Ogden Marathon 2010

It's kinda surreal to think back to exactly 2 weeks ago & think about this experience. It almost seems like it didn't happen at all!

I woke up at about 4am to eat and get out the door by 4:30am. Tyler was a sweetheart and drove me to Ogden so early in the morning & then he went straight back to bed while we loaded a bus that took us to the starting line. It was freezing cold so I was grateful to find lots of bonfires to use to stay warm before the race. We waited around for what seemed like forever (really probably only an hour and a half) before we were told to head towards the starting line & wait for the gun to go off! At this point I had a million emotions going through my head- mostly excitement- I was running my first official marathon!

We heard the gun go off & we all cheered with excitement-- although it still took us about 5 minutes to cross the starting line. The first 5 miles were funny to me because you just look to the sides of the street and find clothing everywhere that runners are shedding as they are warming up.

I was lucky enough to have a running partner, Cameron, who runs at the same pace as me. We kept each other going the entire race.

Some of you may have known already, but one of my knees had been giving me grief when I got higher in miles. In preparation for this on race day I brought along some Tylenol & took it at the half. I didn't have any pain at all the whole race! It was definitely my only fear of what could cause me to not finish, so I was very grateful.

Here we are at mile 17 just about to enter the Ogden Canyon! I was feeling great & even better when I saw my Coach, Dave & he ran with us for a while keeping us motivated.
This is at mile 23 I believe & we had just finished running through the canyon. My family was there it was such a surprise & encouraged me to keep going!
They made me signs that went along with the song Unstoppable by Rascal Flatts. It was so thoughtful, Rascal Flatts is one of my all time favorites so it meant a lot to me!
Here we are at the finish about to cross the finish line! The last stretch down Grant was probably my favorite part of the whole race. Your body is screaming at you to stop yet you can see the finish line in the distance & your body fills with excitement and you push yourself to keep going.
Our official time was 4:44 & we were very happy with this considering our goal was under 5 hrs & crossing vertically :)
My family came to greet me at the finish & it was extremely emotional for me. As you can tell by the pictures I was crying. I hugged my Dad first and he asked me if it was hard & I just started crying and said Yes! I knew that I would cry at the finish, it wasn't a surprise to me at all. The night before I told Tyler I knew I would because even then just picturing myself crossing the finish line I got teary-eyed.

I was extremely grateful that my family came out to support me. It would have been a lot harder to finish if they weren't there. They made me feel extremely special for completing this goal of mine & I love them so much!
Me hugging my brother Aaron. He told me he was inspired by me & he is now training to complete his first 1/2 marathon along with me, Tyler & our little sister Karli in Disneyland this September! We are extremely excited to say the least & I am extremely proud of them for committing to doing it.
Me with my biggest fan :)
Karli giving me a victory hug :) I'll be giving her one when we cross the finish line in September!

Tyler's Mom, Amy, came along with Carson to cheer me on! Thanks you guys :)

Me with my parents!
Me and my niece Emerie
Me with my brother Tim & sister in law Megan
Me with my beautiful sisters, Devanee & Karli.

I am definitely grateful for the opportunity I had to run this marathon & I couldn't have picked a better course for my first. It was extremely beautiful the entire way & very well put together. I am also grateful to have found Team in Training to help me train & prepare for my first marathon. It gave me the opportunity to give back & raise money for Leukemia & Lymphoma. Thanks to all those who donated money, I raised more than my goal! A few donations have trickled in even after my race & right now the total raised is at $1,815! So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for supporting me in this endeavor. It was an unforgettable experience that I will cherish forever. One of my life long goals has been accomplished but I don't think I'll be retiring from running anytime soon.. next up.. 1/2 Marathon at Disneyland this September!

Yep- It's true - I'm running a marathon!

The Ogden Marathon to be exact. When is it? May 15th - ya less than 2 months from now! Am I freaking out? Um.. not so much.. because I have been training since the beginning of this year with an awesome team. Some of us are running the Ogden marathon & some are running the Vancouver marathon. This team was formed through an organization called Team in Training. What is Team in Training? It is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) groundbreaking charity sports training program. All of us on the team are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and myeloma from taking more lives. I am running this marathon in honor of all those who have battled or are battling blood cancers.

