So Much Fun!!!

I had a couple REALLY fun things going on today, and they bookended my day. First, I met with the Franklin Flyers at Ben Franklin elementary school. Mary Chestolowski and I were the guest speakers for their morning running club this week.

Laura Lenz and Jenny Hartmann are the teachers in charge. The kids are, for the most part, getting ready for the Med-City Kids' Marathon. They run on their own time during the week and meet as a group on Thursdays before school. They get checked in ...

and then walk laps in the gym before the lecture part of the morning.

Mary and I talked about what running has meant for us and we tried to encourage them to try their hardest and just to keep going. We impressed upon them the fact that maybe sometime they would be the fastest and get a medal, but sometimes not. The important thing is that they're being active and trying their hardest.

Then it was outside to run/walk either 1/2, 1 or 1 1/2 miles.

I asked one little girl if she was training for Med-City. Nope. So I said she must be doing it for fun. She said, "All I want is shirts and medals, shirts and medals". Ha! It was a lot of fun and it's great program.

This evening I drove over to Winona to have supper with Matt. We ate outside, which was nice. It started sprinkling just as we were finishing up.

Then we decided to drive over to Fountain City, WI

which is across the river from Winona and north 6 miles. We went to a great spot ... The Monarch Public House (Irish Pub & Restaurant). The building dates to 1894 and it's wonderful inside.

We talked pretty extensively with the owner John. He rescued the building 16 years ago and has been working on it ever since. One half is an Irish Pub, the other half a restaurant. Downstairs is the Rock Bottom Pub.

I wish we'd waited to eat there. Next time!! Here are the owners, John and Lori, who graciously posed for a picture for my blog. :-)

John and Lori ... we'll be back!!

Wobegon update: Shaun Palmer is running too. Sweet!! Forecast: 41/56 with 40% chance of rain. Perfect. But ... I've had a sore left lower leg/knee all day. Ran 1.5 miles with the kids this morning and that's been it. Hope it resolves QUICKLY.

Congratulations coach Tom O' and the Byron boys track team who won the True Team meet in Red Wing last night and are going to state. Super!! An excellent reward for all their hard work.

Time to call it quits for today. Good night ...