Cheryl’s Big “Boston Qualifier Marathon”…Twin Cities Marathon Finish!

 I’m not sure how to begin with this one.  With an Ailing Camera, Uncertain Race Viewing Route, and General MAYHEM the entire episode….I’m simply happy it is over and we achieved what we were aiming for….Namely:  The Boston Qualifying time.    Specifically:  A marathon Finishing time that will be good enough to “guarantee” ( ok, VERY good chance to gain)  entry into the Boston 2017 Marathon.

 

 

Even though the Camera was acting up. ( on a side note…it is fixed!   We swapped out the lenses with the spare we had lying around..and the camera works great.   Proving that the Lens is the part that is malfunctioning….Whew!) I still managed to take a staggering 705 pictures!   Many of random runners in a ocean of faces and colors.   I failed to capture Cheryl in either the start, OR the half way mark.  I thought if I took copious amounts of random pictures of strangers in the crowds,  we would eventually identify her in a “Where is Waldo” kind of way.   Alas….it was simply not to be.   But I was just happy that I was taking pictures at ALL….!

 

Most of the pictures are blurry….some are off aim, redundant, or meaningless.   So,  I did my best to wade through then and try to clean up as many as I could with either cropping the bad stuff out, or deleting the blurry ones.   I cut it down 450 pictures….most of them are still random….but it gives you the idea of the size of the crowd.

With that all being said…let us begin…..

We arrived much earlier that we probably had to for this one…but we wanted a good parking spot….figuring that the huge crowd and protesters were going to make the day complicated.  ( It did not happen…I’ll explain later) We easily had our pick of parking spots and found where the start line was located.  The day started out “ok”  with temps around 65 degrees….However…It quickly began to get Colder as the sun began to rise.   This caused Cheryl to shiver uncontrollably as we looked for a warm spot to wait the hour and a half to start time.  Luckily,  Cheryl was prepared ( somewhat) for the cooler start ( it ended up being 44 at the start!) …wearing a shirt instead of a sports top to run in.   

You know it had to be cold for Cheryl to drink Coffee in the morning.   We missed our usual tradition of buying a donut and a coffee/pop because of our insanely early start ( the gas station was not open at 5:30 A.M.!)  So,  with little sugar or caffeine, Cheryl was forced to accept the free Caribou Coffee.   In  a pinch, it was a good thing. 

I was able to climb on a ledge to take pictures of the start above the crowd.  Other people had the same idea, so I still had to fight for my territory…but it was still better than being at ground level.    The start for wave one began, and…Even thought I knew Cheryl was in this first wave,  I still could not find her.   I feverishly snapped pictures of the crowd, hoping to discover her swimming with the tide of runners later.   We still can’t seem to find her in any of these pics.

After the first wave,  I ducked out before they sent off the next groups.  I was hoping to get to the half way point before the Elites ran past.   It was a race against the clock….and a risk of finding parking and being able to still capture Cheryl as she ran by.   

The Twin Cites is a Labyrinth!  A serious maze of streets and avenues that do not match up with the map that is provided.   I programmed into  the computer the corner of the course I wanted to find,  and Garmin( the computer) took me to a totally different place!    After circling around a couple blocks…I stumbled upon  a police check point and decided it would be best to wait there.   People had gathered, so I figured this was “some point” in the marathon….but probably NOT the point I originally set out to find.   Luckily, I was VERY flexible for this race.   I warned Cheryl I may not find the half way in time….so we had an understanding…

  As you can possibly see from the pictures,  the crowd support was great!  Perhaps too great…since the spectators crowded into the road almost preventing the runners from passing.   And here they were worried about Black Lives Matter blocking the path….Cheryl said she could have stood LESS crowd support for this race….but the people were eager and full of cheer….so it all worked out. 

At some point…when the 3:35 pacer passed by….I realized I must have missed Cheryl.  Given the narrow area, I was not sure how…but I accepted that I had missed her and, despite taking 170 pictures of the passing runners…still managed to miss her completely!    I quickly headed to the finish line.   SMALL NOTE:  The In Race Texts that were sent…(whenever Cheryl would cross a mat,  I would get a phone message telling me where she was)….WERE OFF BY 10-15 MINUTES!   In other words,  she would cross a mat at 8:30….and I would get the text at 8:45…..she would have traveled almost 2 miles in that time.   I was waiting by the 8 mile mark and after I gave up on her, I got the message that she has just crossed the 6 mile mark.   It was very confusing…..but…..I stayed Flexible and made the command decision to catch her at the finish. 

  At the finish,  I managed, ( somehow) to find a parking place for free!   Then I discovered that Black Lives Matter had not disrupted the event as planned, instead assembling behind the capitol building out of sight.  ( I actually never saw any sign of them whatsoever. )  I raced to an area where I could capture Cheryl as she approached the finish line.   I barely missed the first female finisher, but Cheryl was just over an hour away from that.      I was happy to have the time….I was still babying the camera…trying to get the focus and speed shots to work on command.   I finally got the Text Message that Cheryl had crossed the 24 mile mark…when I saw her.

