Hello! It has been quite a while since my last post. May and September are the two busiest months for teachers. While we are still in school this week, the end of another great year is almost here. On May 18, my running pal and I ran the Fargo Half Marathon. My husband ran the full marathon. We all had been keeping an eye on the weather. The screenshot below is the forecast we woke up to on race day. With the marathon beginning at 7:00 AM and the half marathon beginning at 7:15 AM, we knew we were in for a cool rain. Over my years of races, I have run in a variety of weather. I seem to run in the rain a fair amount. A cool, rainy day is just fine with me. It ended up to be a fabulous race day! We finished our half marathon in 1:58:51. One of the best parts of the Fargo Half Marathon is that it begins and finishes indoors. Yes, both the start and finish line happen within the Fargodome. On a year with rain, we could stay warm and dry inside until the race began. My friend and I had a great time. (My husband enjoyed his race also.) From the pre-race music to the fabulous volunteers on the course, it was a very well done event. It was all smiles from all three of us after our races. Here are some of the really great things about the Fargo Half Marathon. 1. I love starting and finishing in the Fargodome. (as mentioned above) 2. The cinch sack I am holding in the photo above is part of the race swag and doubles as the bag that you check prior to the race. I had an entire change of clothes in my bag so that I could change out of wet clothes while waiting for my husband to finish. Being able to put the bag on my back while I watched the runners cross the finish line was great. I got a blue bag last year when I ran the Fargo Marathon. It is frequently the bag I bring when I am watching my son's track meets. 3. The hooded race sweatshirt was really nice. 4. We were treated to a pre-race wedding. Two marathon runners tired the knot before the race. We actually saw the newly married couple during the race at a spot where the marathoners and half marathoners meet. It was fun to congratulate them during the race. A link to their story is here. 5. The race volunteers and spectators are great. The rain did not dampen the positive atmosphere.
I highly recommend the Fargo Marathon & Half Marathon events! Happy Running! -Stephanie
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Sorry it has been two weeks since I've put up a blog post. May has traditionally been an extremely busy month for us and the first two weeks totally got away from me. Just to catch up, here's where I left off after my fun Saturday early in the month... Mom retired after 40(!!!) years at her school. She began as a teacher's aide when we were in school and continued that while returning to college when we were old enough to manage while she drove 90 miles one way to class graduating in the spring of 1994. She left for a couple of years returning as the foodservice director, community ed director, MARSS (student reporting) coordinator and a whole host of other things. They didn't even get one person to replace her work...it's such a huge job that they broke it up into several. My kids always commented that "the kids at Grandma's school are lucky to have her. She cares a lot about them." The superintendent's remarks at the party reflected that, too, that she always made sure all the kids got a good meal daily. Don't ask her about going to families' homes to gather their meal applications...that wasn't her best plan ever!!! Here we are at her party. She had the biggest family photo of the night. Even in MN, we generally don't look for weather reports to go out driving in May; however, when I headed out for the party, there was already some freezing rain on my windshield. We checked the warnings before leaving for home and saw Winter Weather Warnings for our county for up to 4 inches of snow. I was following my son who was pulling a boat trailer. We saw several snow plows out working and one car in the ditch. It was slow going and visibility wasn't optimal, but we made it back safely. Our area got several inches of snow on May 8. Here is what was left AFTER school the next day at my school. I would hope for faster melting at this time of year. Friday was the busiest day of my work year. We throw open the doors and invite all Grandparents/Special Friends to join their little Huskers for lunch. Going from about 900 lunches to north of 1600 takes a good deal of planning and preparation as well as a lot of legwork that day. We changed up the menu a little this year which made some things easier, but also adds a huge wrinkle of worry about estimating amounts, choices, etc. Here are part of the buns that were freshly baked that day and the enormous pile of bean cans. Kids and grandparent's love Bush's baked beans! We followed up the 1600 lunches with a trip to St.Thomas to watch the MIAC Track Meet which was Haley's last track meet of her college career. She had a great experience as a Blazer/Bennie athlete (they changed names this year). My mom, the new retiree, came down for Saturday's meet. Since the meet and graduation were the same day, St.Ben's has a couple of cool traditions to make it up to the student athletes. I believe the students and for sure the parents liked it even better than the big ceremony. The weekend prior, we were invited to a short presentation of their diplomas and dinner including the president of the college, athletic director, alumnae relations, an academic dean, their coach, the graduating athletes and their families. It was special although more informal and highly personal. On the actual graduation day, one of the CSB coaches gets access to the track press box and fires up Pomp and Circumstance over the loud speaker and introduces the grads while the team forms a tunnel for them to process through. Of course, Charlie joined in as he's a special Bennie fan. Then there was time for more photo with friends and family. Three of this year's grads were daughters of other CSB alums. And more fun photos... Charlie soaked up as much attention as possible, which was a LOT. His hat earned him a ton of photo opps...we had people stopping to ask if they could take his picture. If a tired dog is a happy dog, this dog was ecstatic. He was especially fond of one of Haley's friends and lab partners. They all kept the sun out of their eyes with their hats. Morgan set not one, but two, new school records last weekend as her final races at CSB. Congratualtions! Mom and I followed up the busy day at the track with heading back to Minneapolis on Sunday for a play. It was great to spend Mother's Day with my mom as all the guys were out fishing. The play was called "The Play that went Wrong" and it certainly did. The plot was that the actors were a struggling acting group that had multiple mishaps while trying to perform a play. We laughed from start to finish.
