Becky and Alyssa discover their hidden athlete

As of a week and a half ago, Alyssa had never won a ribbon at a track meet. To say the least, she got that monkey off her back now. At the school track meet, she came in third in the 800 m and 4th in the 400 m. She also came in 3rd in shot put. Her real strength however, came in Discus where she won, with a throw of 16.8 m throwing over a meter farther than her nearest competition, and exceeding the throw of the best Gr. 8 girl too. At the divisional track meet, she decided to just do her throwing events. She came 4th in discus, with a slightly shorter throw than in the school track meet. Her 4th place finish qualifies her for the Southern Alberta Summer Games if she chooses to attend. Good work Alyssa.

Today, I ran the Cardston legacy half marathon. The pictures below are super small because I got them from Rob's parents camera via facebook. Anyway, as you can see, it was snowy/ slushy. We have had 3 inches of rain since Wednesday, and last night it turned to snow, especially in Cardston (in Magrath, there was just a slight dusting of snow). It was snowing/sleeting through the whole race, and there was a stiff north west wind. The course is also very hilly, gaining 700 feet of elevation before turning around and coming back. About 40% of the registered runners didn't show up. Anyway, I had trained hard so I went anyway. I felt really pretty strong today and improved on my time from the Provo City Half Marathon by 2 minutes which I think is pretty great because several people told me to expect the hills to add up to 20 minutes to my time. My time today, 2:01:09. Paul and Sheron were volunteering at the race. They ran the water station at mile 5 & 8. It was sure nice to have their support both before and after the race as well as during. It was even colder for them at the drink station because they didn't have the exercise to warm them up. Upcoming challenges...Cardston 5 miler next weekend, and in July the Magrath Triathlon! Oh, and don't forget the Prete reunion 10 mile run for all takers!

Utah trip

A couple of months ago, Liz called me. She had been running for a couple of months and was thinking of running a half marathon. Also she was planning to go to Women's Conference in Provo. Then as we talked, we checked the internet and there was a half marathon in Provo the day after women's conference. It took me a day or two to commit and talk to Rob, but I decided to travel to women's conference and train to run the half marathon with her.

At first, I thought I would probably travel by myself, but then Rob suggested I invite Sara and Lynne, my friends from Rocky Mountain House. This seemed like a stroke of inspiration and I immediately phoned each of them. Both had things to arrange to make the trip possible, but, in the end it worked out that we all went down together. When we got there we met up with my sisters Liz and Sarah, and even got to have dinner with Sarah's boyfriend, Brian.

It was a fantastic trip on many levels--social, educational, spiritual and of course, physical fitness.

Driving. We did a lot of driving. 12 hrs there and 12 back, driving to temple square twice and driving around Provo and Orem shopping.

Our first stop was to get gas in Sweetgrass Montana. Behind us is the Glocca Morra Sweetgrass
where my sister Sarah's car was once stored until she could bring it across the border.

The sessions at Women's Conference were amazing. We got to hear all of the general auxiliary presidencies of the church, and Elder Dallin H Oaks and his wife. We also went to several other break out sessions. Some sessions were funny, some emotional, and all were informational. On Thursday at 6:30 am, we prepared for the instant choir along with about 1,000 other women. We sang in the opening session where Julie B. Beck the General RS president spoke.

Saturday morning. Sara Eklund and my sister Sarah ran the 5 K race. Liz and I ran the half marathon. Before the race, it was only cloudy. We felt the first drops waiting on the start line. Lynne began training, but wasn't able to run because she got Plantar Fasciitis a couple of weeks before the race. Next time, Lynne.

Sisters. Having this race as a goal helped me to train really seriously for 8 weeks. It was a great motivation.

The Sara(H)s after the race. Pretty drenched, eh?

All 4 runners after the race.

Liz coming through the finish line about 20 seconds before me. We ran together, but she had more sprint at the finish.

Me coming up to the finish line, drenched through. Time, 2:03:06. This represents an average 9:24 minutes/mile which was faster than I was expecting.

After we cleaned up after the race, we went to temple square and did a live session at the Salt Lake temple. It was pretty special. We met up with Sarah for the session, but took these pictures first. When we came through the gate to temple square, a beggar man said "Charlies Angels on Temple Square?!" We thought that was pretty funny.

After the temple, we went to Blackfoot, Idaho and stayed overnight at my grandpa's house. We left early in the morning and hit sacrament meeting in Dillon, Montana. We got back about supper time.