Therefore, I will run

I was shocked. Stunned, actually. Sad. Scared. Sleepless. I found out last night that a runner friend was diagnosed with breast cancer just days ago and had a mastectomy yesterday. I am so angry at this terrible disease. What can I do? First and foremost I will become a prayer warrior for my friend. Offer meals. Transportation. Sew something for her. What can all of us do? One easy thing, is to view the breast cancer fundraising video by Brooks . It's a cute little cartoon type video about a girl envisioning her ideal run and just takes a minute or two. For each viewing until December 21, 5 cents will be donated to breast cancer research. On a larger scale, you can participate in the Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer 5K and Half Marathon on February 15. I will run. And I will run to honor my friend.

I heard from a friend who read my blog post from the other day and she said she's busy knitting Christmas gifts for this year. I've already started sewing. I'll post my projects as I get them completed. I'm having fun. ;-)

Mario Minelli let me know that I posted the wrong link yesterday for the Running Room eMagazine (I posted the link for the regular magazine). Oops! So sorry about that. Here's the correct link. Mario is also going to try my pumpkin bread recipe in the eMag ... with chocolate chips of course. ;-)

Just a note about Off-Season Striders ... just because we hang a name on the group doesn't mean it's a club or formal group of any sort. We run and talk and talk and run. Then eat. It's as much a social opportunity as it is an opportunity to run. We have all paces and all are welcome. It's off-season so we're all kind of in maintenance mode. Please consider joining us!

USATF is in the middle of a massive stretching study. They are looking for volunteers for the study, who will stretch (or not stretch) as directed for three months, and report back about their results. As long as you are older than 13 and running more than 10 miles per week you are eligible to take part in the study. Go to Stretch Study to learn more and to enroll.

Thank you to the following people who have already volunteered to help with newsletter assembly tomorrow afternoon: Judy Weller, Jennifer Meyer, Lin Gentling, Tom O'Leary and Shane (who needs service hours for confirmation, I believe!), Chris Kujath, Larry Pederson, David Sletten, John Shonyo. We should be done in no time at all. I noticed as I was going to the printer that gas is $1.77 at Kwik Trip today. The price of gas is falling as fast as the Dow Jones Industrial Average it seems.

There was a story in the Post-Bulletin last night about a new extension to our already wonderful trail system. It will extend from Rochester to Chester Woods, a wonderful spot for trail running. Construction is set to begin in the spring.


Today was the day for the photo shoot for the Post-Bulletin cookie contest. I had to be there with my cookies at 7:30 AM. Went to the Y, hopped in the shower, dressed and went down to the P-B. I thought I'd drop off the cookies to be photographed and take off. Well, I got there with my wet hair and in running clothes and find out that it's me that's going to be photographed. Wonderful. Not only do I not like having my picture taken, but I looked like I just jumped out of the shower. (Well that makes sense as I did just jump out of the shower. :-) I had an 8:00 dr. appt. so there was no going home to remedy how I looked. So I plunked down on the stool, smiled and let Jerry Olson snap the photos. I should have at least pinched my cheeks for a little color. Oh, well. There are certainly worse things to worry about than not being photogenic. I got an email from sports writer Paul Christian mid-afternoon that he'd voted for my cookies. (Thank you, Paul!) Holly Ebel called a bit ago and I got second place. I am very pleased with that as hundreds of recipes were submitted. She said a "little old lady" (her words) won with her chocolate-frosted cherry pecan cookies. I think that's great!! I won a $50 Hy-Vee gift card. That offsets the 8 lbs. of Land O'Lakes unsalted butter I bought the other day. That website has lots and lots of good sounding recipes on it, by the way. I've added several to my recipe box already.

When I got home, I decided to clean. I was a veritable unstoppable cleaning force. Cabinets, wooden blinds (what a pain), dusting, even did the glass on the french doors.

I don't get in this mood often, so had to take advantage of it while it lasted. I've been in a de-cluttering mood so did some of that as well. One thing that I might as well toss ...

my unused TCM number. ;-(

Well, I guess I'll save the rest of my list of posting material for tomorrow along with morning run and newsletter assembly photos.

Thought for the day: "Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget."

Well said.