15 seconds of fame

Bobby and Ally got their names in the paper yesterday. I hope the link still opens. That's Ally in Sponge Bob bike jersey and Bobby in black.
Cute!

Cannon Falls Ride

It was 63 degrees in beautiful Minnesota... so Beth, Terri, Weathergirl, Erin and I decided to go for a ride. What? There's a boy in the picture? Yeah! We talked Eric into calling in sick from work and joining us. It was awesome having you along...hopefully that back of yours that "went out" will be better in time for work tomorrow. ;-) TriNick was supposed to come, too, but called in "lazy" and went to work instead. (Nick -  you missed such a great ride!)

Here we are at the trailhead.

We biked 20 miles of the scenic trail along the river to the Jenny Lind Bakery/deli. Terri delivered on her promise that it was the best food ever. We ordered sandwiches, salads and a few different bars and cakes to split up and sample. Yum. We totally have to go back in the fall when the leaves are turning.  We biked past horse farms, cow farms, meadows, wetlands, and the winding river. It was gorgeous.

And then we biked back. Here we are back at the start of the Falls. It really is pretty.

What's that dot in the river?

Good lord, it's Eric. Dude, you are on a ride with a bunch of moms! Get out of there!!! 

Fargo Marathon, 2008

OK, I owe Katie Holmes an apology. 

I was one of those people who assumed/concluded that she did not complete the NYC marathon. 

I realize nobody was ever able to explain why her trainer was seen and photographed many times on the course from start to finish, wearing a several-year-old race bib and a timing chip, yet she was only spotted very late in the course, lacking any semblance of sweat or physical exhaustion, and no visible timing chip. She/they finished in 5:29; him sweaty/ her looking fresh as a daisy. I agreed with the other conspiracy theorists who believed she must have cheated.

That said, here is my race report from yesterday:

I started out with Sarah, (IrongirlNyhus' sister, with whom I have run a few other marathons) and Mark (remember him from Phoenix?) Since it was a lovely day, the course was flat, and nobody was injured, we decided to run with-or-ahead-of, the 4:00 hour (9:06 pace) group. Here are our splits:

1- 9:09, 139 heart rate

2- 9:03; 151 hr

3- 9:04; 153 hr

4- 9:10; 164 hr

5- 9:01; 153 hr

6- 9:13; 152 hr

7- 9:02; 150 hr

By mile 8 Sarah and I determined we were getting tired, breathless, and just not having fun; this feeling we were feeling isn't at all why we run, and we would likely never be able to keep up this pace, considering we hadn't completed even one training run at anything faster than 10:00 miles. 

So we said good bye to Mark and he kept on trucking and Sarah and I got swallowed up into the 4:10 (9:33) pace group and started running comfortably. We were just making new friends with our new group.....

8- 9:37; 149 hr

9- 9:51; 149 hr

...when Sarah let out a gasp and said "something just happened to my knee". So we stopped to stretch a bit. She was hardly able to get started again, but limped along being a good sport until we got to a medical tent.

10- 9:57; 141 hr

11- 11:36; 140 hr

As the 4:20 and 4:30 pace groups swallowed too, us we re-set our goal for the day to "just beat Katie Holmes." 

12- 11:25; 139 hr

13- 11:26; 139 hr

We got to the next medical tent who gave Sarah an ace bandage and we wrapped up her screaming knee.

"Do you need help pushing over that sign?"

14- 13:51; 137 hr

15- 11:33; 132 hr

16- 12:51; 128 hr

17- 12:42; 126 hr

18- 12:45; 124 hr

We continued run/walking, and stopped a couple times to put ice into the bandage. By now we've been on the course a long long while and started searching out barbecues for food and beer. Then we get a txt from Mark who says he's walking. We txt back - "So are we! Where are you?" We caught up to him shortly and the three of us limped in. But we had fun! We met lots of neat people, sampled Norwegian fare like "lefse" - a potatoe-y flatbread thing, cookies, and I had a hot dog.

Mark and me trying to push over a tree.  Grrrrr.

19- 13:30; 124 hr

20- 13:30; 126 hr

21- 13:30; 121 hr

We saw Betty (Sarah and Laura's mom), IronGreg and Zurich a couple times who offered encouragement and a couple of great hugs and endearing face licks. (well, Zurich did anyway.)

We were sort of feeling like we'd never get to the finish line at this rate, but we rationalized our going so slow because "remember, we did have a really good workout this morning already..." 

Well... True.... ;-)

22- 14:22; 124 hr

23- 14:21; 118 hr

24- 14: 23; 118 hr

By now the barbecues are smokin' and Margheritaville was serving beer and a full service of other  beverages, so Sarah had a beer and I had a margherita.  

We came upon Sarah and Laura's dad and he ran a little with us, but by now we were so close we just wanted to get to the FargoDome.

25- 13:01; 109 hr

26.2- 12:21; 110 hr

All said, it was a lovely morning. Aside from Mark feeling sick, and Sarah's aching knee, it was a fun way to spend the morning. Really, when can you run a marathon, attend barbecues, and post heart-rates at 109?! We still got a medal, took some great pictures, and we still beat Katie Holmes.

So now I can declare that, yes, you can finish a marathon looking fresh as a daisy. Katie did it in 5:29, and Sarah, Mark and I did it in 5:05.  Fresh as a Daisy.

P.S. Laura did her personal best of 4:06 and Erin did her PR, too of 3:50. Congrats to everyone!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

I'm having a great day... 

- Got up and ran 10 miles at 10:14 avg, which was comfortable enough to post an average heart rate of 138.

- A giant bald eagle flew right in front of me - maybe 30 feet in front of me, right across my path on his way to grab a fish out of Lake Calhoun, then as I was rounding the corner, he flew back into a tree with it to eat it, again right in front of me! How cool was that? It was like a front row seat on the Wild Kingdom.

- After my run I stopped in for coffee and ran into my dear friend Holly's husband Andrew.

- Then I got home and my kids had a bunch of handmade cards for me; and they gave me this for Mother's Day:

;-) sweet!!!

Bobby's birthday, biking

It's still cold here - 42 today - but we are out biking anyway. Here are Beth G, Terri, Erin, and I heading out after our swim last Tuesday.

Bobby turned 10 last week, too. I can't believe it's been 10 years since the most life-altering, blessed, amazing day of my life. I was forever changed in that moment. When I think back on who I was on April 25th, and who I became on April 26th of that year - I can hardly recognize the "old" Jenny. I love being a mom! Here we are in the kitchen when Bobby woke up and realized we had decorated the kitchen and baked him a cake:






For his birthday he wanted to go see Casting Crowns play at the Excel Energy Center. We bought tickets the minute they went on sale and had really great seats. He brought two of his friends from school. At one point during the show Bobby leaned over to me and said, "This is the best birthday ever, Mom." and then he squeezed my hand. Can't beat that.


Have a great day everybody!