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I spent the beginning of this month getting the lasts of my long runs done in preparation for my race. One day I ran from Cordera all the way to my PT apt which ended up being 13 miles. I started out at a faster pace and realized I had to keep that pace to get to my apt on time.   As Madeline and I were walking home from the bus stop one day we had to stop and play in the yellow leaves.  Emma was struggling with some of her math concepts, so Andrew spent some time helping her out via Zoom.  Mike and Abby were being goofy one day and took a photo where Abby looked taller than Mike. Then they sent it to Gina as a joke.  Madeline has been doing well at her swim lessons with Ms. Caroline. She can now swim a few strokes on her own before reaching her instructor.  Mike and I stayed up in Denver and spent the night shopping, eating good food, and laughing at the Jim Gaffigan live show. The next morning, we basked in the unseasonably warm sun and lounged at the pool at the Four Seasons hotel.    A few days before my race I weighed myself after an awesome run and was shocked to see that I was 107.9. It has been almost 16 years since I have seen that number.   Emma rode the peloton for the first time during one of her cross-training days.  As the gifts started to arrive, I gathered all the wrapping supplies and started wrapping presents.   It is not often that I find Mike taking a nap but the day after our race really did him in.  Sometimes we have the most beautiful sunsets and the view from the back of our house is just amazing.  Since the weather was warm, I decided that I would do the Christmas lights on the house all by myself. I managed to get the first level of lights all finished but decided against going on the upper roof to do those lights. These are the times when I miss having boys to do this sort of thing.  Madeline finally got her first COVID vaccine and didn’t have any reactions.  My parents sent me a super cool triathlon ornament that they had made by a friend.  While I flew to Arizona and then Salt Lake City with Emma, Mike drove to Utah with Abby and Madeline for Thanksgiving. Mike spent most of the day on Saturday driving the rest of the way to Utah, unloading Peter’s 3D printer that we brought from home to his dorm room, shopping at the U bookstore, eating lunch with Andrew and then heading to the U of U game vs. Oregon with Peter. It was quite the game to be at and the boys had such a fun time in the muss section with all the other rowdy college kids. At the end of the game, they rushed the field and got to high five the football players. While those two were at the game, Andrew drove to the airport and picked me and Emma up and drove us back to his apartment where we hung out and ate a simple little dinner. Then I took the girls and we drove down to Orem to stay with my parents. Mike stayed the night with Andrew and all three of the boys went to church together. Peter’s ward put on their own “primary program” but with students from their ward. Mike said it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. I drove up to SLC and picked up all the boys and brought them back to the condo. We invited their cousins, Josh and Sam, over for dinner and had fun just talking and laughing with them until way too late. Then Mike drove the boys back to SLC since they had classes the next day. On Monday morning, Mike and I geared up in all our winter biking gear and went out for a ride in the freezing cold. As soon as we got in the open sun on the Murdock trail, we warmed up pretty fast. Then we headed back and got ready to head back to SLC. We left Madeline at home with my parents and Peter met me and the girls on campus so that he could give them a tour. Andrew was supposed to come as well but he got food poisoning so we brought him some provisions before heading to the U campus to meet Peter. The girls were super impressed with the campus and listened to Peter give them advice about college life. Mike met with a realtor while we walked around campus. Then we all headed to dinner at the Copper Onion. On Tuesday we all slept in which was pretty great. I met up with some of my college roommates (Becca and Melissa) for lunch and Mike met up with a missionary companion from his mission. It was so fun to catch up with each other’s lives. Then after we gathered back at the condo, we took Emma and Abby to the BYU campus to shop at the bookstore and roam around campus. We headed to the sports complex so that Emma could see all the XC boards and awards. She loves that. We made sure to stop by the Tanner Building and the JSB which is where Mike and I spent most of our days at BYU. On Wednesday I got up and ran with Becca on the trails behind her house. Then I spent most of my day making the pies with Emma and prepping for our Thanksgiving dinner. Mike headed back up to SLC to grab the boys since they were done with class for the week and brought them back down to Orem so they could have Thanksgiving with us. Thanksgiving morning I headed out once again to go on a run with Becca and her friend. We ran an easy 3.20 miles on the Murdock trail and had fun talking and doing the challenges that someone had written on the trail. Then it was back to the condo to make the rolls and sweet potatoes, watch the parade and other fun movies. Thanksgiving is so much better when I don’t have to prepare the entire meal. I can’t remember the last time I had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. It was a lot of fun to be able to have Thanksgiving with all my kids and my parents this year. There is much to be grateful for this year, but good health and the love of family is on the top of my list Everyone loved the dinner and the pies! On Friday morning, Mike got up and drove Peter to Delta, UT to spend the weekend with his cousins and grandpa. The rest of us just relaxed around the condo for most of the day. We headed to the mall in the afternoon so that we could participate in the Giving Machine. The Giving Machine is a way to help others around the world put on by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Each of the kids got to pick something to give. Between the kids and my parents, we bought six chickens, a goat, polio vaccines for 100 kids, art supplies, menstrual care kits, and take-home meals for children. It was truly a humbling experience. We ended our evening and our week long Thanksgiving break in Utah by being treated to a wonderful Indian dinner by my parents. SATURDAY   
