"What Could Be Over the Fence?"

Here's me at age 19, as a missionary on the steps of my basement apartment in Highland, Utah.

Behind me, 20 feet on the other side of that fence is Alpine Highway, which happened to be the exact route of my first 5K race yesterday. I had no idea I’d run past this very spot decades later. Or that it would stir up so much inside.

In 6th grade I wrote a poem called “What Could Be Over the Fence?” It was about monsters and the unknown, lurking beyond where we can’t see. It’s a little poignant to look back at this snapshot of this young man, hardly aware of what was coming in his life, and consider all the difficult times, tests and trials that were waiting for him on the other side of that fence.

The good news about the guy in the picture:

1. He has made it through pretty successfully so far;
2. He no longer has baby-bird hair.

5K

I ran my first real 5K race today at the American Fork Canyon 5K — and loved it!

My time was 30:17, which bested the training runs I did over the past few months by over a minute. I finished in spot 164, out of 1,000+ runners.

Something fun: the 5K course took me right past the front door of my first missionary apartment in American Fork when I was 19.

I’m ready to go again right now!