 

 

  I snapped as many pics as I could. 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally,  she entered the “runners only” area and I waved her down and motioned that we would link up at the designated area.   Cheryl didn’t want to hang around much,  just take a break and show off her medal.   The Longer we waited,  the larger the crowd grew..so we decided to head back for some Cold Stone Ice Cream and a shower at the hotel. At the end of the day…here is the Tally:   

Cheryl’s finish time :  3:33:20   11 full minutes faster than the 3:45 needed to qualify for Boston…..As long as 2017 is average…we are going!

Cheryl’s over all place: 1249 out of 8579 total finishers.

Cheryl’s female Place: 264 out of 3805  total females.

Cheryl’s Age Group Placement: 25 out of 505 females age 40-44 group.

She maintained an 8:09 per mile pace, and set a new personal record for the half marathon at 1:40:30.    Most of her Miles in the early part were Sub-8 minutes with the fastest mile being mile three  7:19. 

  So.  This post is really long….and I’m really tired.   There was much more to embellish, but I’m simply happy it is over now.  Subaru acted like a champ,  BLM did not mess up the run,   Police did not arrest me for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.   So….Everything worked out…as it usually does….and ended with a happy narrative.   Oh!  And I ended up paying only $4 in parking the entire day!   How AWESOME IS THAT?!!!

So, Now there are clothes to unpack,  a cat to feed, and beer to drink…( I’ll have to blog about this one later…) and Cheryl has to pin up her medal while I try to fix the broken Lens for the Camera…..in other words.  Life will continue…but this time….as a Boston Marathon Qualifier!

Origami Papillion, Rose, And ACT Freedom!

We finished the project at ACT yesterday and now have (perhaps) the next month or two off.  This is very exciting.  Because Cheryl has urged me to build an Origami Shop on Etsy.  I'm uncertain as to what I should offer at the moment,  but it seems that people who do one thing and do a lot of it seem to do the best.  That is:  If they ONLY do boxes, Lotuses, or flowers...they do better than the people who fold cool looking but strange stuff...like insects.

  I still might offer some animals and insects just for my own fancy.   As of now, I just need to fold some stuff to put in the shop!  I also have to work on my pictures so they look better than what I usually post on this blog.   I have also determined that the Etsy shops that do not do very well, tend to have poor quality pictures.   I know how difficult taking good pictures of origami is,  they are meant to be seen in the 3-D world, not simply the 2-D.  So one of he first hurdles I will be facing is to take quality pictures.
  Then there is the Origami!  I have to fold something that will urge people to buy it.  I know pictures and staging helps a lot, but you still have too have something that looks cool so people will not be disappointed when they receive it.  Hopefully, the time folding for the ACT crowd will have been good practice for me. 
  And finally,  Cheryl has clearly outlined that she will not be helping me in any way.  ( except perhaps in criticism )  So the posting and writing of the descriptions will all be left to me.   YEAH!   I hope my creative writing style will not drive anyone away.  Most likely,  people will not even read it.  Origami is not rally a huge seller online.  We shall see.
  So to prepare for this epic mission,  I folded a Papillion dog and a couple of Robert Lang's roses so I could take their pictures.  I may have to adjust the background a bit to match the table.   Or create a shadow box of some type.  The dog was inspired by the tenants upstairs who have a Papillion/ Pomeranian  mix .   He is cute!  But he is still a puppy and he whines whenever they leave him alone.  Also,  he is way to friendly for Cheryl's taste.   As for me...I LOVE dogs!   With my new found time, I imagine I will be posting a little more often.  Well,  that is the plan anyway. 

Finding Fall Mushrooms, Running The Mississippi, And Fighting With Blogger!

Moments after giving up on ever solving the new Blogger, I was somewhat surprised to discover that I accidentally figured something out. I have been fighting with the new Blogger format for the last several days, and I am not alone! Apparently, several of the other bloggers that I follow are feeling the same frustration. I have been blogging for over 10 years... and nothing was wrong with the set up! But Blogger "fixed " something that was not broke.. and now it is broke broke! But I digress.

I discovered that the HTML mode and the "Compose" mode are NOT what you see in the final posting. This is both confusing AND frustrating as you are unable to see exactly where you are putting your pictures unless you finish posting things. And only then will you see that all the words and pictures are where they need to be. There is a Preview button, but that is frustratingly slow and annoying.

So this entire post is pretty much me trying to figure out how to put my pictures in where they need to be. By the way, I tend to put a lot of pictures in AND I usually download them all at once. The old way would allow me to shuffle them in to my paragraphs simple enough. It was never the best, but it worked for me and I learned how to deal with it. THIS way.. Forces me to download one picture at a time. What if I want more than one picture?

So this way is just far more complicated than I really am used to. I used to be able to focus on what I wanted to say and dod not have to worry about how it was going to look or if things would be messed up in the process.

If you struggle to juggle, use fewer balls! So that is why there seems to be random photos in this posting. TO see if I can get things to work out on purpose, rather than by accident.

