Run

Last night at the gym this kid ran 400 meters (1/4 of a mile) in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. And he wasn't even winded. To put things in perspective, I ran the 400 in about 60 seconds in high school. Pretty soon I'm going to have to start jogging if I want to keep up with him. That's why I am so tired all the time.

Once a Runner ...

Saturday of our runners reunion went as follows.

First, remember this mountain:
We climbed it. Actually before we climbed it Kristen, Jill, Melanie, and Nicole went running. I stayed home since a) I no longer run due to injuries and b) I knew we would be getting lots of exercise that day. No one needed to run that morning, but once a runner ...

So it was a beautiful day for a hike up Camelback. There were lots of people on the trail.

Climbing the mountain.

Then the climb got a lot harder and we were scrambling up rocks and boulders. People were starting to look us either with admiration or with incredulity because, well, did you notice that Kristen, Melanie, and Nicole are all pregnant?

They proudly bear their bellies.

Here we all are atop the camel's head with an excellent view of the city below.
We made Jill do a yoga pose because, you know, she does yoga and the rest of us inflexible runners think that is pretty awesome.
So, the hike was hard. Kristen said it was her last hike before she has her baby. I said maybe I was glad they were all pregnant so that I could keep up with them. Jill said that if she had known the hike was that hard she wouldn't have brought us, and that she kept thinking how those husbands would kill her if anything happened. Nothing did. In fact, Kristen, Nicole, and Melanie whupped many a hiker.
Saturday was the day of exercise. After a quick lunch and quick showers for some we headed out to Kristen's friend Kriti's house. Kriti and Kristen did Econ together at BYU and now Kriti, besides being a super amazing businesswoman, wife, and mother, teaches Bollywood dancing. She taught us a dance.
Going to learn Bollywood is not exactly what most people do on a vacation, but it was awesome and funny. And hey, remember all those crazy things we used to do when we were running together at BYU? Well, this fits right in. And Bollywood dancing is good exercise. Since we are all amazing dancers we wouldn't be surprised if we were asked to be extras in the next Bollywood Mega-film. OK maybe dancing isn't our forte. In fact, Jill's roommate Summer was definitely the best of the bunch.
After the lesson we checked out Kriti's beautiful yard and glorious orange trees. Those were some good oranges.

Dance poses.

We might have coordinated our outfits. We might have insisted that Nicole borrow one of Jill's shirts so she would fit into the color scheme. Surprised? I didn't think you would be after reading this.

Here's the whole gang with Kriti the fabulous instructor.
That night we went to a fantastic burger joint (and that is high praise from me because KC has the best burgers) and then chatted into the night. The next day we went to Jill's ward. We made a fantastic dinner of wonder salad and artichoke pizza. Then Jill drove Mel and me to the airport, but I didn't go home. My flight kept getting delayed. I started thinking about how late I would be getting home, and how I would have to shovel snow off my car which was in long-term parking. Ugh. So I changed my ticket and made Jill and Nicole come back and get me so we could have one more night together. It was the right decision.

I'm already looking forward to the next reunion.

So long for now.

The Wright Way

Melanie, Kristen, Nicole, and I all descended upon Jill's condo for a long weekend and a much needed reunion.

Jill and I began our Friday early with a trip to Jill's yoga class. Jill is a Bikram Yoga instructor as well as a lawyer, and I was excited to get to experience this part of her life for the first time. Bikram Yoga is intense. The room is heated to a 101 degrees and the humidity has to be just right as well. You perform 26 poses, a standing series and a mat series. After all the horror stories I'd heard about first timers, I was pretty pleased with myself. I actually really enjoyed it.

After we picked Nicole up from the airport we headed out to Taliesin West for a tour. Here's our tour guide. He was very passionate about Wright and Taliesin.
Frank Lloyd Wright was quite a character. He came to Scottsdale after a really bad bout of pneumonia. His doctor basically told him he could not endure another Wisconsin winter. So he began wintering in Arizona, and he built the second of his two architectural schools there. His students, like him, traveled back and forth between Taliesin East and Taliesin West. Taliesin is a Welsh word that means "shining brow." Our tour guide said that Wright liked to nestle his buildings into the brow of the hill rather than placing them on the crown.

Frank Lloyd Wright was really excited about Scottsdale and one of the reasons was because it was such a small place that there weren't any building inspectors, meaning he could do whatever he wanted.

Wright called Taliesin West his "winter camp" and he designed all the building so they were very tent-like. He covered the roofs with canvas (meaning he had to install inside rain gutters) and left all the windows open for years until his wife, Olga Vanna, finally prevailed in her quest for glass. The buildings were built with stone quarried near the cite and a concrete mixture. Wright also decorated the area with petroglyphs that he plundered from the surrounding area.

