Xtreme w/a Capital X!!

What were we thinking??

We went down to UT this past weekend to go to a friend's (Matt Kirkham) wedding. It was a long drive down, but arrived safely Thursday evening at Judy'd parents in Orem. Friday found Eliza spending the day with G&G Rose, while KD spent the day in SLC with Aunt Janice. Alan & Judy went to Matt's wedding, in the beautful Bountiful Temple, in the afternoon and then Alan, Judy & KD attended the reception that evening at Little America in downtown SLC.

When we decided to go to UT, I, Judy, being of unsound mind, decided that we should do an event while there. I googled the internet and found an 8K trail run. Now we had no plans for Saturday morning and we needed to run 11 miles for our marathon training that day (or so our schedule would dictate). But UT is at a much higher altitude, and the trails were up in the Snowbird ski resort, so I thought that was an even exchange (I already said I wasn't of sound mind). The day before the race I happened on an article in the newspaper that described the run we were planning on doing the next day.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9701513?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com


Needless to say it did nothing to aleviate my fears that they might have to bring our bodies down from the mountain in bags. With little sleep, but much fear and trepidation we headed for the mountain early in the morning on Saturday. We got our bib numbers, t-shirts, and a look at the map, and headed for the starting line. The first 3/4 of a mile gave a false sense of my ability to enjoy the run. But from then on the whole thing kicked butt- we went from an altitude of 7000 ft to 9000 ft (we train at @ 200 ft). I had jokingly said that it would probably be uphill both ways. No joking it pretty much was. It did a figure 8 so you pretty much knew what pain was coming the second time. Happily we both crossed the finish line without the aid of body bags. It took us both just over an hour to complete. Judy won a hat, and even got her picture on the website (bottom right).

http://www.stridersrunning.com/xterra_snowbird_8k_2008

Now there are those of you out there who might think that insanity has set in at the Homer's- at least in the Parental Unit department. But we are just trying to stay young so we can keep up with our kids.