FWD:

Dillan's new ride.

Nothing says merry christmas like new hardwood floors. Thanks Joel!

Alta Tolman (1917-2009)

The following is the obituary for Grandma. She was an amazing woman. We loved her and we'll miss her but we're happy that she could finally be reunited with her husband after 58 years. She always wanted to stay in her home 'till the end and thankfully, we were able to allow her to do that. I found this on the Herald Journal website.

Our loving mother, Alta Rae Wilson Tolman, died peacefully at her home on Dec. 19, 2009.
Alta was born on June 27, 1917, in Kanesville, Utah, to Alma LaVoy and Pearl Elva Bingham Wilson. She attended schools in Farmington, Utah; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Logan. She graduated from Logan High School and Utah State University. After graduation she taught home economics at Tabiona High, Lyman (Wyoming) High and South Cache High. She married Elden Arthur Tolman in the Logan LDS Temple on June 19, 1944. Elden died on Oct. 6, 1952. Their four children and their spouses are Ellen and David L. Haddock of North Ogden, Marie Donigan and Thomas W. and Verla Tolman of Logan, and Shirley and Patrick G. Wolcott of Barstow, Calif.
After her husband's death she supported her family for a few years with various home industries, she then returned to USU and earned her elementary teaching certificate. She taught at Wilson Elementary School from 1956 to 1982. Besides her skill in the classroom, the school benefitted from her musical abilities, and for a few years after retirement she returned to play the piano for school programs.
After retirement, her lifelong interests in music, gardening, nature and travel continued. She developed long-dormant talents on the organ and served in many church callings (including working in the cafeteria at the Logan LDS Temple). She was valiant in her church attendance and service. As long as her health allowed she faithfully attended the temple.
For more than 25 years the residents of Logan Nursing and Rehabilitation Center enjoyed her lunchtime piano programs of old favorites. She served a mission in the Colorado Denver LDS Mission in 1986, part of the time working with Cambodians. She enjoyed her long associations with members of the Literary League book club and Delta Kappa Gamma.
She was preceded in death by her husband, two grandchildren and brothers, Warren, Alma and David. She is survived by her four children, 28 grandchildren, 46 great-grandchildren and five more greats on the way. She was devoted to her family. We are all grateful for the example of testimony, strength, hard work and service she set; and for the love of music, nature, reading and adventure she shared.
Funeral services will be held at noon Wednesday, Dec. 23, in the Logan 5th Ward Chapel, 500 E. 300 North, Logan. A viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 E. Center St., Logan, and from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the church, prior to services. Interment will be in the Logan City Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.allenmortuaries.net.

First time falling asleep at dinner.

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Top of Utah Marathon results

So, because its my birthday I don't feel like writting a real post but I needed to get this information out there. Take it for what it's worth.

Jeremy's Marathon Pictures

So I need to get my Marathon splits off of my watch so I can use it again. Sorry to disappoint.

1. 7:19
2. 7:00
3. 6:59
4. 6:55
5. 7:06
6. 7:11
7. 7:12
8. 7:11
9. 6:59
10. 6:42 1:10:10
11. 7:51 (overcompensated for the previous fast mile)
12. 6:58
13. 7:03 1:32:32 (1:33:45 for 13.1 I think)
    
14. 6:57
15. 7:00
16. 7:14
17. 7:11
18. 7:31
19. 7:46
20. 7:56 2:24:20
21. 7:29
22. 8:28
23. 8:37
24. 8:40
25. 8:51
26. 9:01
27. 1:49 ( just .2)

Total Time 3:17:04 Go here for Jeremy's chip times.

I'm an Ironman... well half of one... well, almost.

Last saturday was the UTAH HALF. It is a half Ironman distance triathlon. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. I stayed at Cassie's the night before and still had to get up so I could leave by 5am. I got there, got marked up and got all my things ready in the transition area.

Apparently people weren't getting there fast enough so we were delayed a few minutes. Then, when we went to the water for the start (in Utah lake), it was so windy and the water was so choppy, they couldn't place one of the bouys for the swim. After a few more delays, they decided that we only had a small window to do the swim before a storm so they cut the 2nd lap off our open water swim. Bummer. That was supposed to be a strong leg for me.

