Utah Valley Half Marathon

FLAT JENNY DID IT!!! She finished the Utah Valley Half Marathon and it was AWESOME!!! It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT day for a race! Standing at the starting line was a time of excitement and anticipation. Flat Jenny knew she was ready and that she was going to come out flying!

The run down Provo Canyon was spectacular and every step of the way Flat Jenny felt happy, strong, and confident! She started with a comfortable pace and stayed steady all the way.

There were so many people cheering and supporting all the racers. Flat Jenny was so grateful for the love and support she felt from people. Even complete strangers cheered her on and lifted her spirits. It made Meggen and Flat Jenny think about something Sister Ardeth G. Kapp, former YW General President said, "The heavenly grandstands are cheering!" For, not only could Meggen and Flat Jenny hear and feel the cheers and love of the crowd along the race course, but they could also feel and hear (with their spiritual senses) the cheers and love of so many angelic, heavenly supporters in heavenly grandstands! It was incredible!

There were some funny sights along the way that made Flat Jenny chuckle. George Clooney stopped by the aid station at mile 10 to give Flat Jenny a high 5 and wish her well. Although it meant adding a little time to her race, she was not shy about asking for a photograph! ;o) Now Flat Jenny is famous!

Flat Jenny crossed the finish line after having run at an easy 2 hours 11 minute pace! She felt strong and happy the entire way and knew that she had accomplished something great! She made lots of friends along the way and felt grateful for all the love and support she has felt over the last 4 months of training.

Flat Jenny is proud to show off her finisher's medal! What a great day!!! More races lie ahead, but for now she is happy to bask in the glow of a job well done!

This race was easy compared to what our real friend Jenny is going through. But, Jenny, if there is anything Flat Jenny and I have learned through this it is that when it seems you can't go one more step, somewhere deep inside you will find that you can. For, you are not left to do it on your own. Just as Meggen carried Flat Jenny every step of the way on this journey, so Someone WILL carry and IS carrying YOU every step of the way.

And Jenny, like your alter-ego Flat Jenny, YOU are a FINISHER and a FIGHTER! Don't give up, friend! You are not alone!

Opposition Will NOT Conquer Flat Jenny!

This morning Flat Jenny, Meggen, and Mack went out for a run on the Jordan River Trail. They were planning on going 5 miles and had the course all mapped out in their minds before they began. However, less than 1/4 of a mile into the run they discovered that the tunnel under Lehi Main Street had flooded making it completely impassable! The water was at least 10 feet deep! Of course, they could have gone for a swim, but none of them were feeling that adventurous today.

So, they turned around and decided to go North instead. After 2 miles, they discovered a chain link fence and this sign covering the path . . .

It seems that fate was against them today, trying to break their will and their determination. However, as is the case with Flat Jenny, she knew they could make the best of the situation, be successful, and find enjoyment---come what may. She suggested they just make a loop instead of a straight out run. They could still get their miles in and could salvage the day. So, that's exactly what they did!

Here is one of Flat Jenny's favorite places on the trail---the top of a hill that feels like you are on top of the world! She loves the great views of the mountains and valley all around.

Flat Jenny also really enjoyed seeing how full the Jordan River is right now. With all the rain and heavy snow we've had in UT this year, this river might cause some flooding really soon! (In addition to the tunnel under Main Street, that is.)

Flat Jenny noticed there were some cute calves next to the trail that were about the same size as Mack. She told Mack he should stop and look at them for a few minutes. Maybe they could become friends?!

Mack and Flat Jenny were very happy when they returned to the car. They'd had a great run despite the obstacles. Running makes for happy days! ;o) Keep up the great work, Flat Jenny. There are only 10 days until the Utah Valley Half Marathon!

Walk on the Ocean City, MD Boardwalk

This past week Flat Jenny journeyed to Ocean City, MD for a quick trip. She had a great time getting away from everything. Ocean City wasn't too busy, and the weather was sunny and beautiful. Flat Jenny took a walk up and down 14 blocks of the Boardwalk. Flat Jenny noticed that lots of stores were preparing their business for the upcoming season. She saw lots of families and couples walking along the Boardwalk as well. In one fun observation, she saw two seagulls hovering over the Boardwalk reject an upside down vanilla cookie - they looked at it, smelled it and flew away! Flat Jenny also visited a small museum and splashed in the ocean!