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WEDNESDAY
FRIDAY
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Nike Southwest Regionals (NXR) was Emma’s last race of the season, and we couldn't be prouder of how she finished her 2021 XC season. She was 47th out of 181 in the coveted championship race, 2nd for her team, and finished the race in 18:39 on a hot, dusty course after battling a week of being congested. While her time is impressive, what is even more impressive is the fact that she ran the 5K on a crappy course that ended up being longer than an official 5K (3.10 miles). Many logged it as over 3.20 miles which means that her true 5K time was about 30 seconds faster. Some overhead several of the Nike officials talking about how they really messed it up this year. Well isn't that nice...looks like we may be looking at Footlocker for next year's regional race. On a positive note, the Pine Creek girls team placed 9th out of the top 22 teams from Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. The girls decided to race as a team this year and to just have fun and that is exactly what they did. It was fun to watch them run out to the starting line as a team holding the flag with their team's name written on it. This truly was a great way to end an awesome season.
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It is usually our tradition to put up Christmas decorations and decorate the Christmas tree during Thanksgiving break. Since we were headed to Utah this year for Thanksgiving, we decided to do the tree before we left. I spent the day decorating the house with all our Christmas décor and making our traditional poppyseed bread. When Mike got home from work, I gave the girls their new Christmas pjs and let them decorate the tree. Emma and Abby were the most excited to continue to tradition to put up the Danny DeVito ornament. It is now a huge inside joke in our family that started when Andrew and Peter put Danny DeVito’s picture in one of their framed ornaments one year. They put it on the tree and waited to see how long it took me to find it. When I realized what they had done I just laughed. Now Danny DaVito adorns our tree every year. While the girls decorated the tree, we listened to Christmas music and enjoyed eating the poppyseed bread. Although, I must admit that we have already been listening to Christmas music for the last two weeks. We just love Christmas in the Wilhelm house.
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Mike and I ran in the Revel Big Bear Half Marathon, and it was quite the adventure. We both PR'd which is amazing. I finished in 1:26.47 (6:37 avg pace), placed 1st in my age division (40-44), 6th female out 690, and 43rd overall out of 1101 runners. Mike finished in 1:48.41 (8:17 avg pace), placed 27th in his age division (45-49), 152nd male out of 411, and 259th overall out of 1101 runners. He only trained for 3 weeks since he had been injured and his longest run was 9 miles. That's incredible. I wasn’t injured so I spent the last few months training hard for this race including many severe downhill fast paced runs to get my legs ready for the pounding. My first 7 miles were between 6:16-6:22 pace and when I hit mile 8, I got the worst side stitch ever. I'm inclined to think I drank too much water when taking my gu at mile 7. It completely threw off my game and I had to really dig deep for that next 2 miles to get my head back in the game and to keep running sub-7. It was a mental suffer fest for the rest of the race, but I knew if I could just hold on I could still PR so that’s what I did. It just goes to show that sometimes even when you train smart you can still hit hurdles along the way. It’s how we face those challenges that determine how strong we really are.
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Emma’s XC coach had some amazing things to say about her season at the banquet. For good measure we recorded it so that we could remember all the nice things he said about Emma. She truly was one of the most valuable athletes on her team this season, taking the lead in 4 of the 8 races and was awarded 1st team for PPAC. However, her improvement was far beyond anyone else on the team this year and so she was awarded the Most Improved Runner for 2021. She ran sub 19:30 six times and sub 19:00 four times, including running the fastest time of the season on her team at Desert Twilight with a time of 18:08. That time put her as the #4 fastest time in PCHS girls XC history. She finished in the top 3 overall in 3 races during the season. She was 2nd at league, 3rd at regionals, and the 2nd runner on the team at state by literally a lean (.2 sec). She was an exceptional contributor to the team not just with her statistics but in how she encouraged other runners to run faster. I was later told by another mom of a JV runner that many agreed that Emma was the most positive, happy influence on the team. That is something to be extremely proud of.
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