The swim went ok. I felt strong, but my goggles fogged up and on the way back the sun was in my eyes so it was really hard to tell where I was going. When I got to the boat ramp to climb out, it was so slick I lost a bit of time trying to stand up. I had to beach myself before I could get up. I finally did and it was off to transition 1 (T1).

The transition went fine, except that my plan was to eat a banana before leaving on the bike. I realized a few miles into the bike that I had only taken one bite. Oh well.

The bike was the leg I dreaded most and I soon found out why. It was super windy and slow-going. I tried to stay strong and feel like I got into a rythm for about an hour and a half. Then, on the way back (it was an out and back course) it started hailing. Ouch that hurt. After a few minutes, the hail turned to rain and I think I got more wet on the bike than the swim. About 30 minutes from the end of the bike it stopped raining and I started realizing how bad my butt hurt. Every little bump seemed so painful. Finally the bike was over and as I approached the transition area I was so excited to get off my butt I thought I'd fall flat on my face. Too bad for this story, I didn't.

I changed my shoes put on my shorts with my energy gels and ate the rest of the banana I forgot to eat during T1. I was off on the run. The sun actually came out from time to time and even though we had a few sprinkles, the weather was great for running. I felt good and completed the half marathon run in an hour and 45 minutes; just what I wanted. I was so excited to have completed this race that I did a summersault over the finish line.

My (official) total time for the day was 5:17:25. I'm pretty sure they messed up my swim and bike times but the overall was accurate. So I am officially almost half an Ironman.

P.S. I was a little overhydrated and had to make 4 more stops that were unplanned. I'll let you guess where but I'll tell you only one was in a bathroom.

For my official results click here.

It's been a while...

So it's been over a month since I've made a post. Let me catch you all up. On the 4th of July I ran the Blacksmith Fork Canyon Freedom Run. It was a 15K (9.3 miles). I had never done a 15k before but I thought it sounded like fun. It was a mostly downhill course with a little uphill at the end. I did pretty decent. 1:04:30. I averaged just under 7 min/mile and it was good enough for 4th in my age division.

On the 11th of July, we celebrated Dad's birthday by going to the demolition derby. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it so we went with some friends. It was pretty good. I miss those times. Unfortunately the people watching has gone downhill and now it is a lot harder to find a nice mullet. It has become more family-friendly.

July has been pretty hot. I am glad that I do most of my running in the morning. I have entered the Utah Half Ironman that is in about 2 1/2 weeks on August 15th (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). Because of this I have tried to be more dedicated to swim and bike but I also want to do the Top of Utah Marathon so I am stacking workouts on top of marathon training. My body is actually handling it pretty well, although my knees have been beat up lately. I am having a harder time with less sleep. Because I workout more and run further, I have to get up earlier and more often. I guess I'll get to rest in 2 months when the races are over.

I did a pretty fun run up Dry Canyon a few weeks ago. It is the canyon that goes toward Logan peak. But just below the peak it loops around and it way to long for me to run. I climbed almost 4000 ft in about 6 miles up and then came back down all in just over 2 hours (12 miles total).

Last saturday I did a 19 miler up green canyon. It didn't seem very steep because it was less than 2ooo ft in the almost 10 miles out. I also went slow but I felt pretty good about it.

This week Dillan busted a can of soda open in the livingroom and I had to bring some stuff home to clean the couch and carpet. Dillan is such a good boy he wanted to help. Here are some pictures.

In the last few weeks, we have had a few scares from Grandma Tolman with a few falls and what the nurses think was a mini-stroke. Now her legs are swollen and she has a cough so we are going to the doctor today to get her checked out.

I'm sure I left a lot out. Sorry. I'll see if I can get some more pictures to go with my stories.

Only in Logan

So we just ate some delicious Aggie ice cream and we saw this in the parking lot. You would think in a college town people would be smart enough to at least take the keys out of the car. Most places people have to lock their cars for security but apparently Logan is safe enough that you can just leave your keys hanging out of the keyhole. Things that make you go hmmm? I think so.

