TreadMan 2008

Photos, photos, photos (took 222 of them today). Let's get it started ...

TreadMan 2008. Wow. Everything went so well. Registration at Running Room worked out great. Comfortable, fun place to hang out for 4 hours. Especially when you get to share a Veggie Lovers pizza with Peg and Wally Arnold. And Wally even promised me I could drive his brand new BMW Z4 sometime. Whoo hoo!! I call that 'test driving fabulousness' for sure.

Friday morning at first light I went out and ran the 5K courses carrying my trusty can of yellow spray chalk for good measure. Went fine. Last year they'd just graded the gravel road. This year the gravel was a bit loose. Not much we can do about that. For my 2 mile markers on the 65th Street, which is gravel, I decided I'd spray the weeds along side the road as spraying gravel doesn't work so well. So this morning I'm out there with the cones and what do I discover? They mowed yesterday!! But I did manage to find my markings nevertheless. Whew.

A huge thank you to Bill Nevala of WIN Multisports (who will be taking over TreadMan next year--maybe I can participate!!) for the use of a lot of his equipment and to to Bill, Henry, Andy, Chris, Rob for marking and doing a lot of the setup last night while I held down the (quiet) fort at registration. It made this morning so very much easier.

Some of these are quite blurry. I didn't realize my camera battery was dying ... I thought we had more spectators this year, even though our numbers were down a bit. (Lots of no shows this year for some reason.)

A huge thank you to ALL the volunteers who make these events possible. It's one thing to put on a running race (my other race ... Fetzer 20K in mid-April ... be there!) but a multi-sport event adds another level of ... well, just about everything. Timing, equipment, volunteers, you name it. Kudos to all our wonderful volunteers!!

Steve Eckdah of Northwoods Orchard had sent me an email yesterday morning. 1) He reads my blog. For some reason it always give me a little thrill when someone lets me know that. 2) He offered all the participants the opportunity to come out the the orchard (on 75th Ave and 75th St NW, just west of Douglas, but before 'the hill') and pick an apple after the race. I decided this would be a great thing to do after the event, so I stopped out after we were all packed up. I'll post separately on this tomorrow. I'm tiring of this right now. ;-)

I came home, right home, unloaded the 'stuff' that stays at home vs. the RTC shed, and promptly collapsed on the couch. Face down (pretty much). Came to about 4:00 PM and Ted and I hauled the supplies back to the RTC shed and then stopped at Chipotle for our free burritos. I don't frequent Chipotle ... I'd been there once before and had a salad. They gave me the default sauce (red?). It was so hot, I couldn't even taste the food and hadn't been back since. But I had no desire to be on my feet in the kitchen today, so off to Chipotle it was. I opted for a chicken burrito. This thing was huge. I ate half and saved the rest for lunch tomorow. Quite good, I might say. The volunteers and participants seemed quite eager to snag their free grub post-haste after the event. Thank you Chipotle for your generosity.

For some humor from StevenCX from Mpls. you can read his account of his go at the TreadMan today. He did quite well, by the way. :D And I must give kudos to Kerry Rosane, who finished 8th female today, 6 weeks after giving birth to son # 2, Bo (he's adorable). I remember 6 weeks post-partum and a bike seat wasn't anywhere on my radar. Great job, Kerry. You rock!

It's been a great three years for TreadMan for Henry, John and I. It's bittersweet letting it go, but we think it's the right thing to do for the success of the event. It's been a good run (and bike). Thank you again to all of you who have shared the journey with us either as participants or invaluable volunteers. In absolute terms, some will always be more 'successful' than others. But I consider everyone who was out there today a success. Some achieved their success with fancy equipment, others with heavier, sturdier bikes and without cleated bike shoes, aero bars or disc wheels (and maybe a touch of gear envy). Some, perhaps many, completed their first multi-sport event today. Or last year. Or the year before. Some made it up Genoa hill for the first time without having to stop and walk. Some competed for the win. Some competed for the finish. You all have a story. Good for ALL of you for sharing the roads and trails (and trials). It was a wonderful day.

Tomorrow, it's my last short long run (huh?) before TCM next weekend. It seems a cool down, back to seasonal temps, is in the offing for next week. Let's hope it lasts into and through next weekend. Some of us have unfinished business this year after a brutal TCM last year.

Well, the Post-Bulletin and the couch seem to be calling my name. Ratherly loudly at that.

Thought for the day: "The heart that gives, gathers." --Marianne Moore