Quote of the Week
“Take a moment to be proud of yourself for surviving the days that felt impossible.”
– Unknown
Feline Tomfoolery
with Brady & Belichick
Dear Humans,
Greetings from the almost snowy Salt Lake City. Brady and I got to see snowfall last week. Just a little but it sure was fun to watch from our window.
Last week, I shared that the new carpet was going to make all of my issues go away. Well, it did help with my movement. Thank goodness. I still have symptoms of something. The photo below is me on Tuesday with my eyes crusted over and mostly closed. I started leaning and pushing my head into things when I slept. This really scared the human.
On Wednesday, she provided me with a dose of Benadryl (children’s liquid). While the experience was terribly trying for both the human and me, it worked.
By the next day, I felt like a new cat. The human no longer heard crackling sounds in my lungs when I breathed and my gooey, crusty eyes that the human was having to clean multiple times a day were now clear.
I might still have a bit of a messy face after eating but look at those clear eyes. Ahh, I can see now.
I wouldn’t want to leave you without seeing Mr. Perfect this week. Could my brother be any more handsome? So, he got the looks, and I got the issues… Oh well, at least the human loves us both.
Much Love, Belichick
Brady & Belichick are Rachel’s adorable felines. These two cute boys turned two on May 4, 2025.
Mental Health Minute
Eating Disorders Can Affect Anyone
All information in this section is shared from the National Institute of Mental Health.
If you or someone you know has a mental illness, is struggling emotionally, or has concerns about their mental health, use these resources to find help for yourself, a friend, or a family member: https://go.nih.gov/. #shareNIMHfo
1,000 Running Santas
On December 6, 2025, Rachel participated in a 5k fun run, the Utah Santa Run at Gardner Village in West Jordan, Utah. The event was hosted by On Hill Events and offered a 5k (3.1 miles), 10k (6.2 miles) and a half marathon (13.1 miles).
The weather forecast had called for snow, so much snow that an alternate race route had been created just in case. Instead of snow, West Jordan got rain. Rain and cold. It was somewhere between I am freezing and it could be worse. The rain wasn’t heavy, just steady and light. Rachel didn’t understand why so many people were huddled up underneath any overhang they could find. Didn’t they realize they would be running in this rain?
It would all make sense just a few minutes into the race. Utah runners are scared of rain.
Rachel enjoyed roaming around prior to the run. She visited with other runners and checked out all of the fun additions to the Santa suits. The Disney running shoe couple took the cake in the shoe category. The 3-D socks below were fun. You can bet Rachel will have some of these for next year.
Best rain gear went to Maisy the pup. Think Daisy with a M. She even had pink ears. As far as best sign, who doesn’t start singing when they see the below sign? There were only a few signs at the event. Rachel assumes this has something to do with Utah runners being scared of rain.
The announcer for the event did an outstanding job atop his rolling ladder. Luckily, the rain nearly halted once the event began. It’s a good thing, too. Who knows what would have happened had the rain continued. Would the participants just stand there under their protective covers because they are scared of the rain?
Turn up the volume for the video below to hear the countdown and the announcer’s fun commentary.
Hmm, how to describe this next series of events?
Only a few minutes into the race, a turn around a bend brought Rachel to see the view you see in the photo below. The course took runners down a trail under the road. Runners were stopped. Completely stopped. What? A traffic jam of runners? Right now, any runner reading this just felt their blood pressure rise.
Runners began to speculate as to why they were standing still. Was someone hurt? Was it a narrow passage and things were clogged up? Then she saw runners climbing and traversing over something. What was blocking the route? Some runners panicked and turned around to run across the busy street causing traffic to come to a halt. Rachel the rule follower was not going to follow them.
Once Rachel and those around her realized they would be climbing over something, she noticed two double strollers behind her. She immediately feared that whatever this blockage was, the strollers wouldn’t make it. She told them she would help them get their strollers over however she could. Luckily, it wouldn’t come to that.
Once Rachel saw what the ‘blockage’ was, she almost lost her mind. It was a puddle. A PUDDLE. Rainwater. As more people began to climb the wall, Rachel ran through the puddle like a normal human being. It wasn’t even deep. Good thing this was an out-and-back course, it allowed her to shoot the below video on the way back.
You will see those ahead of her leaping over the puddle, attempting to go around the puddle and walking slowly along the edge of the puddle to avoid getting sucked into the void. You will also see Rachel running directly through the middle of the puddle for the second time that day. Spoiler alert… Rachel lived.
Rachel has learned her lesson living in Utah with all of the lengthy stop lights and set her Garmin watch to stop when she is at a standstill. This way she is able to get an accurate reading of her run without it counting the standstills. That came in very handy on Saturday. As you will see below, on the left is her Garmin watch stats and, on the left, the race stats.
The puddle delay put roughly three additional minutes onto her chip time. She wasn’t running for time on this day but imagine those who were. Eeekkkk.
Rachel was proud of her run on Saturday. She is acclimating to a new reality when it comes to running and is breathing easier in the Utah elevation. She was excited to have placed 5th out of 25 women in her age group.
Running nearby Rachel during the race were a couple of female Marines. They were dressed in festive holiday Marine shirts, as seen below. They were only with Rachel on the way back because they were picking up all of the items runners had discarded along the route. Kudos to these Marines for doing this. Rachel would have loved to help them but knew that if she stopped to bend over, she likely wouldn’t be able to get back up.
The event staging area and start and stop of the race was at Gardner Village in West Jordan, Utah. Rachel had never been to this area and found it to be a beautiful, quaint village with an abundance of things to check out. She will revisit Gardner Village on a day when she has more energy to explore.
This was a fun 5k and a great way to end her year of races. Check out that cute medal from the race, too fun. It’s a great addition to her collection.
Now we all know how to scare a Utah runner… just bring them to a course with puddles. Seriously though, Rachel is aware that not all Utah runners are scared of puddles and certainly wouldn’t want to be canceled for poking fun. Until next time, be well.
