Crazy bounty

The raspberry and currant crops this year are off the chart. I barely got past the first part of the raspberry patch and the colander was full. I didn't even have to move to get a quart container fullmof currants,

Color Run

Some how the Color Run people got this event classified as an MLB All Star event. There were probably 10,000 participants. This year it was located at the Minnesota State Fair grounds which were perfect. The State Fair grounds are set up for thousands of attendees.

Trish and I were the only Running For Brunch team members. It was a beautiful day and a fun run.

the doctors are prepped for color

post run

Trish in the kaleidoscope

Me in the kaleidoscope

Crazy fun backyard happy hour

Big THANKS shout out to Jennifer, Amy, Bunny and Loretta for throwing a super fun happy hour in the backyard last night. Happy hour is not a fair name. Tons of laughter and it lasted way over an hour.

ĵ

Kay

Rose and Michael

Jennifer

Rachel

Bike ride to Minnehaha Falls

My friend Bud and I met on the Greenway and rode over to Minnehaha Falls via West River Road.  It was a beautiful evening. Lots of folks were out and about, biking, running, skating and walking.

The falls are running fast and full from all our rain. There have been lots of photos taken of the falls this year so here is one for the blog.

Me and Bud

A July 4th Opening

Me, Rose, Amy and Dave at My Fair Lady opening at the Guthrie.

I completed my first Half-Marathon

Yes. I did it. I signed up for a half marathon race... the Red, White and Boom... part of the July 4th festivities in Minneapolis.

The race started at 6:30am! It was a beautiful day. I had not trained at all for this which was pretty stupid on my part but I decided I would not back out. I was doing this on my own without the running group.

Here I am at the start (which you can see way in the back ground). I think you can see the trepidation on my face.

There was one familiar face in the crowd. My state senator, Scott Dibble, who runs in lots of these kinds of races. He was there and very encouraging.

And here I am at the finish... having gotten a raisin roll, banana and water.

I was very very happy with my time - 2 hers 11 minutes. I came in at an overall 10 minutes per mile pace.

I admit to walking parts of the second half. I did run the entire first half, 6.5 miles.  There was an incredibly nice woman who gave me encouragement on miles 7 through 9.

Following the race when I finally stopped for a bit I got some awful cramps in my calves... especially my right calf and even up into my quads. It was fairly short-lived but painful.  Jenny and Andrew rode their bikes down to cheer me on. They just missed my finish but I was so grateful that they showed up. We had breakfast at Wilde Roast. It was fantastic.

Amy Moe birthday

Amy's birthday celebration was supposed to be on a paddlewheel boat in St. Paul but the rains and Mississippi flooding but the kibosh on that plan. So the birthday event was moved to Psycho Suzi's in Minneapolis.

Psycho Suzi's has a huge deck that over looks the Mississippi River.  Psycho Suzi's is also a Tiki bar with tiki drinks... very potent tiki drinks.