Rachel

The Geek Streak

I just hit another huge milestone in the life of my ankle. It has now been a year since my surgery and I celebrated properly by running in a relay marathon race. After I hurt my ankle over eight years ago I wasn’t able to run for more than about 25 minutes at a time; the pain would become too overwhelming. I love to run so that was a hard reality for me to accept. That’s why I was very excited to pick up running again, now that my tendon repair surgery has hopefully corrected the longstanding issues with my ankle.

I love this action shot even though it turned out a bit blurry. baton — I love this action shot even though it turned out a bit blurry. It was taken at the exact moment I handed off our team baton to Jeremy.

Originally I had wanted to run in the Red Rock Relay at the end of this summer but, since I couldn’t find enough willing participants for this 2 day running madness, I settled for getting a team together to run the Utah Marathon Relay. In this relay race each team, consisting of 5 members, runs the equivalent of a marathon. This means each runner is responsible for a 5.2 mile stretch.

Since these are the Sabin brothers, don't ask.

Jason and I started training for this event back in June. While 5.2 miles really isn’t an incredibly impressive distance, it’s longer than my ankle has allowed me to run in nearly a decade so I wanted to ease into it. I am extremely pleased with how my ankle handled training and the race. I generally experienced no pain during my training runs. Each time I increased the length of my run my ankle would be a little stiff and sore for a day or two, but nothing I couldn’t handle. This stiffness was such a mild inconvenience compared to the pain I had become used to over the years that I barely even noticed it.

This is Fran right after the 4 mile marker. She did her run in an awesome 47 minutes and 37 seconds. — This is Fran right after her 4th mile marker. She did her run in an awesome 47 minutes and 37 seconds. Way to go!

My relay team, the Geek Streak, was comprised of me, Jason, his brother Jeremy, my brother Drew, and my friend Fran. We ran the marathon in 4 hours, 13 minutes, and 13 seconds. Yeah us! I made a goal for myself of running each mile in ten minutes or less and I met that goal exactly on race day with a 52 minute run. Jason’s brother, Jeremy, had never really run ever before he started training for this race. He trained regularly though and did a fantastic job on race day with a run time of 52 minutes and 3 seconds. I’m really proud of his perseverance! My brother Drew, unlike Jeremy, didn’t think training for this race was necessary. So we weren’t too shocked when he seemed a lot more fatigued than the rest of us after his run. His exhaustion must have made him delirious because he went the wrong way twice during his leg, but he did eventually find the finish line. Congratulations Drew on finishing even though you are apparently completely out of shape! (Little brothers need to be given a hard time. It reminds them that they are loved…and that they should run more than a few times when training for a race.)

This is what my brother Drew did after he ran his portion of the race. — After my brother ran his section of the race he crashed on the grass. I thought I might have to resuscitate him.

The race was a great experience! I’m so glad I now have two ankles strong enough for running! I look forward to my next race and my next milestone.

This is Jason in his final sprint for the finish line. He was the fastest runner on our team even though he got the last, and hottest, leg of the race.

Rachel September 14, 2009 5 Comments

The Madness of Mountain Biking

Jason and I went on a terrific bike ride in American Fork Canyon over the holiday weekend. It was beautiful, difficult, and exhilarating. Those descriptors may not seem to fit together well but let me assure you, they do.

This is me taking a break on a sunny hillside before undertaking the difficult task of heading uphill. — This is me taking a break on a sunny hillside before beginning the grueling task of heading back up the mountain.

I received my first mountain bike as a birthday gift when I turned 16 and ever since then I have been a devoted biker. The intensity and technical difficulty of the trails I ride these days far surpasses what I navigated in my early years. Over time Jason and I have become more accustomed to the precarious nature of this sport and have slowly gravitated toward trickier paths. We now bike almost exclusively on singletrack trails, which are basically hiking trails, rather than on the standard car-friendly paths many ride. We like winding through trees, climbing over boulders, teetering along the edge of drop-offs…you know, all that good stuff.

Here's Jason reenacting his latest run-in. One of his bike's brake lines broke as we were coming down a steep hill. This was obviously not good. Since he had no way to stop or slow himself down, he devised an ingenious plan. He rode up a bush covered incline that was on the side of the trail hoping that that would decrease his speed enough for him to regain control of his bike. His plan was nearly flawless but Jason didn't factor in one thing: all the rocks and obstacles hidden amongst the bushes. Oops! He didn't make it far before he hit a buried rock and did a nosedive over his handlebars.

Mountain biking is not for the faint of heart. When you’re riding on a trail that’s only as wide as your handlebars and tree roots and rocks abound, the potential for mishaps is high. A slight error in judgment or a momentarily lapse in attention can result in a crash. I have been catapulted over my handlebars, flung down mountainsides, and launched into trees. My shins and knees are littered with the scars of past biking incidents. The most painful of these happened a few years ago when I was descending on a gravelly path and lost control of my bike. My bike fell abruptly sideways and I didn’t have time to make a quick exodus from its seat. Since I was moving along at a pretty decent speed when this toppling occurred, my bike continued to move forward, despite the fact that it’s wheels were no longer in contact with the ground, and I was dragged along the surface of the gravel for 10 or 12 feet. Needless to say, the wounds that resulted were rather large and gruesome. Ouch! It makes me cringe just thinking about it! But despite this accident, and all others like it, I love mountain biking and would never give it up.

I got this gouge last year while biking in Lambert's Park. A non-graceful attempt to keep my bike from tipping over after hitting a rather large rock made me catch my leg on the spikes of my gearshift. This was the result. And in case you are wondering, yes, that is dirt all over my leg.

There’s something intoxicating about speeding through the pines accompanied only by the crinkle of the breeze in the aspens and the steady sound of your tires circling through the dirt. Mountain biking is never boring thanks to the constantly fluctuating terrain you traverse. The stunning scenery and physical and mental demands of this sport make it a nearly irresistible pastime to me. The details of my latest collisions often elicit the “you’re crazy” response from friends and relatives. I just smile and nod. Besides the bruises, they have no idea what they are missing. But that’s alright, that just means more mountain for me.

Lack of concentration = crash. That's why I've got that silly focused look on my face.

Rachel September 10, 2009 3 Comments

Birthday Boating

For Jason’s birthday our friends, Cam and Fran, wanted to treat him to a boating excursion. Since Jason is always extremely eager for opportunities to strap on his wakeboard, he was more than willing to agree to this plan. A combination of bad weather and busy schedules resulted in his boating outing being delayed more than a month, but last week we finally made it out to Utah Lake. The afternoon we went was perfectly warm and sunny; it was sublime. Jason rode the wakes until his arms and back could take no more. He was able to make some pretty impressive jumps; I would estimate about 2 or 3 feet. Regrettably, I didn’t catch any of his sweet air on film, but here are some of the finer moments I did capture.