Headphones

This has been quite the hot topic over the last year. A lot of races are banning headphones. It's a safety issue because there have been times when runners can't here the warnings from race officials due to headphones. Yes, I have worn headphones many times but not in a race. Still I would not want to see somebody miss a run because they just can't run without their tunes.
This got me thinking about running in the woods. not only do you see a lot of things, flowers, animals, beautiful sunsets etc... but, its what you hear that's really cool. I've heard the screech of an eagle flying overhead, the squawk of a rooster pheasant in the meadow, the turkeys gobbling, the gentle song of the meadowlark, the wind rustling the aspen leaves. a doe crashing through the woods hustling her fawns away from danger and I've actually stopped running to hear the frogs symphony on a hill above some wetlands.
Wear your headphone if you want, but me, I'll just listen to natures orchastra

Rain,Rain Go Away

I managed to slip out to the woods for a little run last night. I probably got in about six miles, although I walked the last few hills. I prefer to run longer runs even this distance with another person the time goes by so much easier and I have a tendency to go too fast by myself. About halfway through the run I saw a big tom turkey and hen running down the trail ahead of me and in the last mile I saw a bunch of deer running through the trees. If I'm running by myself out there its a sure thing I will see deer or turkeys or both. In the meadows the pheasants were raising quite a racket, it must be dating time. Just as I was finishing my run the rain drops started falling again, good timing.

Boston

Congradulations to all who ran the Grandaddy of all marathons The Boston Marathon. I see quite a few of my friends from the area ran it. Way to go everybody.
My co-director Larry, just sent me a list of entries for Chester Woods 21 entered so far. Thanks everybody ! It makes it so much easier to get food, hats etc... when you know how many people plan on coming

Team NOVA

I turned on the TV this mourning to watch the Weather Channel and instead found this show on PBS. It is absolutely a must see for runners or want to be runners. I found my eyes tearing up as I watched the group finishing the finish line at the Boston Marathon. Its a story about a group of non-runners training to run the Boston Marathon. At any running event you find stories like this its what I find so endearing about our sport.
Click on Team NOVA in the links setion you'll be glad you did.

Running with your kids

I ran a 5k yesterday with my 11 year old son. This is an experience no parent should miss. We've been doing some easy training now for about 3 months. He's actually run 3 5k's and on Saturday he pr'd by about 2 minutes. There is nothing like seeing that smile on his face after finishing. If you have kids old enough to run with you do whatever it takes to get them run with you. you will find its much easier to talk about anything while out on a nice easy run and you will build memories that you and your child will never forget.

I'M ...B A A A C K

After months of little to no running (because of sore Achilles tendons in my left ankle). Last night ,I went for a five mile run in the woods and felt almost no pain. Wow ! did it feel good. There's nothing better after too long of a winter than hitting soft soft trails in the woods.

As I was running with a buddy we heard a bird screeching, we looked up to the sky and saw an eagle and osprey circling each other. There is always something fun to see out there. Even the sleet/rain couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we finished the last mile.

Burma Shave Signs

I thought I should mention something about our mile markers for Chester Woods. Larry Pederson came up with a great idea last year to use Burma Shave slogans for mile markers. Now unless you were born prior to the sixties you might not have heard of Burma Shave signs but , from the 1930's to early 1960's they were on almost every road side. Burma Shave signs were cute little jingles posted on a series of signs with the last sign saying Burma Shave. An example would be : THE BIG BLUE TUBE'S........... JUST LIKE LOUISE...........YOU GET A THRILL .........FROM EVERY SQUEEZE..............BURMA SHAVE. Only on the race course there would be one more sign saying NINE MILES TO GO. As you are running along the race course these signs are something to look forward to.

Fetzer 20k

I volunteered to help at the Dr Fetzer memorial run last Saturday. I love to run in races but, sometimes it also fun to sit back and help out instead. It gives you a great opportunity to be involved and see all my friends. At the particular water stop I was working at there happened to be some kids from the local Boys/Girls Club. Wow, what an enthusiastic bunch of kids one charming young guy would yell to the runners "You are fantastic, you make me want to say whooo!!" and then do the, raise the roof with his hands. I had already contacted the club to work at Chester Woods and now I am very glad I did.
We had a little snow/ice on the race course but it all turned out very well. The race was set up with the women starting 12 minutes ahead of the men to make it competitive and the winner was to receive $500.00. A Kenyan runner from Coon Rapids won ( William Serem ) It was amazing to watch him run , So effortless.

Snow, are you kidding me?

