Anything for a Medal- the whole truth

Getting medals from both the 5K's we've run this summer has been pretty fun: it's like we've tasted blood. Recently we signed up for our next 5K in Cedar City. We are going to be running in the Utah Summer Games. It's a little intimidating because REAL athletes come to run in the Utah Summer Games. We probably can't count on any medals.

But we really like medals so we signed up for another sport (only $5 more for each additional sport... cheap date if nothing else). Horseshoes. We've never really played horseshoes before but we noticed that last year, only 2 players were in the 10-20% category. So, we signed up for the 10-20% category("whatever that is!??) hoping for a silver medal.

We get there to play and find out you actually have to PROVE that you can throw a ringer 10-20% of the time. We hadn't ever thrown any actual ringers in any of our last minute practice sessions. So they give us 40 shoes each and we have to get AT LEAST 8 ringers between the two of us with someone looking over our shoulder and counting them up for us. If we can't do that, we have to compete with a ton of people who throw below 10%. Perhaps our "reading up" on the game the night before gave us the mental capacity to pull off a miracle, because Alissa got 4/40 ringers and Mike got 6/40. That's the only way we can justify earning our medals... by sneaking into the upper echelon of horseshoe players. (I'll let you know right now that by the end of the tournament, our results confirm we were throwing below 3%).So, although the day was long, we really enjoyed the people and grew to like the game quite a bit. We pitched (lingo for throwing a horseshoe) next to a 4-time-world-champion and quite a few state champions. Most of them were over 70 years old and thought it was so fun to see a young couple enjoying the game. They pretty much begged us to come back for the singles tournament the next day. Mike obliged and earned (actually beat someone out) a bronze medal in his category while I watched the kids.We borrowed the horseshoes and have to return them, so unfortunately we can't continue playing. For anyone looking for gift ideas this Christmas, we might really like a set or two of horseshoes. We're pretty particular about which ones though. We obviously have a real feel for the game now, and not just any Double Ringer will work.

Mike was pretty excited we got to stand on the podium to receive our medals. This was the real deal friends... the real deal!!We are excited to go to the opening ceremonies this week. We will march in as part of the Parade of Althetes (that's how we get in free). We will also be breaking two guiness book of world records that night: the record for the most people wearing balloon hats and the largest game of "Simon Says" ever played on planet Earth.