life is hard.

Life is hard.
But at least we have each other.
When all is said and done, we will have each other. And that is all we can depend on.
Then we can laugh together about how beautiful yet complicated life is.
We WILL make it…but only because we have each other.

and THIS is why i hate driving...

I almost died today. Seriously.

I was driving to school on the freeway this morning and I was approaching my exit so I flipped on my right blinker and changed lanes. At this point, I was driving behind a semi. I put my right blinker on again in order to get into the next lane which was the exit only lane...and this is when my life flashed before my eyes. So when driving behind a semi, you can't really see what is directly in the lane ahead of you, correct? Correct, because little did I know, there was a wheelbarrow, yes, a metal WHEELBARROW, laying right in between the exit only lane and the lane that I was in. I almost drilled it. I've never been so scared in my life.

End of story.

26.2 miles in 4:04:44.44

Yes, my marathon was this past weekend. And yes, I'm still feeling it. My goodness! I can't even describe to you the amount of pain I've been in! I'm feeling better today, but I'm still having problems sitting, standing, and going up and down stairs.

Okay, so I guess I should start at the beginning. I woke up Saturday morning at 3am to the sound of rain pounding against my window. I couldn't believe it. Of course, it just HAD to rain on the day that I'm running 26.2 miles. Needless to say, I couldn't fall back asleep. The nerves started kicking in. By 4:25, I'm leaving my house to go pick up my friend in Logan. Once I pick Corrin up we head over to the park. I could not believe how many people came out to torture themselves that early in the morning! Bathrooms were all full...lines seemed like they were a mile long. At about 5:30 we get on the bus to take the ride up the canyon to the starting line. Again, rows of port-a-potties with lines of people stretching out in front of them. At 7am the guns go off and the race has started! Luckily the rain had pretty much stopped by now. So, for the first little while I was doing fine. In fact, I felt fine until mile 20. Yep, by the time I hit mile 21, I was dead. My calves have never burned so bad in my entire life. My legs were heavy, my knees hurt, my hips hurt, blisters were forming on my toes, a rash had formed on my arm and side from wearing my ipod, my back hurt, my stomach hurt, my head hurt. Everything hurt. I was thirsty, I was hungry, I was tired. I honestly did not think I was going to make it. I wanted to stop, sit on the curb and call for someone to come and pick me up. I did not want to finish the race. I kept telling myself, "Cmon Kristen, you only have five more miles. Five miles. Thats it. Thats so easy. You run that all the time." It didn't matter. I was dead tired. Eventually, I made it...in the pouring rain. 4:04:44. My time was 4 minutes and 44 seconds longer than what I was hoping for. But I was okay with that. I knew I gave it my all and that I couldn't have done it any faster.

After I finished the only thing that kept running through my head was, "You never have to do this again." And on Saturday, if you would have asked me if I would ever run another marathon, I would have told you no way. Thinking about it today, if someone asked me to run one with them, I'm almost positive my answer would be yes.

never forget

Seven years ago today.

update

So it has been FOREVER since I've posted! I've just been so busy. Hm, so I guess I'll give a little update on my life. First and foremost, I'm still training for my marathon. It is now less than two weeks away and I'm so ready for it! I've finished all of my long runs and now just have short ones left. It will be such a relief when its over! I feel like I'm exhausted all the time...and I swear its from running so much...and my lack of sleep...

School started again. Can I just say how excited I will be when I'm through?! But that won't be til December 2010...so I have awhile left. I guess I really can't complain. Its not THAT bad. I just HATE reading textbooks which is all I feel like I do now.

Last weekend, Andy and I took a road trip down to visit Sarah and Alex down in St. George. It was a blast. We left on Friday around three and made a stop in Provo to visit a girl Andy knew from his mission. Her name is Hana and she is from Slovakia. She is the branch president's daughter. She was staying here for a few weeks with two of her friends from Slovakia. One of her friends is attending BYU. The other one is a nanny here. It was awesome listening to Andy and her converse in Slovak. She could speak broken english...but it was good enough that I could understand what she was saying! Right before we were getting ready to leave another missionary from Slovakia came over. I think Andy really enjoyed the reunion! :]

We finally made it to St. George around 10:30. OH MY GOODNESS! It was so hot down there. Even at 10:30 at night! The air was so thick too. It was a long day and we were exhausted. The next day we visited with some of our old friends from Snow College. It was good to catch up and see what they are up to. That night we headed to Vegas. Seriously, we couldn't pass up the chance when we were so close to it! We got caught in a wind storm on the way over there...tumbleweeds hitting our car left and right. It was actually really scary. But we made it! Andy and I had so much fun walking down the strip but the trip to the Cheesecake Factory was definitely the best. Oh wait...maybe Andy leaving the casino with 100 extra dollars from Blackjack was the best... :] Ha, I had so much fun watching him. Anyway, needless to say, it was a fun weekend.