A Day in a Half in Rochester

Looking out at Mayo Clinic buildings, Sweet Pea and I waited with Don for his appointments.
Don should have a report up on http://myelomahope.blogspot.com/ in a day or two.

Saturday morning we 3 were up and ready for the Rochester Half Marathon.

Again within sight of Mayo Clinic we joined about 600 runners.

The out-and-back course, through residential area, eventually took us out into southern Minnesota countryside.

We were out there with the cell phone towers and the sights and smells of cows.
Part of the course was on one of Rochester's wonderful trails.
Below is the corner where someone moved 3 large orange cones to block the half marathon course.. for the benefit of the 5K race. And, because we had fallen off the back of the pack... we observed the orange cones ... and took a wrong turn... which later I jokingly said .... caused us to run all the way to Wisconsin. A race volunteer took pity on us and drove us back to the race course.
By then, of course, we were really really behind and later got lost again... missing the entrance back on to a trail from a street on the edge of town.

If Don had not come running back to meet us... and guide us in to the finish, we most probably would still be running around on the trails in Rochester.

Actually, we had a great time. The temperature didn't get up to 70 degrees. Not too humid, with a gentle breeze!

At the finish, which was completely deserted less than 4 hours after the start, we found bananas and water left for us. I'm guessing I was the oldest in the 60-69 year age group.
Someone then appeared, took our names and our Champion Chips .... and promised that we would received finisher's medals in the mail. How cool!