Floodwaters

So, my life finally got exciting. Kind of. We had a huge monsoonal storm on Wednesday wherein it poured heavy rain for more than an hour. For Utah, that's crazy. We normally get maybe ten or fifteen minutes of heavy rain. No, this was a storm the likes of which Utah never sees. Honestly, I really enjoyed it. Watching the lightning and shivering at the thunder claps, marveling that hail could be hitting both windows on opposite sides of the apartment (I still haven't figured that one out), and dancing in the rain and puddles. Even as the water started to build up outside my door and I knew it was inevitably coming inside. I was on my way out to dinner, and there was not much I could do except put some towels down inside of the door ways. As I frolicked along the rivery road in my white rain coat and no shoes, I was laughing and very happy.

It wasn't until I got home and took a step inside my waterlogged apartment that I started to sober up a bit. Every step was marshy, all the way through the living room to the hall. What the heck was I supposed to do about this? It's not like I can use towels to soak it all up. I did apply this method to the large standing puddle in 1/3 of the kitchen, but it just wasn't effective on the carpet. I called my landlord with no answer, and figured there was actually nothing to be done at all and went to bed.

I called the management office at 8:05 the next morning and told Cathy what had happened and she promised to send some people out. I thought this was probably a good choice as the water still pooled every time you took a step on the carpet. They came out, decided that the carpet needed to be taken out to let the cement dry, and now all of our furniture is piled in the kitchen and bedrooms. Luckily, we don't have anything in the living room except couches and coffee tables, so nothing got damaged. The carpet will be replaced tomorrow (hopefully), and all will be well. It hasn't been that hard to deal with, but at least it's a little bit of excitement. Woohoo!

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It's good to have a goal

This past April I ran the Moab Marathon. Quite slowly and very painfully (great scenery though!). And I hadn't been on one run since then. However, in the last two weeks, I've added two new running goals to my life. Events to work up to. 

     The first to come up is the Moonlight Half Marathon...in four weeks. Though the training for this will be intense and quite frankly stupid, I'm really excited. The idea is that the runners choose when to start the race, with the goal of being the first person to cross the finish line after midnight. I love running at night and this will just be fun. I'm training and running the race with my friend Beth from work. Goal: 2 h 5 m, on Aug 12.

     Next up is probably more insane, but I'll have more time to train. Ragnar Relay Race: Lake Mead to Las Vegas. I'll be in a team with 12 runners, and we'll rotate three rounds of taking turns running. The total distance is 195 miles, but I'll probably only be running 15 or 16 of that. "It will be fun." So far the team is my friend Kalie, her mom and sister, some of their cousins, maybe my boss Max and his wife, and some other people I don't know yet. I'm excited for this because it's not just a race, it's an experience! And probably also because I'm kinda insane. Either way, I have until October to get ready. Goal: survive and help team, on Oct 21-22.

     I have started training, and hopefully I'll keep training enough such that I don't die in either of these endeavors. That would be not so good. Also, any good training tips are welcomed. I need help.