Bear Lake 1/2 Marathon

On Saturday, I ran my first 1/2 marathon. I have done 2 full marathons and had considered doing the full on Saturday but my left knee was not feeling the greatest a few weeks ago when I signed up so I thought I would do the smart thing and just do the 1/2.

For the race they have you park at the finish and they bus you around the lake to the start. Because they only have so many buses I was waiting for about an hour at the start. Finally we started after having been rained on for a little while and listening to a chubby guy talk about how much running he does. It was a pretty small race. They limited it because of the whole bus thing and no parking at the start.

By about mile 1 I was in 4th place. I was pretty shocked and kept checking my watch and I was actually going slower than I had planned. A mile or two later I heard another runner catching me. Turns out it was a girl. I started talking with her and we ended up running together for a while. She had jut run the Ogden marathon 4 weeks earlier (where she finished in about 3:17) and just wanted to see what she could do. At about mile 6 or 7 I decided I needed to push it so I sped up and left her behind. I passed another guy that was in front of me and all of a sudden I found myself in 3rd place. There was a huge gap between me and 2nd and I don't think I saw the first place guy after about mile 4. I felt ok so I just kept plugging along and hoping that I wouldn't get passed. I just wanted to get a medal for finishing in the top 3 im my age division. There wasn't much drama the last 5-6 miles of the race and I finished in 1:36:52. I actually did finish 3rd overall and 2nd in my age division (the winner was only 23 or 24).

As my prize I got a big chunk of Sandstone that had the race info engraved on it. I also got a medal for being 2nd in my age division. I think that is probably the first race I've ever gotten a trophy or medal from. It wasn't for lack of people, the half marathon was full, it was just that the fast people from last year didn't show up I guess. I'll take it though. I was a little dissappointed with my time. I wanted to run under 1:30. Oh well. Here are my splits (they count down for this race so that should explain the .1. Oh, and the couple of splits that are way fast or slow... I think I pushed my split button late or early a couple times.

.1 - 0:51, 1 - 7:12, 2,3,4 - 21:08, 5 - 8:14, 6 - 7:46, 7 - 6:38, 8 - 7:42, 9 - 7:26, 10 - 7:37, 11 - 7:29, 12 - 7:29, 13 - 7:16, Total - 1:36.54

Triathlon, Zoo, and Gardening

Here is a pic of us eating Aggie Ice Cream on Memorial Day after the cemetary business was over. Do you think we're related?

So I did the Salem Spring Triathlon last Saturday. It is a sprint distance triathlon; 800 meter swim, 14 mile bike, and 5K run. I ended up placing 18th out of about 70 in my age division. I beat the CEO and R&D guy from work who have both done a lot more triathlons than me. They are older though (45-50 I think).

I borrowed a wetsuit and a bike and I think those were big parts of my success. I would have been a good 20 minutes slower if I went sans wetsuit and rode my heavy mountain bike. Here a link to my results. Just in case the link doesn't work here is a summary:

Swim - 12:07
Transition 1 - 4:01
Bike - 42:01
Transition 2 - 2:19 (this includes a trip to the porta-potty)
Run - 21:26
Total Time: 1:21:56

It was a fun experience. It was only my 2nd triathlon. I think I'm fairly decent at it. I'd like to do more. The other guys at work are doing 2 half Ironman's and a full Ironman this year. I'm definitely not up to the full. I am thinking about doing the half but I would like to get in an Olympic tri first if possible.

After the triathlon on Saturday we went to the Zoo. They have a pregnant elephant but you can't even tell. She weighs 8000 pounds and her baby will be about 200. Anyway here are some pictures from that trip.

We stayed the weekend at Martha's mom's house in Sandy. Sunday I took Dillan to the park to play. Here are some pics from that adventure.

Yesterday I finished planting the garden. Sweet white corn, red potatoes, and some pumpkins. Hopefully all goes well and we have plenty to share. Grandma's garden is so huge, I would never be able to handle the whole thing by myself.

