Something New

As mentioned previously, I planned to run 10 miles on Saturday. Most of the group was doing the Dam Hill workout which is hill repeats at the Mississippi River Locks and Dam, interspersed with calisthetics. Gary wasn't interested in doing the Dam Hill, and I didn't care where I ran, so we met at the club and ran over to the lakes. In the rain.

We met at 8 a.m. and briefly considered running on the treadmill. I only had my tights and a long sleeve shirt, which would be way too hot for an indoor workout. I did have my waterproof jacket and pants, so we headed out and figured we'd just cut the run short. Fine with me, I'm not in training right now.

Fortunately, it didn't pour but it was plenty wet. We ran our usual route along the Downtown Trail to Cedar Lake, then over to the east side of Lake Calhoun--the water is still turned off, so the bathrooms were closed and the water fountain was dry. At this point we decided to continue on for the full 10 mile run so from Calhoun we went over to the west side of Lake Harriet to 43rd St.

Lake Harriet is a popular spot for 5Ks, and there was one going on that morning. We had to make sure we stayed out of the way of the racers, which wasn't a problem. Gary noticed the finish line clock read 53 minutes and observed that had we been in the race we would have been finished by now. Instead, we were halfway done and turned around at 43rd St. to retrace our steps. As we turned, the children's fun run started and we cheered on the four and five year olds as they ran their little hearts out. They were very cute!

We closed the loop at Lake Calhoun by running up the west side and took a short detour into the Calhoun Beach Club so that I could refill my water bottle. I tried to be quick, but I couldn't find the water fountain and kept Gary waiting for ten minutes. And I didn't even use the bathroom! He was getting chilled but soon warmed up again as we ran on.

Around the 9 mile mark I was getting fatigued. Usually I have breakfast before a long run, but only had time for a banana that day, so I downed 3 gels over the course of 1.5 hours. We finally reached the club, but my Garmin only registered 9.8 miles, so we ran around in the parking lot to get in our complete 10 miles. These days I'm happy to round up, but Gary wanted to get in his full mileage. After all, they don't shorten a marathon.

We did our post-run stretches and strength work, then showered. We met up at Brueggers and had bagels and talked about how ready we were for a nap. But that wasn't in the cards for either of us. He had errands to do and I had a commitment to scrapbook (is that a verb?), so we said our goodbyes and I headed to Marcia's.

My running friend Marcia is an avid scrapbooker (?) and was hosting a crop club at her house. She pushed her living room furniture against the wall and set up card tables with lamps for us to work on our projects. She planned to work for the entire day and we were welcome to drop in when we wanted. I've been listening to her talk about her hobby ever since we started running together, and when I mentioned that I have a scrapbook that I've been meaning to put together for my long-deceased cat (5 years), she invited me to bring some food to share and join her and her friends. It worked out that I could, so I did!

There was a time in my life when sitting for hours in the company of women doing craft projects sounded like punishment. I'm not a crafts person, even though I like to be creative. I did my share of macrame plant hangers in the 70s, but these days I don't even put my pictures in photo albums. It takes up too much time. Marcia learned that the secret is to devote time specifically for her scrapbook projects and started what she calls Crop Club.

Marcia makes some amazing scrapbooks. She showed me one that she put together for her son's wedding, and she's working on her marathon scrapbook. She ran her first marathon last October and her scrapbook includes the training leading up to the race. She saves all her race numbers and is creating another scrapbook of her races. Now I wish I had saved my race numbers.

Although I didn't finish my book, I formulated a plan for putting it together and made a lot of progress. But mostly I enjoyed talking to the other women, which included two other running friends, Jen and AmyBee, as well as a scrapbooking buddy of Marcia's and Marcia's sister. It made me think of quilting bee's I've read about, where women get together and produce a quilt. In fact, Jen was working on piecework for a quilt, since her scrapbooking paraphanelia is in storage. And Amy created some cards and has a surprising arsenal of stamps, gels, and other tools.

It was a great day, and to think it came about through a love of running!