P And Stefano's Virtual Race Reports!

Hi everyone! I ran finally ran my two virtual races yesterday afternoon!! So I went out and had a little running action in Maple Grove:)

I ran in Stefano's Black Knight Army 10 K and P's not your average adventure virtual run.

Let's face it, I am a bit of a slacker lately. I ran both of them back to back:)

Stefano's race clothing consisted of black Nike running pants and a black running jacket. I also ran in a black hat and black gloves...it is getting colder in Minnesota:)

I decided to go on the Rice Lake trails and head around the lake. First off I ran out of my neighborhood and across Weaver Lake Road.

I ran down Weaver Lake Road and turned onto the running trails that were still snow covered. It was 37 degrees and the trails were slushy in some spots....icy in others.

I ran almost two miles before heading up this hill. At the top of this hill I ran into a fellow Maple Grove runner who I met once before on a different run around this same lake. Joe and I met at the end of May...we both were running on these very trails and ended up chatting and running together. He spotted me and asked if I wanted to join him on a run. I agreed and we were off:)

Joe ran the Minneapolis Marathon the same day that I did the half. He ended up getting hurt and is still in recovery mode. We ran steady and slow....easy enough to hold a conversation without sucking air:)

We stopped at the half way point and I snapped a picture. Stefano, notice that Joe is wearing black too!

I snapped this picture of the sunset over Rice Lake. Beautiful and peaceful:)

We ran around the lake and enjoyed stimulating conversation....all about running. The time went by so fast that before we knew it we had to part ways. Joe turned up the path to take him home and I continued on my way around the last part of the lake.

When I reached my 10 K distance I ran for one more mile. I decided to run a mile for P's not your average adventure. I wish that I could say that I had all of this saved energy and that I was able to bust out a seven minute mile. Not so much....I did muster enough gusto to run a 8:30 last mile:) My theme for P's adventure was a party mile on the pavement! Yes, it was snowy and slushy but a party all the same! P's birthday was weeks ago...better late than never! Happy Birthday P!!

Once I got to my door step I checked out my Garmin for 10 K stats. I ran Stefano's Black Knight Army 10 K in 57 minutes. Not my fastest 10 K but memorable for sure:) I, Lady Julie enjoyed Stefano's 10 K without ever sucking air!! Yay! I have only ran in two 10 K races and both of them were high on the sucking air scale:) Lady Julie ran easy, steady, smooth and I didn't fall on my ass...success!!!

Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all!

The Anoka Jingle Bell Run 5K Race Report!

Hi everyone! I am back from a little blogging break. Thank you to everyone who left me kind comments on my last post. I appreciate it more than you know. Life has been so incredibly busy between work, kid's activities and everything else. I have not been running much because of the lack of time. I also think that I needed a little break to recharge and refresh. This morning I drove into Anoka to run in the Jingle Bell 5K. I ran this race last year and was able to pull a 2nd place age group win:) I knew that today would be challenging because of my lack of training and the colder temperatures.

This picture was taken in the field house where my bib and t-shirt pickup was. I was bib number 277!! Lucky girl, my favorite number is seven:) I attempted to take more pictures but my camera's battery died....nice ! Once I got home, I put a new battery in. I noticed that my almost five year old got a hold of my camera. There were several pictures of our computer.....he was watching Spiderman on Netflix:) There was also about 20 pictures of himself....no wonder the battery died!

The race started at 10 AM and it was about 15 degrees. I knew that I would warm up once I actually started running. There were a little over 300 runners and I positioned myself in the middle of the pack. Once we were off it took a few minutes to get positioned where I wanted to be. The course is a pretty one that runs along a river. We ran on dirt-snow packed and paved trails. There was snow on the ground and a few areas with icy patches. I felt alright running with a first mile time of 7:16. I was a little surprised because I felt like I was moving much slower than that. There were several rolling hills that I remembered well from last year:) Mile two was a little slower than the first because I was feeling kind of crappy. This is what I get for not running much over the past three weeks! Yuck, I felt a little like puking..and slowed down more. The good news is that only four people past me...all men:) The last half mile was the hardest and I felt like I was moving at snails pace. I saw the clock and it said 24:50 something. I stopped my Garmin and it read 24:40. I went online to check my stats and there were none for me! WTH! I am not sure what happened but it looks like I never ran! Bummer! The race was not chip timed and the volunteers had us tear off the bottom part of our bibs. I looked at the stats and noticed that according to the clock and my Garmin I took 2nd place for my age group:) It is a good thing that they did not give out medals or I would of been disappointed. Oh well, there are bigger tragedies in life.

