Foster Care: Year 4; Month 2

Charlie (Hound, Paws For Life)

It took Charlie six weeks to find his forever home. I told myself I wasn't going to get too attached to him, but of course, I was lying. :) He was the sweetest boy, but we know he went to an excellent home. 

As our first long-term foster, we were unsure how long Charlie would be staying with us. We know these long-term cases can result in the dogs staying in temporary housing for upwards of three months. We were surprised how quickly Charlie went (relatively speaking), but also that this awesome man made it a whole six weeks without someone snatching him up. We had our second foster dog from Paws For Life lined up, but, fortunately, she too was adopted the same day Charlie left.

Radcliff (Dachshund mix, Friends Of Animals)

Radcliff was our short-term foster in February. Due to the higher visibility of the Friends Of Animals dogs, they typically don't make it more than 10 days in foster care with us.

I did the math this morning, and Radcliff was the 58th dog fostered with us over these past four years. Wow! Here's hoping we can at least break 70 this year!

Striders Winter Circuit 10K Results

Running the Striders 10K was a last minute addition to my calender. With the hubby having to work, I figured I could easily sneak one more race into the mix, and there's honestly nothing I'd rather be doing early on Saturday morning than pounding out some miles. Striders hold a winter circuit series each year consisting of a 5K, 10K, 10 miler, half marathon, and 30K, but yet somehow I've never had the chance to run any of their events until today.

There were surprisingly a lot of runners out for an 18 degree race. The gun fired, and everyone bolted across the starting mats. This is nothing new in races, and I figured as everyone settled into their paces, the runners within sight would be easily catchable.

They weren't.

Over a mile into the run, no one was falling back. I could see my goal of placing top 10 easily slipping away, but I kept pushing my hardest up those hills.

My 10K splits were as followed:

8:22
7:41
8:29
8:44
10:00 (what happened?!)
9:47
6:44

I finished with an overall time of 54:40, and placed 10th out of 25 in my AG. The goal continues!

**SLC Marathon in 9 weeks!**

Hale 10K Results

I raced the Hale 10K for the first time last weekend. I was pretty excited for this run as 10K isn't a race distance you see very often. To date, I've only ran three 10Ks--two of those being the most popular 10K in Utah: Deseret News.

The Hale 10K course makes a big loop through Orem, which added a nice mix of downhill and uphill.  The route was pretty icy on race day so I ran the freshly salted roads cautiously, and heeded the race director's repeated warning to "not aim for your fastest race".

Hale 10K Elevation Chart

My splits for the race were as followed:

8:53
8:18
8:37
9:02
9:50
8:38

The course came up a bit short, but I finished in 53:20--less than a minute off my current 10K PR. I'm not sure where I stand in my age group, but I'll update this post as soon as the results appear online.

Post script: the results just appeared online, and I took 3rd in my age group.

**SLC Marathon in 10 weeks**

Moab, UT

Our first 2013 getaway is now in the books! Troy and I spent last weekend in Moab to celebrate the hubby's upcoming 38th birthday. We dedicated a full day to Arches National Park and a full day to Canyonlands before make the trip back home to Park City.

**California next month**