Distrubing Trend

I have seen a disturbing trend crop up on the weekly running poll. I don’t feel I would be fulfilling my “Master of the Poll” (not Pole, Mike was kind enough explain this to his friends who were having visions of a stripper pole. Just goes to show you the type of people he hangs around with!) duties if I did not call it out and try to stop it dead in its tracks.

It all started with one of our hibernators, Wendy, who when the Wisconsin weather starts to get a little bit frosty inserts behind her name on the poll “If above 20 degrees”. I believe her intent is to indicate that she will not be running if it is below 20 degrees. I think she really means 20 degrees, plus another 10 on some days or plus a warm bed on others since there has been many days where the kind Time and Temp Lady indicated it was above 20 degrees.

On this week’s poll another of our runners, not a hibernator, indicated “if above 0”. Hmmmmm.
I felt my stomach churn a bit at that. I believe neither the Cousins nor I have ever put a disclaimer like that behind OUR names. (Sorry Jill, I don’t think I can include you in this prestigious list since I believe you did do this last winter – I am sure Mike remembers the exact week).

Having grown up here, the Cousins learned long ago that town is considered one of the coldest spots in the states. Yes, even compared to our much more northern neighbors. I, not being a native Spartan, am just a quick study. This “coldest spot in WI” is not just in our head’s either. Many times I have heard the local meteorologist state this fact. And as we all know, they are ALWAYS right.

So…. getting back to the poll. Those people (hopefully only one, since I am sure this post will stop any other people from violating this soon-to-be new poll rule) who put this temperature caveat are obviously trying to get out of running without looking like the wimps they really are. Really, how many days can it be above zero when you are the coldest spot in Wisconsin! I am sure they think that any reasonable person would completely understand this threshold of intolerance. But they forget; their fellow runners are not reasonable or they would not be running much less at 5:00 in the morning in the dark with snow and ice on the ground and sub-30 temps. Heck – some of us (not me Mom) don’t even wear reflective vests in the dark morning! AND some of us expect FREE beer after a race, no matter what the distance!

Thanksgiving Friends?

Normally running with friends is a good thing. Their mere existence tends to motivate you to get out there and run even when it is -17 degrees out. And it isn't even the fear of the endless teasing that you will have to endure from those you "stood up" when you chose to stay in bed. No, it is just the fact if they are running, you should be too. This morning I learned that the later is generally too, for MOST people unless they were unwise enough to put themselves on the running poll AND visited (for a very long time) the local tavern for some pre-Thanksgiving merry making.

That was the case for THREE of my running comrades. Oh sure, they chalked it up to the weather.... "It's going to be cold!" "It's going to be icy!" "You should cancel the run tomorrow morning!" There are two things you should note here. One - you will notice that they did not voice the REAL reason they wanted to cancel the run, "I am going to be hung over and just don't want to." Two - some how they felt this was MY problem since they wanted ME to cancel the run so they could lie in bed guilt free (but not hangover free). Oh to have the POWER to be able to cancel runs! Maybe on some "perfect running weather" day I should just cancel the run - just to PROVE I have the POWER. (On a side note - my youngest has been talking a lot recently about figuring out what his super powers are, I guess I just figured mine out.)

Now, it just so happens that the THREE runners who did not show this morning are semi new to the morning running group. (yes, yes, Al and Sheri - I know you have been running for a while, but not with the MORNING group). I realized that these 3 did not do the wise thing and watch the more veteran runners and take cues from them on how to handle the situation they put themselves in. There were two other morning runners in the tavern last night who not only did not sign themselves up to run the next morning, but they were wise enough to realize that they shouldn't even bring up the fact that they weren't running because that also opens themselves up for ridicule (wise wimps). So, given that today is Thanksgiving, I figured that I should embrace the day and give the three of them a little words of wisdom....

1. Coordinate your merry making and running schedule (in other words - Think ahead!)

2. If you don't do #2, don't badger the "keeper of the poll" to cancel the run.

3. If you don't do #1 or #2 then remember that the "keeper of the poll" is also the blogger and be prepared to be featured in the next poll. And being prepared means that you will take blog stardom with more grace and humbleness than you did when NOT following #2.

And yes, I did run this morning. A little cold, a little icy, BUT I STILL RAN.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I see her!

I saw BeerHater in this time lapse video of the NYC Marathon! Can you see find her too?

How Nice!

Today I got this e-mail from my running friend Bryan:

"Today I was reviewing your blog as I always do and it occurred to me that you are close to running the most miles that you have ever run in a year this very year. Yes at the ripe old of ??? you are on the brink of setting your all time record. A mere 150 miles will allow you to cross your proverbial finish line in first place. By my calculations you need to run approximately 2.87 miles per day for the rest of the year to accomplish this goal.