Tomorrow I am running two virtual races. I am running P's birthday virtual run and Sefano's Black Knight Army 10K! Hopefully I will have those race reports posted soon:)

Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all!

Tomorrow I will catch up on reading blogs and commenting:)

Quick Post......

Hi everyone! I know that I have not posted in a few days. I have not been able to keep up with my favorite blogs or have been commenting. I am sorry. Sadly, we had a sudden death in the family. Family life has been crazy and I have been getting home late every night this week. I will be posting tomorrow.

Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all!

We Finally Got The White Stuff!!

I woke up this morning and looked out my window....this was my view. We are supposed to get a total of 4 to 8 inches! It is still snowing. Kay and I shoveled the driveway because Mr. Julie is out of town. Sadly, I do not have a clue how to start the snowblower! Damn!

Here are a few more pictures. It looks like I will have to take out all of my winter running gear again.

Today Kay and I were planning on going to the mall to do some shopping:) Hopefully the roads will be clear...otherwise we are stuck in the house. I promise that I will get caught up on blogging sometime today:)

Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all!

Running Group Lost In Big Lake!

Okay, so I didn't get around to posting last night:( Sorry, better late than never. So here goes....the story about a bunch of running group girls getting lost in Big Lake! Yes Jamoosh, Big Lake is an actual lake but it is also a town. We were not lost in the big body of water....we were lost in the town. By the way, your comment cracked me up:)

Saturday morning I drove about 30 minutes to the town of Big Lake, Minnesota. Valerie is one of my St. Cloud River Runner peeps (Isn't she adorable?) and she was kind enough to host this past Saturday's breakfast run. I made it to her house at about 7:35 AM and planned on getting in on the 8 O'clock run. When I walked into her house she was talking to Paul and Gary who were not running but showed up to chat and get in on the group picture. They were going to go to the state cross country meet to watch my running dad's (Denny's)grandsons run in the state meet. Apparently distance running runs in the family. Denny's grandsons are talented athletes who have had an impressive running season. Val is pictured above...she is taking time off from running due to a femur stress fracture. She ran an amazing Twin Cities marathon in 3:17....super fast PR!! Go Val!

This is Pat our official photographer:)

This is Al...another group runner.

A few of the gang before our run.

Linda and Denise:)

Me and Deb:)

After taking our group picture we headed off into Val's hood. Val lives basically across from Big Lake in a gorgeous area of the town Big Lake. There were so many charming houses and pretty scenery. We ran for about two miles before breaking into running groups. A few of the runners took a different route due to the miles that were needed for training. Many members of my running group are doing the Outer Banks marathon this weekend and are in taper mode. I was thinking about running an easy four miles. The group was going on a six mile run and I figured two extra miles wasn't going to kill me. When we hit the lake we broke away from a few of the other runners and hit the trail system. Val gave us a little map so all was good:) The trail system was really nice. We ran through areas with houses, ponds, woods and even old farmland.

This is Cindy, both Cindy and her husband Donnie share the job of presidency for the running club. Cindy is an amazing runner who has super speedy times! I dream of times like hers:) The trail system was full of little trails. There were plenty of opportunities to get on the wrong trail. Somewhere along the line we got messed up! We ran, ran and ran but didn't end up where we were supposed to:) Where and the heck are we? We took out the map and didn't have a clue! The map had several bodies of water....one of them was Big Lake and we were not anywhere close to that. We ran past an old farm and figured something was not right. After running past the old farm we ran up to a highway that was not on the map. Oh crap! Hmm? What way do we go? I am so directionally challenged and have been lost before on a trail run:) Different story for a different day. Let's just say that my daughter Kay was just a little pissed at me for getting us lost and turning our little three miler into a seven miler! So back to this being lost thing.....we decided to run down that highway and then take a right . Surely that road would take us back to Val's.

