Blood Donation

My body is still in recovery from the Kettle Moraine event and with a couple weeks to go before the Afton Trail run, I thought now would be a good time to donate blood. I haven't been able to donate in almost a year, as every time I would go to donate, my heart rate would be too low. I tried going in the a.m., after a work out, in the middle of the day, and after supper, but nothing seemed to work. When I'm in recovery, the heart rate is up a bit so I made an appointment for right after work hoping it would be above 45bpm which is the minimum. I swallowed my last swig of coffee just before leaving work and after parking, jogged into the building to donate. I sat in the waiting room for 5 minutes trying to stay keyed up before they took me back and asked me all the goofy questions and do a blood draw as well as take my blood pressure, temperature and pulse. I made it. It was 50. Thank you Juan Valdez.

An Ultra Friend of mine, Ben Clark, who finished the KM100 just 2 weeks ago, is running another 100 this weekend. The Big Horn 100 in Wyoming. Ben, being a college student, has a pretty busy running schedule this summer as it's hard for him to get away during the school year. I will be excited to hear how he did.

Also, many friends from the area are running Grandma's in Duluth. I hope to get there someday as I've heard very good things about the event, except for the cost of hotel rooms. I did a 100k event in Duluth last fall, but the draw isn't quite the same as Grandma's 10,000+ participants, so the hotel room rates are decent. There were 12 finishers in the 100k. I guess 62 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail isn't appealing to most. I felt fortunate to be a part of it.

And then there is the Red River International Bike Tour (RRIBT www.rribt.com ) that starts next week, which a couple friends of mine are doing. On Monday, Jon and Erin will leave Grand Forks and make a 57 mile trek to Mayville. And if that is not enough to make your butt ache, on Tuesday they travel 78 miles to Valley City, Wednesday 53 miles to Cooperstown, Thursday 45 miles to Hatton and then just 44 more miles Friday to the finish in East Grand Forks. And they say running more than 26.2 miles is crazy. I'm walking bowlegged just thinking about sitting on a bike for that long. I'm hoping for nice weather for them.

As for me, no running events this weekend as I'm headed to the lakes after work tonight and coming back home tomorrow for a get together with some of the local ultra runners. Next week will be a tough week - back in the saddle and building for the 6,600 feet of elevation up and down of Afton in a couple weeks.