The Great Ethan Allen Meets the Governor Of Iowa! The I 35 Challenge Complete.

Today was an AWESOME day... For Me!  I met and spoke to Governor Kim Reynolds. (For those of you outside the state or from Iowa City...She is The Governor of Iowa, )   She even posed for a selfie with me.   Granted,  I am not the master of Selfies,  so it was a did not turn out the best it possibly could have.   However,  it is not everyday that I get to meet a person more important than myself. ( And I'm pretty important!)   I'm happy to have commemorated  this moment with a"Millennial Tradition" of Self promotion.

A Great Day for me!  

Granted,  she is better looking than me in this picture.   Possibly because I was busy talking instead of smiling like I should have.   She was very gracious and was happy for the opportunity.

A Governor of the People.  

Seriously,  it was pretty cool meeting her.   I see her on my facebook feed all the time and if she is not riding tractors with the farmers,  milking the cows at the fair, or getting her hands dirty in the fields,  then she is dressed in a suit working at the capitol.  It was nice to see the actual person behind the news feeds.

Perhaps she will make it a
tradition. 

So how did this encounter happen?  Well,  she was at today's Des Moines (Where the "S's" are silent.) Marathon as one of the Guest speakers.    She says this was the first time she has ever done this and was really excited about it.   I told her about how the Michigan Governor used to  kick off Tulip Time in Holland and walk across the Mackinac Bridge in the Spring. I'm not sure if that tradition continues in Michigan though.  Perhaps She will make attending the Marathon an Iowa Tradition in the future.  We shall see. It was fun seeing her there.

Oh yeah,  Cheryl did something too. 

Chilly morning. 

So what was I doing at the Marathon?   Well,  Mostly waiting for Cheryl to complete the Half.   Which she did.   And... Drum roll....  She did pretty good!

Decides she is "under" dressed. 

Cheryl surveys the Situation. 

At least the morning was dry.   Cold!  But dry.   Much colder than first thought.   Even though it climbed to the mid 60-s yesterday,   today there was a start temp around 40.   Cheryl decided half way to the star line that she was under-dressed and we had to go back to change.

At least the Logo will fit the
race.

Last minute decision to go
with untested gear. 

She only had one shirt...  the un-tested Tech-shirt she purchased yesterday at the expo.   The other options were known to make her overheat.   We took a chance, rolled the dice,  and did a quick change behind the Subaru.  What else could you do?

Will it work?  We shall see....

Cheryl enters through the "back way"
into the gates. 

In the process,  she dropped her Garmin in the Only Mud Puddle for MILES!  I know there was a possibility she would have a good race today.  (Bad omens equal good outcomes!  At least in My family.)
 (Small note:  All the "Gazelles" in the front of the startline were wearing long sleeves,  Cheryl thought she had made the right choice.  Moments before the gun,  they whipped  off their shirts to reveal sports bras and tank tops! Surprise!)

I cast a LONG shadow....

Marathon and Half Marathon over the bridge.

The Start was over a bridge with the Sun to my back.   I waited for the speeches to end, anthem to finish, and the race to start.  Cheryl was now wearing a shirt that made her blend into a crowd of runners even more than she usually does.

See the small girl in the crowd? 

 I randomly snapped pics of the crowd as they ran by, capturing a blurry picture of Bigfoot, Bessie, And Cheryl.   It was a very lucky shot.

See the small Girl surrounded
by tall men? 

See the small girl in front of the sun?

At mile 1.5, the Sun was now in my face!   Again, I snapped random pics of the crowd and found Cheryl in the shadows of three ( maybe 5) Very tall, very large men.   She always wants to compete with the guys!   Good for her esteem and image, but bad for my photo opportunities!

Still, you latch on to what you can.   See the pink glove as she waved?   It's like watching a swimmer being consumed in an undertow.

She is looking good!

Cheryl comes into the finish. 

  At the finish,  I finally had the sun behind me again, and a long stretch where I could ID her as she neared.   The App we use to track her told me she was gunning for a good time.   Sure enough,  she pulled off a 1:39:05 as her official time.  She was pretty happy.

Catching her at the Finish line. 

She looks happy. ( or angry.)

Unlike previous years, I managed to catch her before she disappeared into the food area.   She showed me her medal(s) and we went to get the official print out of her results.   Turns out she has, for the first time ever running this race,  placed high enough to get an age group award!   Again,  she was pretty happy with that.

2nd place in her age
group.  First time in
Des Moines.

Showing off the Bling. 

With no award ceremony to wait for,  we made a hasty escape out of the city center.   The beer was not really beer.. and $5!  So we simply ate the free food and left.   Which was fine, because we were already junk food-ed out.  And we have Honey Brown and Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale  already from Kansas City.  No need to get too greedy...  ( Even though "free" anything is always a temptation.)

Off to the Food tent. 

So Cheryl completed the I 35 challenge.   She has three medals,  a negative split between the two races, and she did it while remaining undamaged.

And now... Home!

The Spoils of WAR!

 She even enjoyed the run today and won an age group award in BOTH races.   Add in that the Des Moines Award has a hinge... well, that is just the cherry on top!

One weekend.  Two races.  Three medals. 

So, yeah... A pretty good day in Des Moines ( Where the "S's" are silent) today.  Cheryl accepted a challenge, ran a race, and won an award.   Best of all:  I Met The Governor Of Iowa!  So we should both be happy for at least he remainder of the day.  Tomorrow will snap us back to reality as the Stockings drop the BOOM on us.   (22 stockings paid for so far...)  Better to have too many sales rather than not enough.  Besides, there are more races to be run this month.  At least we will have a little more cash to set aside for them.

And I got to meet the Governor of
Iowa!

This one has a hinge!  Cool eh? 

I hope everyone is having a fine day today.  Fall weather has finally arrived here... along with a little more fall color.   Seems like all of the trees in town have turned colors over the weekend.  A nice touch to the season.   Thanks for stopping in and Cheering Cheryl on.   It apparently helped... A LOT!