WICKEDly Entertaining

Jean, Laura and I were able to attend a performance of the musical WICKED at the Orpheum on Saturday afternoon.

Laura, me, Jean

What a fun show! I highly recommend it. I'd never been to the Orpheum, the Ordway, the Guthrie, Chanhassen, ... so this was a real treat. For our performance, the understudy was in the role of Elphaba (the "wicked witch of the west", with the green skin). She certainly was the star of the show. She could really belt out a tune. I appreciated the humor between Galinda/Glinda and Elphaba as well ... clever writing. If you get the opportunity to go, do it!

After the show, we went across the street to Palomino for dinner.

It was still happy hour so we all ordered a $4 cocktail. I had a pomegranate margarita which was very good. Jean ordered the Hot Red King crab and artichoke dip, which was served with seasoned flatbread.

 Very good. My entree was the whole wheat pappardelle, rotisserie chicken, broccolini, peccorino sardo. Very tasty as well. I wanted some pasta in preparation for Sunday's race.

After dinner we walked down Hennepin Avenue. I'm not very familiar with Mpls and I had no idea that the new Twins stadium was so close. We looked west and there it was. Pretty cool!

Then it was off to stay with my friends Paula and Dwight in Rosemount. I neglected to get a photo of them/us, but this is where I stayed. Paula really like stuffed animals. :-)

After the race on Sunday, I stopped at Penzey's Spices on Grand Avenue. This Pedal Pub was parked across the street. Interesting! Looked kind of fun on a beautiful day. :-)

Now I'll back way up to Saturday morning. I staffed water stops 1 and 3 for the marathon training group. What a brutal morning for running. Especially for a 20-miler. Yikes. I couldn't have done it. Kudos to those that ran whatever distance that morning.

I drove by as several runners were making their way up Fox Valley Drive, nicknamed "Renee's Revenge" by Dan Strain. :-) I run and bike up that hill several times each week.

After the morning run/slog-fest :-) it was off to Brothers for breakfast before leaving for the cites.

A very enjoyable day for me!

Three months from today I turn the big 5-0. Yikes. But it's better than the alternative ...

My morning workout today was my usual Monday Morning Moguls (hills :-) What a HUGE difference in this workout vs. last week's. It was in the low 50's when I left the house vs. 70's and humid last week. There was actually a bit of a chill in the air. And I felt GREAT even though I raced yesterday, and ran 13.5 miles. I did my customary 10 repeats of Lenwood Drive SW and 16 hills total, including Fox Valley Dr/Renee's Revenge. :-() Another benefit of this weather is that I now have "good hair days" vs. "bad hair days". :-() Today's mileage: 13.25.

Another snafu, snafu #3, has surfaced after yesterday's race. I wasn't listed as a member of a race team in the registration/results databases so the scoring for the women's Open results for our team are incorrect and no points have been awarded for our team thus far for Master's female. So I had to contact Jack Moran to get that corrected. I was expecting snafu #3 ... seems bad news comes in threes.

In a short time, the Rochester Half Marathon committee is meeting. The race is only 12 days away. I'll update you on the latest and greatest status on registrations/volunteers/etc. in my next post. THANK YOU to everyone who is running and/or volunteering. We really appreciate you!

And so it goes ...