October 2009
In the Bitterroot Athlete Valley

But alas, as the platter-size turkeys literally trot by my windows, it is November now writing the October Newsletter.  I had to recover from my cruise where it took three days for the ground to stop moving and I am still working on dessert withdrawals after lunch and dinner.  OK, so I gained five+ pounds and I feel like I have to start over at 3-mile runs again. I'll see how I do as I get out on a run today-in preparation for the Saturday run.

City of Trees Half Marathon

What does one do when they close a store?  Well, I had a garage sale early Oct.  Then, headed to Boise (pictured left) the same afternoon and ran the City of Trees Half Marathon the next day. And yes, I did train for it-pretty much! :-)) 

Sunday, Oct. 4th, it was a light rain during the whole event, but no wind so it was pretty good running weather. And knowing the elevation was around 2,600, I knew I would do fine having trained only 10.5 miles at 3,500. 

I caught up with a guy, Dan, that was running a nice 8:30 pace and I ran with him about seven miles.  But at mile 11, my body knew (or maybe it was psychological) exactly how many miles I had trained and lactic acid immediately set in.  It was like lead thighs imitating boat anchor races. There was no way I was going to walk at mile 12, so I managed to hobble in at 1:55:13.  I was happy to finish under two hours.  And as you can see on the top left, I wore a plastic bag on my head for a little warmth...yes it pays to bring ALL the gear that you THINK you may need or you get pictures like this! My hands were cold too.

I met a few women at the race, RebelAnn, a water aerobics instructor and it was her birthda. Aliyah was a student at the U of Id and has relatives in Darby and Stevi!  The Marathon had hot soup from Olive Gardens and Starbucks coffee afterward.  It was excellent soup and coffee, but it got very cold after the run.  Later, I got to enjoy a few days exploring Boise and did Hot Bikram Yoga there too. The people were very nice and all the athletes I talked to loved living there. The drive home had a fresh blanket of new snow.

Saturday Runs

We did get three Saturday runs in...one from Dean's house, my house, and Tim's.  We had someone volunteer to host a run each week. If you want to be on this email list let me know. We actually had two more runners not pictured here, Jamie and Justin (who is back in town-just bought a house) but they left early.  So, we added Matt as our good running buddy.   We want to keep running throughout the winter as we always have.  At least it gets us out in the fresh air and away from the treadmill.  Plus, it is a little added motivation when there are others running too. 

I heard that Marisa and Cory on the right side of Matt, won 1st & 2nd respectively for Darby's first annual Halloween run!  I heard they won cash too.  They are the new kids on the block from Corvallis, Oregon.  They were pictured on the left column in the August Newsletter.  (And there's a pic of Justin too!)

Local Events

October 10th was Apple Days at the Saturday Market.  This was after we got the snow on Friday and it was a frigid 13 degrees in the morning where I am.  There was no way I was going down to set up my booth at 8:00 in the morning.  I waited until 9:45 and started setting up. This was the coldest Apple Days on record.  The crowds still came though.  Again, I thought later after my brain thawed, "why didn't I get more pictures?"  Yet, you are kind of glued to your booth, so the only roaming I did was to get coffee across from me.  I hear that Stacey's Zaxan Coffee had record sales. I can understand why.  It was still friggin' cold all day.  The applebutter people stirred their caldron for hours and had left overs.  Pies were not sold out this year either. But, overall it was a good turnout considering.

My last booth was the 17th in Missoula, which was their last market day (and I still have stuff left). Kristen Weese held down the booth and packed up for me as I caught a flight to Sacramento and attended a class reunion.  On my way back via Las Vegas, I played a slot machine for two minutes at the Encore, recommended by my neighbor, and I won $1,575! That paid for a few trips! And yes, I cashed out and went and saw the show Mystere. 

The Montana Cross Country State Championships 2009

The same day that we had our run above, it was also the XC State Championships!  I had never attended this, nor been to a XC meet.  So I headed over to Missoula at one of the Golf Courses near the University.  I could not believe the parking!  There were so many cars that i had to park about 10 blocks away.  The neighborhood streets were lined with cars in every direction.  Then as I arrived at the scene, I could not believe the spectators!  It sure wasn't like this when I was a kid (but I also quit XC before finals because it was such a long run!  3 miles!)  I believe I heard there were 2,000 runners attending and that there was another event in the middle of the season where there were 4,000! (I am pulling from my memory three weeks later.) There were a LOT of people-both spectators and participants!

The picture on the right is just the girls taking off in the B Class race.  It was my observation that the girls really pushed themselves until it hurt and some cried, and the guys pushed themselves until they threw up. 

The Championship was for both Class A and B schools.  Corvallis boys came in 5th overall and Hamilton 7th. Hamilton girls took 4th and Corvallis 12th.  The Darby boys team came in 4th and there were only two Darby girls, which wasn't enough to place. But the Australia runners Seth & Heather, placed 4th (5:30/mi) and 3rd (6:18/mi) respectively overall.  Darby got four medals. The high schoolers were VERY competitive.   It was an all-day event. We had a lot of parents and friends spectating from Hamilton, Corvallis and Darby. There must have been Victor and Stevi people too, but I didn't see them nor the runners.  Lots more good pictures below...

Have a great month.  And if anyone has athletic event pictures for November - send them to me - and info!!

Thank you,

The Fans & Spectators...

Heather comes in 3rd	The Hamilton girls get ready to race
Joanne consoles	Tyler & Seth
Chihuahua watching the meet	The top 15 girls in the B Class
A shirt souvenir	Darby rules
Neighborhood lake in Boise triathletes practice in
October plate-size turkeys	Boise overlook Oct. 6th