This is the main building. The large pool of water was Wright's insurance in case of a fire (remember Scottsdale is tiny), and Wright was terrified of fire (Taliesin East had burnt down twice). Luckily they never had to use the pool for this purpose. The grass kind of goes against Wright's whole "blending into the landscape," "native materials" philosophy, but he wanted the kids to have a place to play.
The theme of the tour was how much work Wright's students had to do. They basically built all of Taliesin West, mined the stones, grated the roads, cooked the meals, you name it. They also reassembled these Chinese sculptures that Wright had purchased for a song because they had been smashed into smithereens. Once they were glued back together Wright used them to decorate the school.
Next to the Chinese ceramic you can see a small red plaque. These were plagues that Wright gave out to authenticate his buildings, but apparently he only gave them to preferred customers, and to be a preferred customer you could not ask for any alterations of his architectural plans for your building.

The school has a lovely view of Camelback (which we would be climbing the next day). Wright was very, very upset about these power lines that were put in to ruin his view. He was doing just fine without power at his winter camp, thank you very much.
We also went to see Wright's personal quarters. We weren't allowed to take pictures in these rooms so I found some on the internet.

The living room had lots of seating (and they let us sit in it!) because the Wright's liked to entertain.
This is my favorite. Below is Wright's bedroom. He built a wall in the middle of his bed so that his students would know whether or not they could disturb him when he was asleep. If he was asleep on one side of the wall you could wake him up, but if he was asleep on the other side you had to leave him alone. Seriously.
Wright built his buildings on what he called "the human scale," which really meant "the Wright scale." See Wright was short, about 5'8", and he didn't see why you would need doorways any taller than 6'. I know quite a few people who would beg to differ. Here Jill acts as a human measuring stick. See, Jill wouldn't mind a taller doorway.
There's an artist who lives at Taliesin West. She's been living there since the 1930s, I believe. She came to do an sculptural apprenticeship and never left. Now she is 93 years old. This is one of her sculptures.
Taliesin West has two theaters. The Wrights really liked entertainment. And guess who put on the shows. That's right, the students.
And the students built and still do build (Taliesin is still a school today) their own lodgings in the desert. This one won an award recently for modular/prefabricated structures.
The other theater at Taliesin West is a small dinner theater modeled after the underground cabarets of Europe. Here we all descend.
The theater, of course, was built by the students who first shoveled and then dynamited the hole in which we were sitting. Those hard-working students. Wright tilted all of the chairs so that in order to face the stage you had to sit the way we are all seated below, with our right legs crossed over our leg legs and our right arms around the person next to us. That, my friends, is the only Wright way to sit.
After Taliesin it was time for some food, so we headed to the Bario Cafe.
Then that evening we went to the Mesa Temple, which seemed huge to me, by the way, because I am always going to small or medium sized temples. The Mesa Temple is a popular Friday night hang out, let me tell you. We had to wait our turn, but we didn't mind because it was really nice to go with such a good group of friends.

Why Running Friends Are The Best

Once upon a time I was a runner, and I have some great friends from those days. We used to get up early to go running at 6:15 (that's the only time that campus run was allowed), travel to cities around the country where we spent most of our time in our hotel rooms and at the track, and run lots and lots of miles together. Even with all that time together on the track and hitting the pavement we liked each other enough to live together too.

Kristen, Nicole, and I lived together for the month of May after our freshman year at BYU. We sat down at the beginning of the month and made a list of things to do. We pretty much accomplished all of them too. Here we are at a BBQ in our apartment uniforms.
Sarah, Kristen, Tara, and I were young enough to go to Junior Nationals after our freshman year. Here's one of the signs that we made for Tara who was running the 10K. We figured it counted for all of us.
Kristen and I went to Finland, Sweden, and Denmark after Junior Nationals with a bunch of the older girls. Here we are with Kara, Laurel, Liz, and a really fast Swedish 8-year-old.
Jill and I both had our fast years our sophomore year of college, which was great because that meant we got to travel together all of the time. Here we are at the conference meet in Fort Collins.
Below Nicole and I celebrate the team's first place finish at the WAC Championships. (Yes, I am that old. I was at BYU when it was part of the WAC but only for two years then we moved into the MWC.)
Sometimes when you are a runner you are a little crazy. Nicole coined the phrase, "Once a runner always psycho." The pictures I'm going to show you in the next couple posts will attest that that remains true to this day. But, back in the day, we used to ...

Ice our legs every day.

