Splendid

It just couldn't have gone any better today. A race director's dream of a day--perfect weather, totally competent and abundant volunteers, no issues. I was able to relax, chat with the runners, take photos. It just doesn't get any better than that. Thank you to my amazing volunteers,

Laura, Cathy, Ken, John, Kristin

Julie, Peggy, Pam

Zach, Bill, Steve, Dave

Ann, Randy, Jen, Paul

everyone that ran,

Cherie, Brenda, Wendy

Brevin, Brenna

Hiro and Masami

Tom, Trevor, Andy, Paul

and to the weather gods who were certainly looking out for us today. :-)

Thanks also goes to: Peg Arnold and Running Room for use of the store last night

Wally, Peg, Tim, Sue, Shaun

, the gift cards for age-group winners, and the nice big inflatable gantry--really makes for a splashy, fun finish line (that's Tom O'Leary finishing in a spectacular 1:21:42--6:35 pace!)

 Great Harvest Bread for the delicious cinnamon raisin bread nuggets, Reichel Foods for the Dippin' Stix (apples and caramel dip),

 Globe University/Minnesota School of Business for the massage therapists. I really appreciate your generous support for the race!! My cookies seemed to be a hit as there wasn't even one cookie crumb left. I managed to find time to bake another 120 cookies yesterday. Age group winners in the 20K got cookies too.

Tom Woo took more than 700 pictures today!

Here's a link. Thank you, Tom!! I'll put together a slideshow of my photos tomorrow.

I need to put together another RTC News in the very near future. If you have something you'd like to submit, please do! I don't have much content for this one. A Fetzer story perhaps??

Tomorrow early AM I am taking photos of the indoor traithlon at the DAHLC. Laree and Mike Schmitt are both participating and Laree asked me to take some pix. I'm happy to!! I'm taking her out for breakfast afterwards to celebrate her accomplishment--her first tri!! Then, some of us are running at 12:30 from the RAC. Some slow/easy/fun miles ... feel free to join us.

Just a reminder that Tuesday is a "Beetles" night--6:00 or whenever you can make it. No running required. We've been doing hills as of late on Tuesday, so I'll probably get an early start, do just a few hills since I'm tapering :-) and then head over to Beetles to yak 'n chat. :-) Hope to see you there!!

More fun news ... Bri is thinking of joining our motley crew (crue?) heading up to the St. Cloud area for the May 8 Lake Wobegon marathon.

That would be SWEET as I'm the only girl going presently.

I got another phone call this afternoon from someone who's seen either my Medical Edge video on the Mayo Clinic website or some article out there about my back surgery at Mayo. I've gotten a few of these now ... people wanting more info about the success/failure of the surgery and the recovery afterwards. Mostly the calls have been from runners, but not all. This gal is from Duluth and is also a marathon runner. I'm happy to chat with them, but of course can provide no medical advice ... only share my own story.

Thursday, I made some White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies using the Neiman Marcus recipe, but substituting those add-ins for the specified chocolate. As much as I like chocolate in cookies, this was a nice change. I got the nuts at Trader Joe's. They're very reasonably priced there, as they're imported from Hawaii. I used half salted, half unsalted.

Speaking of recipes ... there was a recipe for Springtime Tiramisu in the P-B recipe and it uses 1/4 c. of Elderflower Liqueur. ??? Elderflower? Never heard of it. And what would one use the rest of the bottle of that for?

Well, I guess I'll wrap this up. It's been a very full day. Ciao!!