A Win-Win Weekend

I love weekends. I especially love weekends filled with winning. It all started Saturday night at our ward's lasagne bake-off and no-rules pinewood derby. Knowing that (1) I don't like lasagne and (2) I've never made lasagne before, I thought my best shot at winning would be with an unusual lasagne: a butternut squash lasagne to be exact. C thought that I would be in trouble given that the judges for this bake-off were the missionaries. But when we saw that it was the sister missionaries, we knew I had a chance. I tried to watch their faces as they made their way through the dozen or so entries, but couldn't get a good read. When the awards were read, C thought he had seen our name written on one of them. The emcee for the evening read the third place winner's name (nope), the second place winner's name (not this one either), and at this point C thought I had secured first. But when the first place winner's name was read and it wasn't ours, I was nervous. What prize (if any) had I won? "Best attempt?" That would be bad. "Floppiest?" Even worse. ("Floppiest" was an award my kindergarten-self one for a teddy bear contest.) So what did I win? "Most Creative." AWESOME! Had I even known this was going to be a category, it's the award I would have wanted. I was so pleased with myself. And then, when I was able to finally try the lasagne, I was even more pleased because it was actually good! You can find the recipe here.

But the winning isn't over yet. Now begins the pinewood derby car contest. They split it into two heats: one for the kids and one for the adults. The kids raced their cars and it was fun to watch. Then came the adults. Some of these entries were super creative. Cars with mouse traps on them; cars with a jar of peanut butter duck-taped to the top; cars with a five-pound weight attached to the top; and even a car that looked like a missile with compressed air. But none could touch C's car: a car with a battery attached to a motor attached to a propeller. The car was ingenious. This car was also dangerous, as attested by the man who needed 11 stitches after his attempt to grab it. But it was a winner. C took first place overall; not one car even came close!

But I'm not done yet! Sunday was our RACE. Yes, the one for which we have been killing ourselves training. All the track workouts, all the Saturday long runs--all were in preparation for this one Sunday morning run. We were both nervous all day Saturday. The butterflies simply wouldn't leave us alone. Most of my races have simply been for the fun of it. But this one was different. It meant something. And the results? C finished his 6.2 miles in 46:21 and I finished in 50:49! We both smashed our goals by about three minutes. We are so proud of ourselves and each other. Of course we didn't win our age groups, but C was in the upper-third of the men his age and I was in the upper-fourth of the woman my age. AND we both had the fastest time of those in our training groups. We could not have done this without the Speed Development Program or each other. It was a great experience. But we're glad to have our Saturday mornings back!