Day 12
With less than 5km to go in their 60km walk to End Women’s Cancers, Team Iron Mountain Movement still looks STRONG and BEAUTIFUL! You Rock!!!
www.operationbeautiful.com
Day 11
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt
You are beautiful!
www.operationbeautiful.com
Run, swim, eat.
The last session of the summer trail running clinic is always bitter sweet. It’s sad because it signifies that summer is just about over but so much fun because we (well, most of us) end the run by jumping off the floating bridge into Hayward Lake and then have a tailgate party (which has now matured into a garden party at Conny and Colin’s).
With the addition of a few new faces, a few faces missing and no cinnamon buns, this is pretty much what it looked like …
Day 10
The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude. – Dennis S. Brown
You are beautiful!
www.operationbeautiful.com
Revisiting Sprint To The Summit
You may recall that last month, whilst visiting Utah, I participated in the Sprint to The Summit 2010, a12km trail race. I am happy to report that my left shin has since healed (I do hope to keep the scar as a race momento) and the race results along with the race photos from the actual Summit have been posted.
Unless you are a fitness supermodel or you are being coached through a running photo shoot with Raeanne Fabulous, chances are that most of your running pictures are less than flattering. Even if you think that you have mastered the art of the finish line photo (chin up, chest out, shirt down) you can still easily blow it (exhibit A, my finish line photo from the Green Thumb ½ Marathon earlier this year…add to the list ‘close your mouth’). That’s why I am a big fan of the before (oh crap!) and after (woo-hoo) shots.
The fantastic volunteer who was at the Summit and manning the water station was also taking photos, and snapped my picture before I knew it as I passed by.
Me at 8500'!
Funny, I remember being in more of a crawling than upright position!
I always enjoy doing smaller races because they are more personal, this race in particular. Instead of doing the same old boring age group categories (20-29, 30-39…), the organizers stayed true to the whole Utah back country theme, and organized us into age divisions named after wildlife indigenous to Utah:
• Young bucks
• Grey fox
• Mountain lion
• Black bear
• Master moose
• Senior speedgoat
…yes, I was a mountain lion…it’s better than being a cougar or a moose right?
I was pleasantly surprised at my placing, for most of the race I thought that I was 3rd last. So how did I do? I placed 26th out of 44 other racers and 2nd out of the 6 mountain lions!
Thanks again Summit Park for hosting such a memorable event, a true highlight of my time in Utah.
Day 9
I’ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. – Author Unknown
You are beautiful!
www.operationbeautiful.com
Thursday randoms and ramblings
Conny and I met this morning for our usual, which quickly turned into an unusual Thursday morning run. As we approached the trail entrance, a man who was smoking (please don’t smoke in our trails) was coming out of the trail with two dogs. He asked us if we had lost a dog and also told us that one of his unleashed dogs had aggression issues (good to know that your unleashed dog has aggression issues). Whilst I hid behind Conny (I have issues with unleashed dogs with aggression issues) we told him that we didn’t lose a dog. He told us that there was a pitbull-mix dog out on the trail, and that it seemed to be nice enough as it got along with both of his dogs, aggression issues and all…thanks for sharing, buh-bye.
Conny getting assertive with the dog, notice that I am at a safe distance behind her.
No sooner had we started our run, when lo and behold there was the pitbull-mix dog, standing in the middle of the trail barking at us, are aggression issue contagious or just the theme of the morning? One of the reasons that I love running on the trails is because I don’t have to deal with dogs, maybe the occasional bear or coyote but no mean dogs. Conny yelled at the dog and it ran back into the trail so we ran into the trail too. The dog would stop at the top of each little hill, bark, Conny would yell and it would run further into the trail, a nice little pattern was started to emerge. That was until we started to get a little closer to the dog and it started to growl.
I am the kind of person that if I was ever in a haunted house and I heard a voice whisper “get out”, I would get the eff out, I don’t need to do any further investigation or to be told a second time. So to me, a growling dog means the same thing, especially a pitbull-mix that I don’t know. We aren’t even 5 minutes into our run and I am ready to skip the swim, turn around and make up the time on the road.
As Conny is so much braver than me, she yells at the dog again and it runs further still into the trail and makes a quick right turn next to the teddy/hair clip/ribbon/bong memorial (another unusual sighting) at the side of the trail just before the bridge, and is gone. I thought for sure that he would re-appear just like the voice in the haunted house scenario, but he didn’t.
We continued our run, hit our turn-back point, made the turn and stopped for a quick swim as we crossed back over the bridge (the water was not nearly as cool as I thought it would be after the poor weather that we have had). We also noticed that in addition to the teddy/hair clip/ribbon/bong memorial at the side of the trail, on the floating bridge deck there was a now a random arrangement of fake flowers…what is going on with our trail…We finished our run and didn’t stretch because we were swarmed by mosquitoes.
And now it’s time for some social commentary, which has absolutely nothing to do with running…
When you go to Starbucks there is a fairly good chance that you are going to wait in a line, either waiting to order your coffee, or waiting for your coffee to be made.
If you don’t know what you are going to order, a great time to make those decisions is while you are standing in the waiting to order line-up. Now if by chance you still have not decided what you would like by the time it is your turn to order and there is a line-up behind you, perhaps you should step aside and let the next person in line place their order while you ponder, and if you are still unable to decide, why not go with the barista recommendation on the menu board (that’s what it is there for). Now if the line-up is growing and growing impatient behind you and you finally decide what you would like to have, and the barista who is still pleasant at this point (how at the this point I don’t know) asks you what size you would like, even if you really don’t know just say medium. And after the barista has written on the cup and it’s time to pay, please do not say “ah, let’s forget it after all, I didn’t want anything sweet” and walk away because you are just asking for that barista to go Steve Slater all over you with full support of the other patrons!
While standing in the Starbucks line-up this morning and witnessing the above unfold, I couldn’t help but think about the infamous Seinfeld “Soup Nazi” episode….
Day 8
If you don’t like something change it, if you can’t change it, change your attitude – Maya Angelou
You are beautiful!
www.operationbeautiful.com
Iron Mountain Movement has become a “Blue Ribbon Pacesetter”
Day 7
Happiness is not by chance, but by choice – Jim Rohn
You are beautiful!
www.operationbeautiful.com