Five Things I Am Looking Forward To

It's been so long since I have been able to join the 3 fabulous ladies who host the Friday Five Link Up.
I quit blogging Fri-Sun over a year ago to give myself a weekly blogging break. But now moved to a new life, no job just full time college. My schedule has changed, and I am really excited to be able to link up with them again and get to know some of the other bloggers who link up who I haven't met (online) before!

I really wanted to go on their topic, but food and drink is something that currently I have nothing to share on. I'm a returning college student who still hasn't established the best eating habits. Though I am working on it!
To be honest I'd love to be the younger me college student and live off pizza and Pepsi, but if I did that now I'd likely be 200 pounds before the end of the year.

So that left me with the choice on what Friday Five things to share with you all.

Living in the desert again in the location that I do I have a huge list of things I want to do while I am here for the next two years. So I thought I'd share the top 5 on my list with you all. Because just quite possibly they may be things you might want to add to your list if ever visiting Southern Utah too!

1. Hike Angel's Landing.

I've probably done this hike over 25 times in my life and it never gets old. But I have not hiked it in over 10 years. It's not for those afraid of heights, especially since you climb with chains and will be standing at times on a little over two feet wide of rock with 1000 foot drop offs on one side of you, and 800 foot drop offs on the other side of you. But if you don't mind heights, the view from the top is amazing! If you've been on my blog even a few times, you likely know these things are right up my alley!
I'd really like to do this in September or October when the temps cool off and high's aren't in the 100's, but maybe the 90-80's.

2. Hike Zion Narrows.

Again, another I have done dozens of times in my life, but most of those were when I was a child. I actually haven't hiked that beautiful narrow river canyon that shoot up 1000's a feet above me in over 15 years. I definitely plan to do this, during a non-flash flood risk day in October!
The pic below isn't the narrows, but a view I took a few weeks ago just before you get to them.

3. Cliff Diving at Sand Hollow.

Truth be told, I will be there this weekend, but not to cliff dive. To watch my sister swim a mile in the lake and finish the rest of her Olympic Triathlon and I think she may have a fabulous chance of winning over all. She's put in some killer training!
I'd like to go back to swim in the waters preferably with some family or friends and jump the 30-50 foot cliff dive jump options. I was sick back in June and only watched my sister and nephew do them, (that's my sis jumping below) so it's my turn this fall! I'm hoping in October when my sister brings the paddleboards we can park them at the side and climb up for the dive!

4. Run all the trails in the area I live in.

Now this will likely take me the full two years to do them all. As I have been told there are hundred's of miles of trails in the area, and about half of them are even paved through the beautiful desert. I've already hit up a few of them already! This city/county has spared no expense when it comes to giving runners/walkers lots of places to go!

5. Run the St. George Marathon.

I've already done this one six times, it's one of my favorites in the entire country. I actually got into the lottery this year. But with moving and getting ready to go on this new college adventure so quickly. My training lacked and even I am big enough to admit I am not ready as I mentioned last week I will not be running it next month. But next year, I think I can score a guaranteed entry and there will be very little that can hold me back for sure!

If you want to visually follow me on these adventures, make sure you follow My Instagram page, as I am really active on there with travel/hiking and different location scenery posts from my days.

So tell me, what is something you have on your list of things to do before the year ends?

Five Things About Me

Thanks to EatPrayRunDC, YouSignedUpForWhat? & MarontheRun for hosting the link-up. Today I am linking up again with The DC Trifecta Friday Five.

The topic they chose for today's link up is Five Things About Me.  For those who read my blog you know that occasionally on Monday's I give random facts about me.  So for this post, I thought long and hard about a few things about me that you may or may not know.  It occurred to me the biggest part of who I am is my sense of adventure and love of the outdoors.  So, I might as well jump right into my five list:

1.  Kayaking in the Bermuda Triangle: Although I am pretty experienced at guiding river rafts down class 1-3 river rapids.  My first time kayaking was in the actual Bermuda Triangle.  We kayaked from one island a few miles across to another island, but when you look on a map it was in the actual Bermuda Triangle and I thought that was pretty cool.  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, nothing mysterious happened to me, well unless I was abducted and brought back without knowing it, haha.

