Last weekend we went to Duluth to see two of our kids who currently live there. One is a working guy and the other is a brand new pharmacy student. It is always enjoyable to see them successfully "adulting" which apparently is a relatively new term meaning doing what adults do to make their live move smoothly. They are both doing a great job with a few random calls or texts home to figure things out. Blake lives with a great aunt and uncle and Haley lives in a no-pets apartment, so my husband, Charlie and I stayed with my in-laws. They also have a Sheltie, but Charlie pretty effectively ignores him; actually, he overtly turns his head the other way to indicate that he is not interested in rough-housing or whatever else Paddy wants to do with him. Since I had a 1:45 run scheduled for Saturday, Haley and I decided to make it an adventure. I took off running at 7:00am; she picked up Charlie at 8:00 and we all met up down near the lake at 8:45 for some tea and fun down by Lake Superior. My run started out great except that is was uphill for the first 1.25 miles. However, at the end of the hill was a good spot for a photo, right in front of Haley's new workplace. I knew that from here to the finish, the general direction was downhill. I didn't want to get to Canal Park too quickly and have to circle around, so I headed a bit further north. I could always see the lake, so I knew where I was going. Sometimes you really can't get there from here, though. Here was my scenery at around an hour. I was beginning to doubt that there was a good route down to the lake and opted to backtrack a bit. You can see from my map, that if I'd have hung on about 2 more blocks, there was indeed a road down to Superior Street that heads downtown. Pretty soon, I was enjoying familiar terrain on or near the route I ran a couple months ago during the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. When I got this far, I new the end was in sight. However, I was almost done when I saw this sign and did not find it amusing in the least. I only wanted to find Caribou Coffee...who cares about Thunder Bay? Later, Haley explained that these are all of Duluth's sister cities. The best part was finding these two! We enjoyed a sunny outdoor table with some chai tea and snacks before a leisurely walk along Lake Superior all together. Caribou Coffee had a nice sign in their front door. I am a person who is not necessarily "for" or "against" a lot of different groups of folks who sometimes feel persecuted by society. I live my life with the attitude of live and let live as best we can. To me this sign was all about that. There are people who run but don't feel like they belong because they are too old, slow, fat or whatever. If you run, you are a runner! All people are welcome to be runners. I can't wait to see Brittany Runs a Marathon which is supposed to be more about body image and self-acceptance than running. The previews look fantastic. I also want to see Overcomer even though I have not seen previews yet--who would miss a cross country movie?!? Have a great week whether you get in a lot of running, or watch a running movie or two. Happy running--Missee
P.S. I will definitely see both these movies and post some reviews. We took up weekly movies as a good Empty Nester activity, but we always go on Bargain Night :-)
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Even though my boys have graduated from high school, I still can feel the anticipation of what today is...first day of cross country! (For the record, I had my first cross country practice in 1985.) There was always some apprehension on the opening day along with anticipation and usually a lot of sweat since August is generally muggy and often warm. The team my boys ran on had a 300 mile challenge each summer. The kids got approximately 10 weeks from the end of track until the start of cross country to run 300 miles for boys or 250 for girls. For accomplishing this feat, the runners were rewarded with a special t-shirt and a pizza buffet one afternoon the first week of practice. The t-shirts were always the same design, but new colors selected by the captains and everyone's name on the back who had EVER earned a shirt, not just this year's guys. I was never too good at getting a photo on the first day of school due to working in another district and leaving for work early, but I always got the shot of the fellas with their blue (always blue) training log. This one popped up on my Facebook today. Blake was a senior and David was an 8th grader. In order to encourage younger runners, 7th or 8th graders who made 100 miles were also included in the pizza but not shirts. Both the boys earned 5 shirts with just the pizza as 7th graders. We felt that 300 miles was an awful lot for 12 year olds. They both had nice CC running careers with 2 trips each to State, so I think it worked out well! Don't worry, the little guy grew and is now almost as tall as his brother...it took him about 14 years to get taller than Blake's shoulder.
