Fun story...at least I think so

So I've been using active.com website to find most of my races this year. When i registered, they have a link to become their fan on facebook. Given my new found enjoyment of facebook, I figured why not.

On Mondays they have "Motivational Monday" and ask fans to leave a comment saying what they did active the last week. Just for fun I posted the snowshoe 5k and a pic last night. Well this evening when I logged on to find a pic for Elise I saw that they had commented on my photo.

It was just a quick "sounds fun. Way to go!" I thought that was pretty cool, because when I posted last night, around 200 peeps had also posted comments. Then I went to my "Newsfeed and saw that they had actually picked me for the "Fan Spotlight"...
Yep they sent a thing to all 47,537 fans w my pic saying I did the snowshoe 5k. Yeah, I'm totally famous. I've copied the post in just because I feel cool...

Active.com Fan Spotlight: Kjirsten McKinney ran a snowshoe 5k with some friends this past weekend. Congrats to her and her friends for hanging up their sneaks and charging through the snow with snowshoes instead! Sounds like a great workout and very fun race. Great job!

When i saw this it had been up for almost an hour and 54 peeps had either said they liked it or commented. A lot of them said things about how good of shape I'd have to be to run a 5k in snowshoes. (I'm pretty sure I'm going to let them think I'm in that good of shape. It'll be our little secret that we walked most of it.) Main point though is yeah, I'm famous!

Help for Haiti

So just a quick note for those few of you who maybe reading my blog, but not Leslie's. She and her sisters are putting together hygiene kits to help those in Haiti. They have been asking for any help or donations people may want to send their way. So far they have gotten most of what they need to do 100 kits and are on their way to being able to put together 200 kits. Check her blog for current list of what they still need. the link is on the side (the Moss's). Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated, donating time, money or items on the list. Please do what you can. Thanks!!

New races for the Year of Races

So, I had so much fun doing the snowshoe 5k, got really excited about my year of races. I got on to finish registering for my races to make sure i don't back out (the Moab Half Marathon and the Wasatch Back still SCARE me!!). In the process, I found a bunch of races i want to do, so the year of races has been tweaked. I am now going to be participating in at least a 5k each month. Some of the races I'm most excited for are...
-the SLC Marathon 5k w Sue in April(Sue, I hope you weren't kidding)
-the Survivors at the Summit in August (it's a hike to honor cancer survivors. I'm trying to put together a team of 6 so let me know if you're interested)
-the Donate Life Utah 9k in October (it's to raise awareness for the benefits of Organ Donation).
If anyone wants to join me in any of these let me know I won't bore you with the entire list here...
Also, I promise all my entries will be about the races. I'm just getting excited right now.

BASH 5k Snowshoe Run

So my first race of the year went great. It was actually super chill. Jana and Vinny also participated and Roche came to watch, so we had a lot of fun. We met some pretty cool peeps while we were checking in before the race. It was the first time the race had been held, so everyone there was a little unsure of what to expect. It was kind of funny because we had taken a ton of stuff( different shirts, gloves, snow pants, etc.) with us, because we weren't sure what we would end up wanting. Turns out, we weren't the only ones. There were a bunch of us in the parking lot trying to make final decisions on what to wear/take.
Most people were just there to be apart of it, so there were plenty who walked the whole way. We jogged at the beginning and every now and then through out the race. Some dude sprinted it in under 16 minutes(I can't run that fast WITHOUT snowshoes). There were probably around 50 people totally and about every level.
I had forgotten how much you have to push off your toes snowshoeing. It actually ended up bugging my ankle more than I expected, so I walked most of it. Jana jogged along side of Vinny and i and then ran the last mile. Vinny and I ran the last of it with the intent to bat these two old dudes who we had been going back and forth with. They would pass us, then we would pass them... through the whole thing. In the end they ran too and beat us, but it was still TONS of fun! I seriously am already excited to do it again next year.
After the race, Jana and I had seen this little cafe in Heber we wanted to try so we headed back there for dinner . On the way we passed a Mexican restaurant called Tarrahumara. For those of you who a read Born to Run, or those who have heard me talk about it, you may understand why Jana and I got excited. The book is about a tribe in the Coral Canyons of Chihuahua, Mexico. They are these crazy runners that are supposed to be faster than any Kenyans or whatever.
The book is really good and even if you have no interest in running I recommend it. My whole fam has read it except for Nate(and for those of you who know Marlin may realize how impressive that is). Anyway, so we ate dinner there. The dud who owned it was working, so we talked to him, about the book. He had heard of it, but had never read it. It was really cool though, because reading the book, even though they say it's true, you still finish it feeling like it is more fiction than non. This restaurant had all these pics and info that matches the book though, so Jana and I got really excited. We even had to have our pic taken by the sign because we are that dorky.
All in all, great day!!