Anyway, I may as well post the pictures of our Muscatine adventures today. In addition to running along the Mississippi, we also found a small cluster of Shaggy Cap mushrooms. They are ink cap mushrooms, so they will begin to dissolve their cap as they spread their spores. For this reason, many people do not eat them, as they appear to rot before your eyes.

I wanted to see if I could get some to dry up. They are a tasty mushroom with additional health benefits. Foraging for them in the wild is the only way to get them, but that usually means you have to eat them immediately. However! With our dehydrator, it may be possible to keep them in storage without them rotting away!

I have been working on dehydrating my tomatoes... with mixed success. Cheryl says she will end up juicing them for sauce. We shall see how things turn out. Well, that is all for me today. I can see that I seem to be messing things up again. If the Preview check is working properly... which I assume it is. Very Frustrating Blogger! Downloading pictures takes forever and is ticking me off as well. I should probably end this before I say something bad. Hope everyone else who is struggling with Blogger is having better success.

The Fawn Mushroom! Is Not the Mushroom That The Fawns Actually Eat!

The Fawn Mushroom.
 (Pluteus cervinus)

The Fawns' Mushroom.
(Boletus edulis)

What a day!   Are we ready for another long post filled with Mushroom Findings, Pictures, and Anecdotes of Wildlife eating your Prized Mushroom Finds?    Well then, Buckle UP!    Because reality is often stranger than fiction.

An example of a real story that is almost unbelievable is the Moose Antler Story.   (I would not believe it if it had not happened to me!) Stranger ( maybe) that that is what happened today.

Mushrooms are calling!

There are stories I have heard as a kid that you had to hurry when the Morels were out because the Deer would eat them.   I have seen plenty of slugs, bugs and an occasional squirrel take a nibble out of one.  But I have never seen a deer eating a mushroom... until today!

Ridges instead of Gills.

Cheryl is surrounded!

Cheryl and I were in the forest near the Coralville Dam today.  After an excellent mushroom expedition a few days ago,  I thought it would be a great time to explore another forest to see if the recent rain triggered any growth.

Chanterelles! 

And MORE!

It did not take long before we found a number of Boletes and Chanterelles.   We have found a few Chanterelles here before, but only a single or two on the way out of the forest.   Today,  that changed.   We easily found a basket full! 

Russulas in with the Chanterelles.

Field Bolete
(Hortiboletus campestris)

Intermixed with them were Field Boletes and Brittlegills.( Russulas) 

Amanita.

Ink Caps

Along with Inkcaps, Amanitas, Fawn Mushrooms,  False Corals, and several other unknown species.   I was very happy with the Chanterelle bonanza,  until we discovered what we thought was a Porchini (King Bolete) that was in the "Pin" stage.    We headed to the place where the Boletes were found before.

The Moment this one dropped the
Porchini he was snacking on. 

Cheryl sees a deer.

Along the way, we found a couple of small Deer along the trail.   They still had their spots and there was no "mother" around.     Perhaps they were out on their own now.

 Cheryl was delighted to find them, until she discovered they were eating something rather large.

Turns out,  they were nibbling on Porchini!     After they wandered up the hill,  we found several King Boletes that they were eating.  We actually watched one drop the mushroom from his mouth as he stood up to look at us.

Cheryl finds one they didn't eat. 

Cheryl finds the ones they were
eating. 

  And a few they had missed.   We were very excited to find Porchini this early in the summer!   In fact,  there were several that we had to pass up because they were past their prime.

Can you find the Bolete in this
picture? 

Today's Catch/ finds. 

I took way too many pictures today.  So many...that after selecting only the "good ones,"  I had 54 pictures to post on the blog.   I can't post 54 pictures on the blog....   No one wants to wade through 54 pictures of Mushrooms...  Many of them redundant Chanterelle pics.

Russula

 ( because Chanterelles and Russulas are so Pretty!)   So I put them in a Mushroom Medley pic that will show off at least a few of the examples of mushrooms we found today.   I just finished helping  Cheryl clean and cut them up for drying.   She saved out a few for another Mushroom Tart for this afternoon. 

Subie needs work!

Cheryl needs Pie! 

There are other things that I could have added to the blog.   I have been working on Subie.   I changed his oil and have been working on that re-emerging rust spots.     And Cheryl has been baking pies and picking blackberries.

Black Berries need Pickin'!

  Seems the black berries are finally beginning to ripen up.   I imagine we will be going out to the trail to hunt for those tomorrow.  We shall see

Todays Mushroom Finds.  Waiting for
cleaning and drying. 

So that is it.   Lots of Mushrooms and a Story that Proves that Deer actually do eat mushrooms.   And they appear to have a distinguished palate for the finer mushrooms in Nature.  The King Bolete is a highly Prized choice edible!    And so are the Chanterelles... which makes me wonder:   Maybe there is a reason we never found many Chanterelles in this forest before.  Do Deer like Chanterelles too?  More research and investigation will be required.    Until then,   thanks for stopping in.