A new talent.

Trampoline.

Grandma's garden hat.

I'm a marathon finisher... again.

So yesterday was the big day; The 2009 Salt Lake City Marathon. I hardly slept the night before. We went down to Martha's mom's house for the night and it was her birthday. We went to a Japanese restaurant where they cook in front of you. I had some fried noodles amongst other things (so much for spaghetti). It was pretty good.

I got up at 5 to get ready and head to the Gateway mall. From there I took trax to the University of Utah where the race began. I sat next to a cool 60 year-old guy on the way who was doing the half marathon. The starting area was not very well organized and I had to scramble to find a place to put my extra gear. I finally did about 5 minutes before the start. I had to squeeze through a gate to get
to the start line. I ended up starting about 20 seconds after the gun. They used chip time and luckily they gave us our timing chips the night before. We got started and a turned on my zune. I didn't want to go out too fast so I tried to relax and I listened to "Easy" by Lionel Ritchie. It relaxed me pretty well. Apparently it was too well and I ended up going a bit faster than planned. I kept trying to slow down a little but I wasn't slowing down as much as I wanted. I wanted to run between 7:30 and 8:00 per mile. Here are my splits according to my watch

1. 6:47
2. 6:46
3. 6.35
4. --:--
   
5. 13:50 (4+5)
6. 7:22
7. 7:47
8. 7:29
9. 7:53
10. 7:40
11. 7:10
12. 7:49
13. 7:46 (1st 13 miles in 1:35)
14. 7:22
15. 7:28
16. 7:51
17. 7:42
18. 8:16
19. 8:47
20. 8:52
21. 9:13
22. 9:08
23. 9:24
24. 9:35
25. 10:27
26. 11:17 (this was 1.2 miles)

My total time was 3:30:29 (the clock in the picture is different because I took about 20 seconds to pass the start line and start my time.

As you can tell I pretty much hit the wall between mile 18 and 19. I took about 20 minutes longer to do the second 13 miles than I did to do the first 13. I did a lot of things that weren't the smartest. I started way too fast and as a result walked way way way more than I planned. I also did not like how the aid stations were set up. They were not at mile markers. They were at seemingly random points and it made it hard for me to time when to take a gel because I didn't know when the next water would be available. The info said that 2 stations would have gel and I only found 1. Luckily I brought 2 gels with me. I didn't like the gel they provided because it was too thick. So I only got as many gels in 26.2 miles as I took during a 20 mile training run and started too fast.

The other big mistake I made was my shirt. I wore a cotton/polyester blend thinking I would be warm enough but that it would wick away excess sweat. I forgot to consider what happens when you combine sweaty man-boobs, cold moisture, and constant rubbing for 3 and a half hours. The end result is bloody nipples. Luckily, I didn't notice this problem until the end.

All in all, I think I am ok with my time but I would have rather gotten it or improved on it by not starting off to fast and knowing what to expect and what not to expect from aid stations, both of which contributed to my walking way more than planned. Oh well. Maybe next time I'll be better prepared to avoid these pitfalls.

As for the results, I got 120th overall out of 1067 finishers in the marathon. I got 20th out of 106 in my age division. I got 103rd out of 685 men finishers. So only 17 girls beat me. You can find more results info here.

If you want to see the official pics that I am too cheap to buy, check out this site.

Santa Monica pier

After a long day of training, Jotham and i went looking for Venice beach. We missed it and ended up at Santa Monica pier. We saw a street performer and got some pictures on the beach. After that we went to the Bubba Gump shrimp company. We each ate a bucket of boat trash and it was delicious. Now we are stuck in California traffic on our way back to our hotel.

Playgrounds

This is Dillan at murray city park. They have some of the coolest playground equipment I've ever seen. Speaking of playgrounds, they are building a new playground at the Whittier center and i may help build it. We went and saw another playground that is similar to what it will be like and i think Dillan will love it.

mobile video

Video test

Mobile test.