I am behind you 100%, GO FOR IT!!!"

AWWWW, How nice! Now, if Mike had sent this to me I would have been suspicious. Obviously, is intent would be to butter me up so that in the future I would not poke fun at him in my blog. He makes it so easy to do. But not Bryan. He is such a sincere guy!

Little does Bryan know that breaking my previous mileage is a goal of mine. It would be particularly great since that high mileage year was a year I trained (and ran) 2 marathons. This year I trained for and ran 1. However, this is kinda a sadistic goal since to beat it year after year I have to run more and more. Hmmmmm seems like a goal that is gonna become a problem in the not too distant future! But 2.87 miles/day seems very possible!

THANKS Bryan! I will defend you every time Christy says something bad about you......... until November 10th.

Some good clean laughs. Watch the Grandma on the right.

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Record?

It is a record! And no, I am not talking about the fact that I have posted 2 times in 2 days!

There are 17 - SEVENTEEN people on this week's running poll!!!! Who would have thunk (yes, I know that is not a real word... just being funny for you literal people out there) 5 (or 6 or 4 years ago... we are not sure) when we started running in the morning that we would have 17 - SEVENTEEN people wanting to meet at the horrendous time of 5:00 AM to RUN! And in all weather except for rain. Oh - a new exception was added last week... 60 mph winds.

I am thinking that we are going to have to start issuing name tags. A new running gadget!

I am not sure if I am happy with this next realization or not.... It looks like people are taking 'ownership' in the poll. This week one of our members added to his name a little love note to his wifey who is long distance commuting. It appeared as this ... "Frank - (I love u honey;^)". Hmmmm. Even though this is extremely cute and makes all us wives green with envy, it makes me wonder if I now need to institute some rules on what is acceptable and not acceptable when filling out the poll. I thought dealing with the people who show up but don't fill out the poll was bad enough (It has been a while since I have thought about He Who Shall Not Be Named).

Anyway, I am going to focus on the happy feelings of 17 - SEVENTEEN people being on the poll! Plus the addition of a new runner! Dean has joined us THREE times!!! Another man who is not intimidated by all us women! So, another happy thought: We now have 4 - FOUR men who show they are well grounded in their manhood by running with us 13 women.

Life is good!

Where to start?

The Badgerrunner blog must be feeling very neglected, not to mention my 3 (count em'!) THREE followers (one of which is some kind of spammer - I think). My apologies to all 3 of you.

Anyway.... BIG NEWS! After at 4 years of maintaining a running blog (no wonder I am running out of things to say) and 5 years of a morning running group (maybe 6 - my memory is getting bad as a result of lack of sleep) we have FINALLY made the Sparta Herald - and a photo no less! It was a picture of 12 of us + 1 dog in our Halloween costumes. 15 of us (one late comer the name of KwikTrip Gal and 2 non costume runners) actually ran. Who would have thought 5 (or 6) years ago that we would have 15 people running at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning. And the weather was PERFECT too!

So.. after so long of annoying morning drivers by running in the road (especially a woman in a white Taurus wagon who like to voice her opinion of us), how did we FINALLY make it into the paper? Well, I have two theories:

First - after the our Self Adoration Tour otherwise known as the Door County Fall 50 Relay, we decided that there just COULD NOT be enough pictures of us out in the world. So, we had to pay to publish one in the paper.

Second: One of our esteemed (and self loving) group has an uncle that is an editor at the paper. Once again proving that the all the political commercials we saw this election season were right - the power is in "Who You Know" NOT how fast you RUN.

More BIG NEWS: Beerhater is (FINALLY) running the New York Marathon this weekend! The weather looks like it is going to be PERFECT for her.... High of 50 and Sunny. No rain anywhere in the forecast! Can't wait to hear how it goes for her.

New Photos!

I just uploaded new photos from the Maple Leaf Half Marathon and Door County Fall 50. You can view them in the slide show at the top of the blog.

No worries Witches - no embarrassing pictures were posted. We were all very good witches, at least according to my camera!

For all the rest of you.... we LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Door County Fall 50. Very tough course, but BEST post race party EVER! And of course us witches casted a spell over the whole party!

Fall means

It has been BEAUTIFUL running weather the last week. However, it appears the cooler morning temperatures have made staying in warm beds a bit more harder to resist. This morning it was just Christy and I running. Even Bella didn't come! Quite a change from a few weeks ago when we had 10 runners. Christy was really happy though because it meant that she could run whatever pace she wanted. None of that fast running for her!

