Out of the Blue

I got a very interesting phone call this afternoon. It was from a gal from Canada who is at Mayo to have back surgery. By coincidence, with the same surgeon that did my micro discectomy in 2003. She's seen my Medical Edge video done by Mayo and decided to give me a call. She's an Ironman triathlete and wanted to know more about the surgery and my post-surgical status. (She's having surgery Friday and is scheduled to compete in an Ironman in August in Canada.) She was very happy to hear how successful mine was and that I am still running, and running marathons at that (though I did take 18 months off from marathons post-surgery). We really hit it off. I asked her to call me on Saturday and let me know how she was doing, which she agreed to do. Now I wish I'd asked her if she would have wanted to have lunch tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out a way to reach her, but am running into road blocks. Sounds like she's as miserable as I was--unable to sit, constant nerve pain, etc. Anyway, I had no idea my little video interview would reach the people it has. It's been very interesting. And fun. I hope all goes very well for her.

Our Zoom!Yah!Yah! shirts, photos, and chart of lap splits arrived in the mail today. The shirts are very fun. Mock turtlenecks ...

with all the finisher's times on the back.

I made another 60 cookies this afternoon for Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer. I've got about 250 so far.

Saturday afternoon we're having the cut-out cookie baking extravaganza at my house. Speaking of Lace-Up, we're now fully staffed with volunteers. Thank you all who have volunteered! But we're definitely still accepting runners. : ) Click on the link above for registration info.

Andrew Becker sent me a link to a new event--Muddy Buddy Ride and Run series. Looks pretty fun if you ask me! August 22 in Mpls.

I just booked a flight to Sarasota to see my dad and stepmom on March 2. Weather should be pretty nice down there then and I will definitely be ready for a getaway. Definitely.

Boston Indoor games are on TV Sunday afternoon. ESPN2 from 1-3 pm.

Winterfest starts this weekend, including the Frozen Goose 10K race and 5K run/walk on Saturday afternoon at 1:00. Polar Plunge is next weekend. I'm not plunging this year but plenty of people are ... including Kevin Torgerson (super plunger), Paula Patterson and her girls, Todd Rowekamp ... and I'm sure there are many more.

I'd run down to the Y for a 5:30 AM run and on the way ran into Lisa, who'd left trying to literally run down Bruce as he'd arrived at 5:15. So ... I think we all ended up running by ourselves. By the time all was said and done, I'd run 12.69 and swam for half an hour (boy did that feel good). It was really hard to get out of the pool and get back into my running stuff and run home. All good, though. Tomorrow my workout will be light--I promise!!

Here's a closeup view of the pillow I made for Ron Stock:

Well ... that's all I know for today. See ya later, alligator. : )