I came...

I Ran...I finished...
I know these aren't pretty, but I promised some pictures.

Family Fun!

My whole family came for the marathon...or at least used that as the excuse to get together. We had a great time:
Playing with the kids....

Carving pumpkins....

(I did the ghost one. They all looked pretty awesome)

(Tim rebelled and didn't use a template. Instead, he dedicated his pumpkin to me...so sweet)

...and Rocking out.

Even Will got into it. Maybe he'll take after me and be a drummer.

I also think I ate back every single calorie I burned in the marathon. It was a great weekend!

The Monster Marathon

Tim and I flew back to St. George last weekend (thanks, dad!) so I could run the Marathon. It was my third time.....and may be my last. St. George is known for it's beautiful, "fast," course and good weather, but Saturday, October 4th was the first time it's rained during the race in 25 years...and it rained the entire race.
These pictures are compliments of the Spectrum (the newspaper), because I didn't take any, and I wasn't about to pose in the freezing weather once I finished. Nevertheless, you can see the conditions we ran in.
This is not me, however, you can compare this runner to me, because I did wear a poncho for the first 4 or 5 miles (she is wearing a bag).
Even though the conditions were not ideal, I did feel pretty good during the race. I got my best time (even though all three times are within a minute and a half of each other), and lived to tell about it! Below are some things I stole off of my results page. My time ended up being 3:28:02. Boston, here I come! (--Maybe. I'll have to think about this some more.)
This maroon pictures shows my place out of the women. It said I was 123rd out of 2180 women, and 6% of the women were faster than me.

Rainy Day in Baltimore

I happen to be behind in my blogging, so I know everyone on the Larsen side has heard this, but a little over a week ago Tim's siblings (Scott, DeAnne, and Aubrey), and I went up to Baltimore. It was my first time there, so I followed Aubrey's example and ate some delicious crabcake. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of seafood (shellfish), but I sure love crabcake! We quickly walked around the Inner Harbor in the rain, but spent most of the time indoors. (Where we saw this exciting show about fudge.) We finished our night with $1 tickets to the Orioles game and made it through 7 innings before the rain started back up. All in all, it was fun to see a new city and spend time with family.

Day 2 Downtown

Last Monday I got off work a little early, so we decided to go see some more sights for the evening. We went to the Mall and saw the WWII memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and just as the sun was setting, the Washington Monument with a beautiful pink glow (from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial). It really is cool being able to go down there so easily!The top left picture is the Lincoln monument from the view of the WWII memorial. At the memorial, there were two walls with a bunch of bronzed scenes from different parts of the war. It was really cool.

Tanaya's Job!

After a long month, I have found a job! I am a Health and Fitness Specialist at Prince William Hospital Fitness Center in Manassas, VA. It is the same idea as my last job-I work for L&T Health and Fitness, but I am a contractor into the hospital. The hospital fitness center is different than other fitness sites because the fitness center is not only for employees, but for anyone in the community who would like to join. Because we're at a hospital, doctors may recommend us to patients, so about 80% of our population is over age 60. I love it!

As some of you know, I was the Gerontology Department Secretary at BYU for a year and a half, and I was able to organize the Gerontology Conference and participate in the World Senior Games for two years in a row. I love the older populations! I like the fact that the people at the fitness center are there to solve/prevent real health issues, and I've already seen progress in some of our members.

As a health fitness specialist, I get to perform health assessments which include body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol, flexibility, and cardio testing; write programs and train members on them; teach group exercise; and promote health in creative ways to people. I've been there for 7 days now, and I'm excited about the position as well as the fact that I have a job.

Annapolis

If you've ever seen the movie, you'll know that Annapolis, MD is home to the US Naval Academy. Tim and I decided we need to do more while we are "retired for a short season," so we drove up to Annapolis and spent the day seeing the sights. Below are pictures of us at the Academy (shout out to Nick and Sarah). Does anyone know why this big red indian statue is on the campus? Besides the Naval Academy, we went to Sandy Point State Park and played at the beach of the Chesapeake Bay, then saw the town. Annapolis is unique, because the entire downtown district is listed on the national historic site registry. It was really pretty to walk up and down the streets by the bay.