This is where we ended up. Hmm, is this on the map? Do you see this road listed on the map...anywhere? Umm....no. Crap! I took this picture of Cathy, Linda, Aneta and Deb:)

Here is another picture of the girls comparing both maps. Deb, Cindy, Cathy, Aneta and Linda:)

We stayed on the road that took us into the new development that was shown on that billboard. Look what we found...how cute is this? Cindy and Linda got into the car and took a moment for a photo opportunity:)

Looking good ladies! We contiunued on and ran for a ways and knew that we would have to turn soon. We did see the water tower and got pretty excited! Just follow the water tower. After running a little longer we lost the water tower!?! What the heck! Where did it go? Aneta wanted to turn left and Cindy wanted to turn right. We turned right and ran a little more before deciding to turn into another little neighborhood. I heard someone say, "I didn't know we were going to run a marathon today!" God, I hope not:) Eventually we ran into a nice man walking his dogs and asked for help. He looked at the map and scratched his head. He turned the map several times looking for something that looked familiar to him. Finally he said, "All you have to do is go straight ahead and hook back onto the trail system and that will take you back to Big Lake." Yay!! We were all pretty excited! We got back on the trail system and were back on track! Cathy noticed some interesting art (X-rated) that was painted on the trails and remembered it from before:) We finally made it to Big Lake (actual lake) and ran on the sidewalk next to the lake for a few miles. It was so pretty but very windy.

Once we saw this I knew that Val's house was just around the lake and to the left! Oh happy day....we made it! After making it back to Val's we enjoyed a nice breakfast:) I showed Val the pictures of our run. She looked at them and said, "Where and the heck were you? " Umm...lost somewhere in Big Lake but so glad to be back! My Garmin showed that we ran just under nine miles. We ran an extra three miles for the morning...not so bad...it could of been worse.

This is a picture of Amy, she ran with the other group....the group that didn't get lost:)

Aneta:)

Deb and me:) I had a wonderful time with my running group...getting lost was a little adventure! I am so glad that I joined this running group because they are all awesome people, great athletes and wonderful friends. There is always good times, stimulating conversation and plenty of laughs on every breakfast run:) Good luck to everyone running this weekend!! Run fast and have fun! I can't wait to hear all about it:)

Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all!

Stacey is hosting a SIGVARIS Recovery Socks giveaway!

Historiadora on the Run is hosting a $60 CSN giftcard giveaway!

Marcia is hosting a SIGVARIS Recovery Socks giveaway!

Julie the Hotlegs Runner is hosting a Bondi Band giveaway!

Thank You Stefano and Giorgio!!!!

Hi everyone! Wow, it has been over a week since my last blog post! I have been crazy busy with life in general. My kids activities keep me going and Kay's homework keeps her on the computer late. Unfortunately, blogging has been put on the back burner again. I try to get a few minutes of blogging in the morning and then again when I get home from work:) Last week I made a trip to the post office to pick up a package from Italy!!! Yay!! I received these amazing running shirts from my dear friends Giorgio and Stefano! Thank you so much! I appreciate your kindness. I love them! They have little reflective designs on them, which will be helpful when it gets darker:)

Stefano heads up the Black Knight Army running group in Italy. I have been named Lady Julie:) I love it! Giorgio also runs in the Black Knight Army. Both Stefano and Giorgio run in many different races all over Italy. They are so lucky to live in such a beautiful country:) I love reading about all of their running adventures! Many of the races they enter give wine away as part of the swag! Nice:) I started to read Giorgio's blog shortly after I started blogging a little less than a year ago. Shortly after becoming one of Giorgio's followers I found Stefano's blog through Giorgio:) I love finding new friends who live in different countries. I also read blogs from England, France, Holland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I love all of these blogs because we all share the same passion for running or have other special connections! At any rate, I feel blessed to have met these wonderful people through blogging! You all know who you are....love you all:)

Here I am wearing the lovely yellow shirt from Giorgio. Thank you Giorgio:)

This is me wearing the very nice navy blue shirt from Stefano. Thank you Stefano:)

I went running this weekend with the St. Cloud River Runners and will post later tonight on that. Lets just say we had a little adventure! We ended up getting lost some where in Big Lake! More on that later........

Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all!

Marcia is hosting a SIGVARIS Recovery Socks giveaway!

Historiadora on the Run is hosting a $60 CSN giftcard giveaway!