During the Fargo Half Marathon last May, I spotted this sign on a bank building. Clever, no? I thought so. So later, when this company was soliciting slogans to print on their shirt, I submitted it. It was a contest and the winner gets a shirt of her/his choice and a check for a couple hundred dollars. There were lots of entries,and I never expected anything to come of it. I was mostly just sharing it with the people who were voting on the contest. Well, my entry garnered the most votes and I won.
I was not in my happy place--I didn't come up with the slogan myself! I scoured the Internet to make sure it wasn't copyrighted, and it wasn't. Nowhere did I find that phrase. I decided to salve my conscience by donating a portion of the check to charity. But I'm keeping the shirt. :-)
This is AmyBee, my hero! She did the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon last Saturday--the Olympic Distance. That's 1.5K Swim, 40K Bike, and 10K Run. She's wearing her "Engines of Change" shirt, provided by her sponsor, Toyota. Look at how buff she is! She's been working hard and it shows. I was scheduled for a long run that day and planned to get out early so that I could be done in time to cheer Amy on. Well, that didn't work out; I got out later than I had planned and gave up on the idea.
I was scheduled to run 14 miles, so I drove to the river and began my run at the Guthrie. I decided to run south along the river road for 7 miles, then turn around and run back. I didn't run with the group, because Marcia wouldn't be there and everyone else goes out too fast for me. Marcia was resting because she was doing a triathlon on Sunday, so she went to the LTF Triathlon to support AmyBee.
As I ran along the trail, I came across the bikers in the triathlon. They were riding north in the street. I got really excited for them and as I ran I yelled out encouragement to the bikers. Some of you may remember that I volunteered at last year's triathlon; I felt bad that I didn't work it this year, but I had a training run to fit in.
Since the bike leg was in the street, I was able to continue south on the path. I kept an eye out for AmyBee, but I had no idea where she was. Then it occurred to me that I could call Marcia! Marcia said that Amy should be done with the bike by then, so I stopped looking for her. The run comes after the bike, so I asked Marcia to call me when Amy finished her race.
Meanwhile I kept running and cheering on the bikers. Some of them seemed to appreciate it. One woman astounded me--she could only be described as obese. She didn't even look like she could walk across the street, yet here she was riding a bike in the triathlon. Those of us who saw her had nothing but respect for her.
As I approached mile 7, I realized I was close to the action. I ran over to Lake Nokomis, thinking I could continue on the trail and eventually loop up to my starting point. I really wanted to see AmyBee cross the finish line! I called Marcia and found out where she was. She was expecting Amy to come by in the first of two loops (she was running a 10K.) I hooked up with Marcia and Coach Sarah, and shortly after AmyBee came by in the first loop.
Once Amy went by, I decided to continue my run. I wanted to see her cross the finish line, though, so I stayed in the area. As I was about to hook up with Sarah and Marcia again, Marcia called and said that Amy had finished her race. We all met up at the Toyota tent to congratulate Amy. I tried to take some pictures with my cell phone cam, but it was not cooperating; however Amy's hubby took pictures of us.
Marcia and Sarah were going to go to breakfast and invited me along. I had only done 11.5 of my 14 mile run, but I'd had enough. My heart just wasn't into this run. Breakfast sounded like a swell idea and Marcia said she'd drive me to my car, so how could I resist? We went to a cute little restaurant that I had never been to before and I had a latte and french toast with real maple syrup. Yum! It was very pleasant, then as promised, Marcia delivered me to my car.
I was feeling better and wanted to finish my run, so I ran around the Stone Arch Bridge, which I posted about a couple of days ago. I found a new park in the area that I didn't know about even though I had run past it the other day (!) and got close up and personal with the St. Anthony Falls. That was a treat and then my run was finally over. Even though the miles were interrupted, I figured it was like doing a two-a-day. I went home, showered, and took a nap! :-)
Today's schedule called for seven miles. Coach Higdon said time didn't matter, just get in the miles, so I stopped and took pictures along the way. I'm not sure he meant to take it quite that easy, but he wasn't here to tell me otherwise. :-)
There's a great trail that runs along both sides of the Mississippi River. I started in the Southeast part of town, at the Mill Ruins. This rapidly gentrifying area is birthplace of the flour mills that earned Minneapolis the name "Mill City." In fact, its minor league team is called the Millers (St. Paul's is called the Saints.) The mills sprung up to take advantage of the power generated by St. Anthony Falls. The Pillsbury A Mill was once the largest mill in the world.
