The Brand New Extreme Runner (BNER)

          I Chloe Skillman am proud to announce that i started running down my driveway today, that is about .2 miles, and i did three laps which is .6 miles long. When I started running down the driveway i started feeling like i was free at last! When I got back to the front door i felt like that was nothing, so i ran back to the end of the driveway and back. I felt much better and tired then ran upstairs to ask my dad how long was the driveway and after he told me he asked why, and i said that i had ran to the end of the driveway and i wanted to know how long it was. Then he gave  a great big high five and said "YA" meaning that's my girl and that he doesn't feel left out anymore in running. He also told me that i was the first one in the family to start running because of him.(except for my mom) so those of you who are out there running, know that I am running because of you so thank you so much for inspiring me. I am very proud of myself and you guys who are out there who run. Also the Biggest loser season is back on so if you want to you can watch that because that show inspires you to put on your shoes and run, including me!

                                           The new member of this club  

                                                                            -Chloe Skillman

Cascades Lake Relay

Posted by Mark

Did the Cascades Lake Relay.

Dino Tri-in It Again

This was the race that started the blog.

I Felt like I had another Triathlon in me so we made it a family adventure and packed the car full of kids and headed back to Vernal Utah for another Dino Tri.  We really packed the car full of kids too!  We brought along our cousins Bryce, Sheralyn, and Tanner along with our own kids--we were packed so full there wasn't a spare inch of room left in our giant Excursion.

It was a fun trip down and everyone was excited to come and cheer me on for the race.  That always seems to help, having your family there is a big boost.  Stephanie and my niece Cailey and nephew Camden drove out and met us, along with my oldest daughter Cheyenne.

Last year I took 2nd place in my age division and when we went to sign in for the race the day before, my wife Stacy noticed that the first place guy had never signed up for this years race.  She was convinced, along with my sister-in-law Steph, that I had a pretty great shot at taking the leading spot on the podium for my age division this time around.  However, just before we left the sign-in, a very fit and muscled guy walked in and signed up for the race.  Stacy couldn't help but peek at his age.  He was 48.  She came back shaking her head and reported that I should be happy with second cause it looked like that guy was gonna beat all his competitors.

They were giving out free buzz cuts to anyone signed up for the race.  I didn't really need one but my Nephew Bryce, who'd been sporting an ugly mullet/Mohawk from football season, certain was in need of a haircut.  I convinced them to cut his instead of mine...

There was really no line for the hair cuts so we got a little carried away.  My nephew Camden got inspired by his older cousin Bryce and decided he'd like to get a cut too.

Only Camden went from a nice haircut to a mohawk.  We just switched out one bad hair day for another.  But all in the name of fun!

Race day was perfect and I got on the bus to the next morning to head to the starting line.

Midway through the race, while on the bike course, I rounded a bend and a crowd of kids all cheering me on.  It was my family!  They all made me posters and rooted me on.  I found out later that Bryce was especially excited to catch a glimpse of me and walked to the bend so that he could be the first person to see me round the corner.

They waited for me at the bike/run station where I parked my bike and set off for the run.

Taking off for the third leg of the Tri...

On the final leg of the run, all the kids were waiting on the track for me to make my grand entry into the school's track stadium where the finish line was.  Bryce cheered and waved and when I finally reached him he said,  

"Come on Uncle Mark, let's sprint the last 100 meters!" 

...I was so tired by this time that if I had had the energy I would have told my well intended nephew I didn't even think I had the strength to even make it to the finish line.  But I was too tired to ask him to carry me the rest of the way there.  So Bryce and I, side by side, with the little kids following close behind, slowly all ran across the finish line.

And as predicted by my wife, the buff guy beat me out for first.  But I'm proud to say I hung on to my second place title a second year in a row!  Woot! Woot!

And here I am doing the victory dance of a true athlete.  It's called 'The Power Nap'!

A Woot! Woot! by Mail

The Pear Blossom run has come and gone but the effects are still lingering.  Mark found this awesome postcard in the mailbox today...

Work or Play?

Posted by Stephanie

Shepherdorthodontics works really close with Snowcrest Junior High School, so when they had a relay fun raiser, we wanted in. It was a 15 miles relay broken down into one mile segments. We put together a team of 5 (who would run three miles each) and a group of three (that would run 5 miles each)! Here's our group! and at the end we even convinced Camden to run a mile!

A good time, for a good cause! Woot Woot!

Doin' the Dino!

Posted by: Mark

Just signed up for the Dino Tri again!

Last week I made an executive decision to switch from the full marathon to the half in the Ogden Marathon coming up on May 15.  During the Pear Blossom 10 miler last month I injured my hip muscle (Primaveris or something?) which had a debilitating affect on my training shcedule. I couldn't run at all for the first 2 weeks after the race and last Saturday I was 5 miles into a 12 mile weekend run when it cramped up so bad I had to hitchhike home!  Needless to say, only being able to run 5 mi. in preparation for 24+ is inadequate.  So in order to make the best of the situation, I switched my registration to the half.

However, I have decided to sign up once again for the Dino Tri in Vernal, UT on June 26.  This will allow me to train for a little less exhaustive event in May plus mix up my training schedule between three disciplines giving my hip some rest and keep me going through summer. 

We had such a good time last year at the Dino Tri that Cheyenne and Justice are coming and so is Stephanie and her family.  Stacy and I are hauling 7 teen-aged kids out to EFY and will have them in tow as well.  That means we will we have about 14 people in total.  We booked three adjacent rooms at the local Flea-bag Inn and I am now trying to rally some of the troops to register for a sprint relay while there.   It will be a fun family event and I'm excited to do it again in beautiful Vernal, UT.

My Dawgs Are Barkin!