Here are some of the moments captured via pictures:

Before going on the walk, Flat Jenny took her picture with "Captain Hook" at a local restaurant. As an aside, while snapping this picture, there were several what appeared to be "ROMEO'S" (Retired Old Men Eating Out) at a booth adjacent to the Captain Hook statue. One of the men told Nita while pointing to his friend, "if you want a real pirate, he's one". Nita looked at the man's friend and the man said "Arghh!", and then both men smiled and laughed. Silly men!

Captain Hook:

Flat Jenny walked 14 blocks down the boardwalk and enjoyed the sights and sounds. She decided to visit the Ocean City Lifesaving Museum, a small museum at the south end of the boardwalk. This museum is dedicated to honoring those who have saved lives of people lost out at sea and displays various beach memorabilia as well.

Here is a picture of Flat Jenny with this rescue device, a buoy that would save stranded sailors. The person being resucued would sit in it and be pulled to safety. Apparently it was an extremely grueling rescue process for both the rescuer and rescuee! (sorry for the blurry picture cue to camera challenges)

Flat Jenny couldn't resist taking this picture with "Laughing Sal" a tall lady who was part of circus type show entertainment decades ago! She was known for her entertaining laugh though some thought it annoying!

(check this link to see what you think about her laugh! This is one of her laughing sisters from a museum in San Francisco!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqORsk22tAA&feature=related


Flat Jenny had fun in one of the rooms with a variety of old fashioned bathing suits. She took several picture in that room!

Flat Jenny with this man's 1930 wool bathing suit. It belonged to a man named William A. Gibbs who lived in Ocean City, MD. His wife Virginia B. Gibbs donated it!

Flat Jenny also liked this cheerful flower bathing suit. It was from 1942- Captain Thomas Bowden sent it to his wife, Vashti, from Hawaii, where he was stationed during WW2. Flat Jenny thought that was sweet and romantic!

Finally Flat Jenny checked out the Mermaid Room, yep, she discovered a small room filled with Mermaid decorations! As Jenny is a quilter, she loved this atttractive Mermaid quilt. Here is part of the quilt:

Flat Jenny decided to jump on the quilt!


Enough of museums! It was such a beautiful day and Flat Jenny was ready to go outside. Outside a Ripley's Believe It or Not, Flat Jenny noticed a huge tire! Flat Jenny wasn't sure what type of vehicle would have such a gigantic tire.

Here is a far away shot of Flat Jenny climbing the tire:
and here is a close up shot:

Flat Jenny wanted to end the walk by jumping in the ocean! She thought it would be fun to splash in the ocean and go wave hopping! Enjoy!

Flat Jenny loved the refreshing ocean waves!

Looks like Flat Jenny will need a new outfit as the marker on this one is now smeared!

Flat Jenny wanted to sit in the sand for a moment, hope you like the sea shell she found!
Flat Jenny decided to take a final jump in the ocean to rinse off the sand!

The vastness of the ocean and the grains of sand made Flat Jenny think of and remember how much Heavenly Father loves Jenny! His love is so great for Jenny and everyone!

Goodbye ocean til next time! Fun Times!

Hill Aerospace Museum

Flat Jenny visited the Hill Aerospace Museum and thought it was a wonderful day! She saw all kinds of really interesting and enormous planes and helicopters. It was so COOL!

She saw a replica of the Wright Flier . . .

And a plane named after her . . . the "Jenny" (Curtiss JN-4D) . . . a pre-WWI airplane which wasn't very successful, but provided some good learning and refining for future aircraft.

And lots of other really amazing planes . . .


What a fun day for Flat Jenny and her friends!

Reston Petting Zoo

From Dan & Sharon Pomeroy:

We went on a trip to the Reston Petting Zoo in Virginia. We all feed the Goats and Sheep. Then it was off on the wagon ride where very large animals came right up to the Wagon to get some great photos with Flat Jenny. Thanks for joining us on our trip to the petting zoo.

Race for the Cure

There was a little mishap this weekend.

