In Every Run That Must Be Done; There is an Element of Fun (comments welcome)

32 Days Until: TC Marathon Weekend 10 Miler

I only got 2 runs done last week, due to a combination of not feeling well, bad storms, not having enough days to reschedule runs to, and other people’s stupid choices.



I felt awful on Tuesday, so I chose to run on Wednesday instead. It was low 72°F, dew point 64, and not particularly windy. But it was full sun, so it wasn’t as easy as I’d like it to be. And I should get better at actually making the T+D adjustment, but I have trouble going slow.

I was going to run at lunch on Thursday, but there was thunder as I was getting ready to eat, so I chose food that I wouldn’t normally eat pre-run (of course, it stopped thundering by the time I was finished eating 🤦‍♀️) and then the bad storms rolled through when I got off work.

Friday wasn’t technically a workout, but I did walk almost 4 miles at the Minnesota State Fair after work (along with 225,000 of my closest friends and neighbors, so it was slow going) But, I got to have fresh french fries, and mini donuts, and went to the Matchbox 20 concert in the grandstand, so it was a good afternoon.

This is just one street at the fair



Saturday, I had plans to get out and run in the morning, but I ended up spending over an hour picking up and breaking up sticks, so I ended up doing it on the treadmill. Since the treadmill keeps my running pace down, I went for a 3min run/1min walk interval. Mile 1 was 4.5mph/3.3mph, miles 2 & 3 were 5mph/3.3mph, and mile 4 was 5.5mph/3.3mph for the first 2/3, and a cooldown at 4.5mph/3.3mph for the final 1/3. I’d like to walk faster on the treadmill, but it tends to irritate my achilles.

For anyone wondering exactly how trash my treadmill is (and why the speed math may or may not add up 😂), this is what the time read when I finished, despite the fact that I started the treadmill at least 30 seconds before I started my watch:


Sunday, I was going to run in the evening because we had some daytime chores (including lunch at A&W—root beer floats FTW!), but then my aunt called all distraught because she was supposed to be getting my cousin’s kid his school supplies (nevermind why they were shopping 2 days before school started) so I had to go out searching 5 different stores to find the things he needed and deliver them to my aunt. I was exhausted by the time I got home and just couldn’t find it in me to run. I did do some yoga, but my legs were so tired that I totally failed at any of the single-leg poses.

I decided I wanted a visual motivator for staying on track, so I got a wall calendar and some stickers. I get a smiley if I do my whole workout (or come really close), and a bonus smiley if I do a significant amount of extra mileage.


I don’t have any chipmunk pictures, but I did see a giant gopher 😄😄

Here’s Fairchild!
 
26 Days Until: TC Marathon Weekend 10 Miler

Not my best week of training ever, but also not my worst, since there were weeks over the summer where I did nothing at all.
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Monday’s run was supposed to be an attempt to make up last Sunday’s missed long run, but the sunlight got the better of me, even thought the actual temp wasn’t too bad. Then, in the evening, my grandma and I had to go deal with an emergency with my aunt, and that was stressful.
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Tuesday ended up being another stressful day, with my grandma having to go handle a further emergency with my aunt that resulted in her being gone for hours, and coming home with my aunt’s obnoxious dog. But I managed to get my scheduled run in while my grandpa’s dinner was cooking in the oven.
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As to Wednesday, I’m not saying that any housework is necessarily welcome, but having little choice but to go clean someone else’s house is extremely unwelcome, disruptive, and stressful.

I can’t remember what stressful situation caused me to miss my run on Thursday, but I’m sure there was one.

Friday and Saturday had spectacular weather, highs in the mid 60s F, but I wasn’t feeling well on Saturday, and that continued, although improved, into Sunday. I’m going to do better this week.

No wildlife photos, but evidence of wildlife in this nice spiderweb in our clematis-covered arbor.
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5 Days Until: TC Marathon Weekend 10 Miler

I missed a bunch of training runs, but I did manage a really good 7 mile run on September 22, so I'm feeling great about my race this weekend (even though I'm not racing it)

I did 3 laps around my neighborhood, using my mailbox as a drop spot. I had water in there, and my Noxgear for when it got dark. First lap, I had my sunglasses on, but I didn't need them after that, so I left them behind. By the third lap, I definitely needed the Noxgear, and it got darker faster than I expected, so I wish I'd grabbed the lamp too, but I did well enough. I'm really proud of how even the laps are, even if the miles are a bit all over the place. I definitely could've done a fourth lap to get to nearly 10 miles with no trouble.
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All of the runs I've managed to do have been good, I just need to do more of them. But the weather is finally turning to fall, so I should be able to stay on track better.
 

