I gave my "0 to 100 Miles" speech to a brain injury support group at Sanford Health on Tuesday night. The group meets one a month and is facilitated by my friend Tim who is a Chaplin there. What a neat group of people. As we went around the room introducing ourselves and giving a brief history of what brought each of us there, it reminded me of what I saw when I went to watch the first ever Fargo Marathon before I started running. People of all ages, sizes, shapes, and ability. Some noticeably struggling, some quietly struggling, some frustrated but none with any quit in them. I was blessed for having been invited.
Because I was speaking at the support group, I missed rehearsal for the Lenten drama at church which I have been participating in the past couple years. It felt odd sitting in the audience watching last nights performance instead of being on stage. They did great. Hmmm. They didn't miss me a bit. I wonder why? Oh, I know why. My acting sucks.
My sister Jodi is off to Boston this weekend with her friend Nicole to take on the Boston Marathon on Monday. I paced Jodi to her qualifying effort at the Fargo Marathon last year and Jodi paced Nicole to hers at the Twin Cities Marathon last fall. Don't know if I'll ever make it to Boston with the new qualifying practices they put in place but I've never really had that great of a desire to anyway. Maybe if they offered it in a 50 or 100 mile event I'd put forth the effort. Otherwise, I'll leave it to the speedsters who really want to be there.
My friend Jon will officially become an "Ultra Marathoner" this weekend when he tackles a neat little run in the park down in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Trail Mix 50k which Jodi and I ran last year is just perfect for someones first ultra. Most ultras are hilly. This one is as well but most of it is very "runnable". The footing is good throughout with no rocks or roots to trip you up. Ultra friend Maggie will be running it as well and Jon's wife Erin will be running the 25k. Kristy and I were going to be participating until our daughter Becky got invited to prom which happens to be the same day.
Yesterday I got my little engraving with my name and finishing time to put on my Arrowhead Trophy. My last name was spelled wrong so I threw it in the garbage. Everything is a struggle at Arrowhead. Better luck next year I guess.