I have committed to raising $1700 to support this cause & I have barely passed the halfway mark. With less than one month left to collect money, I need your help! Your donation will help the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's mission of finding cures & saving lives. What's more, it's fully tax deductible.

I am so grateful for all the support that I have received so far in my training and in raising money for this great cause & I appreciate every little penny you can give, because it makes a difference!

Donate securely by clicking on the link below to my fundraising page:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ut/ogden10/rgapinski

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
[♥Rach]

P.S. Enjoy a few pics from some of my "long runs" with my team

St. Patty's Run - 18 miles

A great friend and I after our first 8 mile run back in January

My first 10 mile run back in February

An awesome girl I met through this team and I posing next to a lifesize cardboard cutout of our coach Dave! We thought it was pretty funny :)

...Contest!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let ya'll know that I am giving away a FREE photo session in honor of this month of LOVE! Head on over to my photography blog for details on how to enter! CLICK HERE

xoxo Rach

Keep yo hands off my mama

Tyler and I came across this hilarious commercial for Doritos. We can't stop watching it! Check it out here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MRTjS3YO0A

Home is where the HEART is

So the other day I realized that we were coming up on the 2 year mark of when we bought our first home. (Yes, the one we are currently living in.) And I also realized that in all this time, I have never put up pictures of it! So TODAY is finally the day! I have decided to take YOU on a tour of our humble abode. LUCKY YOU! :)

Welcome to our home! It's not a mansion that's for sure, and it may be a lot smaller than some of you could ever picture yourselves in.. BUT it fits our little family perfectly!

When you walk in our front door, you will see one of my favorite sayings... It gets me through dark days & keeps me chuggin' along :)

Once you step inside, you'll quickly see our family room. I love the huge window and all the light it brings into our house. Before Tyler and I moved in, I rag rolled the walls in here, it was lots of fun!

Here is another favorite saying that sits on our fireplace

A wide view of our family room

Fireplace

Tyler's pride and joy, his 52" TV he won through his work this past Christmas. Anything bigger would have been TOO big for this room!

Our doggies' favorite hang out spot downstairs, THE COUCH

As you walk around the corner you'll see our Dining area which has a large glass door leading out to our backyard.

Our small & simple kitchen

Keep walking and you'll see our Laundry room & half bath

Let's head upstairs, Toby is waiting for us :)

View from the top of the first set of stairs

View of the second set of stairs from the top, I love my light fixtures!

The view from the stairs down the hallway. That first door on the left that you hardly see is 1 of 3 bedrooms, right now I am using it as my photography studio where I do a lot of babies. The next door is the full bathroom, the very end of the hall is bedroom #2 which is my photography office, and bedroom #3 is the master bedroom (our sleeping quarters) it's on the right.

Bedroom #2 Photography Office. I spend countless hours in here editing my life away & it's where I am RIGHT NOW! :)
Before I forget, check out my super awesome desk chair. My loving hubby got it for me for Christmas cuz my old one was horribly uncomfortable!

The view of my messy desk and huge big screen that I use to proof with my clients. Someday soon those cords will be neatly tucked out of site.. but for now they are just hanging there driving me NUTS!

Our quite girly bathroom, SORRY TYLER, I think it's super cute but have been contemplating going a bit more masculine for the sanity of my husband.

A few little detail shots of our bedroom. Under the window we have a plethora of framed pictures of us from our engagements, bridals, etc.

The most important saying in our house & it's in our bedroom to be a constant reminder.
"Always Kiss Me Goodnight"

Sorry but this is the only view of our bedroom you get! I am currently in the process of finding a new comforter for our bed. So if any of you have good ideas of where I could find one LET ME KNOW!

Well this concludes our tour, thanks for stopping by! I hope that each of you will get the opportunity to visit in REAL life soon! (if you haven't already that is..)
We love our little home!

VOTE FOR ME!

***UPDATE***
Thanks for those of you who voted for me! Unfortunately, I wasn't even close to winning :( Oh well, better luck next time?



Hey Everyone! I am trying to win a spot in a photography workshop with Julie Parker. I want this REALLY bad & I can't do it without your help!
Please click on this link:
http://julieparkerphotography.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-time-to-vote.html
and vote for me.. RACHAEL GAPINSKI!

You can only vote once per computer/phone. THANKS SO MUCH!

...Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!...