Tapering for the SLC marathon

So I finally signed up for a marathon. Back in 2002 when I did Top of Utah and qualified for Boston, I told myself that it would be a while 'till I was dumb enough to do that again. Well I guess I am finally dumb enough. I have always said "If you are going to do something dumb, at least be smart about it." So I decided to try the "smart" way and follow a training plan.

I am following Hal Higdon's Intermediate II plan. I originally started it with the intent of running the Ogden marathon, but that filled up before I had the courage/stupidity to sign up. So I had to decide between SLC a month earlier, or Bear lake a month later, or both. I decided that I need to get the first one over with and then I would see if I was "dumb enough" to try for Bear Lake. I really want to run Bear Lake but I don't want to run 20 miles every other saturday for 2 months.

I signed up for the SLC Marathon last week after a 19 miler at about 8:15 per mile pace. My legs were tired all week and I was worried about my 20 miler planned for last saturday. But all my worry was useless because I did just fine. I was relieved. The day before I did a pretty hilly 10 miler that I was worried would kill me for the long one. I ended up running almost the same pace as the 19.

So I am now less than 3 weeks from the marathon and I am done with my "long runs". I think the longest one I have left now is only 12. Piece of cake. The trouble is that my left knee has been bothering me since my 20 miler. I am hoping that I can heal from this soon so that it doesn't kill the quality of my runs. The good news is that I am not very sore from Saturday. I thought my legs would be super tight and I wouldn't be albe to walk but I am fine. Just an annoying pain in the knee.

If anyone reads this, wish me luck for the Marathon. I hope to do this "dumb" idea in as smart of a way as I know how.

Time for an update

So I figure that its been a while and i haven't posted any of the exciting/stressful things i've been doing. So, here goes.

At the end of January Chem-Dry had its national convention in Hawaii (I didn't get to go) and they presented the last six months of my work consisting of about 30 lessons of content and the main portion of Chem-Dry University (CDU). I was stoked that it is finally up but there is still so much room for growth.

Last week I got to "run the show" for new buyer class. Jotham was out of town on other training events and Linda is no longer with the company. Suffice it to say that I ended up teaching presentations that I have never done before (most of which I did very well). The class was a great test of my patience. They were constantly asking random, not applicable, seemingly unimportant questions.

I had Saturday off and Sunday I flew to Calgary, Alberta Canada. This is my first time to Canada. I am actually in Canada as I write this. I have a little time to kill before dinner. I am here for the Chem-Dry Canada convention. Cool eh? Anyway I helped present Tile and Stone Cleaning and will do workshops on it and PURT tomorrow. Then I get to go home and take a few days off.

Meanwhile I have been training for a marathon. I was thinking of running the Ogden marathon but it filled up before I signed up. I am now trying to decide between doing SLC or Bear Lake or both. Or maybe I do one as a half marathon. Anywho, we'll see.

I ran 14 miles on Saturday in the snow and somehow I have been able to maintain my pace right around 8 min per mile. That was the same pace I ran the 5 mile run leg of the Cache Valley Biathlon in the spring. Cool.

Back like a vertebrae

Ok, So I realize that it has been a while since I posted. First things first here is the audit of my christmas list. These are the items that I asked for that I actually received for Christmas:

• Cold weather running clothes (tights, tech shirts, running jacket, etc)
• Yak Traks for running on ice
• Running socks
  
• Timex Ironman 30-lap
  
• A snow blower
  
• Music for my Zune
• Dress shoes
• Time with Martha

For those of you keeping score who are just dying to help me out here are some ideas for you:

• A snowboarding trip (lift ticket and rentals)
• Entrance fees (Ogden Marathon, Top of Utah Marathon, Utah Half Ironman)
• My back waxed (gross but true)

A few weeks ago we had a company activity at the USU basketball game. We took Dillan and it was a blast.

For more on Dillan's adventures, check out The Monkey Times.

As for me I have been swamped at work working on getting Chem-Dry University ready for launch. I think we are pretty much there, which is good, since we are launching it this week. Now I get to focus on the future and prepare for my trip to Calgary for the Canadian Convention. Pretty sweet, eh?