who could write a book but never realized how tedious it is to actually get your book published. What patience authors have to have while going through the process of getting a book on the shelves. Authors must sometimes be immovable when asked to alter or change text in their books, the values of what they believe in. This may even make it additional months or years until the finished product is actually ON the shelves. Hats off to all the authors that stand by what they believe in!!

Cheri now serves as her wards YW President. I bet the girls just LOVE her. She even knows how to fish AND she will bait her own hook and touch the fish. Ick. A woman of many talents! Kennon was so good with Monkey while the others were outside having their fun.

This is some of the fun that the girls had that night.

Choo choo!!!

I love my sister

This is a huge jumpy thing.
Can you find me?

Oh poor Jason. He couldn't find anyone to play tether ball with him
so........ He buried his children.Love my gRiLs!!The morning of the race.....

First off, Doran and I did not sleep well at all! We were up at 2 and then 2:30 and 3:15, 3:20 and so forth. At first we thought we ALL had to be to the park at 5:30 but not so. I could have slept or toss and turned for two more hours. So during the night I worked up a stomach ache. From what? I don't know. Doran had to be to the park by 5:30 to catch the bus for the 1/2 Marathon. It was raining, raining. It's a good thing that the hard rain was during the bus ride or waiting ON the bus. Jason and I had to be back to the park by 7:30 for our bus. We ran the 10k. I couldn't decide whether to wear my hat and a jacket or take a chance that it WOULDN'T rain during the race. I went ahead and left my hat in the car and jacket on the bus and I am glad I did. It was quite chilly to begin with but as we started the race of course I warmed up. Then the rain started at just the right time to cool me down. When I took the time to look up the race was quite pretty. And did you know that cows cheer for runners? Well they do. While we were running past the cows they were mooing like crazy looking right at the runners. How sweet huh? I have never ran that far before without stopping once or twice but this race I did it!! Yeah. Was I fast? Well no, but my goal was to not stop. My knee felt pretty good up until about the last mile or so and then it started to burn a little. My left chin/calf area was the part that was giving me problems this time. But with all my whaa whaa, I made my goal AND I beat my last weeks race by 5 minutes.

Here are a couple of cheerleaders! The first person in.....ME! Was there a picture of me? Well of course not. For some reason when it is Chelsea's turn to take pictures of me, my picture hardly ever turns out. Sheesh. So because I was going too fast, just imagine me coming in the home stretch at 100 miles an hour.

Here is Kennon directing traffic at the last turn to the finish line. I didn't see him because remember, I was going too fast of course. Cheri did some volunteer work too. Go Craner's!! Second one in....Jason. Go Jason!!


And here come Doran. Remember he ran the 1/2 marathon. That is the furthest that he has ever ran and he ran the whole thing. No walking for him this day either. Yeah!!! He did a great job!Lookin pretty good.

Your almost there hon!! Go, Go, Go!!!

Here are the drowned rats.....I mean the runners.

Jason - 10k His time was a few minutes behind me but I can't remember what his time was.

Jody - 10k - 1:04:24

Doran - 1/2 marathon - 2:00:17

Here is Doran getting his medal for taking 2nd place in his age division. Go Doran!!!

We did it!! Aren't we buff?

And the back of our shirts. Hey! Where did my waist go? Oh wait, I don't have one. My flotation device gets in the way.
Right before we pulled out, our "shy" kid, Cookie, saw these guys and said, "Hey! I want a ride." And proceeded to ask for a ride. They were so nice to give them a ride. We ran out of time to go rent one.Then we pulled out of camp and headed over to Le Beau's to meet Cheri and Kennon for breakfast/lunch. I was starving by then.

We ran into Michelle. This is one of my good friends daughters. Michelle actually ran in the 10k race too. She blew right past me and didn't even let me grab on to her shirt tail. For rude wouldn't you say? She is so dang cute even if she made me run on my own. This is Cheri trying to pull a face. I am sure she can do a better job. Well, work on it Cheri cuz next time I will get a better one. Thanks so much for taking the time to meet with us both days! You guys are great! Can't wait til the next time!!!

This is how we all felt after we finally got home. Yes, they are actually fast asleep. Doran and I had a wonderful nap too.

Well....that's all folks. Thanks for visiting