Happy (almost) Halloween!

Tonight at Running Room, 6 PM, wear your costume and win a prize! And as long as you're there, go for a run! And then shop the new cool weather clothing!

Chris O'Brien and Chris Kujath participated in the Monster Dash 5K last weekend with their pooches Dozer the Dogzilla and Joker the Skeleton dog last weekend. They had a great time.

Chris O'Brien:

and Chris Kujath:

Saturday is the Bear Creek 5 Prediction Run at Pinewood School. Chris O'Brien, race director, has secured a number of Running Room gift cards. So you could not only win a hand-carved bear trophy ... you might also win a gift card! Everyone has the potential to be a winner at this event. I'll be there helping you register. ;-)

Thank you to Jean Murray, George Huston, and Julie Murray who helped pick up trash around Soldier's Field. There wasn't too much left after those nasty winds of Sunday ...

I don't know if this is a new race or not, but there's a marathon and half marathon in Eau Claire on May 3, 2009.

From the RRCA: I am very pleased to announce this year's RRCA National Journalism Awards Selection Committee. The RRCA is fortunate to have such a distinguished group judging these national awards. I'd like to welcome each one of you to the committee:

Amby Burfoot, Runners World Executive Editor/Editor At Large, 1968 winner Boston Marathon, author of four books, 1981 RRCA Journalism Excellence Award
Kristin Armstrong, Runners World Contributing Editor, author of four books, accomplished marathon runner (Kristin is Lance Armstrong's ex-wife. She has a blog on Runnersworld.com that I enjoy.)
Steve Shepard, Houston Striders – RRCA National Medium Club Newsletter Awards, 2006, 2003, RRCA National Small Club Newsletter Award, 2002.
Renee Saxman – Rochester Track Club, RRCA National Medium Club Newsletter Award 2007, 2004

I'm excited to be a part of this process and to be included in such distinguished company. I believe everything will be done remotely so I won't be able to meet Amby or Kristin (I've met Steve at 2 RRCA conventions). But that's OK.

From my friend Mary: Reach4Deals, another source for coupons for local merchants.

A couple of links from Mike Schmitt: Are the big marathons getting too big? and Music as a motivator during exercise . Mike is a good source for information, for sure!

I'm currently reading a variety of materials. I'm also part way through Omnivore's Dilema (last month's book club selection), but I'm finding the reading very slow and don't know that I'll finish.

Our book club selection for this month, which we're discussing this evening, is Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. It's about France falling to the Nazis in the 1940s. I'm about 100 pages in, will not finish by this evening, but will finish the book. I'm enjoying it. I'm also reading Personal Record by Rachel Toor. She's a writer for Running Times and it's the story of her running life. The chapters are very short so it's a nice one if you want to read a chapter or two (10-15 minutes) before bed. Light reading. Both of these selections are from the Rochester Public Library (a wonderful resource). Also, I'm trying to work through some Norwegian magazines that Jean brought me from Oslo. It's great fun testing my Norwegian skills. They're rusty, and my vocabulary is not very extensive I've discovered.

What a beautiful day today! It started with a 5.5 mile run about 6:30 this morning. Lovely, lovely run. The sunrise was spectacular. I headed east on the new Cascade Lake bike trail, so I could see the beautiful colors of the sunrise appearing behind the Rochester skyline with the silhouette of geese sleeping on the little lakes, and a mother goose with one of her progeny following closely in her wake (or maybe it was her spouse!). Notice I'm assuming it was a female in the lead ... too dark to tell for sure. ;-) When I got home, I decided to rake some leaves while I cooled off. Finally got them bagged this afternoon. Lovely, lovely fall day.

I'm hoping for equally nice weather on Sunday morning for Rails to Trails . I've not yet registered. I'm planning to run the whole marathon, but if the weather looks to be a cold rain, I'll run the half. Those that I know of from Rochester going to the race: Half: Lin Gentling, Judy Weller, Betsy Baartman, Karen Williamson (her first half marathon!), Paula Patterson. Full: Mike Schmitt, Tom Woo, Maureen Jones, me. Running, but not sure which race: Tom Williamson. Also participating from the cities (and RTC member and former Rochester resident) Suzanne LaPalm and her fiance Pete. I'm getting excited.

Well, we hit another snag in our little door replacement project. We went to install the Fypon pilasters during the awful weather Sunday afternoon and found out the new door is slightly larger than the old (by about 3/4 to 1" even though it fit in the opening just fine). I assumed that everything would be the same size (bad assumption, obviously). So the new pilasters are useless. $157 down the drain. Have to order 1 size smaller and will have to trim them besides. Arggghhhh! The crosshead also didn't fit for the same reason. So we had to take a hunk out of it in the middle and fix up the opening (Fypon is extruded polystyrene). Bother, bother, bother. But it did turn out better than I'd expected. Thank you to our friend Kirby for cutting it for us.

I was getting so frustrated that I decided to go to the Y and run 10 miles on the treadmill...

Thought for the day: "People are like stained glass windows; they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within".

Enjoy your day!