A Fun Day at School!

The weather is finally taking a turn for the better in Minnesota. We hit 35 today, and it felt like 40! But before I got out on my afternoon run, we had a fun event at the end of the school day today. It is Snow Week at WMHS and today was the annual Staff vs. Seniors basketball game. This has been a tradition for over 20 years and I got to be a part of it. I hadn't played much ball in a while so I was unsure of how it would go. I grew up playing basketball before I got into running so it is another love of mine. With me being the youngest teacher in the building and in very good shape compared to most of the other staff members, I basically played the entire game (only 20 minutes). My shots early on were ugly but I managed to put a few baskets in and the Staff ended up winning by 2 at the end! It was a lot of fun to have many of my students cheering for me and I even got to play against some of my students.

Running is a sport that rarely gets publicity or much notice from the average public. My students occasionally hear me talk about my running but they don't ever see it, but they got to see a small taste of it today. A few students came up to me after the game and said, "Wow! You are fast!" I wasn't even running that hard but I almost always beat everyone else down the court. That's just how I always played. Tomorrow will be fun to see some of the other comments I get from my other students about the game.

After the game and the school day ended I got out on a 10.5 mile Fartlek run in the beautiful weather. It felt great and I got warm enough I dumped my headband and gloves 2 miles in. Looking at the weather report, it'll be like that for a week or so now. I am looking forward to it.

Also, there is a new half-marathon race in the Twin Cities beginning this spring. The annual Get In Gear event at Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis is adding a half-marathon to the event. I am leaning towards running this as my final prep race before the Fargo Marathon. The Get In Gear will now have a distance for almost every runner: Half-Marathon, 10K, 5K, and 2K.

Enjoy the warm weather in the midwest this next week, I know I will!