On the Rise

Temps are on the rise! One of the clients in the office today even said that the 10-day forecast calls for 40's. I hope he's right! It'd be nice to melt some of the ice.

So much to post. So ... I'll just jump right in and get started.

Congratulations to Andy Hemenway for his 3:24:01 PR marathon at Disney on Sunday!! Whoo hoo! You rock, Andy! He said the weather was perfect, the medals are awesome and ... he wants to do it again next year. :-)

Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer : Thank you Rochester Women (magazine) for the ad in the new issue. We still need ... runners!! And donations!! (Thank you to the many who have already generously donated.) Click on the link for more info. From John Shonyo: "Now that balmy weather has returned, we will be holding our second annual Test Run the Lace Up Against Breast Cancer Half Marathon Race Run this Saturday (1/16) morning. We will be meeting at the Heintz Center on the RCTC campus in the west parking lot (across the street from Olmsted Hospital), at 7:30 am. Post-run gathering spot will be Brother's Grill on South Broadway next to the AMPI plant. A map of the run is at http://www.luabc.org/  (there are directions to the Heintz Center on the site as well). I will have maps with me, as I doubt I will have a chance to mark the course before Saturday. It is a pretty easy route, so hopefully you won't have problems. We will be counting on those of you with Garmins to tell us how close to 13.1 miles the course is. As always, there is no requirement to go the whole distance--you can turn around anywhere."

Zoom!Yah!Yah! this 'n that: My recovery: Yesterday, I swam for 40 minutes. Today, for an hour. It felt great. My legs are feeling about par for the course 2 days after a marathon. I'm able to navigate the (down)stairs fairly well, actually. What's most sore today are my calves where I cramped. Feels like someone took a baseball bat to them. Thank you Paul Christian for the nice story and picture in the Post-Bulletin this evening.

I got an email from someone on the Post-Bulletin staff (an admitted film buff) today that said he thought that my photo in the paper looked a lot like one from the Apple computer "1984" commercial that aired during the 1984 Super Bowl. Here's the photo he sent me:

Maybe some similarities ... The gal on the left is carrying a hatchet and is about to throw it into the screen. Here's the ad on YouTube.

Here is Dick Daymont's Press Release:

1/11/2010

News Release: 2010 Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon (1/10/2010)
Contact: Dick Daymont (612-702-7421 or dick@northfieldrunning.com)

Friedman Repeats and Resets Men’s Record and Saxman Is Fastest Women

Chris Friedman (Dunlap, IL) defended his 2009 men’s title and won the 2010 Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon on Sunday (1/10/2010) running 26.21 miles in the St. Olaf College Tostrud Field House. Freidman reset his course record while running 2:42:32 and cutting 7 minutes and 59 seconds off of his 2009 time. Ron Giles (Rochester, MN) and Thomas Tisell (St. Paul, MN) finished second and third respectively with times of 2:46:48 and 2:48:22. All three of these runners ran under the former course record.

Renee Saxman (Rochester, MN) won the Women’s Division while running 4:04:07. This is the ninth fastest time ever run by a woman in the Zoom! Yah! Yah! Kristin Wedemeyer (Asburn, VA) finished second in 4:44:04 and Beatriu Reig (New York, NY) was third with a 4:47:53.

Randy Peterson was the first Northfield runner to cross the finish line. Peterson, the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Zoom! Yah! Yah! Men’s Champion finished in 3:12:44. Dan Kasper (3:17:45) and Brian Cloherty (3:21:37) were the next Northfield runners to finish. Mark Zwolenski (3:53:29) led the Dundas runners again this year.

Tom Pavletic (Reno, NV) crossed the finish line in 4:29:57 and became a member of the 50 States Marathon Club. To be included in this select group you must finish a marathon in all 50 states. Northfield runner Stan Hup, who won the 55-59 year old age group on Sunday is also a member of the 50 States Club.

Forty-one of the forty-two starters completed the marathon. These forty-one finishers came from 15 states to run in this year’s event. First contested in 2006, the Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon is currently the longest continuously contest indoor marathon in the United States.

Our meal at Cooking Light last night was fabulous. Right up there on the top of my all-time favorites I'd have to say. If I were (forced) to pick my favorites, even though everything was something I'd make again, I'd pick the Rosemary Walnut Bread, the pork and the pumpkin tart. Kudos to Laura for picking an absolutely wonderful meal. :-)

This afternoon I made a new Oatmeal Raisin cookie recipe and brought them to Beetles tonight.

It's definitely a keeper. These are sturdy, solid, heavy cookies with lots of oatmeal in them. It's from the Penzey's (spices) catalog. Here it is:

1 c. butter
2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
3 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
(I added 1 tsp. salt as I think cookies are very flat tasting without salt, and I use unsalted butter)
4-4 1/2 c. old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats (I used half of each kind)
1 1/2 c. raisins or 1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (I used raisins only)

Preheat oven to 375. Melt butter. Add brown sugar, soda, vanilla and eggs and beat 2-3 minutes until very creamy. Add the flour and cinnamon gradually and mix well. Add the oatmeal and beat until combined and very thick. Fold in the raisins or chips. Make large cookies with about 2 Tbsp. dough and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 15-20 minutes (I thought 12 minutes was plenty). Cool on pans 1 minute before removing to racks to cool.

Just a foodie note: Tom O' is now posting food photos on the Team R.E.D. blog. I am SO PROUD of him! He said they had a blast at Brothers on Saturday. Also, Paul Melby said that the walnut pancake (that he TOTALLY stressed out about ordering when everyone else WASN'T ordering 'cakes) more than exceed his expectations. :-)

So what did I do this afternoon? I replaced the burned out passenger side headlight bulb in my Honda BY MYSELF. I am very proud, I must say. I went to O'Reilly auto parts and got the bulb and asked the guy how I go about getting at it. He said he had "no idea". So I got out the owners manual and looked it up. Didn't sound like rocket science, so I gave it a whirl. Since it was the passenger side, and harder to get at, I had to remove the reserve radiator tank to get at it. There were no instructions as to how to do that, so I ... removed the hose from the top and pulled it straight up. Turns out it was held in place by a braket on the side of the battery housing. Then, I had to remove the electrical connection to the bulb. That was troublesome. I had to press on the connector to release it from a little tab on the side of the bulb. I could do that, but the connector wouldn't budge and it was in a very awkward spot--hard to get at. So I got out a bunch of tools to help me.

I used a really long screwdriver to release the tab, and then finally ended up putting a piece of a socket wrench on the edge of the connector and banging on it to release it. I had to be careful to not break the connection to the (halogen) bulb in the process--that wouldn't have been good.

Finally after a few hits, it released. I was happy.

I put in the new bulb, turned on the lights, and ...

Success. :-) So I put the radiator reservoir back in, and I'm now good to go.

There were 11 of us at Beetles tonight. Fun group, as usual. Any time Tom O' and Paul are there, there's bound to be raucous laughter. And tired smile muscles.

And then there's Jean and I. Before ...

And after. My nose looks red. I wasn't even drinking ...

Well, I'm sure that if you've made it all the way through this interminable post, you're probably deathly bored and yawning. So I'll wrap it up.

Quote for the day: “Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living.” -- Amanda Bradley

Carry on, friends.