Foster Care: Year 4; Month 1

We've taken in three dogs in January, and so far we have successfully adopted out two of them. Here are the pictures of the pups that have been hanging around the Madsen house:

Salty (Papillon, Friends Of Animals)

 Salty was a complete gem to have in our house. We're not surprised that he was adopted in three days.

Rocky (Boxer, Friends Of Animals)

Rocky was a one-year-old Boxer we had for a week before he found his forever home. Out of all the breeds we've taken in, Boxers are easily the most high strung, and this is coming from a gal who has worked with Weimaraners and Rat Terriers. That's really saying something!  In the picture above, you can see even our obnoxious terrier, Shady, felt the need to hide from Rocky. :)

Charlie (hound, Paws For Life)

Charlie is our first long-term foster from the Paws For Life rescue in Heber, UT. We've had him for about two weeks now, and he is an absolute doll! He loves to ride shot gun as I run errands, and when we get home, there's nothing he'd rather do than plop that big 70-pound body across my lap and catch some zzz's. There hasn't been any interest in him yet, but we're more than happy to have him staying with us until someone out there realizes what they're missing without this big boy in their life.

Rail Trail Snowshoe 5K Results

This January was the third consecutive year I ran the snowshoe 5K, and for the third year in a row I took first in my age group! Ok, ok, I'll admit this year I somehow happened to be the only runner in my age group, but I can still count it as a win, right? ;)

The winter season put down almost two feet of snow the day before the race so it was slow running, especially on the second half of the course where runners had to break trail. I ended up snagging a 37:00 finish.

2013 Goals

Expand Our Fostering Service.  Troy and I are now entering our fourth year as fosters for Friends Of Animals. I've been in contact with other rescues for the past few months, and as of this month, we'll be taking in additional dogs as long-term fosters. Our first foster, Charlie, is arriving this weekend from the Paws For Life rescue in Heber.

Continue Volunteering In The Shelter Every Week.  I started this goal in 2012 as a way to do more for my local rescue than just fostering dogs. I spend every Sunday afternoon walking dogs, washing laundry, cleaning floors, etc. at Friends Of Animals. I will continue this goal in 2013.

Run A 1:30 Half Marathon. Right now I'm sitting on a 1:50 half PR. In 2013 I'm going to lower my half time to 1:30 or faster.

Begin Pacing Full Marathons. I have been pacing halfs for a year now, and while I absolutely love helping others along the 13.1 miles, I want to push myself and tackle 26.2 as a pacer. My current pacing team primarily covers halfs (to date I believe we only cover two marathons) so I've been scouting out some additional teams to join.

Qualify For Boston. This is my biggest goal of the year. I am currently in training to hit that 3:35 marathon finish, and plan to qualify at Big Cottonwood in September.

Place Top 10 In My Age Group Every Race. With the volume of races I do, this is going to be tough, but I'll gladly accept the challenge. For the races I'm not pacing, I'm striving to finish in the top 10 for women 25-29.

Become A Better Vegetarian Cook. Troy and I followed a pescetarian diet for four years. Over a year ago, we switched to cooking strictly vegetarian dishes in our house. While I have to admit I am a pretty good cook already, I really want to step it up this year for not only meals, but healthy food prep/snacks (juicing, roasting veggies, dehydrating fruit, etc.) As part of this goal I'm going to start posting some of my favorite vegetarian recipes on this blog.

Travel Internationally. For our seventh year of international travel, Troy and I are currently looking at either Argentina or Tahiti.

Compete In Taekwondo. I will compete in the same state competitions I attended the previous two years. This will be my last chance to compete before I'm a black belt!

Run An Ultramarathon. This has been on my goal list for quite some time. I thought I was finally going to be able to cross it off my list last October, but our Taekwondo competition ended up being rescheduled for the same day. This year it's going to happen! I'm aiming for late fall after I've finished Big Cottonwood.

And that's about it! I have two others goals I'm working on right now, but I'm not quite ready to reveal them. But I'm positive if you check back in a few months, I'll have some posts about the completion of both my secretive and not-so-secretive goals.

2012 Goals In Review

Last January, I posted my yearly goals for all the world to see. Now, as 12 months have come and gone, it's time to bring out that list again, and see how I did.

Run A Sub-2:00 Half Marathon.  I hit this goal early in the season, and beat it several more times.

Become A Pacer. I started with American Flyers in January of 2012. By December, I had paced 6 half marathons with them.

Train 5 Days A Week In Martial Arts.  This goal was easy to do early in the year, but when running season was in full swing, I had to cut back to 3-4 days a week. Right now I attend Taekwondo 2-3 days a week, box 1-2 days a week, and do Muay Thai training about once a week.

Compete In Taekwondo. I competed in both state Taekwondo competitions again last year. Between both tournaments, I competed in five categories. I ended up earning four first place wins, and one second place win.

Continue Fostering Dogs With Friends Of Animals. Last year was our third year as fosters. By the end of 2012, we had taken in 15 dogs.

Volunteer In The Shelter One Day A Week. I'm proud to say I completed this goal, and will continue doing this in 2013. I lined it up so that I work in the shelter every Sunday after church. During the weeks when work was less chaotic, I was able to squeeze in two volunteer sessions.

