Syttende Mai

Today is Syttende Mai (17th of May), or Nasjonaldagen (National Day) which is the day the Norwegian constitution was signed. Being I'm of 100% Norwegian heritage, I guess I feel like it's a bit of a special day.

Wow. I am so very far behind on posting it's not even funny. I think I have to back up all the way to Friday to play catch-up. Matt moved back to Winona for summer school. He's taking a few classes so that he doesn't have 21 credits on his plate next semester. He's moving in with a different roommate and I think it's a great move for him. The old place was a total mess... Friday was a beautiful day and I took a little spin around Lake Winona on foot.

It was a 5.55 mile jaunt from Matt's new apartment on the SW corner of campus. A nice run on a beautiful day.

And now back even farther ... to the TC 1 Mile.

Thank you Tom and Shannon for also passing along photos. There were many cameras flashing that evening!

I'm about in the middle of the one below. Above is the winner of the men's championship race.

I thought it was interesting that the winners of the men's and women's championship races both wore compression socks. Also noteworthy were the times of Rochester runners Scott Fiksdal and Joey Keillor--Scott was 4th in 4:29 and Joey was 5th in 4:31. I chatted with them for just a minute when I finished. They run for TC/RC (Twin Cities Running Company). Just a little tidbit: Kelly Keeler-Ramacier was standing in front of me at the start. I chatted with her for a second. Just a minute or two before the gun went off, I noticed her hubby Jim kept looking around (he was running too). He stopped looking around when he spotted Kelly. I thought that was very sweet. Here's a link to a video of the race. I'm in in about 5:55 in. You can see Scott and Joey in their bright yellow jerseys near the front. OK. I think I'm ready to wrap up the TC 1 Mile at this point.

Back to Saturday afternoon. It was my niece Kaleigh's fourth birthday celebration. I made her one of the big "cookie cakes". I think she liked it. :-)

Saturday late afternoon, Etta and I went for a 21+ mile bike ride. She posted about it. My legs were so shot by the end of it. But we both made it up Fox Valley Drive without having to walk. :-) Just after the first mile into the ride, my front derailleur cable broke. So I had to ride the whole thing in the small chainring with the cable wrapped around my handlebars. And I rode on legs that had run 22 miles hours earlier. They were still fatigued on Sunday. No surprise there. Segue to this morning's workout--I decided I'd swim tomorrow and run 1/4 mile repeats today, on the bike trails which aren't completely flat (the ones circling the hill I live on). Oh well, it's the effort I was looking for, not necessarily the time. (Ja, right, Renee. You are SO into times!!) I started on the 2nd St SW/County 22 intersection. I thought I'd do 6, but ended up doing 8. 1:32 1:31 (ugh!) 1:29 1:28 (heading in the right direction anyway, but still slow ... and my legs were still tired)  1:23 (that's more like it)  1:25  1:24  1:11 (downhill). 7.77 miles total. I good workout considering I hadn't recovered completely from Saturday.

Options for running on Tuesday evening: 1) 5:00 PM or 5:30 PM at Soldier's Field (hill repeats). 2) Trail run on the Douglas Trail hosted by Mark Mueller: "This Tuesday (05-18-2010) we will be running and exploring the snowmobile / horse trail that follows alongside the paved Douglas Trail. It is a nice grass covered trail that many users of the main Douglas Trail don't even know exists. It is another hidden gem. We will meet in the parking lot at the start of the Douglas Trail just off of Valleyhigh Drive in NW Rochester. The run will start at 6:15 PM. I will even bring cookies to enjoy by all those who survive the run. I look forward to another running adventure Tuesday." Sounds like fun!!

Planted flowers yesterday ...

helped the O'Leary family with the JDRF Roll 'n Stroll yesterday (very successful!) ...

took a foodie shopping trip to the cities today ...

then helped with Community Food Response this afternoon. But details will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm quite tired. Until then ....

Peace.