Luckily Flat Jenny accompanied me to the ER where we spent the night waiting for a doctor to tell us this news. The good news is that I didn't break my foot. The bad news is that I really messed up my ligaments and tendons and will be in a boot for the next two months. Sigh. I guess plans have changed.

Jenny and I were planning to do the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure today. But due to "unforeseen circumstances" (isn't that what they always say when someone doesn't want to tell the truth about how they jumped over a fence and landed incorrectly) I had to pass honor of running with Flat Jenny to my cute daughter Emily.

Take it away Emily!

Hi, I'm Emily. I'm going to be eight on May 24th. I did a 5K and I had Jenny on my back! It was fun running the race with my dad and all my other friends. I ran the whole way and I got my personal record by nine minutes.

At the end I felt tired but I felt proud that I did it. I don't have a lot more to say. I had to leave my house at 6:15 today.

I think running is fun. I hope you feel better Jenny.

The 15.2-mile half-marathon

That's right - 15.2. For reals. Your run-of the mill half-marathon goes only for 13.1 miles. Apparently I decided that was for sissies. So Flat Jenny and I not only went the extra mile but the extra two. How? Keep reading.

Here we are getting out of the car. As you can see, poor Flat Jenny was already suffering from an injury. Luckily my friends Emily and Amy helped tape her up and she was good as new at the race start.

This particular half-marathon benefits the American River Trail. The trail is over 30 miles through trees, poppy fields, gigantic turkeys, deer, rattlesnakes (yes, I saw one once) and, of course, the American River. It's down the street from where my husband grew up and I wish it were that close to my family. I'd be on it every day!

This was my second year for this race. There were some problems with running out of water at the aid stations last year. (Are you kidding me? You CAN'T run out of aid for people who are paying for it!) This year's stations were much better. The signs, on the other hand, were another problem.

Last year I won for my age group. I planned to do so again this year improve both my overall position and my time. I have been training for a full year for this race, as there are not many walking races around. According to my GPS watch, as of mile 6 I was averaging 11:30 per mile, was in 5th place overall and easily first in my age group. I was thrilled. (Remember, I'm walking - this is a pretty fast walk!)

THEN I got to the turnaround. First of all, the people at the aid station seemed confused, obviously they weren't in to their role yet, as there hadn't been many racers and we were slightly spread apart. I didn't know which way to go and had to yell to get someone's attention to see if I was supposed to go straight or right. I also had to go over to the table to grab water since no one was watching out for the early racers. No big deal, I thought, I turned right and continued on the path.

Here's the major problem. The path was not marked well - at all. I don't know if there was supposed to be someone there directing racers or if there were signs, but I did not see anything or anyone to let me know where to go. Since I hadn't seen anyone either in front of me or behind me since mile 5.5, I continued along the path I was on, assuming I was OK. I didn't want to cheat and try to cut to the left, but I hadn't seen a turn sign yet so I continued on until the path stopped. I panicked and began to hyperventilate. I had been exerting every bit of effort I had into the race and when I realized I was lost I became disoriented and couldn't find my way back to the aid station. I found some bikers who told me which direction the race was but they were teasing me and I ended up going even farther the wrong way.

By the time I finally found some racers on the turnaround, I continued on until I found the EMTs. I have asthma and wasn't able to breath well. I sat with the EMTs for about 15 minutes as I tried to calm down. I was very, very angry and if I had found a race official there I would have probably been taken to jail for bodily harm (they lucked out this time). As I was there I looked at my watch again. I had gone almost 9 miles instead of 6.5 because the race was poorly marked.

After leaving the aid station my body still felt good but I was DONE mentally. I could have given up and hitched a ride back to the start but, and I quote Flat Jenny here, "Baby, that's just not our style." I have a great race playlist on my ipod but I didn't really fell like listening to it anymore. Luckily we'd just come back from a really long car trip. I'd loaded the ipods with movies and guess what was on mine - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure!

I hope it's not too embarrassing to admit that I love, love this movie. Listening to it as Jenny and I zoomed past all the slow pokes who caught up to me during my sojourn in the wilderness put me in a much better mood. Shout out to Socrates Johnson, Ted Theodore Logan, Mr. The Kid and Bill S. Preston, Esquire. I finished the race feeling really good and thanks to all the extra endorphins I didn't want to harm anyone anymore. (I did write a strongly worded letter to the race director though. He hasn't responded yet. Maybe he got lost too.)