Wendy was signed up to run and I was looking forward to a mile by mile report of her Boston Qualifying performance at the Twin Cities Marathon. A great way to spend at least 26.2 minutes of the morning run and that doesn't include the detailing of all the different food available at the post race party. Alas, she didn't show.

I have never loved Nut Rolls as much as I did after the Twin Cities Marathon. I don't think I ever ate one before (unless I got one in my Halloween booty) or since. It ALMOST made up for the absence of beer. I just learned that Nut Rolls are made in St. Paul an are not made by one of the big candy companies. NOW I understand why they were at the Twin Cities Marathon. The bonus was that they were good too!

Sigh, I just hope that not too many of the summer runners go into winter hibernation.

Observation

Through a very scientific study with peer reviewed methodology I discovered the following equation:

Monday night Packer Game + 5:00 am running time = few, if any, running partners.

I am thinking about doing my doctoral thesis on it. I am sure it will make national headlines like the "Aliens have deactivated British and US nuclear missiles, say US military pilots" news story. I know it is true, because my 9 year old told me all about it and any news story that catches his attention must be true!

For Beerhater

This post is dedicated to Beerhater. We have missed you on our runs, especially Mike who wonders if you have a story that would top the picture below. And no, it is not from our local Wal-Mart.

Destiny

Today was DESTINY!

As I drove up the hill to our house I saw a woman running up it. As Jim is quick to point out to me - I notice anyone running in town, especially if I don't know them. Jim teases me that I am on the edge of demanding unknown runners show their 'running license'. Due to this and since he was with me when I drove back down the hill, I decided the perfect opportunity to embarrass/freak him out had presented itself (Mike would be proud). (Plus, Melissa has brought so many new runners to the group, I figured I better step up and find some too!)

So, as I neared her on her downward trot, I pulled over to her. I am sure Jim was thinking "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, (He really was praying) she is really going to do it, she is really going to ask her who she thinks she is running in town without making her presence known to the 'Morning Running Group".

Well, close. I asked if she ran in the mornings. She said she has, but it was hard getting herself up. Well! Did I have a deal for her! I briefly explained about the morning running group, the weekly poll etc. and of course asked for her e-mail address. Guess what it was????

MillerTime@******.com!!!

It was a little tough for me to spell, but I finally got it!

How great an e-mail address is that!?! She acted all embarrassed when we exclaimed over the GREAT e-mail address, which we, of course, pish pawed. We told her it was an EXCELLENT choice and proved, even beyond the fact that it was obvious she can run, that she would be PERFECT for the running group. No worries about being a beerhater!

Do I need to also point out the brand she chose to highlight? No, it has nothing to do with her last name which has its roots in German heritage and starts with an M, has an L in the middle and ends with an R. She assured us it was because it was such a great tasting beer. I think she told us that before we mentioned we were Miller Beer Distributors. What a nice gal with discerning taste!

Obviously she is perfect for our group! However, since she was on her run I didn't want to delay her to long, so I never got the chance to ask if she was a Packer or Vikings fan.

Keep your fingers crossed that she starts running with us! I am guessing she has a lot of great stories!

I found it!

I found it! I found a person who can rival Bryan when it comes to telling detailed stories.

This type of person is very handy to have on long runs, because you never have to worry the conversation lagging. Unfortunately, I don't think she lives in WI and something tells me she is not a runner. So Bryan doesn't have to worry about anything.

Good thing their Daddies taught them good!

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Summer is OVER

A sure sign that summer is over - back to 5:00 am runs. BUMMER

I was really thinking it was going to be raining this morning - just to start life out right, but it wasn't. Of course, us morning runners know that when you WANT it to rain in the morning, it never does and when you aren't expecting it to rain (because if you are honest, you never really WANT to run at 5:00 am) it does.

AND the heat and the humidity was still present. BUMMER.

It seemed appropriate that on the first day of 5:00 running and the first day of school that we run the BEER route. Of course, God was also telling us something when a car decided to do a rolling stop just as we were crossing thru the intersection. Good thing our NYC runner Elyse wasn't with us, because he would have gotten a morning wake up call (shout) that he would never have forgotten and runners around the the world would have been forever safe from his careless driving.

However, the incident did remind us that we need to be wearing our reflective gear again!

Quite a few interesting news stories to talk about this morning. Christy seemed out of the loop so, I thought I would provide some links to broaden hers and others Current Event knowledge:

China's nine-day traffic jam stretches 100km

Chile miners face four-month wait for rescue

Let the school year begin!