34 years later, we had Ty, Megan, their kids, Katie, Adam, their kids, Josie, Nick, Zach, Sara and their little girl, as well as Mom over for dinner. At Zach's request, we had lasagna for dinner with salad, french bread and chocolate cherry cake. I severely underestimated how much this crowd eats. We ran out of everything but cake. That's the first time I've ever made lasagna and had no leftovers. It was a gorgeous day, we ate early to accommodate the baby's bed time and the fact that Josie and Nick were running in the Twin Cities Marathon in the morning. It was really fun! We ate dinner out on the deck. It's been such a dry summer that mosquitos haven't been a problem at all. We finally did get quite a lot of rain last week but Saturday was clear and lovely.
The night before we got such a deluge that visibility was only about a half a city block as I drove home from picking up the gluten free lasagna noodles (Barilla; excellent! I couldn't tell the difference!) Our begonias never looked better.
One month after I awoke to the sad news that Jimmy Buffett had sailed to St. Somewhere, I awoke to the perplexing news that the marathon had been cancelled due to the heat. Now, I'm not talking about the actual temperature. The race, for which thousands of runners trained for months and paid $200.00 non refundable deposit each for the privilege of a number, was cancelled due to the forecast for how hot it might get by mid afternoon. The coddlemongers in charge of the decision didn't have the balls to allow long distance runners to decide whether or not they could finish the race. So they made the gutless decision to cancel, dismantled the course and sent all the workers home.
At 8:10 a.m., Josie's start time, it was 66 degrees.
66.
Degrees.
Farenheit.
I was furious. Josie trained for months for this race. The f***wits in charge decided that adult human beings can't be trusted not to run themselves to death. I saw one cidiot's tweet claiming that "hundreds if not thousands of casualties" would occur if the race was run. Got that? Hundreds, if not thousands would die from running in Minneapolis in 70 degree weather. Was it humid? Yes. Do New York, Boston or Chicago get humid? Yes. Yes, they do. I never realized before that people run marathons because it is easy and comfortable. This was a decision that was made by the same sort of people who wear masks when working outside in their own gardens, alone.
Maybe not. Maybe there was actually some kind of terrorist threat against the race and the folks in charge didn't want to cause a panic so they just made up a the first stupid excuse to cancel the race that popped into their heads. That actually makes more sense than the official story. But this is Minneapolis, in the 2020s... the stupidest answer is almost always correct.
Minnesota; the state where nothing is allowed.
Weenieville.
I was delighted to learn very early that Josie and Nick had decided to run the route anyway. They weren't the only ones. There's no way to tell just how many of the thousands of runners pinned on their numbers and ran through Minneapolis and St. Paul despite having been told it was 'too dangerous'. I'm happy to say that there were a lot of folks running. I went down to a spot between Calhoun and Harriet and cheered several dozen of them before I got word that Josie and Nick had already passed. I joined Katie and Jay at Lake Harriet shortly after our runners turned off the lake and onto the Minnehaha parkway. Jay was on his bike. I parked my car and hopped in Katie's and we took off to get ahead of the runners on the marathon route. We got to Portland just in time to cheer Josie on and wave the posters we'd made the night before. There were a lot of people out to cheer on the runners, despite having been told there would be no race and to take cover in our basements due to the extreme heat. (Clearly, the same sort of scofflaws who refused to wear masks between bites at a restaurant during the pandemic.)
At noon (start + 4hours) the temps had reached 80 degrees.
80.
Degrees.
Farenheit.
After the temp hit 80 at noon, it kept climbing steadily.
Nick and his dad could not finish. Nick had rolled his ankle early in the course and simply could not make the distance. His Dad got light headed and obeyed his body's cue to stop.
Josie just kept truckin.
She had a lot of help from friends. She told me afterwards that the cancellation of the race made her so angry, she thought the worst of the Twin Cities but then so many people turned out along the route to cheer and offer water to those who did run that it restored her faith in her fellow citizens! Bouyed by the love of strangers, she kept going. A friend joined her for the last ten miles and Katie joined her for the last four and with them beside her, she made it to the finish line!
Character is what you do when no one is watching. A True Champion finishes the race even when there is no cheering crowd and no medal to be won.
The temp hit 90 an hour after she finished.
She rehydrated, took a shower and a short nap and was ready for the party at our house by evening. It was another swell shindig.
October has been grand so far!