I headed west across the Stone Arch Bridge, a railroad bridge that has been re-purposed as a pedestrian/bike bridge. It's a great place to watch the Fourth of July fireworks. Sorry the picture is so crappy; I was using my cell cam and couldn't even see the screen! All I could do was point in the general direction and shoot. I might as well have been blindfolded. :-(
The wind was blowing pretty hard from the north, so I planned to run into the wind, then have it at my back for the end of the run when I was more tired. But first, I had to check out the new Gold Medal Park, which is adjacent to the Guthrie Theatre. It opened up last month.
I ran around the park and up this little hill, which gave a nice view of the river. You can see this park from the Guthrie and a bartender there said the mound was supposed to be reminiscent of Indian burial mounds.
Here is a picture of the bridge I just crossed; you can see how it got its name. That's the Pillsbury A Mill in the background. The two cranes are for the lofts that are coming up near the mill site. The A Mill is on the national register of historic places, so they can't mess with that.
As I headed north, I was delighted to find this Dino X Raysaurus. Laurie had mentioned the invasion of the dinosaurs upon the Twin Cities in her June 26 post, so I knew at once why it was there.
Since rivers need to be crossed, and ferries are so-o 18th century, there are a lot of bridges along this route. This beauty is one of my favorites--the Hennepin Ave. bridge. It sits at the location of the first bridge to unite Minneapolis with St. Anthony (where the mills were.) St. Anthony merged with the city of Minneapolis over a century ago. I wasn't able to get the entire bridge in the picture, but you get the idea. One year I ran across it for a Thanksgiving Day race and felt like I was crossing the Verrazano Bridge at the New York City Marathon! In the background is a neon sign, meant to resemble a beer bottle cap, that says "Grain Belt Brewery." The brewery closed in the mid 70s, and the building has been repurposed into various business suites. It's a cool place. My hairdresser used to have his salon in the former keg house.
OK, I had to get some running in! I headed north along the river, hunkering down into the wind, then crossed the bridge at Plymouth Ave. Back on the East side now, I ran south through Boom Island park. This area was formerly a holding place for logs being floated downriver to the sawmills. Now it houses picnic tables and a river cruise ship. Running along the trail past Boom Island, I came upon this flower garden. Who can resist flowers! Not me, even though this picture looks like something Monet would have painted in his later years (when he was going blind.)
I crossed a little wooden bridge, which led to Nicollet Island. This area houses a small hotel, high school, and some homes. It's not very big (48 acres), but it's wonderful! As I was running around it, I thought if I were staying in Minneapolis, this is where I'd try to live. Also here is the "Bell of Two Friends" a gift in July 2001 from the sister city of Osaka, Japan, to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Minneapolis and Osaka becoming sister cities. Since I've been to Osaka, I thought it was pretty cool to stumble upon this. The plaque that explains this invites you to pass through the arch and ring the bell in solidarity of world peace, so naturally I did.
Since Nicollet Island is in the middle of the river, I needed to cross another bridge to run down the east bank. This small bridge was made in 1887 and always reminded me of an Erector set. It's a pin-connected Pratt through-truss bridge for you budding civil engineers. It actually was part of a larger bridge a mile upstream at Broadway Ave. and was moved here in 1987 when that bridge was replaced.
Facing east from the bridge, is this sweet church, Our Lady of Lourdes. It's the oldest continuously used church in the city and was founded by French Canadians. Back when I ate meat I used to go there to buy lamb pies, which they sell frozen as a way to raise money. Six years ago, the day before I had to put my cat to sleep, I brought him there to be blessed by the priest.
