This week has been really enjoyable. Around getting ready to travel, James Tracy finished his master's degree, most of Rebecca's family came to visit, I set a master's world record, and sent John off to the Uintas for a backpacking trip. Rebecca arrived on Sunday. She said she came because Noa wanted to do a Henna Tattoo class. That worked as a great reason to have a road trip to visit the Hunters and Grandma and Grandpa.
Last week, Rory said he wanted to go for a world record in the Blue Jeans Mile. This became popular a few months ago thanks to Citius Magazine (http://citiusmag.com/rory-linkletter-runs-blue-jeans-mile-world-record/) He invited me to do it with him and tried to get a few people to join him. I asked him if there was a master's record. He said the women have one, but no men have run fast enough for one to count. So, I decided there was no reason not to do it. I was just worried that if I didn't at least break 5 minutes, I wouldn't want the time to be known. We had no idea what the limitations of wearing jeans while running would be. It turned into a really fun event. We had two rabbits, Rory, me, and the rest of the team out there watching. I found my old BYU jersey from 1992. It still fit! The jeans really were not too bad to run in, but if the race had been long enough to start sweating a lot, it would have turned miserable. Rory had to break 4:16.3. he got 4:16. I got 4:48. This record won't last for very long. It sounds like Bernard Lagat will be going for that record soon. I don't mind having my record broken by him though.
The rest of the week was hanging out with family, playing at the rec center, enjoying meals with everyone, getting ready to go, and doing some schoolwork. Right now, I'm waiting to head to Chicago to get my flight to London. This morning was great! I met Jon Harper at 6:00am to run 10 miles. Jon is my second favorite training partner (I often tell him that).
When I don't get to meet up with him, I tell him I had a better offer, which is Jared. We went on the River Trail to the lake. We enjoyed chatting the whole time about very important things. We even talked literature for a while discussing "Catcher in the Rye" and so on. Jon reads more books in a year than I've read in my life. I asked him if "Catcher in the Rye" was a baseball story. I realized the only books I've read since coming to teach at BYU are biographies of runners, physics books, and scriptures. We also talked about saying nice things to people when the moments arrive even if they are strangers. John thanked the Provo City worker on the way back that was picking up trash along the path. We were going to compliment a lady that was running. We could have said, "Hey, I like your stride!" or "Nice shorts!", but we thought that might just seem creepy rather than polite and kind. I guess we need to keep working on how to implement this idea into our lives.
When I don't get to meet up with him, I tell him I had a better offer, which is Jared. We went on the River Trail to the lake. We enjoyed chatting the whole time about very important things. We even talked literature for a while discussing "Catcher in the Rye" and so on. Jon reads more books in a year than I've read in my life. I asked him if "Catcher in the Rye" was a baseball story. I realized the only books I've read since coming to teach at BYU are biographies of runners, physics books, and scriptures. We also talked about saying nice things to people when the moments arrive even if they are strangers. John thanked the Provo City worker on the way back that was picking up trash along the path. We were going to compliment a lady that was running. We could have said, "Hey, I like your stride!" or "Nice shorts!", but we thought that might just seem creepy rather than polite and kind. I guess we need to keep working on how to implement this idea into our lives.
I got to visit Adrienne on the way home from the run to say goodbye. She was working at Molly's. Then, I brought the girls to Grandmas for breakfast. It's great having someone cook pancakes for me. I was planning on just spending lots of money on food during my trip, but ended up leaving with a Nutella and banana (make sure you say that word with an English accent) sandwich. That is way better than whatever I would find in an airport. The first offer was a Nutella/peanut butter sandwich, but Rebecca quickly remembered that was not the right choice for me.
Rebecca offered to take me to the airport. I was going to ask yesterday what time she was leaving and was going to see about getting a ride if she said in the morning. She beat me to it though and was kind enough to have everyone ready to go at 9:30. I think she just wanted a DJ for part of the trip. We heard Coldplay, Depeche Mode, R. Kelly, Dido, Aha, Jack Johnson, and a few others. I'm not sure if everyone enjoyed it, but that's not my problem. Simon wanted us to change Depeche Mode because it sounded creepy.
The hard part of the day was saying goodbye to Adrienne, then Grandma and Grandpa, then Rebecca and most of her children. I held in the tears, but it gets harder every time to say goodbye. It's been a great summer with lots of visits from Rogers, Brownes, and Hunters. As we get closer to each other, it gets harder to say goodbye each time.
Oh! And my good luck is back. When I checked in, I got bumped up to an exit row to Chicago. I'm hoping something good happens for the Chicago to London flight. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't.
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