Posted by: Mark

When I started this whole running thing, I did not realize the trauma it would cause to my body. After I got out of the shower from my workout this afternoon, I looked down at my feet and to my horror they looked like they belonged on a homeless person.  My left foot has a blister on the top of two toes and I have this huge black toe nail on the toe next to the big one that I got the day of the Pear Blossom Race.  The right foot is worse.   My big toe got blackened a few months ago and the nail has gradually been working its way off.  It's kind of hangin' on by a thread and is all nasty looking.  Then, there are huge blisters a top the remaining toes all the way down the line.  If you did "this little piggy went to market"  with my toes, it would look like the pig got robbed, mugged and left for dead along Market Street.  That's how bad it is.  Oddly, my shoes fit fine and it doesn't hurt when I run.  Someone told me to have a toe blackened during a race is normal and the nail I'm losing on the big toe is from my old shoes.  Hopefully, the blisters will turn to calluses and this will all blow over so my little piggies can go "wee wee wee" all the way home...

P.S.  I have not even mentioned my "butt" issues.  I'll save that for another blog.

Pear Blossom 2010

posted by Stacy

 PEAR BLOSSOM RUN 2010

So here's the RUNdown on our family's first Pear Blossom Experience.

The 5K:
Here I am REALLY HAPPY about how cold and dark it is outside.  I loved waiting for the race to start.  It was probably my favorite part.  Thanks to my running "buddies" we got there 45 minutes before the race started.  Good thing too.  Look at that crowd behind me piling up at the starting line.

Here's Sheralyn and Cheyenne getting psyched up for the run.

And finally, it's starting to get light outside.  Here's our 5K family of runners...

Morgan, Chey, Sheralyn, Wendy, Stacy, & Kari 

Incidentally, the Pear Blossom Run just happened to fall on Morgan's birthday.  Morgan's family made him this great shirt to run in.

 And I know this blog is all about encouraging each other to step out of our comfort zones and get our family (both blood and borrowed)  to have fun and move more, but can I just say that if it was my birthday, I wouldn't be getting up at the crack of dawn and running.  A warm cozy bed sounds like a perfect way to celebrate a birthday to me.  But I guess not to Morgan.

The race is just about to start.  Fearless Morgan decides to start in the front of the pack and puts himself right at the starting line.  Sheralyn decides to join him while Cheyenne considers it for a moment then smartly  realizes this might not be the best idea.

Morgan's actual start time from the gun going off was .01  and Sheralyn's was .00 CRAZY!

and of course Morgan is the first one in our group to come in through the finish line.  His time is 25:24.  He came in 10th in his age division and 96th out of 1118 runners.

Next came WENDY!  Super Mom!  She's in the red sweatpants.  She was brilliant!  She outran her own teenaged daughter.  Woot!  Woot!

Wendy came in 240th out of 1118 runners.  Her time was 29:07.  And she came in 14th in her age group out of 77 people.  Woot! Woot!

Kari Clark came in next with a time of 30:24  Kari came in 309th out of 1118.  That put her 47th out of 195 runners in her age bracket.  Way to go Kari!

Here's Sheralyn sprinting past the red carpet at 30:37.  Sheralyn was 315th out of 1118 runners.  That put her at 27th out of 81 girls her age!

Then Stacy.  My time chip was conveniently zipped into my pocket!  Duh.  A lot of help that did.  I came through as the clock read 31 minutes.  I didn't look at how many seconds, I was just happy to have 31.   That puts me somewhere around 20th out of 77 in my decrepit age bracket (I started with Wendy and Kari with an actual start time of .14 which I think puts me at 20).  Whew.  (not quite a Woot! Woot! but a Whew!)

Cheyenne came through at 40 minutes dead on according to her chip.  785th out of 1118 runners.  142 out of 195 in her age bracket.  With little training, that girl got out there and did it.  Way to go Chey!

Happy finishers!

I couldn't resist taking some photos of people we know that we ran into who came out to run.

This is the Jorgensens.  They were budget runners.  Notice that they paid for one entry and split their number in half.  Why didn't Wendy think of that??  Next year I'll split our number and let her run with the chip.  That should really improve my time!

Here's the Brumbles, Skillmans, Thomas', and Jorgensens.

Kent Brumble had my FAVORITE running apparel on.  I call it "Ode to Les Schwab"...

...He completed his Les Schwab camo colored hat ensemble with a flannel shirt which sported strategically placed ventilation holes.  This is proudly old school Ashland-and I loved it! This just goes to show that there are no excuses when it comes to fitness.  You don't need expensive outfits or fancy gym equipment.  Just get dressed and head out on an open road. 


Next up...The 10 Mile Race.

This is where we met up with Cassandra and Sam Groover.  Proud new members of our Givin' it a Tri Blog.

The three brave participants get ready to run:

Here's a photo from the newspaper.  Mark is the guy in the red and black with a white hat on the very right edge of the photo in the center.  Mark ran on that white line as much as he could, he said it was his focal point.

Gramma Bear, always our family's best cheerleader, came down to root Mark on and take some photos.

Do you recognize the back of this person who got their picture posted in the paper's online photo gallery??

G-Bear caught this one of Mark coming towards his big finish:

Mark came in with a time of 1:12  which put him at 162 out of 1580 runners!  16th out of 81 in his age bracket.

Sam came in next with a time of 1:16 which put him at 190 overall!  This put him at 39th in his age bracket out of 128.

Then came Cassandra.  The only girl in the group BRAVE enough to run the 10-miler.  Cassan's time was 1:56.  Way to go Cassandra, we're so PROUD of you!

This was a great family day.  We had a total blast getting together, getting excited, and keeping fit.  Only one thing could have made it better...STEPH!