Another week has come and gone

Summer seems to be flying by. Next week we bid adieu to July already. Unreal.

News from USATF: Sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones has asked for pardon for her conviction on lying about taking performance enhancing drugs. Here's brand new USATF CEO Doug Logan's reponse.

Douglas Trail 11 mile (or 2 mile) is tomorrow. For those who aren't familiar with the Douglas trail, it's paved. It's not a true trail run. Also, if you're training for a marathon and are scheduled for more miles, lots of folks add on a few miles after they're done with the race. Come on out! More info on RTC website. The info page for that race appears to be down, but if you click on the Entry Form link, you can get all the information. Cookies are baked, so the poll at right is (un)officially over. The winner is/was: Oatmeal Super Chocolate Chunk with Pecans. Fresh out of the oven. Might make a second batch as this one made 34 cookies.

I was able to secure some free tickets to Ultramarathon Man, the movie, in return for promoting it. Since it's showing next Thursday, I will bring the tickets to Douglas tomorrow to be distributed there. I'll talk to race director Paul Anderson about giving some as prizes others as door prizes. Don't know how many tickets there are ... they'll arrive late this afternoon.

Mario Minelli has qualified for the World Championship Duathlon in Rimini, Italy which takes place on September 28. Congratulations, Mario! That's fantastic. Check out his blog to see how his training is going. So ... he won't be able to compete in TreadMan this year on September 27. ;-( Hoping that lots of you will! It's for all levels of ability ... beginner to experienced. Want to experiment with multisport training? Try TNT on Thursdays at Foster Arend. Except do a run-bike-run instead of swim-bike-run. There's a volunteer there every week to watch the bikes. We also need volunteers for TreadMan. Please contact me if you'd like to volunteer.

Spotted running Wednesday evening ... Tom Woo. Not a very good shot. It's shot by me, out the back of my car ... while driving. Yikes. I probably shouldn't do that.

That goofy Glamour stilletto run took place in Moscow this year. A photo and links to other photos on RunMinnesota blog.

I've spent some time looking through old RTC newsletters from Roger Spee. Just looking at the spring 1979 issue, a club member called Will Cloney, then race director of the Boston Marathon, to learn of the new qualifying times. Boy, the internet sure has changed things, hasn't it? Back then, the men's open class qualifying time was changed to 2:50. Age 40+, 3:10. Women: 3:20. Also in that issue, registration for "City of Lakes" marathon, which morphed into TCM, was $4.00 up until October 14th. After that, $15 until race day (note the late date) which was October 21. Looking at the results for what was then called the Sundance 11-Mile Trail Race (now Douglas Trail), some times for familiar names: Roger Spee (59:34), Jerry Goodrich (63:39), Al Gilman (63:40), Bruce Turlington (75:44 husband of Marie Boyd), Ed Creagan (81:09), Mary Fynbo (now Mary Wille): 86:23, Lin Gentling (94:36), Jeanne Block (115:37). Out of 141 finishers, there were only 20 women! Back then, it seems that a majority of the road races had an accompanying 2-mile jogger. Fetzer and Douglas seem to be the only ones that have hung on to that shorter distance event.

Well, suppose I should post this and get on with my day.

Thought for the day, from Pattisue Plummer, 1992 olympian: "Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push behyond where we thought we could go. It helps us find out what we are made of."

In the spirit of the currently wildly popular Batman movie ... "Tune in tomorrow. Same bat-time. Same bat-channel." (You might have had to watch the show in the 1960's to remember that one!)

Ha det bra.