Stephanie and her husband were in Fargo this weekend for the Fargo Marathon. I have only texted with them so far and I did follow them on Live Tracking, so I know they had super strong races and can't wait for them to share more! While they were running, I was putting in a 13-miler. Since Deb has been sidelined, I have found that she is doing these long runs in her head while I do them on the street and asks about my routes. Well, this week, I headed down the Mississippi River toward St.Cloud and enjoyed a lap of Whitney Park before crossing over into Sauk Rapids and along Benton Drive before dipping down into the park to check out a porta potty. Deb hates that next stretch of road, so let's jump ahead to crossing the Mississippi back into Sartell near the old paper mill. At that point, I needed to add on a bit so I went up to the police station and took a right by a bar that used to be a Casey's gas station. I noticed 11 cars leftover from the night before so apparently Winner's Bar was a winner Friday night and they needed a lot of sober drivers! From there I headed back north along the river and back home. It was a bit windy but didn't rain, so it was a good run. There are only two weeks of school to go and both the kids and the staff are ready! This week the foodservice staff had the yearbook dedicated to us. What an honor that the kids recognize the contribution a healthy meal and a warm welcome make to their school experience. Here is our yearbook page. Keep on running and I won't let two weeks go by again without a post! Missee Today I the opportunity to notice how a difference in attitude can make all the difference. I had a nice 14 mile run this morning. It wasn't necessarily fast, slow, comfortable or difficult...just a nice couple of hours outdoors in one of the first nice days in a few weeks. After I was done, I took a quick shower and got dressed to go to Mass. While choosing an outfit, I was feeling happy that it is finally spring weather and all I had to do was grab a dress and sandals...no coat, tights, or anything. Hurrah! It might be a simple joy to enjoy getting dressed, but how many times have a woman's day been put into a tailspin by trying to find something to wear?!?
Mass this morning was a special celebration at St. Benedict's Monastery. It was the Jubilee celebration for 19 Sisters celebrating 60 years of profession and 2 who have been Sisters for 75 years. The Bishop presided over the Jubilee pointing out that the jubilarians have a combined 1300 years of service--that number is beyond comprehension. While the Mass and ceremony was relatively simple, the jubilarians exuded joy with their bright smiles and enthusiastic profession to continue their vows of stability, service and obedience to the Rule of St. Benedict and its values. One of the Sisters (likely in her mid 90's in age) even brought up the gifts. She uses a walker, but put the bread plate on the shelf of her walker and proudly processed up to the alter. Another played a flute solo, others did readings or distributed Communion. It was an invigorating hour to be able to celebrate the joyful day with the Sisters. After I left church, I headed to the mall...just finding a place to park can make a person feel joy-less. I noticed a few young women in pairs that gave me pause. They were so angry. One was coming out of the ladies' room with a friend and gesturing wildly to a friend and speaking in an angry tone to her friend about how she had been wronged by a family member all while wearing too much eye makeup and sipping on a Starbucks. Later in the parking lot, I saw a couple of other young ladies walking toward their car appearing very angry. Even though I was in my car and could not hear them, these two were obviously upset about something but didn't seem to be at one another. What were these people so angry about? I have absolutely no idea, but I did notice that these folks did not seem joyful at all and I couldn't wait to steer clear of them for fear of "catching" their vibe! Next I stopped at the quilt shop where they were having a "May the 4th Be With You" sale. Two different sales people commented on how much they liked my dress...the same one I was so happy to put on earlier this morning. I wonder if the dress was so nice or if my positive attitude about my dress made it that much better. It was from Duluth Trading Company but has been discontinued. I've had it for a while and own it in 2 colors. It's super comfortable, easy to clean and easy to wear. Finally, I went to the local running store to pick up a gift. The clerk there realized he had run with my son back in high school and inquired after him. He also shared his own joyful news that he'll be graduating from college on Friday and has a job lined up for the end of the month. Congratulations! Hmmm...what does all this attention to joy have to do with running? Well, a study showed that smiling while running is actually helpful. Even elite runners will attempt to smile throughout their races, even doing it on purpose because it makes perceived effort seem easier at the same pace. Thinking back to some of my best runs, I'd bet I was smiling through at least some of it and maybe a lot of it. After noticing people feeling happy or angry around town today doing a variety of things, I completely believe that positivity can be very helpful. I'll be trying to add smiling to my running regimen since it's simple, free and easy to do. I hope to see you on the run--we can smile at one another! Happy running--Missee Happy Star Wars Day to all! My husband and children are HUGE Star Wars Fans. Sometimes they get wrapped up in a big Star Wars discussion at dinner. I just listen and enjoy the excitement that Star Wars brings to each of them. As I was looking through some photos on computer, I cam across these two photos from many years ago. My children had set up a Star Wars display in the basement and invited me to visit their display. These were a few of the sites. SUPER FANS!!! Fast forward to Christmas of 2016. My husband decided to purchase the Lego Death Star for my children (and for himself) as a Christmas gift. It was the hit of the Christmas present opening! There are 10,188 pieces and they successfully put it together within a few weeks. Wow! Everyone has a passion. My family loves Star Wars and I love running! Our passions are sometimes shared with family and friends, while other passions are unique. Embrace your passion and use it to become the best version of yourself you can be. In two short weeks, my running partner and I will be running the Fargo Half Marathon. My husband will be doing the full marathon. I did the full marathon last year, but opted for the shorter race this year. This race is awesome! It is a fun race, filled with lots of fan support. The people along the course were amazing! I also really liked running through Moorhead State University and Concordia College. My children area also happy to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa while we are running in Fargo. Apparently people who are related tend to start looking like each other... This is my son with his Grandpa. May the course be with you if you are running today! Happy Star Wars Day! -Stephanie
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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