2.  Rock Climbing: My first few times going rock climbing and rappelling I lied to the group of guys inviting me and told them I was an experienced climber who just hadn't done it in a while.  (They were cute and I wanted to go.)   I ended up having to do a 150 foot chimney free climb at night (no ropes) and had a 200 foot night rappel with no belay and no idea if the rope actually touched the ground at the bottom.  I am not sure how I did it, but I faked it well enough by copying them and proved myself to them and was always invited to climb with them on their weekly climbing nights. (At the time I lived in a red rock desert, so nights were the only time to climb because the temps would cool off to upper 90's)  To this day, none of them know the truth:)  On a side not, I'm surprised I am not dead.

3.  Trail Running: My first 3 trail runs ever, were full marathon's I signed up for (Alaska, Colorado, West Virginia).  I never or rarely look at a course map ahead of time and at first I just thought all marathon's were ran on the road (even though one race actually had the word "trail" in the title and I still didn't catch on until the race started), haha.  With no training on trails, lets just say my hips and ankles were sure quite a bit more sore than normal.  But I loved every minute, rock, path, river, plank bridge, deep mud and hidden holes that broke me in during those races and turned me into a lover of trail running.  

4. Adventure Seeker: If you can't tell already by my list of five.  I love adventure and thrills and I have just enough fear to keep me alive:)  You could say I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie.  I'll try almost anything once.  Here are some of these adventures: Skydiving, Shark Diving, Glacial Landing in Alaska, Swimming with wild Stingray's, 30 foot cliff diving, White Water River Rafting, Canyoneering in beautiful slot canyons, 29 full marathons in 2 years.  Once I took five of my nieces and nephews all under the age of 10 camping without their parents, I still don't know how I survived that weekend:)

5. Still to do: I have a long list of things I have never done but would like to do if I can get the chance.  Here are a few to share that are on the top of my list: Hangliding, Hot Air Balloon, A few specific river rafting tours, Night Diving with huge Manta Rays, Hike Kauai, Climb the highest peak in Utah, Visit Kodiak Island and see live wild Kodiak bears, Deep Sea Fishing, See real running red lava, Scuba dive certified up to 75 feet, Visit Antarctica, Open water dive with whale sharks, Ironman.  Okay I better stop there:)

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CURRENT GIVEAWAY

I'd also just like to quickly mention there are a few days left to enter the current giveaways going on right now for the Heat it Up Health and Fitness Giveaway.  14 bloggers and over 14 awesome health, fitness and running related giveaways.  You can visit HERE TO ENTER.

BLOGGERS WANTED

If your interested there are a few days left to add your blog to the list, for the giveaway blog hop that starts July 7th.  Make sure you read and agree to all the rules  HERE before you add your name to the list.

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So tell me, do you have an adventurous side?  Have you done something that you think I should add to my list? 

This summer I will...

I am excited to participate in the DC Trifecta's Friday Five Link Up.  This is my first time linking up, if you haven't heard about it before, you can click on their logo above and it link to one of their sites where you can learn more.

1.  Take my nieces and nephew's hiking.  This is just as much for them as it is me.  I love the outdoors and spending as much time up in the mountains as possible and I am always looking for someone to hike with.  They love to go with me, so it's a win win:)

2.  Get back to running, and begin getting my body conditioned.  After this injury and my recent set back about a month ago, things are looking like I have the GO.  I am more than ready to start pounding the pavement and enjoying the summer months on foot again!

3.  Go camping and fishing as much as possible!  If I had my way I'd spend every week of the summer up camping, but life....  I'll settle for as much as possible instead:)

4.  Continue to read at least one novel a week and more if time allows!  I love to read, so this is the easy one for me:)

5.  Be happy!  It took me many years to learn, but being happy is the absolutely most important thing a person can do for themselves.  Life is way too short to be negative or dwell on the things that aren't the most uplifting.  I try to look for different ways every day to make myself happy as well as any others who are around me happy too.  The more I practice, the easier it becomes (even on the bad days:).