Racing to a Wedding (again)

What a busy weekend! It is still kind of a blur. The haziness started Friday morning around 1 AM when I got a call from work that one of my machines was acting up. I was in from 1-5 AM trying to get the machine to stabilize (it is a horizontal copper plating machine that transports material and provides a cathodic connection through a series of segmented rollers; the issue is that the material is not staying in contact with these rollers, which leaves the plating current nowhere to go and causes the material to burn.) Then I went home and crashed for a few hours before going back to work on the problem. I thought I had made some headway by afternoon (I was wrong), and I had to leave in any case to make it to my friends Dave and Caitlin's wedding rehearsal, where I was playing the part of best man.

Dave and Caitlin getting ready to cut the Dala Horse Cake

It was a large wedding party, there were 7 groomsmen, so there was a lot to keep track of. The rehearsal went off pretty well though, and the grooms dinner was pasta, perfect for carbo loading before a Saturday race or wedding, or both in my case. They had a cake shaped like an enormous dala horse, which was delicious, and Dave's sister Tina decorated all the candle holders with a ski brand on one side and a geeky symbol (Star Trek, Dr. Who, Zelda, ect.) on the other. After the grooms dinner I sneaked off to my friend Jallie's birthday party for capture the flag and more cake. Then I headed to Jeff's to sleep so we could be up at 5:45 the next morning to head to the Stillwater Half Marathon.

Our plan was to use this race as test to gauge our fitness before Grandma's Marathon next month. I haven't run a road half in several years and was expecting a PR. I also hadn't had a competitive race this year so I was hoping to really go out there and make myself hurt.

Shorty shorts and a farmers tan, the height of fashion

I got my PR, but did not have the competitive race I was hoping for. One other runner followed me until a bit past the mile mark at 5:35 pace, then he backed off and I was alone from then on. I held a 5:41 pace fairly consistently to finish in 1:14:28, about 3 minutes faster than my previous PR. I'm hoping this is a good sign for Grandma's next month. This weeks hard workout was not so encouraging, my 15 minute tempo section I could only pull off 6:08 pace, but anyway, back to the weekend.

A very well framed finishing shot

Jeff and I had to boogey on out of town right after the race to make it to photo's for Dave's wedding. We picked up Andy at his girlfriends house on our way through, she was nice enough to let us shower there even, and were off to the chapel. Pictures went pretty smoothly despite the large number of people we were trying to herd around. I got the rings so they would be available when needed. Things went off alright as far as weddings go, then it was off for many more pictures before heading to the reception at Target Field. I made it through my best man toast. Coming up with the speech wasn't hard, I have a lot of good Dave stories, but this was probably the largest crowd I've spoken to, so that was just a little unnerving. Then it was on to dancing. I love skier weddings, because skiers have good dancing endurance, but not the best form by and large, so I fit right in. When things finally closed down Jeff and I headed to Erik and Elspeth's house to sleep.

Bride and Groom cutting the wedding cake, I had cake 4 days in a row this weekend

Sunday morning I was feeling pretty decent if definitely still sleep deprived, so Erik, Elspeth, Jeff, and I got out for a nice morning run then Erik made us pancakes. Then Erik and I went out paddling. We are racing the canoe leg of the Chippewa Triathlon together next month.

I placed well in this race last year, but since it is the weekend before Grandma's I'm planning to take it easy this time around. I plan to paddle hard and hopefully put Erik in a good position coming out of the boat while I take in the scenery and try not to fatigue the legs during the bike and run portions. Nichole tried to talk me out of signing up for this race, but it is such a fun weekend I couldn't say no. We'll find out at Grandma's if that was a bad decision on my part.

I have only been in a boat a couple times this year, so the paddling was a little hit and miss. It is nice to paddle with someone who knows what they are doing, but the wind and waves made the boat a bit tippy, so it took us a while to get into a good rhythm. We did alright with the tail wind, but when we tried to go cross wind along the north side of the lake the waves got to be a bit much and we ended up swimming. This was not too big of a deal, the day was warm, the water wasn't frigid, and we had lifejackets handy. We got to shore, dumped the boat, and decided to paddle back into the wind and cross at the calmer south end of the lake. This worked out much better and by the time we landed we were almost dry, technical fabrics FTW!

I was pretty tired out by this point, but at least the strenuous part of the weekend was over. I headed home to my folks house to hang out with the family on Memorial day. This also conveniently put me in Amery for the Lake Wapogasset Luthern Bible Camp (WAPO) pancake breakfast. I never actually worked at this camp, but many of my good friends have, so I have a lot of connections to camp and have spent quite a bit of time there. It was great to catch up to people, and I heard a happy rumor that the Ngede Challenge might be happening again. I have done this race all 4 years it has existed and it never fails to be a challenge and a lot of fun. I posted about last years race here.

Well, on to another weekend soon. Tomorrow's run is 23 miles and it sounds like there will be a good crew of TNC runners and friends down to join in on the fun, so the miles should fly by. Just a little over 3 weeks until Grandma's, almost taper time.