Extremes

Lots of "extreme"s this weekend. And I'll start with this morning ...

I met Dan, Jeff and Trevor at Panera at 7 bells for the second half of the third annual (?) two day new year's marathon. It started a couple of years ago at my house after a breakfast run. We ran 13 miles in extreme cold. As I remember it, -13. And it was cold last year too. I wasn't able to participate yesterday, which was a nice day, but today brought ice and wind. LOTS of wind. I knew I would't be able to keep up with these guys, especially since I wanted to run longer than 13.1 if possible. But I thought I'd hang on as long as possible (about 4 miles). We headed through Crossroads parking lot, through the fairgrounds, to Mayo High School and through Bear Creek on the trail. Not bad going SE with a 30 mph tail wind. At the corner of 20th St SE and Marion Road (my new daily run location), I let them go on up Marion Road into the wind (I just didn't have it in me at that point) and turned around and headed back through Bear Creek where there was some shelter from the winds. Stopped at Cub Foods for some water then continued north on the trail to Oakwood Cemetery where I turned east for a respite from the wind and to stretch out the mileage by going through Quarry Hill. I toyed with running up through Parkwood Hills but thought better of it. At this point, I'm glad I didn't do that! Then headed west to Silver Lake and stopped at Dunn Bros. for more water. I then headed west on Elton Hills Dr. It was a skating rink on both the sidewalk and the street. Just terrible and very slow going. Continued west to the RAC where I stopped for more water and another break from the wind. Headed west to county 22. This .5 mile stretch was brutal. They say the winds were to gust up to 50mph and it felt like it was a steady 50mph. These miles from Dunn Bros to county 22 were some of the toughest miles I'd ever run. Then I turned south on 22 thinking I'd be glad to have the wind mostly at my back. Well, it was better, but the wind was blowing so hard over highway 14 on the bridge that it blew me into the chain link fence TWICE. It was blowing so hard from behind that I had a hard time controlling the landing of my feet (if that makes any sense). At one point I just stopped and grabbed the fence to stay upright. I must say, this was one of the most extreme runs I've ever had. Took it in on 2nd SW (mostly on the road ... the paths were glare ice) and ended up with 21.30 miles. I was extremely hungry and extremely glad to be done. Glad it's behind me now. I'm exhausted but apparently none the worse for wear.

Last night, New Year's Eve, brought a wedding. An extremely elegant and formal one.

The old saying used to be that "you can't wear black to a wedding". Well, I'd had my doubts about what used to be. I'd chatted with a customer at work a few days ago and she'd said black was totally in for weddings now. And being this was "black tie optional" I knew it would be very formal and that black would mostly likely be "de rigeur". I was right. As you can see from the photo above, most everyone wore black. Any other color was in the minority. I wore a LBD with an INC. black jacket with a stand up ruffled collar. Totally appropriate so I was happy. It was just a beautiful wedding. Eric was there as were his best buds from high school. Here are three of them:

Eric, Rik and Brad

Eric brought his girlfriend Alley. She's adorable.

And her shoes are just about the cutest I've ever seen. Love them!!

Dinner was chicken, roast beef, asparagus, rice pilaf and a spinach salad. Dinner was cupcakes and a chocolate fountain with pound cake, strawberries, caramels, pretzels, rice krispie treats, cream puffs, ... for dipping. Totally fun. The dance band? Incognito. Sweet! What a coup. They do a great job.

They had one of those old-fashioned photo booths in the back where you pay a quarter and get 5 b/w photos, champagne bottles for the guests to sign and the wedding couple to open on their anniversaries, flip flops for guests, photos of the couple on all the tables ... every little detail was perfect. Seated next to me at table 24 was a gentleman from Norway. Very nice guy and I got to practice my Norwegian just a little bit. I left wishing him "Godt Nyt År" (Happy New Year). Lovely evening.

Here are the new asics 2170s I got at Running Room this week. Lighter than previous editions and I love the colors.

Well, I'd best do something productive with my only day off this week. Happy New Year!!