Harbingers of Winter

This morning we went to the community club to run on the track. The sign on the door said the track was closed until further notice.
A new track is being shipped from England, due to be installed before Christmas.
Also to be installed is some sort of video exercise area.

Well, so, we spent our hour in the work-out room: half an hour on treadmills, 15 minutes on bikes, the remainder with free weights .... and then some stretches and t'ai chi chih.

At one point I glanced over to see Sweet Pea and her Dad running side-by-side on tread mills. That was cool.

I ran, I walked, I put out sweat. I did not keep track of speed, I did not pay attention to the miles, I have no idea how many weight watchers points I earned.

I have dark thoughts about the promised completion date for the new imported track.
'Nuf said about that.

All-in-all, we will find ways to be in shape... one way.. and another .. and another.

Pictured below.. a few mums along our walk in the neighborhood ... and they have, so far, survived the freezing temps. They do better below freezing than I do!

Caterpillar on Gateway Trail

Runner Don did 14 miles and Sweet Pea and I did 8 2/3 miles. We don't know how much the caterpillar did.
Sunday was a glorious day to be out, temp in the 50's. And the horses were out on the horse trail. We saw dozens of bicycles, runners, kids and dogs.
Today Sweet Pea and I did the mile out and mile back from the bottom of the driveway.

FIVE THINGS

Well, I got "tagged" again... by a very nice runner friend... And the challenge is to list five things about me.

Since I am basically a poor game player who usually makes hash out of rules, I will list 5 things about me.. and then 5 more things, illustrated with pictures.

But then, if you would like to play, to be "tagged" to list 5 things about you, you could leave a comment at the end of this blog so folks know where to find you,
And feel free to list FIVE THINGS ABOUT YOU !!

You can find my friend Peter and his list of 5 things at DC Spinster.

Five things about me:
1. I grew up in Iowa.
2. When I taught in MPLS, I had 39 fourth graders in a self-contained classroom.
3. I stayed home with 3 great little kids: 2 boys and Sweet Pea; then I went to grad school and had another career.
4. I am no Polyanna, but when life is lemons, after lamenting some you might as well make lemonade.
5. I like dark chocolate, fresh ripe fruit, most kinds of nuts, and extra hot home-made skim milk lattes ... every day.

Five things in pictures:

1. Our cat 2. My camera: I take it everywhere... Early morning sunrise, running with the St. Croix Area Runners (Stillwater) on Saturdays.
3. Each of our dozen marathon trips in the last 3 years has been a treaure. Picture: Early morning marathon in 2006 ... running toward the Clinton Library in Little Rock.
My Sweetie, mouth full of Cliff Bar after a run; I cherish our exploring new things together.
Every marathon has been my favorite. Running 5 bridges and 5 boroughs in New York City was an experience of a lifetime.
That's Sweet Pea in orange in the foreground. We did our best marathon time that day (Nov 2006).

After the marathon: small step recovery

Saturday ... 4K in the neighborhood
Sunday ... 4K Rocky's Run Race
Monday ... tiny bit of weight lifting
Tuesday ... 9K at Community Center track
Wednesday ... a little more weight lifting
Thursday ... Who knows?? Maybe some miles....

Warming up for the Rocky's Run on Sunday

P.S. Loved that Grand Rapids Michigan Marathon!

Rocky's Run - November 4

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood for the annual scholarship fund raiser 5K and 8K on the cross country course on the U of MN golf course, named for star athlete Rochelle "Rocky" Racette. Rocky was killed in a car accident in 1981, at the age of 22.
Well, help, all you marathoner friends!
Suggestions for a hotel (room with refrigerator) within walking distance (next May) of the Flying Pig finish line .. more reasonably priced than downtown Chicago!?

Autumn Drive to Grand Rapids

Maple, oak, birch and poplar leaves were brilliant on the weekend of October 28, and the Grand Rapids Marathon... These maples decorated the lawn along the street where the marathon started and finished.

Autumn color cheered our drive on Friday across Wisconsin on HWY29. Making the drive over in 2 days, we stayed in Mackinaw City on Friday night. Saturday morning we made the rest of the 14 hour drive.

Our return trip through lower Michigan was especially enjoyable, as the sun was behind us, lighting up the leaves from Grand Rapids ....


... to the Mackinac Bridge.

Big Rock Point in the Upper Peninsula

Northernmost point of Lake Michigan.

So we sure did get our fall color drive, and it was magnificent.

Oct 28: Grand Rapids (MI) Marathon ... was Grand !

What a difference 3 weeks makes! In Chicago we wore the minimum of race clothes to the starting line.
In Grand Rapids we came out of our motel to find our car covered with frost.
Hover over pictures for captions, click on pictues to enlarge them.
Instead of the usual round numbers such as 4 hours, 4 1/2 hours, etc. they organized pace teams to match famous people's actual marathon finish times, such as Oprah, Will Farrell, P. Diddy and Dubya. Here the teams are posing on the stairs inside the Y. Fresh and energizing was the weather; yes, that's frost on the tall grasses.
Just 2 days after the time the MOON is nearest the earth in all the year.
We like to drive the race course on the day before a marathon, but in Grand Rapids the course turned into tails which we couldn't drive.. as shown here. The real beauty of the course was to be discovered the next day in the running. Here, at the end of October, the colors were absolutely spectacular. Morning fog still wrapped Millenium Park as we ran. Running trails along the river were a joy to run. A pleasant tunnel of over-arching trees. And all along the way, the volunteers were glorious... with water, Gatorade, Oreo cookies, bananas, gummy bears... all this ON THE RACE COURSE! We have to say they even said,"Can we get you ANYTHING??" at water stations ... until we got to the last 2 ... and they were totally closed down ... by maybe 6 hours (?) We were grateful to see faithful Runner Don coming to meet us, having finished the marathon himself. When Sweet Pea saw this picture later, she said, isn't that on Gateway? And it does look like the trail here in Minnesota where we do a lot of our training.
Oh yea! The finish! And there, as promised, we were greeted by Race Director Don, even when we finished.

Runner Lady in Pink

That's Vickie: ..... the one in pink!

We had planned for many months to do Chicago Marathon on the first weekend in October and Grand Rapids Michigan Marathon on the last weekend in October. Driving home from Chicago we were eagerly anticipating the cooler run in Michigan.
When we arrived at home Don checked on the ferries across Lake Michigan and discovered that the ferries shut down mid-October. Much as we love ferries, the thought of late autumn storms on the Great Lakes ... remember the Edmund Fitzerald that sank to the bottom of Lake Superior? ... was sobering anyway.
But driving around Lake Michigan, either north to the Straits of Machinac or around the south end through Chicago seemed too huge.

Enter Vickie, the cheerful and welcoming Lady in Pink, with all sorts of encouragement to make the trip.

Vickie posted delightful pictures of the marathon and her city.
Vickie's marathon course pictures are available by clicking here:

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

.. on her blog: Running and Tri-ing in River City

Grand Rapids Michigan Marathon

On Sunday we 3 got our finisher's medals at the beautiful Grand Rapids Marathon. The volunteers were super, and they didn't run out of water! And of course we had a great time.

Hope for the Myeloma

So today when Don's cancer doctor said see you in two months, I said, "Is it Christmas?"
"Almost," he said.

Read Don's story on his Myeloma Hope blog.

Did you hear a huge cheer go up? This is absolutely a best day.