Grandma's Marathon in Duluth

This weekend was Grandma's Marathon in Duluth! Working up to this weekend, Dave had a pretty rough time training-wise.. A few weeks ago, he set out for his longest run yet, trying to run for a few hours to see how his body could stand it. He's never run a full marathon (26.2 miles) before, so this was going to be his test. He made it all of 3 miles and, from the desperate call I got from him on a Sunday evening while babysitting for a family in Burnsville, he collapsed mid-stride and somehow walked his way home. During his training in the past few months, he developed IT band syndrome, meaning his IT band became inflamed and tough. The syndrome came on full force that evening during his run. It is extremely painful and hard to fix in a short period of time. The pain symptoms come on the most during running or going up/down stairs.

For the past 3 weeks, we've been worried about whether or not Dave should even run the marathon. But, if you know Dave, you know he doesn't give up. So we have been doing what we can to get him back into running shape. Nick was nice enough to act as his trainer and roll out his leg whenever they could fit it in. While Dave couldn't stick to his running schedule, he did keep active by swimming and doing a little biking, which didn't cause his leg pain. Then last week, Dr. Suzy gave him a half our stretching session with her personal trainer which REALLY helped his leg. On Wednesday we got him set up with an hour massage with the therapist at Revolution (the office I work at, owned by Dr. Suzy). Thursday he went for a 3 mile jog in the evening to feel things out. He returned home and said it definitely still hurt, but he could at least run again.

Friday, Dave picked me up from work and we set off North for Duluth! We met up with Nick right away when we got into the city. He took us to Grandma's Restaurant for a light dinner (what the marathon is named after). It was a pretty unique place, really good food. We did take pictures (also of the run), but I cannot get my camera to upload right now...so those will have to come later.

The marathon started at 7:30am Saturday. It was a GORGEOUS & HOT day! We stayed with Nick and his awesome parents Mike and Sam at a hotel right off of Lake Superior and less than a mile from the finish line. It was more than ideal!

Mike, Sam and I walked along the side lines all day waiting to see our boys cross. Nick came through first in very good time -- congrats Nick! But we got a little worried as almost 1.5 hours passed after Nick came through and still no Dave. And in that time we saw about 4 people brought through on stretchers, a few people collapse in front of us, and someone was brought down the hill on a cart with an IV and space blanket. It was a little unsettling for me, wondering if the next injured or heat-stroke victim would be my husband. But then, Dave emerged through the crowd of runners, and he was still looking good, keeping up a light jog. We could see the pain on his face, and he has lost one of his braces that he had put on his leg earlier in the morning, but we were so glad to see he was still moving and not hobbling along.

He made it across at 4:44:50, pretty good for how he was feeling and considering Dave thought he'd be walking almost the entire race. We're so proud of him!

After the race, the boys got showered and the Ellensons gave us a little walking tour of Duluth. We ate dinner at Little Annie's, a Mexican restaurant, and stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where Dave and I picked up a small assortment of truffles (one of our weaknesses..). Dave and I hit the road shortly after, around 5pm, since he wanted to get some studying in before his two midterms on Monday.

All in all, it was a great weekend! Today, Dave is extremely sore, and so am I. Him because of his leg, and me because of sunburn. We haven't found a great all-natural sunscreen yet, so we don't wear any. I'd rather get red than put chemicals onto and into my body. This morning, we woke up and both just sat in bed not wanting to move. It was pretty funny. Pictures to come! Have a great Monday, all!! And happy Father's Day to all you Dads!!!

- Elise

One More Birthday

Just had to wish a happy birthday to one more special lady, our lovely aunt Maija! Happy birthday TODAY, Maija! One of these days we'll make it there to paint your wall...one of these days. ;-) Hope your day was great!

June Birthdays

Where did May go?? I just realized we never posted June's string of birthdays and it's already the 7th!! Just read through Joel's recent blog post and we agree with him -- we overloaded ourselves in May with Dave's new semester, my new job, and still trying to enjoy the early days of summer! From the minute we both finally get home (close to about 9pm most evenings), we hit the kitchen to cook a decadent meal, then pop in a RedBox $1 movie rental and cozy up with some wine while we eat. It's kind of our "thing" lately.. We're cutting back big time on spending in order to prepare for the business loans in the (near) future, so that means A.) no more eating out, and B.) no more cable TV. But if you know us, you know we love food! So we still induldge by trying new ideas in the kitchen every night, and lately we've been making fancier meals than usual. It's been a lot of fun the past couple weeks, but I think we've watched just about every movie in the RedBox machine!

On to business...We've already missed saying Happy Birthday to two special people in our families, who actually share the same birthday it turns out!:

Grandpa Vertin's birthday was Friday June 5th!! This is sort of an old picture from 2006. We love you Grandpa!

Scott H's Birthday was also June 5th. Here he is with baby Ella!

Hope you both had an extra joyful day! :)


Nick W. will celebrate his birthday on Monday, June 8th. Hope you have a great day (work free?), Nick! And looking forward to seeing you next weekend!

That's it for June birthdays..another light month. We are definitely looking forward to next weekend. The Wagner's will be coming down on Saturday for a short visit. Friday and Saturday, the Schwartz's will be in town. So we're planning to hit up the COMO Zoo, which is the free zoo in St. Paul that I mentioned in a past blog post. I like to bring kids there that I babysit. It's an easy way to kill time..and did I mention it's FREE? Besides all the animals, they also have a huge nature conservatory, which was pretty amazing to walk through. Next weekend should be a pretty fun time, especially for the younger kids!

Ant that's about it for an update on us. Nothing too exciting enough to write about as of late. We were supposed to go out to Grand Ole Days in downtown St. Paul today, which is an outdoor festival on Grand Ave with a parade, food, all sorts of activities, but it's pretty crummy weather with rain and 50 degree temps, so we're hanging inside all day. I babysit at 4pm in Burnsville and Dave has a huge exam to study for. So until then, I'm going to continue cycling through our DVD gallery, of which I've watched just about every movie twice in the past few weeks. It's going to be a boring day... :) But that's okay, it's good to have some down time for a change!

More later!


- Elise