Here in Esko, on Church Rd, there is the Quarter Master Buffalo Ranch.  From time to time I see the buffalo out grazing by the road.  It’s kind of exciting in a scary kind of way.  They are big creatures!  

    Last week when I ran by the buffalo ranch I saw two signs posted in their grazing pasture for McCain/Palin.  I thought, "oh that’s cute the buffalo are republicans". 

    This morning I ran by again and noticed something was slightly...off.  The buffalo have revolted.  I don’t think they appreciated their owner’s presidential endorsement being forced on them.  Today one of the signs was trampled and crumpled, practically beyond recognition.  It was smashed up against the electric fence.  The other sign was also trampled with holes in it but had been salvaged and stuck in the ground again.  But this time it was on the other side of the fence.  This latest move is sure to taunt those poor buffalo.

    The buffalo may ban together and plan an escape to finish off that sign.  Actually, they regularly escape.  I have heard my Mom say on more than one occasion, "Larry Klausner had to call the sheriff because one of the buffaloes was grazing in his field".  This was quite a feat, this was a mile and a half treck, not to mention crossing highway 61.

     So come Election Day if you see a parade of buffalo trotting down Church Rd. heading for town hall, they may just be heading out to vote.  Can buffalo vote?

Disclaimer:  This in no way reflects my own political views and is in no way meant to be offensive to anyone else's views.

This was a fairly uneventful week in running for me.  I didn’t do any races, and I didn’t break any records.  But it was a test of my drive to run.  Monday the 25th was my first day back at school.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been giving college another shot.  I am enrolled at LSC in the surgical tech program.  It is a pretty intense program and has already been demanding much of my time.  I stayed late every day last week to study, I better had, I have three tests this coming week.  Not to mention studying at home too. 

When first hearing about how difficult and time consuming this program was I was faced with two options.  Quit working or quit running.  So I quit working, didn’t want anything to jeopardize my running.  It has always been a great stress reliever for me and a wonderful time to just unwind.

So now that the week had ended I see that I made it!  I ran everyday, minus Sunday.  I was scheduled to run but decided not to on because I hadn’t had a day off in two weeks, I have always been use to 2 days off a week.  I managed to log 33 miles, respectable mileage in a week for me.

I have been learning that life is all about balance.  And at least for just this one week, I have attained balance.  I trained well in running and studied well in school.  Here’s hoping I can maintain this balance until May!

I know it has been over a week since the event but I have been so busy and need something to write about for my first blog entry. Last Sunday my husband Andy and I competed in the Firehouse 15k in Grand View, Wi. Originally I was only going to go to Grand View to cheer on Andy but he convinced me that I might as well do a one mile warm up and cool down and consider that my long run.

We got there at about 7:30AM and shortly there after I registered, only $19! We went over to a picnic table and stretched a little bit. We nearly missed the station where they had the timing chips set up, but caught that on our way out for a warm up.

I positioned myself next to fellow Northwoods teammate Shelly Thompson at the starting line. There were 112 people at the start of the race. Very quickly we made our way into the country. The majority of the course was very winding and the scenery was beautiful. We had to traverse lots of hills, I’m pretty sure this course was even hillier than the Mac course in Proctor. A few miles consisted of dirt roads. However these roads were sandy and squishy, almost like running on the beach, I didn’t really like that part.

The participants at this race reminded me a lot of the NMTC folks. Most of them seemed to be seasoned runners and gluttons for punishment….they must have been so to have been signing up to run that course. I got lots of encouragement and random chit chat as I passed other runners and visa versa. I even got a high five from one runner!

As I came closer to the finish line my mind was absolutely fried and I was zoned out. It was very warm and the sun was just beating down the whole time. So as the finish line drew nearer I kept plodding along until I heard a spectator yell, “Kick it in!” I’m pretty sure that was meant for me. I snapped out of my fog and put it in high drive for the finish…I could have kicked it a lot sooner but I was in la la land. I finished in 1:32:14. I was happy with my time, the course was tough, but I did place 3^rd in my age division. However awards were only giving out for 1^st and 2^nd places.

All in all it was a well directed race, three aid stations, t-shirts, music and food. The weather was wonderful, a bit on the hot side. I am tempted to go back next year, to improve my time. Am I really this nuts?