Thursday, October 23, 2008

Des Moines Farmers' Market

In celebration of the weekly (Saturday morning) Des Moines Farmers' Market!
We were on the way to drive the marathon race course last Saturday (see previous post), and quickly came across the extensive Farmers' Market, with many streets closed to traffic east of the Polk County Court House (in the distance in the picture below)
This was the largest most marvelous farmers' market I have seen.

In the picture above, one of the many tents offering heirloom tomatoes.

One farmer was selling his frozen emu meat, another frozen elk.
There were many vendors selling ready-to-eat food of all sorts.
Wonderful Iowa produce, of course... some of it organic.
This woman, selling homemade fudge, was taking orders for Christmas.
Attractive handmade jackets...

Crafts too...

Pottery...

An abundance of flowers...

And even home-sewn APRONS!
We bought an Iowa-grown seedless watermelon for our post-race supper.
It was the best of the season.
If
ever you are in Des Moines on a Saturday morning (spring, summer, fall) be sure to tour the Des Moines Farmers' Market.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Des Moines Marathon

We 3 ran the beautiful Des Moines yesterday.
Below... Sweet Pea, wearing a garbage bag to keep warm at the start, running toward the Iowa State Capitol. Temp was in high 40s.. but heated up to 70 by mid-afternoon.
The marathon winds through historic neighborhoods, around the Drake University Bulldogs-blue track, miles of wooded trails, and around Gray's Lake (below).
Water stops were shut down when we got past mile 11... They had promised water support for a 7 hour marathon.

Until around mile 20...
And then we found volunteers were magnificently at water stops until the last runner went by.

And all 3 of us finished. Our Fearless Leader won another age group award.

Monday, October 13, 2008

October

Sweet Pea and I did twenty miles on Gateway Trail last Thursday.
You can click on the map for a nice enlargement.

Wooly caterpillar... we saw about 30 of them ... and the interesting thing is that every one of them was really chugging along.

It was a lovely autumn day.

Saturday we did a 5K race for leukemia/lymphoma (in which we have personal interest!)
As you can see, we parked fairly near the start line.

Below.. a tree closer to home.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

PS for the previous post

Bless the volunteers!!!
Last year they struggled to get enough water out there ... with runners pouring cups of water over their hot heads...
This year they endured the rain pouring on their own heads...
And still they were out there. Hurrah for the faithful spectators, too.
(See yesterday's post.)

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Twin Cities Marathon Races

After missing the window of opportunity to register for the Twin Cities Marathon last spring, Sweet Pea and I put our names in the envelope and made it in the drawing for the Twin Cities 10 mile race.

Perhaps you heard that it rained?! Forty-eight degrees and about an hour of really pouring rain: soaking wet socks ... even shoe laces can be bothersome when they are heavy with water... feeling returned to my fingers a couple of hours after the race.
I was so cold that I couldn't think about much but keeping on keeping on running.

It was my favorite temperature for racing... minus the rain.
About 35 degrees cooler than Chicago a year ago. We had a good time.

All 3 of us finished our races.

You can click on the map for a nice detailed enlargement.

Haven't read blogs.. or posted anything new for a while. I'm fine; just a lot going on here. Thanks to friends who have wondered.

Below is a trail in one of the Washington County Parks, picture taken late on a cloudy afternoon. Actually, on a sunny day the maples are lovely this year.