My niece and nephew (Stephanie's kids) are starting practice today. They were on a challenge to finish at least 200 miles this summer and the last time I checked, they were on track to finish that and earn t-shirts. Those summer miles are critical to getting the season off to a good start. Kids who haven't been running during the summer are still encouraged to come out, but do lose some training time getting themselves into shape the first couple of weeks. They can still have a great season, but might miss their potential by a few seconds per mile. When I'm done posting, my next stop is to check on the CC races for my niece and nephew's team to see when I can catch a race. I had so much fun watching them last year. My nephew had a season-best race and when I told him how glad I was that I got to see it, he said that I may have contributed to it! I'm quite sure the hard work was all his, but it made me happy that he appreciated my cheering. Watching young runners is a great motivation for all runners. It's refreshing to see their raw love for the sport and their teammates. Cross country is one sport where no one gets cut; junior varsity races are nearly always unlimited so everyone gets "playing time." Those who are able to put together a lot of hard work, some talent and a little luck to stay injury-free earn a spot on the varsity teams and sometimes have a little more pressure, but those are the runners who are ready for the challenge. Good luck to all the cross country runners at all levels. Happy first day of practice and happy running! Missee A new school year is just around the corner and I have school on the brain. I am an elementary teacher. For eight years, I taught kindergarten. One activity that my kindergarteners did was called "Read the Room." Students would get a clipboard, blank paper, and a pencil. They would move about the room writing down any words that they encountered on the walls, books, clothing, etc. on their clipboard. The objective of the activity was to show students that words are all around us and to marvel at how many of those words the students already could read. As I was running, I thought about how much there is to read on my run. I decided to "Read my Run." Here is what I found. I loved this sign! What fabulous motivation for runners, on both sides! Yesterday, I came to a box with some exciting words on it. Any guesses as to what was in that box?
Here are some hints... 1. Although there are six items in the box, for best results use two at at a time. 2. You can save money if you buy the previous year's model. 3. Wearing just the right ones will make your runs more enjoyable. Happy Running! -Stephanie ps. Did you guess that three pairs of running shoes were in the box? My family of four each got new running shoes this week (all Brooks). My shoes came in a separate box a couple of days ago. What a fun shipping box from Road Runner Sports! There are activities that can be done either in a group or alone. Sometimes one method might be preferred over another. Running is one of those. You can definitely run alone but other times with one or more other people whether that is a race situation or getting together with friends. These days, I'm lucky to have three different friends that run with me a total of 3-4 days per week. I just finished Week 3 of my training program for the Maine (Half) Marathon. The plan has several faster runs during the week which tax my legs and my brain to concentrate during the hard parts, one longer day that is by minutes instead of miles (also taxing my brain) and a couple of lighter runs. So far I'm really enjoying this plan and feeling like the speed work is helping me feel stronger. I've also been taking a Yoga Sculpt class once a week with some light weights that seems to be toning my arms and working my balance in addition to my regular Yoga classes. I have two kids engaged to be married next summer. Mom had the brilliant idea that we (Mom, Stephanie and me) should join forces and quilt Christmas tree skirts for each couple to give as bridal shower gifts and planned to sew them at Quilt Camp in October. We have a bunch of time yet, but we were very excited to get going on the project. Mom and I spent an afternoon this spring looking through patterns and fabrics and chose two we liked. After selecting patterns and fabrics, I took them all home and cut the fabric before our sewing day. Due to timing with her kids' summer activities, last Thursday turned out to be an optimal "sewing day." After sewing, we all agreed that we would have had a tough time getting either of these done on our own much less sewing two of them in one day without too much frustration. Here are the completed tops. Once they are quilted, we will cut a hole in the center for the tree and a slit so that it can be easily slipped around the young couple's first Christmas tree and for many years afterward. I think they both will be beautiful. We decided not to try to pick who gets which ones but to wrap them up and blindly put a card on each one. Everyone will be surprised! We will have 3 more to make eventually for the other 3 cousins...I'm not sure if we will reuse either of these patterns or look for different ones. Just like running, quilting can be a solitary or group activity. I like to sew alone, working on a group project like the tree skirts, in a group working on the same project like a class or in a group working on individual projects. "Sew" many ways to do the same but different things. When we go to camp at Camp Lebanon, we see all of these approaches going on amongst the campers. There was some angst when registration opened for fall because our group of quilt campers was initially aced out from our first choice weekend. Who would think a quilt camp would fill up in only a few hours?!? The camp director called Mom later in the afternoon and got us into the weekend we wanted. Yeah!!! Now, what to sew since we've got the tree skirts under control? It's now about six weeks since my last half marathon. The larger races often take photos that you can buy. I've done this race enough times to have a good idea where I'd see the photographer. Remember, I was making an effort to really cruise and was feeling strong at Mile 12 when I encountered the cameras. I made an effort to smile and appear to be fast and strong. Here is what I got: When I saw this, I thought I looked fresh and fast and noticed that I can see some muscle definition in my shoulders and legs. I'm not grimacing, frowning or even noticeably sweaty. If only I'd have had my eyes open, I might have purchased this one! I was bummed about the closed eyes, but glad to see that I was otherwise looking alright.
What other things do you like to do that can be done solo or in groups? Which do you prefer or is a combination the right balance for you? If it's been hot and humid where you are, try to stay cool, drink extra water and enjoy the heat for now because it will start cooling off all too soon. Happy running! Missee |
AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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