OK. Let's back up.

Waaaaay back. :-)

Sometime last week I was at Target and as I got closer to the cashier I noticed a KTTC TV camera at the end of the aisle ... filming. So I watched the news the next couple of nights and sure enough ... I spotted myself for a second or two. I'm in the pink Running Room jacket on the left. I also happened to know the gal they were interviewing. She was a teacher at my kids' elementary school.

Here's a link to the KTTC couponing story. Click on the TV camera in the upper left if you want to see the whole video.

Now back to Saturday. I ran the Get In Gear 10K up in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. As did Dave Morrill, wearing his RTC T-shirt, I might add!

I also spotted Rosemary Harnly at the start line.

Saturday's post was pretty much a "just the facts, ma'am" kind of post. Numbers and all that business. Here's the rest of the scoop: I am now part of a women's USATF race team for the St. Cloud River Runners. 8 gals from the St. Cloud area were also coming down to race and we agreed to meet an hour before the race at packet pick-up. That's when we took the photo I posted on Saturday. I wanted to race this, but also didn't want to pull a hamstring (or whatever is bothering my right leg/glue/hip) so wanted to run smart as well. And I wanted to represent my team well. Being new to this race team circuit stuff, Anita gave me the scoop during our 1.15 mile warm-up run. Times, and thus points earned, are dependent on gun time, not chip time, so she advised me to line up close to the start line. We worked our way up through the crowd and sure enough, up near the start line, were runners all wearing their team garb. We were in the right spot. Many Run N' Fun gals were also lined up near us, and they were very visible at the Human Race 8K as well. The competition is fierce! Wheelers were off first, followed by elites 2 minutes later, followed by the rest of us another 2 minutes later. This being the case, we were wondering how "gun time" was going to work being there were 2 different start times. Well, whatever! All we could do was ... run! And run we did. The weather was nice for a race. It felt a little chilly at the start, but I chose to wear shorts and a long sleeved shirt and that was comfortable for 4 miles at which time I decided to lose the shirt. The wind was also at my back at this point. Pacing: My first mile was 6:43. Yikes. Could I hold this, or anything close, for 5.2 more miles? I didn't know, but felt OK so I just kept at it. The next 3 miles were 6:50 to 6:59. After mile 4 I looked at my GPS and the distance was 4.18. It sure felt like I'd run more than .18 miles since the last mile marker, but whatever. So a little while later I looked again. Still 4.18. What's up with this? Why did the darn thing stop? Well, I didn't want to spend any precious seconds putzing around with anything electronic so I just kept at it trying to maintain a consisent effort. Mile 5 was 7:03 (the shirt came off during this mile and I heard the 34:27 5 mile split)) and the last 1.2 miles were 6:55 pace. When I left home, I thought I'd be very happy if I went under 45:00, which I hadn't done before though I don't think I'd ever run more than 5 10Ks. I'd been trying to do a little arithmetic during the last few miles with the splits that I knew, but wasn't too successful. Imagine my surprise when I saw 42:47 on the clock (my time was 42:45 so I was indeed lined up very close to the start line). I was shocked. And oh so happy. You just don't know.

After we regrouped we made our way to ...

just a few block from the start/finish line. Here are a few candid shots of the River Runners:

Left to right: Kate, Cindy, Denise, Wanda.

Foreground, clockwise: Denise, Wanda, Anita, Linda. We enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine and some ... you guessed it ... treats, compliments of yours truly. It's a rare day when I don't bring some kind of treats to a running race! I wasn't able to stay too long as I head to get home and cleaned up before heading over to Winona for Matt's concert (Symphonic Wind Ensemble at WSU).

Matt is pretty much dead center in the third row back, right under a female percussionist. He plays trumpet. It was a great concert, with the theme of the musical sections being "the sea". I very much enjoyed it. So did Matt (second from left) and some of his band buddies. :-)

After the concert, we drove up to Garvin Heights to enjoy the beautiful view of Winona and the Mississippi River. Quite a haul up there, and Matt rides his bike up there regularly. I was impressed.

After running a few errands, we made our way to Jefferson Pub & Grill for sandwiches.

I finally decided to try the Walnut Burger, a veggie burger made famous by the Trempealau Hotel and recommended by Mike Schmitt, and it didn't disappoint. Delicious.

That was pretty much my Saturday. On to Sunday ... Bright and early Sunday morning, 6:40 AM, I headed up to Oronoco to help out at the Winter BeGone! Duathlon. Pictured below are the Nevala family: Wendy, Zach and race director Bill.

The weather wasn't too bad when I left home, but after standing around outside for a while I decided I definitely wasn't dressed warm enough, especially my toes and fingers despite two thin pairs of gloves and wool socks. I was freezing. About 8:30, the heavens opened up and it started raining. Hard. VERY hard. Accompanied by lightning. The picnic shelter was definitely the place to be.


Bill went by the USAT rules and delayed the start (which was 9:00 anyway) by half an hour after the last lightning strike and would decide at that point whether to go on as planned, have everyone do the short course, or cancel the event altogether. With a break in the weather, the start was delayed only a short time and they were off through the streets of Oronoco ...

with everyone now doing the short course. Pictured in the lead is Ian Lanza. The skies were temporarily dry, but that didn't last. The heavens opened up once again, accompanied by winds that had been blowing all morning. Not the best weather but they got the event in. And I'm happy for Bill in that regard as it takes so much work to put on these events and I'd hate to have seen him have to cancel it.

After my noon swim at the Y it was off to Self Defense class taught by corrections officer and black belt Connie Benjamin.

She did an excellent job and really knows her stuff! We learned an awful lot. Pictured below are Joann Johnson and Kay Erwin practicing some of the moves. We were encouraged to yell while we were doing it!

Not only does Connie know her stuff, but she's very strong!

Later in the afternoon, I decided to go for a run during a break in the weather. I was thinking "a few miles" but that eventually turned into a much longer run. At about 1 mile I met up with Greg and Victoria Bond and even though I didn't know them that well, asked where they were running and asked if I could join them. They were doing 2 loops around the base of "my hill", totalling about 11 miles. So I ran a little over 4 miles with them, with me chatting all the while. ;-) They were gracious enough to give me a bottle of water since by this time I decided that since I was already soaking wet, including my shoe as the skies had opened up again, that I might as well continue and get my long run in for the weekend. After another loop around the hill, and then a few more miles, I got 15.26 sloooooow miles in. That was fine, as nothing hurt after Saturday's race and that was a VERY good thing, both physically and psychologically.

Well, that brings an end to Sunday and abrupt end to this post. It's already nearly 9:30, I've been at this 2 1/2 hours and I'm tired!

More tomorrow. :-)