My running friend needed to run at 5:45 AM on Saturday. Since I have entered my 40s, I am physically unable to sleep in so I was definetly up for an early morning run! Promptly after waking, I checked the temperature. Wow! Take a look at what temperature was awaiting me on September 29.... Thirty-three degrees is cold for September, even in Southwest Minnesota. I dug out my ear band, mittens, jacket, and reflective vest. I bundled up and headed out the door. By the time I had run a quarter of a mile, I was warm and feeling great. We ran a little over seven miles. Although I had planned to take pictures during the run, it was dark until my cool down walk. My town is really peaceful and beautiful in the early mornings. This lily plant is growing by our mailbox. One bloom continues to thrive, even in the cold temperatures...kind of like runners. Happy Fall Y'All! Happy Running! -Stephanie
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Hello! It has been a while since I've posted on the blog. With a new teaching assignment this year, two kids on the cross country team, and keeping up at home, I have neglected the blog. Thanks to Missee for keeping it going! My children had a cross country meet tonight. I am grateful that my kids have decided to participate in a sport that puts us out on scenic golf courses on some of the most beautiful fall evenings that you could imagine. Tonight was no exception. The air was crisp, but the sun was out. It was a great night for running! Happy Running! -Stephanie
I don't know what magazine it is in, but some fashion magazine finds two celebrities in the same outfit and challenges their readers with "Who wore it better?" There is usually a clear winner. I thought of this feature when I chose my dress for the wedding we went two a couple weeks ago. This dress has gotten pretty good mileage over a long span of time although I know it has been several years since I've worn it last and almost weeded it out in a closet cleaning a couple times, but I still felt like I would wear it again. So, with no further explanation, who wore it better? Whether or not you like my choice in dresses, I will take one moment to pat myself on the back that I am even ABLE to wear the same dress at 46 as I wore at 34. I will give a large part of the credit there to a regular exercise program, namely running. Keeping fit helps people maintain a higher metabolism which is especially helpful for those of us who love to eat...even on a restricted diet. I will never profess to eat a perfect diet, even though I am a dietitian and fully aware of how to make better choices. I firmly believe in the theory of eating well 80-90% of the time and enjoying a few indulgences in the remaining 10-20%. Nothing is more appealing that what is forbidden. I'm not too great on moderation, so the Sunday Treat Day and keeping it as sugar free as possible in between is very helpful for me. When I know that I can have those treats on Sunday, passing them up the other days isn't quite as hard. One different choice I'd wish I'd made for the wedding was my dinner choice. My meal was absolutely delicious, but the people who chose walleye got fish on their placards and vegetarians got a carrot. Guess what I picked: You got it...I picked pork. Since they did spell my name wrong, it was easier not to internalize that I had a pig on my card. Here are the other folks sitting at my table--a very good looking group if I do say-so myself, but I may be a little biased. They are most of the men in my life and my in-laws. Haley had to work which was a bummer as she'd have enjoyed the dancing and family time. Please comment on whether you liked my dress better in 2006 or 2018. Do not account for the cute kids in 2006, they are still handsome now in a young-adult fashion. Do you have any old favorite outfits? Describe them of better yet, attach a photo! Happy running--Missee
This is Homecoming Weekend at CSB/SJU where my husband I attended college and ran track and cross country. In past years, CC Alums were invited to run in one of the college races and that was generally poorly attended because once you have graduated, the idea of running a college race does not sound that fun...especially if your graduation year begins with 19, like 1994. This year, the Coach Robin, who was Captain Robin when I was a first year runner, changed the event. Alums were invited to the 1st Annual Run with the Bennies. This was also to commemorate the mascot name change from CSB Blazers to CSB Bennies. We were invited to run anywhere from 3-10 miles with old friends and current runners followed by brunch in the dining service. That sounded like way more fun to me and I encouraged a couple people to come, too. The event began with Robin passing out CSB T-Shirts to the alums. Nice! Then we gathered in a large circle out in the grass for a welcome message and each alum introduced herself along the grad year, major, what we are doing now and a favorite memory. The memory I shared was a run I had gone on with a couple other gals with the intent of running about 10 miles and end up back in St.Joseph. Well, at around 10 miles we realized we were very near St. John's, a solid 6 miles off course. Fortunately, my boyfriend (now husband) was at practice at SJU and we were able to hitch a ride back to our own campus, but our lack of direction was tough to live down. For those who have run for many years, you may be able to guess that there were a number of stories involving bathroom emergencies...one involved two different Bennies stopping in the same section of the woods to eliminate about 2 hours apart. When the second one came back and reported to friends that she found more poop in the woods, the first girl know whose it was! Yuck!!! The Athletic Director was present for all of this and when it was her turn to speak, she said that the CC team might be the grossest one on campus. Of course she meant this in jest...kind of...because we all know sh!t happens :-) Next came the running. My college buddy, Patty, and my work running friend, Marian, and I set off on the 7 mile course which was a familiar route from our college days. Marian split off to "take care of business" after a couple miles. Patty and I had years of adventures to talk about and update on each other's lives. She said one of her highlights is that when she married a man with an adult son, she got grandkids pretty quickly and she loves being Grandma! I think she was most shocked that we have Charlie as I was petrified of dogs as a college runner and petrified might be understating my fear. We agreed to not let so much time pass between our next meetings and Patty urged me to give her a call when we are in the Twin Cities for Haley's track meets this spring and she'd try to come. Here we are at the end of our run. Patty hasn't changed a bit. After the run, we went to brunch. Patty wasn't able to stay for that, but I got a chance to visit with some other fascinating alums. One spent some time in the Marshall Islands teaching after graduation, but the interesting part of her story was the six day ride on a fishing boat to get there. She was the only one who spoke English, so it was a pretty silent journey for her. Another works at the U of M in the athletics department, several teachers, coaches and a few accountants. Eventually I looked at my watch and discovered I'd been gone 4 hours! Time to get home.
