Ugh.

My son Eric left this note for me when he returned home last night. What a wonderful way to start my day. Meant a lot to me.

Today didn't bring what I was hoping for. 1:55:12. Age group: 18/111. Women: 243/1425. And a non-functional Garmin. Easily a minute per mile slower than what I was hoping to be able to run. At about 1/2 mile, I stepped in a bit of a hole with my left foot ... generally no big deal whatsoever. But with what's going on with my hip and hamstring, the awkward movement was enough to tweak my right side such that I had to run the rest of the "race" in pain. I hope to still be able to run Grandma's marathon in 3 weeks but only time, and rest, will tell. I so want to be a marathon finisher sometime this spring. This is getting really hard for me ... to be around so many marathon finishers, and to not be one of them. I was, and am, pretty bummed out. After talking on the phone for a bit, and crying a little, I fell asleep listening to the Twins on the radio (they won 3-2) still in my sweaty clothes. Finally took a shower and then put on my "Madistrong ... Team Madi" shirt and that got me thinking. Madi is now a first-grader and she is battling a malignant brain tumor. I have no reason to feel sorry for myself. I have much to be thankful for. An attitude adjustment was definitely in order.

It was still a fun day. Out on the course, I saw Judy Weller with her purple 50th birthday tiara. She had another great day running a 4:32 just a week after running Med-City. My camera was in the car when I saw her at the finish so I didn't get a photo. But she got a bag of my cookies to celebrate her day. :-)

Cathy Torgerson and I rode up together and we met up with the St. Cloud River Runners. Pictured below are: Cathy, Travis, George, Arvid, Rick, Buddy, Melissa, Cindy, Monty, me, Donnie. There are so many talented runners in this group, runners that can run multiple marathons per season and turn in great performances each time. Kudos.

After my finish I went back out on the course and ran (that's a s-t-r-e-t-c-h--it was very painful to run ... I could only manage a slow jog, dragging my right leg along behind me!) in with some of my running buddies who were running the full marathon. That was by far the best part of my day and I have similar memories from Med-City 2008. As was being able to share some cookies with them at the finish line. All's well that ends well as they say.

Just a couple miscellaneous things. I have cookies to bake for the Cookie Monsters tomorrow as it's the first Monday of the month.

There will be an open water swim--first of the season--at Foster Arends at 7:00 PM on Tuesday in preparation for the triathlon season. Speaking of triathlons ... registration for the Rochesterfest Triathlon closes Monday. As does Grandman's Marathon. Also, passes for swimming laps at Silver Lake pool are now available at the Y. You do not have to be a Y member to purchase one. And if you are a Y member, you need to purchase one to swim laps there.

Volunteers are needed for the Mac Attack 5K on June 14 (evening event). Contact Lin Gentling if you can help out. I'll be at registration and/or finish line I believe.

From Laura Lenz: NY Times Blog with a running/marathon article every day.

My son Eric has resurrected his Twins blog. Here's a link.

Here are some photos from Team RED on Thursday. From Tom O'Leary: " We had a small role in an Action for Axel Baseball for Bucks event to help raise money for this young man and his family. Team RED members did a baseball bat spin and run dizzy thing... As well as a loop circling the bases... Then it was off for an actual run, YES, we do run! haha... then we went back and ate concessions to support the fundraising... "

Quote for the day, as seen on a banner along the course today: "Don't be afraid to be amazing."