Chicago, redux

I was in Chicago for about 20 hours for the funeral of the father of a childhood friend. I started the day yesterday with a 4.62 mile run near the hotel I was staying at. Then, before heading out to Waterfall Glen to run a few more miles before the funeral I met my sister Alison for breakfast at a local restaurant.

I had a Belgian waffle. It wasn't very good. Overcooked/dry and flavorless. :-(

It was nice to catch up with her. Then I drove out to the forest preserve to run as many miles as I could before heading back to clean up. I had to turn back after 3 miles. 10.68 for the day. It's a perfect spot for running ... tightly packed gravel surface, heavily wooded.

I just had to take a photo of this rock in the parking lot at the hotel, blocking a parking spot. I was VERY large. You'd need a bobcat at a minimum to move it.

It was really nice to connect with friends from my childhood. Here are my friends Ann and Susan, who lived up the street (Northcott, in Downers Grove) from me.

Afterwards, a luncheon was served at Bohemian Garden restaurant. It was probably concidental, but everything we were served was very white (or very pale). Rye bread, mashed potatoes/gravy, sauerkraut, buttered noodles, sliced dumplings, baked chicken, pork tenderloin.

The ride back to Roch was rainy, windy and cold. But for one brief moment, the sun appeared.

And then quickly disappeared. My friend Leslie had told me about Woodman's grocery store in Onalaska, WI many years ago and I hadn't been there in several years. I had time, so I decided to stop. I didn't remember it being quite so overwhelmingly large. I think that any foodstuff for sale anywhere is also available here. A foodie's nirvana.

The pasta aisle

HUGE marshmallows (no, I didn't buy them ... I was just fascinated by them)

The tortilla selection

The spice aisle

And very good prices. The biggest bargain I found ... asparagus for 99 cents a pound. I bought 2 lbs. A nice surprise was finding a nice selection of King Arthur Flour products including scone mixes and cake flour. The selection of everything was overwhelming.

There was a beautiful sunset on the way back to Minnesota.

Now, for today. Morning workout: 4 mile run, lift, one hour swim. I got a lot accomplished today, which felt so good ... haircut, vacuumed the car, put on a new wiper blade, made an appt. for an oil change, did 2 loads of laundry, baked cookies, went to the library, dropped some stuff off at my brother's house, got fertilizer from Collin's Feed & Seed, went to HyVee, got some paint at Struve's and went to the Good Food Store where I ran into Joey Keillor.

He showed me the natural cleaning products that his wife Kjersten produces ... Lilly Bud NATURALS I bought some one-for-all cleaner. It smells really nice (lemony and herby). We also talked running/racing. :-)

Amy Donahoe-Anshus asked me to pass this along: My name is Amy (Patten) Stockton and I am searching high and low in the Rochester area to find a few more runners for our Chicago Ragnar Relay team that races June 10 and 11th from Madison to Chicago.


This year we are trying the Chicago race as there are no hills and just to do a new route. We just lost a runner to a dislocated ankle and another one may not be able to get work off now... so, we are looking for a female and male (or two females), we just need at least one girl to keep us a co-ed team.

Right now our team pace is at 7:50 min/mile but we have runners anywhere from 6-9 min mile pace. We will have a van leaving from Rochester so getting there is not a problem! If you know of anyone (or your yourself!) that would be up for this, please let me know!!

Here is a link to the race: http://www.ragnarrelay.com/ Then go to the Chicago race for specific information.

Here is my contact information for anyone interested: Amy Stockton astockton9@gmail.com

Here's some TriRochester bike time trial info:
 
TriRochester Spring Time Trial Series


Thursday May 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th
6:30pm at the East St. Olaf Church in Rock Dell
6200 County Road 3 SW - Byron, MN 55920-9656

Please park away from the church on the South end of the parking lot, also do not block the circle drive in front of the Church.

The course is a 14 mile rolling hill course. This is the same course that we have used for the last 4 years. Here is a link to a map of the course: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/385714

There is no charge for the time trial, only requirement is that you are a TriRochester, VeloRochester, RASC or WOW member.

Ride any bike you want, fully aero, non-aero, tricycle, whatever gets you to the finish line. Riders will start every 30 seconds, slower riders at the front, faster riders at the back. We will keep track of results on www.trirochester.com so you can see how you do compared to others and how you improve from week to week.

Bring your running shoes to get in a good early season brick to get used to running after a hard biking effort. We'll try to have people on hand to watch your bikes and time each rider but be prepared to time yourself with a bike computer or watch and to be able to lock your bike up before running if no one is available. Let us know if you are able to help time and/or watch bikes.

That's it for news for today. Peace.