The middle of the end

So I left off my last post still in Ohio, but I did eventually work my way back to Minnesota. The timing worked out amazingly well so that I could attend my friend Rob Nichol's wedding on my way back through Wisconsin. My original plan was to stay with Sharon on my way back through, but crappy stuff at her lab made that not look like a good option, so I ended up just stopping by for supper on my way through and staying with my friend Bjorn in Milwaukee the night before the wedding. I stopped to pick up a wedding gift and card in West Lafayette and got back out to my car to find the door locked and my keys sitting on the car seat. I called Sharon to come to my rescue and tried to figure out a way to break into my car. Luckily Sharon had AAA (not an organization I approve of, but that is a story for another day) and after we wandered over to Applebee's to eat they showed up and got me back into my car. Not at all the afternoon I had planned, but at least it wasn't boring.

I got stuck in some traffic in Chicago but still got to Bjorn's before it got too late. We spent some time catching up since I don't get to see him often, and headed to bed so we would have time to adventure in the morning. We decided to go running. Bjorn hasn't been doing many long workouts, so I was counting on something short and fun. I had 2 hours before I needed to leave to get to the wedding on time. The run did not end up being short or easy, but boy was it fun. Bjorn has a few great trail routes figured out around the area, and we ran for 1:30 with almost no pavement along the way. There were some great views of downtown, riverside trails, and old buildings. It was also great to chat with Bjorn because he has always been someone I looked up to, and is also one of my only remaining single friends. Relationships have always been a struggle for me, and I have basically no dating experience, so it was good to have someone in a similar place to commiserate with, although Bjorn is far more gregarious than I am. (He's also a doctor, an amazing athlete, and a fearless adventurer in case there are any single ladies reading this blog looking for a good catch ;)

I made it to the wedding with time to spare. It was a great ceremony. Rob is an amazing guy, and Katherine has seemed like a pretty awesome person too the couple times I've met her.

Rob & Katherine Nichols

I spent a long time talking to Ben Kirmse, a River Falls alum who I've had some good PR battles with over the years. We've done similar races, but I'm not sure if we've actually raced head to head before. He did Boston to Big Sur a couple years ago, so I was picking his brain for recovery tips before I try it next spring. They had 13 days between the races the year he did it, so a whole extra week more than I'm going to have.

The next morning I got a nice rollerski in to explore the roads around Marshfield, joined some wedding folks for brunch, and headed back home. I stopped in to say hi to baby Greta, and deliver some very small clothes Garrison and Kristen sent back for her and then happily parked my car for about a week.

The next week was fairly uneventful except for Halloween. I didn't get many trick or treaters, but I headed up to Erik & Elspeth's for a S'more party on the 1st. I was still in a Halloween mood, so I dressed up as a s'more for the party. It wasn't a great costume, but it took all of 5 minutes to put together, so well worth the effort I would say.

Emily took a picture of my S'more costume, I was the chocolate

The next weekend I jumped into the Arctic Commando 5k at Battle Creek. Having just run a pretty decent half a couple weeks before I figured I was in pretty good shape. The hills on the Battle Creek course proved otherwise. I still raced well and won by nearly 2 minutes, but it was barely under 20 minutes, and it was all I could do to keep myself from walking up several of the hills, in a 5k! This was enough to get my motivation for training back up, and I got some good rollerskiing, bounding, and running in the next week. 

Then the snow came. Tune in next time where I will hopefully get this blog caught up to the present day and leave the past in the past.