I was amazed at the turnout for this first ever event. There were probably 30 alums--and those are the ones who were still willing and able to get out there and run. I texted Stephanie's kids a good luck message for their race today along with the words that some of my best friends have been made on the run. That goes back to high school, through college and into adulthood. Amazing how you can jump back onto the road with an old friend and the time between your last runs seems so much shorter. I hope you have and will make some very dear friends on your runs! Happy running--Missee We are in Duluth for the weekend for a family wedding. My husband’s cousin is getting married. Sometimes people feel like family functions are a drag and dread going. I’m really looking forward to this one and the ensuing party! A positive attitude makes all the difference. Charlie and I started off the morning with a five mile run enjoying the views of Lake Superior. That was a peaceful treat after the first full week of school. The weather has been warm and humid so the cooks and the kids were ready for a couple days off. In contrast, Duluth is expecting a high temp of 69 degrees today while other parts of Minnesota are closer to 90. I hope you have some fun things planned this weekend...including some running. If your plans aren’t exciting you yet, try spinning your attitude to expect to enjoy yourself rather than dread. I once read a book that said, “What you think about, you bring about.” Think happy thoughts! Here is a positive message from a church in my neighborhood. Any coincidence that it’s a running theme and the local CC coach’s wife does the messages?!? Happy running! Missee
My children have been busy with cross country meets. It is so much fun for me to watch them run. I am hoping that running will become a lifelong sport for them. When I am at a meet, I am usually too busy cheering to take a photo. (Actually, I am far too nervous and excited to try to take photos.) When I do try to take a photo, I end up with this one that I intended to send to my husband. A photographer... I am not. I am so grateful to the parents with great cameras and great photography skills who snap pictures and share with parents like me. It is easier for me to get a picture after a race, like this sweet father/daughter photo. Happy Running! -Stephanie
Today I ran in the Granite Games Half Marathon in St.Cloud. If you check out the website, disregard the photo; there were nowhere near that many participants, but more on that later. This early September half has been in the area for around 10 years and this is the fourth different course. This year, it was in conjunction with the Kill Cliff Granite Games, a Cross Fit competition drawing athletes from all over the world. When I described the Crossfitters to Mom earlier, I said that they made the half marathoners and 5K runners look "squishy." There are some super fit people with muscles on their muscles. While they didn't probably admire our physiques, I'd wonder how many of them thought the idea of running 13+ miles sounded a little crazy. I saw the weight competition area and didn't want anything to do with that! In the days leading up to the race, the organizers were offering better and better deals on the entry fees via Facebook. Originally, race day registration was supposed to be $65, but they'd knocked that down to $30 to draw more runners. When we registered, the choice for a shirt said ladies tank top which Deb and I were both excited about. What we got was a unisex long sleeve shirt. It's a simple design and the sleeve will be plenty long for those first cool days when I don't quite need mitts, but something over the hands would be good. While most things today went off without a hitch, gathering our race bibs and shirts was not good. The registration area had super long lines and was not too organized. The volunteers were friendly, but not too fast. A lot of people were anxious/nervous/angry by the time they got their materials. The teacher from our staff running club ended up hiding her shirt behind a trash can to retrieve after the race because there wasn't time to take it to her car before the start. Once the race began, things went much smoother. Since it was a small crowd, we started up near the front and worried about the feeling of running backward, but it worked out ok. The first few miles mostly followed miles 4-10 of the Earth Day Half. At the top of the dreaded Mile 10 hill at Earth Day, we headed further out of St.Cloud to a park with trails through the prairie which was beautiful. If I'd have been having a slower race, I'd have stopped to take some photos, but it was going well and I wanted to stay in my groove (Go, Stella!). There were adequate water and Powerade stops along the way and pora-potties available at 6,7 and 8.5 miles. I'm happy to report that I didn't need any of those! My friends each took a pit stop, but that was ok, too, as we try to use our yoga mantra of "Don't worry about it; just take care of it." All throughout the race, we could see other runners ahead and behind us and never felt alone. There were lots of on-course volunteers to be sure no one got lost and every busy intersection