Roadtrips and Running.....

So last week Tess and I decided to take a road trip and go home to Utah.
A few things:

* Traveling with a newly potty trained 2.5 year old, is not exactly a dream.

* 14 hours actually feels like 50 hours.
* You run out of snacks before you have even left the driveway.
* All the snacks that you let your 2.5 year old pick at the store before you leave are not acceptable when she actually gets in car.
* Idaho actually has some really pretty parts (and a lot of never ending nothingness)
* Random meetings with friends while on a rest stop are the best of all.

*  Every single one of my siblings and their children all have more hair then I do.  My brother has more hair on his face than I have on my head.

 * Losing the key to Eric's car while in Firth, Idaho and thinking you may have to have someone come re-key it for like 1 zillion dollars is not a good feeling.  (we found it, phew)
* You can only listen to Moana and Beauty and the Beast and Elsa so many times before talk radio
sounds amazing.
* Your favorite little guy you taught in first grade is all grown up and going on a mission.....and way taller than you now.  I still love him, and his mom. :) He's going to be a great missionary, and he made me cry.

* I took zero pictures with my friend Marianne who is the cutest pregnant lady ever to be seen. Lame.
* Oregon needs more splash pads! Perfect mom/kid date.

  
   













* Boise is the perfect "1/2 way point" to take a break and see our favorite Nielsen clan.

* Leather seats clean up way easier than cloth.
* Tess talks non-stop until she falls asleep, and then she still talks, in her sleep.
* Mcdonalds french fries solve all problems.
* Snow cones in summer are delicious.

* Tess tells everyone her name, everywhere we go.  "Me Tess.  I go pee-pee." "Me Tess. I tired." "Me Tess. I like ice cream." "Me Tess. I go to poppas." You get the idea.  Now everyone from Eugene,  through Bend and Burns and Ontario and Boise and Burley and all the way to Pleasant Grove know a little bit more about her than they would like.
* Cafe Rio is still delicious.  Thanks EmS for lunch!

* I wouldn't trade the time I had with Tess on this trip for anything, even if she did scream at me for 2 hours after leaving my brothers house/farm in Idaho because I didn't let her bring home a chicken. I let her play in the mud, but apparently that wasn't good enough.   #meanmomaward

So there you have it....but really it was a super enjoyable trip.  It wasn't exactly how I had planned, but it was just what I didn't know I needed.

Words will never really do justice to the things I was able to do, or the emotions I experienced. I was able to see good friends, spend precious time with family and prove to myself that I am in charge of my life and I have a lot of fight left in me.  

Long story short I went to Utah to participate in a 5k.  Big deal you are saying to yourself, why didn't you just stay in Oregon and run a 5k....or better yet, just run on the beautiful path by your house and save yourself a lot of time and money.  I know, I kind of thought the same thing.  This is nothing, I have run 8 marathons and numerous 1/2 marathons -- a 5k is nothing.  In fact the race that I was going home to do (and race isn't really true, because I am nowhere close to "racing shape") was the same race I participated in last year when I had gone home to Utah in June.  It was the AF Canyon Run against cancer.   The interesting part is that last year as I ran the 1/2 marathon I knew something was wrong with my body.  I didn't have the energy I had previously had, and my body hurt.  Not to mention the lump (aka tumor) I could visibly see and feel in my abdomen.  I ran that race, the whole time thinking: "I can do this, no big deal.  AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE CANCER!!"

2 weeks after I got home last summer that all changed, and so did my ability to run or do anything with my body that I really wanted to.  So, going back to participate in this race again (albeit only the 5k this time not the 1/2 marathon) with my family,  and a handful of  dear friends was a very emotional, almost spiritual experience. Weird? Maybe.

I ran almost the entire time, my cousin Carina pushed Tess and Bethany a good friend clear back from my BYU undergrad days that I taught at the same school with years later and her girls (who I taught) ran with me.  We stopped to take a couple of pictures along the way and give me a little break here and there.  All that said, I ran it in 31:57.  Not my fastest but definitely the race that taught me the most about myself.

At the finish line Bethany had a "surprise" for me and their was my face (and hers) from the race last year with a tribute and honoring me.  The tears were rampant.

Bottom line.

It's been a long year.  A really long year, and I needed to do something that proved to myself that I was still alive.  

A few of my friends (Bethany, Matt and Ramie) were pacers for the 1/2 marathon and carried my picture with them as they ran to honor me.  It was one of the kindest gestures I have ever been shown.  It was almost like I was running with them.  My heart was for sure.

My family also participated in the 5k and ran/walked while pushing my niece and nephews in strollers and my older nephews ran. They are pretty much rockstars and my favorite people ever.  

 I think we all needed something and this was the perfect something.

 A reminder that while chemo might be pumping through this port of mine (like literally as I type this I am in my 18th round of chemo) it is love and fight that is pumping through my heart.  I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon.  In fact maybe next year I will run the 10k.  So, all of you should start training and we will do it together.