3 miles at the track, intervals and recoveries at overall pace of 9:57. Ileneforward

Dave59: I think I mentioned that the Brooksie Way passes almost right by my house and uses some of the roads & trails that I run on all the time. You'll enjoy it, at least for the first half. I would have run it except for my injury this year. I am working at the expo on Saturday morning, but on Sunday am going on a biking event instead. I'll be anxious to read your RR -- good luck!

If I recognize you on Saturday, I'll say hello. (Or will you only be there in the morning? I don't know when I will be there yet. It all depends on stuff at home.) I am coming down the day before to hang out and check out the Yates Cider Mill.

Tramps, what's wrong with the pie and ice cream thread?? I happen to think it's a wonderful thread. Whoever started it really rocks! Holly, congrats on your super jock daughter! DickyG, I'm jealous - Nascar right in your own town! I'm in So. Oregon, about 4 hrs south of Portland and I'm in the WARM part of the state. We are heading into 4-5 days of rain with the highs this weekend only being in the low 60's (and it's been in the low 90's the last several days!). I haven't even pulled up Portland's weather yet, but now I'm thinking that I'm glad I won't be there. I have a few co-workers who are walking it and they really tried to get me to come up and walk it with them, since I'm not ready to run a marathon yet. My only regret is not being able to go up to meet PDR and WRFB and all the other masters having a fun dinner gathering the night before. I'm going to the gym during lunch to get in a few miles and start off October right.

Tramps, what's wrong with the pie and ice cream thread?? I happen to think it's a wonderful thread. Whoever started it really rocks!

Tammy—There’s nothing wrong with it; it’s too good! I think it costs about 1200 calories just to open it. Dicky—I was raised Catholic in a nearly-all Christian town but went to Brandeis, a Jewish-sponsored non-sectarian college (because they gave me the biggest financial aid package ). I was almost totally ignorant of Jewish traditions so my first few months were like Jewish boot camp. Okay, I knew about yarmulkes and menorahs, but after that I was lost. Mezuzah’s on dorm doors, laying tefillin, sukkahs for sukkot…I didn’t have a clue. My first job on campus was in the cafeteria and I was totally baffled by kosher rules too. I’m sure I’ve still got a lot of it muddled up but at least by the time I left I had some vague sense of many traditions. The school celebrated just about all the Jewish holidays so Fall class schedules, especially, were a total mess and classes would have to be moved around all the time. So, for example, a “Brandeis Monday” meant that you went to your Monday class schedule, even though it was another day of the week. To this day DW (who I met there) and I still refer to “Brandeis” days whenever we switch our usual schedule around. I keep meaning to ask where exactly you live. So Martinsville, huh? I wouldn’t imagine there’s a big Jewish community there.

Happy October! Dave59, good luck on the Brooksie Half Marathon. The first half I ran was a similar course profile - the first half was all downhill, and the second half was an out-and-back on a rolling hilly bike path. They billed it as "three-quarters downhill", which was accurate but misleading. And of course I went out too fast. Holly, do you owe your DD another donut (or 3?) for the soccer goals she scored? Maybe we should take a poll to see who likes or does not like NASCAR... Tramps, I also grew up in an area with a low Jewish population (upstate NY) but when I was in 7th grade my family moved to the Philly suburbs, and all of a sudden we got all these new school holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur) that we'd never heard of. A couple of my college roommates were Jewish, and we celebrated all the holidays complete with traditional foods, which was cool. Planning a lunchtime run today.

Yay! So glad that your injury is just about gone, too. But don't they have any cold-weather races near you?

Thanks, Holly. Yes, there are always runs available, but I made a resolution to take the whole year off. But then again, I haven't done the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 10K for a few years now... And today I think we ate the last of our garden tomatoes for the year, as I fried up the bacon for some piled-high BLTs. Won't have another one of those until next August.

Ha Mary, that's funny. And no... it was pretty late when I finally got home, snowing and getting dark. I'll get to it... the stuff that's there will be fine for a few more days. The ground won't freeze up for a while yet. One of these years I WILL get that job done on time!