Happy Friday!

Beautiful hoar frost yesterday morning. The photo above doesn't do it justice.

Well, the RTC website is finally back up. David Sletten will be posting something explaining what happened. Basically, the server went down and the back-up was bad. :-( I uploaded most of the banquet photos that were in the slide show on this page to a new album on the RTC site.

Congrats to the top 3 runners in the Frozen Goose 10K last Saturday--Tom Woo, Gary Dutton and Tom O'Leary. Way to go, RTC! Complete results here.

Tomorrow is the last long run for the folks running Jacksonville. Remember, you too can support the cause by participating in either the 5K or half marathon on Sunday, February 17! More info on the RTC website.

The Human Race takes place up in the cities on Sunday, March 16. John Shonyo is interested in organizing a carpool for the event. If you're interested in joining in, you can email John. Here's the lowdown:

St. Thomas U., St. Paul
5K Run/Walk 11:40 AM
¼ Mile Youth Run 12:40 PM
½ Mile Youth Run 12:45 PM
8K Run 1:20 PM

Here is the website: Human Race Events

So ... you could participate in the Stair Climb on Saturday, then go up to the cities on Sunday! Nice little warm-up. ;-) I'm providing cookies to the winners. There might be enough left over to feed the participants as well. It's a bargain at $5.

Half and full marathon training class begins on February 19. More info here. Long runs begin February 23 at the RAC. 7:15 I believe ...

RTC member Chris O'Brien appears in the Mayo Clinic Wellness Solutions DVD. From Chris: They are the Arthritis and Weight loss DVD's. This was the interview I did last April 2007 for the Mayo Clinic on how diet and running help me through my knee replacement and with weight loss.. They even showed the segments on the Today Show... Way to go, Chris!

RTC members celebrating birthdays in February: Jeff Anderson, Tom Byrne, Jenny Daniels, John Dinusson, Mary Jo Habermann, Therese Hagen, Michele Hanson, Vernon Lippert, Angie Macken, Dave Nagorney, Fred Regennitter, Todd Robertson, James Rosane, Richard Schindler, Katie Schneider, Mark Wernstrom, Tom Woo

Happy Birthday, one and all! A couple of you celebrated this past week.

A funny story from Jim Benike: Are there (ultramarathon) cutoff times in heaven?

Four couples who ran ultra races together for 30 years were celebrating a recent run over dinner. One of the guys, John, suddenly asked them all if they believed there were races in heaven without cutoff times. After much amuzing discussion, John said "tell ya what, the first one of us to get to heaven should make every attempt to contact the rest of us and let us know if there are races in heaven without cutoff times". They all agreed that it should be so.

A couple of years later, as fate would have it, John suddenly passed away. A couple of weeks after the funeral, one of the gang, George, was in his kitchen by himself. Suddenly, an apperition started to materialize in front of him! George instantly recognized it to be John!! Excitedly, George said "You came back!! You must have news about races and cutoff times in heaven!!"

John said "well, I have some some good news and some bad news, which would you like first?" "Give me the good news first" George said. "Well, the good news is that there are races in heaven and there indeed are NO cutoffs!" says John. George is beside himself saying "That is just great! We can race as much as we want and never worry about being DQd, or DNFing! Uh, what's the bad news?" John looked at his feet and said "Well, you are running sweep in our next 50K this weekend".

I've not been running much, hoping to let whatever is bothering my leg/hip heal. Not exactly what I should be doing to get ready for Boston ... tapering down to 10 miles/week. But 'ya gotta do whatcha gotta do ... for the long run. I'm hoping to get out for the last run with the 'jaxmarathon' group tomorrow morning. Here's a photo from last Saturday's 8-miler with from left Jim Martinson, Steve DeBoer, K.C. Reed and Don Gabrielson:

We ran the 20th St SW Hills. Love 'em.

This is what we saw on the side of K.C.'s barn:

Should be a might bit nippy tomorrow, but Kevin will definitely be Freezin' for a Reason. You can still plunge or plege. See the link at right. A bunch of tough Minnesotans, for sure ... I'm glad I pledged, so I don't have to plunge. ;-)

Let's meet Nick Payne:

Family? Married with 2 daughters Alexis and Cora ( 3 yr old and 8 week old)
Hobbies? Running, hunting, basketball.
Languages you speak? English, but quickly learning Spanish as my 3yr old knows more then I. I never know what she calling me.

How did you get started in running? Wanted to improve my fitness/Health.

Miles per week on average? In season 80-90/ Off season 40-60.
Your defacto, comfortable as a broken-in shoe training route? Don't have one.
How often do you run it? see above

Favorite carbo loading food? Pasta

Favorite indulgence food? Pizza

Next race? Not sure at this time as I'm recovering from an injury. I would love to return to TC, I have some unfinished business to take care of.

Running goals? I will run a 2:35 marathon!
Running dream? I'm stride for stride with Ryan Hall at mile 24...............................................

Thought for the day: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. --Theodore Roosevelt