We're getting close to the end of the run. Only a mile left! Here's a closeup of the Pillsbury sign, near the A Mill. It says "Pillsbury's Best Flour." It's directly across the river from the Gold Medal Sign.
When I got back to the start, I was still short of 7 miles. What's a girl to do? I ran across the Stone Arch Bridge again! As I was crossing, I saw the paddlewheeler Minneapolis Queen go into the lock and dam. She was heading upstream to Boom Island, so I ran north and caught her as she came out the other side. Here she is under the Third Ave. bridge and the St. Anthony Falls are on the left. Now my run was over and I headed to the nearest coffee shop to get some carbs and protein. I hope you enjoyed the tour. There were a lot of pictures, but I tried to keep the size small. Let me know if the pictures took too long to download.
Sorry I've been gone for so long. I've been traveling and (still!) trying to sell my house. We get showings, which means I have to spend the day cleaning and straightening to give the impression my house is always this neat and tidy. :-)
But mostly, I've been marathon training. I just completed week 4 of Hal Higdon's Intermediate II marathon training schedule. I started it the week I returned from Italy. The following week, I went to Rochester (Minnesota) with SD. He was getting a physical at the Mayo Clinic, something his company offered. While he was getting poked and prodded, I found a nice running trail along the Zumbro River. Rochester isn't too impressive of a town, but they have good bike paths. The Mayo Clinic, however, is impressive, with its buildings and artwork and endowments, not to mention the wealth of medical expertise.
Last week I was in California, checking on my new house. It's almost finished and SD and I slept in it for the first time. We bought an air mattress and set it up in the bedroom. In the morning I woke up to a picture-perfect day, looking out on the blue expanse of Pacific Ocean. I laughed out loud, joyful at the thought of awakening to this view every day!
Air mattresses take a little getting used to, so I didn't sleep too well and blew off my Monday workout of 3 miles. To make up for it, I ran the next day in a nearby development that is extremely hilly. It's also remote and I saw a coyote on the road ahead of me. It was far enough away that at first I thought it was a deer, because of its ear shape. Then it loped away and I realized what it was. I picked up a big rock and ran with it the entire time, in case he came back with his buddies. 
After I ran up and down the big hill, I ran down a different road into a gulch. I kept seeing evidence of cattle on the road, but it wasn't until I turned to go back that I actually saw them grazing on the grassy hillside. There wasn't a fence between them and me and I hoped I didn't run into a bull. As I was running back, I heard a lone coyote howl, somewhere off to my left. He was soon joined by his buddies and a cacaphony of coyote howls surrounded me! I didn't see any, but it sounded like an army of them; very eerie. I yelled out, "you better not be talking about me!" After all, I had a rock in my hand. :-) 
Back in Minneapolis, I'm on a different schedule than my running buddies. They run 3 times a week, with Saturday being the long run. Higdon's schedule calls for 5 days a week, so I run with my friends on Saturday and alone during the week. It's been hot and humid on the prairie, so I try to run in the morning. Last Saturday, the running club was running 10 miles, but my schedule called for 13, so I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before heading out with them. It was a nice run, but I go out a lot slower than they do. My goal pace for the marathon is 12 minute miles, so I run 13 mm during the long, slow distance runs. After a couple of miles one of the women joined me and we talked the whole way. It was nice to have company.
While I was in Italy we added another marathoner to the family: my sister Deni walked the San Diego Rock and Roll marathon! She and her friend finished in 6:41:53 at 15:20 mm, and the other three in their training group finished as well. Go Team Laura! They're going to walk the Nike Women's Half in October.
During the Fargo Half Marathon last May, I spotted this sign on a bank building. Clever, no? I thought so. So later, when this company was soliciting slogans to print on their shirt, I submitted it. It was a contest and the winner gets a shirt of her/his choice and a check for a couple hundred dollars. There were lots of entries,and I never expected anything to come of it. I was mostly just sharing it with the people who were voting on the contest. Well, my entry garnered the most votes and I won.