Somehow I was still 5th in my age group this year. This is amazing to me. Obviously all the people under 40 are still running. They should try speed walking. It's full of glamorous prizes.

Yeah Flat Jenny! We did it!

PS - San Dimas High School football RULES!

The Petrified Forest

Flat Jenny enjoyed a short 2 mile VERY difficult and steep hike through the petrified forest near Escalante, UT. She loved the scenery and was excited to see petrified wood for the first time. Flat Jenny passed Bryce Canyon National Park on the way to the trail head, but alas, there was not enough time to stop and visit. Maybe next time?
There were large pieces of petrified wood all over the area in every color of the rainbow. Flat Jenny thought they were SO COOL!
It is difficult to tell in this picture, but those are not big boulders . . . they are chunks of huge petrified logs! And, up close they were really pretty, but not so much in the picture. Oh, well. Flat Jenny still had a great time, even though the pictures don't look too spectacular. Jenny loves adventures of all sorts!

Good Luck!!!

Flat Jenny, I want to wish you and Laurie the best of luck tomorrow when you walk the American River Parkway 1/2 Marathon!!!  You will be awesome!  What an incredible adventure you'll have together!  Can't wait to read all about it here SOON!

Spring Break in Escalante, UT

Flat Jenny went with Meggen and her family on their spring break vacation to the Escalante, UT area. It was a great break from the daily grind of life in UT County and the weather was definitely a lot warmer! ;o)

Flat Jenny enjoyed climbing this tree near the campsite to get a better view of the surrounding area. This isn't the first tree Flat Jenny has climbed, so she is somewhat of an expert! She likes the perspective being in a tree can give her.

Flat Jenny hiked to Lower Calf Creek Falls and it was spectacular! She loved the hike and all the interesting rocks, wildlife, and desert scenery along the way. Her favorite part was definitely the falls, though. It was nice and cool---a great place to sit on a fallen tree and contemplate the beauties of life while having a drink and eating a yummy snack.

Flat Jenny thought all the cactus plants along the way were interesting, even though they were taller than her and she was happy to stay far enough away from their spines to stay safe. She's had enough of being pricked with needles at the doctor---she doesn't need to add that to her vacation routine too!

Flat Jenny also was grateful for the rock cairns along the trail that marked the path when she was hiking over large areas of sandstone. It always such a blessing when those who have gone before are able and willing to blaze a clear path for us to follow.

At the end of the hike, Flat Jenny thought it would be good to have a picture in front of the sign to the trail head so she will never forget this beautiful day in the Utah sun!

Here is a short video that Flat Jenny took at Calf Creek Falls. The falls are much larger and more spectacular than any picture or little video clip can capture. What a beautiful day!

Happy (Belated) Easter

A few days ago, Flat Jenny discovered a couple small bunny statues! The statues were near a small pond in Fairfax, VA. (the pond is in the backyard of Nita's workplace)

Flat Jenny posed with the bunny statues! She had hoped these pictures would bring some Easter joy to Jenny, however, due to technical difficulties in uploading the pictures to this blog, there was a slight delay in posting, and these pictures were not able to be posted Easter Morning as originally hoped.

Nonetheless, FINALLY the pictures have been able to load! Enjoy!!!

Flat Jenny posed with this bunny!

She hopped on the other one!

Even though the meaning of Easter is so much more than bunnies, we hope that these bunnies bring some Easter Joy to the real Jenny from Flat Jenny!

Happy Easter!

Frolicking in the Tulips!

By Nita . . .

Tuesday, April 19th was a lovely spring day filled with lots of sunshine. Nita felt happy to be able to leave work early. While leaving the parking lot, Nita saw a beautiful display of yellow tulips that surrounded the sign for a nearby business. The tulips added to the beauty of the day. Flat Jenny thought it would be fun to get a closer look at the beautiful tulips! So Nita stopped the car and Flat Jenny smiled as she jumped into the tulips!

A quote Nita really likes is "what sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity!"

Thanks so much Flat Jenny for sharing your smile in the following pictures!