Earn A Promotion At Work. Done. :)

Expanding My Fitness Teaching Certifications. In 2012 I added TRX and Kinesis to my list of Pilates Mat, Pilates Reformer, BarreEvolution, Spin, and Group Fitness certifications.

Ski 100 Days In A Single Season. This was a hard one with the mild winter we had, but I still ended up hitting my goal before the resorts closed in April.

Continue Serving In My Church. At the beginning of last year, I switched calling from the teacher of the 12 year olds to teacher of the four year olds. I currently still teach the youngsters.

Read One Book A Month. This has been an on-going goal of mine for quite some time. Though I haven't been as diligent to log my books online as I once was, I still am mindful to read a new book every month.

Travel Internationally.  This is our sixth consecutive year of international travel. In 2012 Troy and I visited Costa Rica.

That's it for my 2012 list! I'm really going to be stepping it up in 2013 so stay tuned for the announcement of my new goals!

2012 Running Review

My 2012 Race Board

 2012 was the best year yet for my running. First off, I completed a record number of races. By the end of the year, I had racked up 10 5Ks, 1 10K, 15 half marathons, 3 marathons, and 1 relay. I set and broke PRs in every category. I also placed top three in my age group in several events.

2012 Race With Finish Times

Secondly, I seized the opportunity to become a pacer with a prominent local team, American Flyers. By the end of the year I had paced 6 half marathons around Utah with them.

Lastly, I continued to volunteer as a running buddy with Girls On The Run in Salt Lake City. I volunteered at Whittier Elementary again during both six-week training sessions, and ran both races with a former fourth grade student of mine.

Foster Care: Year 3; Months 6-12

December marks the end of our third year fostering dogs for Friends Of Animals. Here is the update of the pups that lived with us for the last six months:

Coco (Chocolate Lab)

Sherlock (Bloodhound)

Weldon (Chihuahua)

Zoe (Lab mix)

Ladybird (Pointer)

Patches (Shih Tzu)

Rosie (Pit Bull)

Rosie is our current foster dog, and the poor gal has been searching for her forever home for a couple months now. :( She is a sweetheart so we don't doubt someone will snatch her up soon.

In 2013 we will continue working as fosters and volunteers for Friends Of Animals as well as begin work with the Paws For Life rescue in Heber and the Utah Animal Adoption Center in Salt Lake City. 

Girls On The Run 5K Results

This past December was my third time volunteering as a running buddy for Girls On The Run. I was paired up again with Hannah--my former student I ran with the previous two times. Poor Hannah wasn't feeling too great on race morning, but she still shaved almost four whole minutes off her spring 5K time! We finished in 31 minutes this go around. Also, Troy must have been still experiencing runner's high from the Thanksgiving 5K because he signed up last minute and ran the race too!

Thanksgiving 5K Results

Troy and I arrive home from Costa Rica the day before Thanksgiving. We drove straight from the airport to Price so we could spend the holiday with our family.

Now my dad calls me every week, sometimes a couple times a week, to get the scoop on how my training has been coming along, and which races I have planned in the near future. He always expresses interest in doing a race himself so I said we were going to finally set a deadline and complete a 5K. I contacted my siblings to get them on board, and Troy even said he'd break his 15-year race hiatus if my dad would run. Before you knew, I had 10 people crossing the finish line at the Huntington Thanksgiving 5K! Yipee! Everyone, especially my dad, had such a great time, they're all planning on running it again next year. I'm hoping to make this a new Strate family tradition. :)

Costa Rica

For our annual international trip, Troy and I chose to visit Costa Rica in 2012.  Because I was able to score a ridiculously low rate at the all-inclusive Papagayo Resort, we opted to stay at that hotel for the whole seven days, and do four day trips out to see the sights. 

 Taking a boat ride across Arenal Lake to hike along the volcano.

After visiting beaches in California, northern Florida, the Florida keys, Oahu, Kauai, Mexico, Spain, Sicily, and Monaco, Troy and I both agree Cost Rica's were the most beautiful. This above picture is from one of the days we decided to stay "local" and not drive. We grabbed a sea kayak and went for an adventure through the gulf. It was so fun!

Of course you have to go ziplining while in Costa Rica.

Spotting crocs in the Palo Verde National Park.

One of our adventures was a 14-hour long rain forest exploration followed by soaking in the hot springs.

Discovering the local trails.

Looking out over the Papagayo Gulf.

Visiting an old Nicaraguan settlement.

Troy and I were a little nervous the all-inclusive resort setting would appeal mostly to retiree couples. We were so happy to find out it was quite the opposite. On the days we decided not to drive, we snorkeled, kayaked, and jet skied. We met up with other young couples to go mountain biking, hiking, trail running, and jumped into some beach soccer and volleyball games. And of course we still found time to lounge in a poolside chair with a good book. :)

By the time our week was coming to a close, Troy and I had had the best vacation ever. I'm not saying we haven't loved the other places we've visited--we've never had a bad vacation, but Costa Rica was by far our favorite. We weren't even on the plane to leave yet before Troy was checking hotel availability for us to come visit again. :) I'm sure it's safe to say Costa Rica is place we'll visit again very soon.