Here I am with Mel and Nan (who is now making a huge splash on the national stage - go Nan!) sitting in trash cans of cold water in Oregon. And let me tell you folks, this is nothing. At home we sat in much colder water and we immersed all the way up to the hips. You get used to it, just take my word for it.
Go running in the airport.

OK. Maybe this only happened once, and maybe it was because we missed our flight due to the heinous pre-Olympics construction in Utah. But Kristen and I did at one time go running in the Salt Lake airport. (I probably should be saving this for one of those two truths and a lie game. Well since you always play those games with strangers, I guess I still can.) So what's even crazier about this story that we ran into (not literally) one of my friends from Colorado Springs who was attending Ricks College at the time.
Run outside in all kinds of weather.

Rain or shine, snow or wind we were almost always outside. I remember going running one time at BYU when it was so icy that we couldn't even run fast enough to get our heart rates up. I called it quits that day because the run was absolutely pointless and could potentially cause damage rather than be beneficial, but some of my friends completed the mileage they set out to do. We were a little crazy. In the picture below Sarah, Kristen, and I had traveled to Washington State for Nicole's mission farewell. That's the biggest downpour I've ever run in (I am from dry Colorado and I went to school in dry Utah). We ran through some gigantic puddles. Our outfits are really attractive too. (Loaned to us by the Magelsens. Those Washingtonians are prepared. Jill, I'm sure you Oregonians are too.) I especially love Kristen's reflective vest. It was a really necessary accessory seeing as we were running on the trails in a park. The only way to tackle a rain run is to wear a hat with a brim. That will kept the water out of your eyes. Sarah had one on too. I think she just wanted to look more hardcore for the picture.
Wear bizarre clothing.

So, I guess I'll start with the strangest example. These lovely saran wrap outfits were put together for Caisa's St. Patrick's Day party. When Sarah, Nicole, and Sarah's roommate saw my less than inspiring attire they made me change. I wore a green blanket as a skirt, knee-high socks, and my mom's old hiking boots. I know. I am so awesome. Even more awesome is that apparently one saran wrap outfit is not enough. Nicole and I used the St. Patty's Day wardrobe as inspiration for our star Halloween costumes. They were pretty stellar. Maybe someday I will scan the image so the whole internet can see our luminosity. (OK. one star pun too many).
For another party (this time a Christmas party) Melanie, Nicole, and I wore these awesome Christmas headbands. We forced Mel to wear the mistletoe one because she was married and we wanted this to be funny and not desperate.
Nicole and I dressed alike an awful lot the two years we lived together. This is just one example. We were going to a football game so maybe we had an excuse. When my grandma (who we met at the football game) saw our matching attire (complete with candy necklaces--a regular fashion accessory for me in those days and not because I liked to eat them) she told us all about the matching friendship rings she and her best friend had. Then Nicole and I started a list of all our friendship clothes. Suffice it to say it was very long.
Maybe all the crazy clothing makes a little more sense when you get glimpse of our racing attire. See. After wearing that we had the confidence to make unusual fashion choices.
Love being a team.

Because really, who else will go on runs to State Capitols whenever possible and pay a visit to the Minnesota mascot?
Or listen to all your stories about coach?
Yep. Being a team is pretty great.
Because they aren't just your teammates, they are your friends. And they like to do the same things you like to do. And once our BYU running days were over we got started on the first of many runner reunions!

Look how BYU Nicole and I are being at Arches National Park.
All these girls (Nicole, Shar, Kristen, Liz, and Jill) were freshman with me except for Mel, but we adopted her once she transferred from Ricks. This rendezvous in Heber was one of our first.
Here Katie, Jill, and I meet up for a reunion in downtown Provo just before I head off to Kansas. (Note: Despite what you may think after viewing the earlier pictures, Katie and I did not plan to dress alike. It was just happy coincidence.)
Kristen, Sarah, Jill, Nicole, and Mel at my wedding. In a couple months we met again for Nicole's. Then in 2008 Nicole, Jill, and I all went to Sarah's wedding.
We visited Nicole in Boston in 2006. I took a trip to see Jill in Arizona in 2008. And Kristen got regular visits from Nate and me when she lived in California. Here we are with little Blake and little Rachel.
And Kristen and Mel can probably count on seeing me every once in a while now that they both live in Utah.

Anika and Jaime and I recently got together when Anika was visiting her parents here in Kansas City. I don't have a picture of that reunion (Anika, Jaime, I think I deleted it by mistake), but here I am with Anika and her two oldest a few years ago.
These former teammates are not only my running friends they are some of my very best friends. And this post is really just an extremely long prologue introducing our latest reunion. Posts forthcoming.