1 Day Until: TC Marathon Weekend 10 Miler

New Month, New Me 😄😄

I did almost all of my miles so far this week.

Tuesday: 3 miles scheduled; 3.18 miles in 43:11 (13:33 pace)
Thursday: 3 miles scheduled; 3.11 miles in 40:53 (13:08 pace)
Saturday: 5 miles scheduled; 2.51 miles in 34:22 (13:41 pace)


I would've finished my Saturday miles, except the wind kept blowing my shirt up and trying to blow my hat off 💨💨 But I still got a lot more workout in because I threw on a pair of sweatpants and less blow-able shirt as soon as I got home in order to do and hour and a half of tree trimming in the yard.

Friday after work, my grandma and I went to the TC Marathon Weekend expo. It wasn't nearly as good as last year's expo. I'm really annoyed about how they handle the gear check for the 10 miler runners (and only the 10 miler runners) We have to turn in our gear at the expo, instead of the morning of the race like all the other distances. Supposedly, they lost their transport carrier for the 10 mile gear bags sometime between TCMW 2022 and TCMW 2023, and they can't figure out how to get a few trucks from US Bank Stadium to the MN State Capitol before the runners arrive 🙄🙄

Also, the volunteer was hassling me about the fact that my gear was in a backpack inside the plastic bag. I don't blame her, she's just doing what she's been told, but on the other hand, unlike all the non-10 miler runners, my bag went through a security check just to get it into the expo. The rules just say that my gear needs to be in the provided gear bag, and I followed that rule. But I need to be able to find all my stuff after the race without having to dump everything out, and that just doesn't work if it's all dumped in a random plastic bag--especially since I don't actually have the plastic bag until I'm at the dang expo!

Here's my flat lay for the race--wind chill will keep the feels like below 40 until after I finish, but it will be sunny, and I think the wind should be mostly at my back since its forecasted to be out of the northwest, and I'll be heading south and then east. Now, I'd better head to bed because my alarm is going off in less than 7 hours 🥱😴
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Love the skirt!


Can't believe that! Never heard of a race doing that sort of thing. I'm not sure what I'd do!
Thanks!!

Yeah, it's especially tough on the Loony runners, doing both Saturday and Sunday races, since they have to come up with 2 separate sets of whatever they need after running 10 miles.
 
TC Marathon Weekend 10 Miler

This ended up being a really good race. I finished in almost the same time as when I ran the race in 2022, and when I ran in virtually post-cancellation in 2023.

2022--2:17:59
2023--2:16:45 (virtual)
2024--2:18:20

I dragged myself out of bed shortly after 5:30am and got ready to go. I can never remember which street I need to take to get to my preferred parking ramp, and Google Maps steered me wrong! So I had a few trips around various blocks once I got downtown, but I made it to my ramp and then made it to the start area. I was in the last corral, and we were furthest from the start line. If you zoom way way in on the first photo, you might be able to see the green start arch. We had to walk 3 blocks to get to the start from where I was standing and it took almost 10 minutes from when Corral D started for me to actually cross the start line.
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There were plenty of people behind me too, and more off on the sidewalks that just sort of butted their way into the crowd instead of walking to/waiting for the back.
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The weather was pretty great, all things considered. 50°F, but the wind chilled it down to 37°F--and since the wind was out of the WNW and the course went almost 100% east and south, it was almost always at my back. The course isn't terribly challenging, even though the elevation map looks a little daunting from mile 4 to mile 7. I even got a negative split between the first and second half of the race.
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The whole back half of the race is really great for crowd support; all the folks along Summit Avenue (aka where the rich people live 😄😄) get really into spectating the marathon. They set up chairs, and some have food tables (for themselves and some even for the runners), and since the Vikings were playing early in London, a few people even had TVs outside to watch the game, with white boards to share the score with the runners. I know some of you are really into the dogs per mile ratio, and the back half of this race is like, dogs everywhere.
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I finished the race, got my gear bag, grabbed a quick medal selfie with the Capitol, changed out of my sweaty shirts and into a warm fleece for the light rail ride back to my car. After lunch at home, and a hot bath, I headed out to The Arb for some active recovery to see the scarecrows and fall flowers.