Facebook

So, I thought I hated Facebook. I had it on my iPod, but I could do some things on it and I mostly just read the live feed of what others posted. SO,my experience was mostly reading post from people keeping me updated on their headache throughout the day or friend requests from peeps in highschool that I had never had a full conversation with or some of my employees that I would rather not have a conversation with...
However, lately (with my laptop working again) I have actually chatted with some peeps (that I like) and checked in on other people, as well as poked the hell out of Leslie. I usually am a little wired after bootcamp, so I can't go directly to sleep so I have spent a little time on the old Facebook and am finding I am actually enjoying it quite a bit.
That's it...just wanted to give a little shout out to Facebook.

2010, The Year of Races

This week besides trying recipes from the cookbook, I'm getting geared up for a 5k snowshoe race this Saturday up at Soldier Hollow. It's the inaugural race of my year of races. Maybe I should give a quick background on my year of races...
So, last fall I started jogging just to mix up my workout routine. Once I settled into it, I found that I actually enjoyed it. I pretty much stopped going to the gym and just jog. Mica gave me a book called Born to Run that got me all interested in running so I started reading running magazines etc. Well, one of the articles I read challenged the reader to compete in every kind of race in one year.
I liked the idea of the article, but I'm still very much a novice. I am a jogger not a runner. So I took the list and cut out the scariest of the races and made my own list.
Thus begins 2010, the Year of the Races. I got online and found one of each type of race in Utah. It begins with the Snowshoe 5k this weekend. This will be interesting considering I have been snowshoeing once this winter and have tendinitis. The beauty of this plan is I don't plan on competing in any of these races I'm just participating. So when I walk the entire snowshoe 5k I'm still gonna be proud.
The next race is a 5k on St. Paddy's Day. Yes I purposefully looked for a St Paddy's Day Race because it is the coolest day of the year. I'm already planning on taking work off so why not run a race that morning. It's starts at McCool's at the District if anyone is interested in joining.
Race # 3 is a 10k on Memorial Day in Orem. As in every race I list if any of you are interested, I am more than happy for some company.
The last two races do actually have me pretty dang nervous. In June I am participating in the Wasatch Back. It's a 24 hour road relay that goes from Logan to Park City. There's 12 runner's to each team and you run 3 legs each. I have claimed the shortest distance, but it is still over 12 miles but it's broken down into 3 legs over a 24 hour period. This one just freaks me out because I'll be part of a team, not just joggin for myself. It should be pretty cool when it's over though.
The final race of the year will be the half marathon in October. this one also has me nervous. It's 13.1 miles. I ran 7.5 the other day(on accident) and it about did me in. I was broken for a day or two. I guess that's why I'm starting training now.
Anyway, that is my year of races. and if any of you are interested in joining please let me know. I would love to have company. I'll let you know how the showshoeing goes this weekend. I've never even seen one, so I just hope I am not the only one walking the whole thing.

I'm Baack!

I really wanted to wait till May 8th to post. I would have made it 2 full years without posting. Oh well, I'm back. I started my "Gang Cookbook Project" blog and it made me want to actually blog just about normal stuff, so I'm baack....