was controlled by St. Cloud Police Department. I tried to thank as many volunteers as possible. That's much easier to do when I feel comfortable running :-) At about 12.5 miles, Marian asked, "Should we just walk it in from here?" I asked if she was kidding as we were cruising along nicely and she said NO! I said we were NOT walking from here!!! I think she's glad for that tough love as she finished a few seconds ahead of me and Deb a few seconds behind. I finished in 1:55:48 which came out to 8:55 per mile. I'm very satisfied with the effort and happy about the fun day we had. I also won my age group (40-49) placing 32nd overall out of 128 finishers and 19th overall in women. I wish I had taken some photos, though. The only one I got was when I was about to leave and got this one near the finish area. Another teacher from our school was there to cheer for her husband and she said she took some pictures as well as cheer for us. I'll share those when I get them. Once we were done, the finish line food was not too exciting. They had water, sport drink, bananas and cookies. On my current food regimen, water was the only allowed item. I was a little surprised by the cookies as CrossFit athletes often talk about eating "clean." I'm pretty sure sugar and white flour don't meet their definition of clean. I guess that's why the squishy people got the cookies???
Would I do this run again? Probably, especially at the price of $35 that we got a few weeks ago. Most half marathons are in the $50-100 range and while this one was pretty small without a lot of amenities, it is only 10 miles from home and had everything that is required for a nice event. I'd have likely run 13 miles today with the same friends today anyway and this way we got to try a different route and someone provided us with drinks of water every few miles. I'm quite confident that the volunteers at registration would have some ideas for next year to make that a smoother process. Have a great weekend and happy running! Missee My husband and I started school this week for the first time in many years with none of our own kids. Two of them are in college and started a week ago while one has joined the professional ranks. That was sure different, but not necessarily bad. I can honestly say that the first few days of school are exhausting! It will definitely take a few days to rebuild the stamina. Before heading back to school, we took a little road trip to Duluth for the weekend to see our oldest son who just started a new job. We are certainly proud of his accomplishments and what a super adult he is working to become. The guys went out fishing early Saturday morning. I took the opportunity to go for a medium long run of eight miles. I didn't want to press too far with the half marathon coming up this Saturday. Here is the view of Lake Superior I enjoyed for a good portion of the run. The weather was super humid, but sunny. I was good and sweaty! After the run, Blake's girlfriend and I took Charlie down to the Lakewalk for a nice long walk along the lake. By the time we were done, my Garmin was reading about 22,000 steps for the day, so it was a good hike. Here we are in Canal Park. After the walk, we enjoyed some lunch and manicures. We felt pretty silly after we'd each selected colors from the hundreds of choices and then changed our minds without telling each other...to exactly the same color! I guess that might be a sign that she will fit in well with our family. Plus she didn't seem to mind when Charlie insisted on sitting on her lap while we drove to and from the lake :-)
I hope everyone is enjoying back to school whether you are in school, have kids in school or just enjoy the rhythm of the day that the school bus coming and going brings to your neighborhood. I'll be running a half marathon on Saturday with a couple of friends. I'm definitely looking forward to that and will be sure to post over the weekend with an update! In the meantime, happy running! Missee "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" would have been a fitting theme song for this morning. My morning run was very wet. I'm guessing that my shoes are probably still drying from the countless puddles that I splashed through. Despite the rain, the temperature was warm and it was actually a beautiful day for running. If only the bright summer mornings would last all year long. It is difficult to adjust to running in the dark. Running in the dark is a difficult thing for me to get used to after summer. Here are a few tips for running in the dark. 1. Be safe. Run with a friend. Stay on well lit roads that are well traveled. 2. Carry a flashlight. A flashlight can be helpful for areas that are not well lit by streetlights. 3. Wear reflective gear. I can't stress this one enough. I ALWAYS wear a reflective vest when it is dark. Drivers don't always think that pedestrians are sharing the road. Assume that cars do not see you, but wearing reflective gear will make it more likely that they do! In rain or shine, in light or darkness... Happy Running! -Stephanie
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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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