I am helping out a fellow race director at a 20k (Fetzer Run ) tomorrow. The forecast is for maybe 1-3 inches of snow and a high of 33 degrees. This should be interesting , I'm going to be the one wearing the "Ice Team "ice fishing suit. I always feel more sorry for the volunteers in weather like that , as a runner once you get the moter warmed up you can run in cold damp weather easily.
I approved the artwork for the trophies. Its a lazer engraved picture of a deer and a turkey standing in the woods. I liked the design so much I'm going to make a few more for our sponsers.I can't wait to see what the runners think of the trophies/pencil holders.
I e-mailed some fellow bloggers to let them know about Chester Woods. I can understand if somebody doesn't want to run my race for various reasons I just don't want somebody to miss it because they havn't heard of it.

We've got a starter

Coach Severt Legred
One of my friends helping with the race thought his coach would be interested in coming to the race, lo and behold we have an official track and field hall of fame race starter. Severt Legred sounds like a very interesting man and I can't wait to meet him. Thanks Dan Lovik for getting Severt to come .


OUR STARTER
A MEMBER OF THE MINNESOTA TRACK AND FIELD
HALL OF FAME
SEVERT LEGRED

Severt Legred. A native of Bricelyn, Minnesota, Legred competed in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field in high school. He graduated from St. Olaf, earned a Master’s Degree and went on to teach economics at Gustavus where he was the head coach for the cross country team and distance coach for the track team from 1967 to 1969. He moved to Golden Valley Lutheran College, a two-year junior college in the fall of 1969. There, Legred founded the men’s cross country program and the track program the following spring of 1970. Under Coach Legred’s guidance from 1969 through 1985, Golden Valley remained a powerful force in cross country and track in National Junior College competition. The men’s team placed 3rd in the National Cross Country Championship in 1973 and moved up to 2nd place in 1974. Highlights included two National Men’s Marathon Team Championships in 1980 and 1981. Coach Legred also assisted with the founding of the women’s teams in 1974 at Golden Valley. Legred’s Golden Valley women won the National Cross Country Championship in 1981, plus twice finished 2nd in 1980 and 1984. In total, Coach Legred’s teams won 28 Men’s State Championships, 10 Women’s State Championships, 25 Men’s Five-State Regional Championships, and 8 Women’s Regional Championships. As Individuals, his athletes accumulated 37 Men’s All-American and 30 Women’s All-American honors, and 11 National Championship Gold Medals. Five of his athletes qualified to compete in the US Olympic Trials. Legred resides in Golden Valley during more moderate Minnesota weather and in Mesa, Arizona the remainder of the year.

Snows melting......

I went out to Chester Woods to check out the trails yesterday. When I was about two miles out I get a call from work and have to leave. I did see that the snow is almost gone and the trails are looking good. I'll probably hit the trails about three times a week now just to clear my head and see what its looking like out there. I love to walk through the woods and see everything come to life there's something new to see every time I get out there. I'm hoping to transition to running the trails rather than walking, I've had some Achilles problems but its getting much better.

I've got the pencil holder/ trophies done. I made them myself out of oak and had Image by Design do the lazer engraving, I think they look pretty good. Caps are ready. Now we just need runners hopefully a lot of them.

Fools Five

Yesterday, I attended the Fools Five road race in Lewiston , Mn . This is the first time I was there and didn't run in the race. For those of you who havn't run this race it's pretty neat. Lewiston is a town of about 1500 people and the race attracts 2000 runners . I think everybody in town gets involved. Proceeds from the race go to cancer research a very good cause. I was at the race to promote the Rochester Track Club and of course Chester Woods. The next best thing to running a race is just talking to other runners and sharing stories. I think I convinced a lot of people to come and give trail running a try.
In my last blog I mentioned an incident that happened last year . As a director of a trail race you always worry about somebody getting hurt. While my race is pretty smooth compared to some trail runs there are a couple spots with uneven ground and sure enough about halfway through the race I hear of a runner down. I thought they were just messing with me at first because this was the last person I would want to see sprain an ankle. You see, Steve DeBoer is a streak runner, He hasn't missed a day of running in 36 years and down he went in my race my heart sank when I saw it was true. The good news is Steve managed to run the next day with a boot on his ankle. One 15 minute mile far off his usual pace but, the streak lives.

Views from a director

I enjoy reading blogs from other runners so I thought I would start one of my own. This will be the second year for a race that I created ,the "Chester Woods Trail Run ". I used to comment to my friends all the time while running the trails at Chester Woods, "somebody should have a race out here." Well that somebody became me. Last year the Rochester Track Club needed to fill a spot where another race fizzled out and thus the Chester Woods Trail Run began. The track club paired me with some very capable partners Larry Pederson and Fred Woolman. We settled down and came up with a route, and decided to give away caps rather than tee-shirts.
Larry makes some neat walnut pens and pencils, so that was to become our awards. To make a long story short the race went off without a hitch , well almost. I'll tell about that later.
This year the race is on June 7th at 8:00 AM and in the coming days I will describe how it all comes together.

Jim