The rose garden was just wild with color.
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The scarecrows are always pretty fun
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A couple days after the race, I got my pictures posted, and opted to shell out the money to get a 5 pack. Disney has definitely trained me to watch for photographers and plaster a smile on my face (although I was smiling for most of this race because I was genuinely having fun at least 90% of the time) I really like the middle picture because I look like I'm way ahead of a lot of people 😄😄
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After dinner, and after the sun went down, I got to go outside and watch the Aurora! And I realized that if I use my phone with a tripod, I can get a 30 second exposure, so I get some nice clear shots. Sunday night was nothing compared to Monday, but Monday's Aurora will need its own post or two.


This one doesn't have a lot of color, but I love the delicate pastel colors with the stars
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The red was just crazy bright, I could even see a bit of it with my naked eye
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Aurora Borealis: Monday October 7

My great aunt and uncle texted me just before 9pm that the Aurora had been spotted near me, so my grandma and I headed out to our side yard with had a pretty good view of the north and west skies.

It started with just some amorphous green and purple
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Since the Aurora wasn't doing much yet, I took another pretty star pictureIMG_9299.jpeg

Then the reds started showing up, and a bit of beaming (that's apparently the term for the towers of light)
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Now the colors were really getting bright
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Look at these swirls!
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Then it started calming down a bit
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I caught a satellite or plane in this shot
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The Aurora was calming down, and we were a little cold, so we went inside, and eventually my grandma went to bed a little after 11pm. But when I was going to change for bed, I changed my mind and put on several layers of clothes and go back out at 11:40pm. BEST. DECISION. EVER. Next post coming shortly...
 
What a terrific race for you! Congratulations!

Also love all the photos, from the flowers to the aurora! We even saw it down in Maryland - my first time!
 
Aurora Borealis: Monday, October 7/Tuesday October 8

Newly armed with warm clothes, and my convertible running gloves that would let me just stick one finger out to hit the phone screen (I have now bought a bluetooth clicker for future cold photo sessions) I was ready for what the sky would show me.

11:41pm--There was a bunch of green stretching from NW to NE
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11:52pm--lots of beaming starting in the green
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11:56pm--holy $#!% where did that come from?!IMG_9360.jpeg

11:58pm--I texted my grandma (I knew she was still awake reading her iPad) "It's crazy out here!!"
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12:04am--I texted my grandma again, knowing that she's been really exciting about finally seeing the Aurora this year for the first time in her 80 years, "You have to come out, you'll regret it forever if you don't!" She believed me and came out, she did not regret it.
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12:05 am--facing to the northeast
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12:08am--looking overhead
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12:11am--looking northwest and skyward
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12:12am--looking NNEIMG_9378.jpeg

More pictures coming
 
Aurora Borealis: Tuesday, October 8

12:13am--looking northeast
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12:14am--looking overhead
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12:16am--looking west; the bright white at the bottom center is the glow of the nearest town
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12:17am--looking north
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12:20am--looking south
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12:21am--looking WNW
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12:23am--looking northIMG_9390.jpeg

12:29am--looking north
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12:35am--looking north
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12:38am--looking northwestIMG_9407.jpeg

I could've stayed out all night, but my socks and boots were not keeping my toes very warm, and I have it on good authority that toes are important 😄😄 But there was another good Aurora show forecast for Thursday...
 
Aurora Borealis: Thursday, October 10

The Aurora was supposed to be incredible, but our cloud cover was potentially going to be a problem. It ended up being hazy-to-thin-clouds, rather than a total cover-up. But I wonder what it might've been like if we'd had clear skies.

After our experiences of Sunday and Monday, we learned a few things. For instance, my grandma learned that she gets a crick in her neck. And I learned that my toes get really cold. So I wore fleece-lined socks, and I hauled a couple patio chairs down to our septic mound (and eventually below the septic mound) so we could sit down, lean back, and look up. Also, the chairs swiveled, so I could sit and just spin around with my tripod to see the whole sky and find the best shots.

7:44pm--looking NNE and just getting the slightest color changes
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8:23pm--looking west or southwest
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8:41pm--looking west
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8:46pm--looking north and upward
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8:49pm--looking southIMG_9454.jpeg

9:01pm--looking northwestIMG_9458.jpeg

9:04pm--looking north
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9:04pm--looking overhead
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9:05pm--looking south
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9:06pm--looking north
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More to come...
 












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