The holidays have been plenty busy but so so fun! 2009 I did a horrible job of documenting & photographing our lives so one of my resolutions for 2010 is to do better at it & take photographs at the majority of events this year! I know I will be very grateful later on if I do this.
Well due to me being a slacker, I don't have any photos of Thanksgiving. We had a big dinner at my parents house & everyone was there. Two weeks before Thanksgiving I started a very strict diet through one of my doctors to help prepare me for my training. With this diet I went through a detox off sugar & was only allowed certain meats and certain vegetables. So NO bread, NO dairy, NO carbs, NO fruit, NO SUGAR. Yes I know what you're thinking.. "RACH you are crazy!" and I may or may not agree with you :) It is an incredibly hard diet I will not lie, but it is truly amazing what a difference it has made. Within a month I had lost 15 lbs & my body fat percent is at 21%. Well for Thanksgiving I decided to cheat and eat those foods I wasn't allowed & it was soo good BUT I did regret it right after because I had the worst stomach ache for hours afterward. My body was not happy with me!
Besides that, we had such a great day with our family enjoying everyone's company. We even went to see New Moon later that day.
December 5th - The Young Women performed at our ward Christmas party. I sang a song with one of my young women & it was the first time I've performed in over 5 years!
Karli & Devanee came to watch me (thanks you guys, it meant a lot!) They took a video so that Tyler could see it since he wasn't able to make it.
Tyler stopped by for a minute but had to leave before it started :(
Me with one of my beehives, Leticia

Here is the video, you may need to turn your volume up! Also, I am the one singing the first verse, the 2nd verse is Jessica (one of the young women).


December 12th - We had our first annual Christmas scavenger hunt planned by Tim & Megan. It was held at the gateway & Tyler couldn't make it so Micah & I were a team. The other teams were Devanee & her friend Colton, Karli & her boyfriend Chase, and Aaron & Meghann. I'm proud to say that Micah and I were the winners! It was a lot of fun!
December 21st- The whole Gelter fam went to the Christmas Sing-a-long at the Energy Solutions Arena. I stole these two pictures off Megan & Tim's blog (thanks!).
Me, Mom & Devanee freezing our butts off outside while we were waiting to be let inside!
Tyler and I singing.. you can't really see Tyler but thats his arm I promise! :)
I actually remembered to have a picture of us taken with my camera YAY ME! :) The sing a long was a lot of fun, Jon Schmidt performed a little bit & his 8 year old daughter sang "Where are you Christmas" and "Reindeer Boogie" in front of the entire arena! (it was completely packed). She melted my heart, it was adorable!
Our favorite part of the holidays is spending time with family. We love playing games & just hanging out with the ones we love! Here's a picture of Toby trying to get in on the action! ;)
This is the only picture I took at Christmas, I am horrible I know! I just had to document the fact that we are SPOILED! This is only some of the gifts we received this Christmas. Before we opened gifts we read in the bible the story of Jesus' birth. It is always so great to be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas, and helps bring the spirit into it.
December 27 & 28th- We got to take a quick trip down to St.George to see my Gramma & Grampa Harris. It was amazing that we actually got the whole Gelter clan down there! We enjoyed spending more time together & time with our grandparents. We played the card game 'Scum', ate at in & out, played a little tennis, and relaxed in a hot tub! It was great!
New Years Eve I spent the majority of the day baking goodies for my family! Devanee helped out & we made Pumpkin Choc chip cookies with cream cheese icing, Oreo cookie truffles, lemon bars, a cheese ball, and a sparkling white punch! It was so much fun! And everyone seemed to love all of it! I even got a huge hug from my father in law when he saw that I brought him a plate of his favorite goodies!
We spent the majority of the night at my parents house with the family (minus Aaron, Megan & Porter-we missed you!) and Tyler & I went down to his grandparents house for a few hours to play games with his extended family. It was a lot of fun! My biggest goal of 2010 is to complete my marathon coming up in May. I am terrified yet SO excited! I will be making a post soon all about it soon. Thanks to those of you who have already helped me out!

On a side note....
Today is my niece Emerie's 1st birthday! I cannot believe she is already a year old. It seems like just yesterday I was meeting her for the first time in the hospital. This is a pic I took at her one year photo session a couple weeks ago. Love her expression! Love you Emerie you're such a big girl!