A Life More Complete

Really we still exist...

2011-07-05T23:52:00.000-05:00

I have some fabulous updates from the last....well....let's see two months or so! I promise it's on my mind to get the blog caught up and our absense in writing will make sense when you see what we've been up to!

Stay tuned..... :)

(Today's random item)

Chamber Challenge 5K

2011-04-25T09:49:00.000-05:00

Mark: Yesterday we ran the Eden Prairie Chamber Challenge 5K, a smaller local race that was sponsored in part by Premier Sports and Spine, Kris's physical therapist . As a sponsor she received a number of comped entries and she offered two of them to us.

This was our third race in as many weeks, each at different distances, so it has been interesting managing our trainings during the week. Granted the weather has not been helping either, Thursday we went out to the Legends course intending to run the 10K route and just as we arrived at Deephaven Elementary school it started to rain. Normally I might have stuck it out but it was also 43 degrees, I'd rather avoid getting sick again, so going into this week's race we had not run since Monday and made it only to swim on Tuesday due to a little too much celebrating for my birthday. Kris: Oops...ok two glasses of wine and two apple-tini's did me in but the birthday outing was totally worth it :) Dinner at The Butcher Block and then we went to see Flanagan's Wake put on by the Actor's Theatre of Minnesota. I HIGHLY recommend it! Just don't forget your camera at dinner....like I did....sigh...

Race morning we woke up to the sound of rain on the windows and from the beginning we had our doubts about what we be able to manage at the race but we got up, got dressed, grabbed a quick english muffin and got out the door, stopping only briefly fill our mugs with our favorite morning beverage, Caribou Coffee. We we arrived at Purgatory Creek reserve picked up our race packet and then retired to the car just to stay warm for the next 30+ minutes.

With a few minutes before the start of the race, Kris and I ran down the course about a half a mile to warm up a bit. To my surprise a lot more people had showed up and there was close to about 200 participants lined up for the start. As I looked around there were a few runner runners and a hand full of high schoolers so I thought I could potentially have a good race. After we got started I quickly found myself in second place, the guy out in front took off and I knew I could never touch him, and I was guessing that he was running sub-6:00, out of my league. But as I took quick glances behind me I was in good shape, or so I thought. Through almost 2 miles I was holding onto 2nd place and then I faded just a bit, not much but enough to get passed 5 times. Sigh..... Yes I did start out a bit fast but not to bad and I was able to hold onto my pace through out most of the race. As we turned to cross the lake, running into the wind took a bit more out of me and I had almost nothing for the final tenth of the race. It is a little bit frustrating to be able to read the clock as you are running to the finish line and you can tell there is nothing you can do as the clock approaches 21:00.

Final time 21:07 (6:48 pace). Unfortunately my Garmin and everyone else with a GPS was indicating that the coarse was long, I had 3.17 and I heard 3.2 several times. If I recalculate for an actual 3.11 5K my time should have been about 20:43 (6:40 pace) which would have been a new PR. Oh well!! But that brings up a pet peeve of mine, if you are a race director, there are a VERY FEW things that you CAN NOT screw up, TIMING and DISTANCE are two of the most important!!! Which is why Kris and I were taking extraordinary efforts to make sure that the Legends is correct.

Here is my Garmin Connect data from the race. Remember that that the race course was long (3.17 according to my GPS) and that I actually finished in 21:07, you can actually see that in the race map (I wander over to the snack line) and my HR suddenly slows down.

Aside for the distance being wrong and forgetting to stop my Garmin at the finish, oh and as Kris will tell you, I missed her finish 1st female overall, it was a good small race. I ended up finishing 7th overall, 2nd in my AG, remember the guy who took off at a sub-6:00 pace? He was first overall and of course he was in my age group as well.

Kris: I was going into the race feeling very under prepared. That's also been a common theme lately for me. Our warm up run felt hard on my heart rate so I wasn't sure what was going to happen once the race got started. I began at the front of the pack with Mark since it's a gun start. I took off and because of the down slope and the pack of men I was surrounded by, I looked down at my first 1/4 mile and was running about 6:30 pace.....ok SLOW DOWN! I knew I had to pull up a bit or I was never going to make it. I slowed up to around a 7:30 and then realized something....everyone ahead of me was male. I was the first female out of the gate. I got a small peak behind me around the half way point and realized the next two women were about 50 yards behind me. Trying not to care if they caught up, I just did my best to hold a fast pace and go for my own PR. I think I held up fairly well and even 'chicked' two guys within the last half mile. I knew I still had a decent lead and was going to come in as first place female. It doesn't feel like a massive accomplishment since it was such a small race but still something to be proud of. So as I was running to the finish line and people I didn't know were cheering, I was looking around......NO MARK. Crossed the finish line....still NO MARK. Where is he? So I walked towards the food area and sure enough he was over there with a cookie and bottle of water. I know he knows about how fast I run so he will never live down that he has now missed me coming in as first place female TWICE because he was parched and needed a sip of water. Couldn't wait 3 minutes to see me finish first. :-P Sorry Honey, I love you but will be giving you grief about that for a long time ----<{@

Final time: 24:08 (7:46 pace). As Mark mentioned, the course was long so it may have been a new 5k PR for me as well if it was measured correctly. Average Heart Rate - 187. Leg/IT Band is definitely more sore today (Monday) after that hard 5k run and a long easy recovery 12 miler yesterday. Going for a soak at the club over lunch today since I'm working from home. Realized I am almost back to the distance where my injury occurred last year so I'm a bit nervous about the next few weeks.

Mark: It was probably the most profitable race we have ever ran, 2 free entries and between the two of us we brought home $75 in Scheels Gift Cards. Not a bad morning at all.

Next up - Walk on Waconia 10 Mile. Kris and I sat down last night and look at our remaining races as we approach Grandma's and decided that we are going to concentrate on the the equivalent paces the McMillan predicts that we can run, 10 mile, 1/2 marathon and 20 mile.

Birthdays and Geocaching!

2011-04-24T14:35:00.001-05:00

Mark: I have been geocaching for 5 years now and during that time I sort of stumbled onto my own personal tradition, Birthday Geocaching. I pick a day, typically the weekend before or after my birthday, and I just take off and go geocaching. Three years ago I took off and drove up the North Shore, then over to Ely to then finally to Alvin's Phone Line. Two years ago when I met Kris, my birthday geocaching trip was her first extended experience geocaching and she loved it, so now it continues as a annual event. Kris: One I look forward to every year :)

Mark: This year I was having a hard time decided where we wanted to go and then it dawned on me, why not run a race and then cache the rest of the day, but where and what race. It was Kris who came up with the best idea, why not run the Earth Day Half Marathon and cache around the St. Could area, but he best part of it was she suggested we run the race as a relay team, that way it would not be too much running, we would still have some energy for caching the rest of the day.

As you may have already read we had a great time running the half marathon relay and ironically at the finish line was Jam3s, one of our geocaching friends. After we changed out of our running gear we started to look for caches the find, since Jam3s was from the St. Cloud area I sent him a message asking for any recommendations, he had one, Pillar of the Community, which turned out to be quite the challenge.

All in all we found 20 caches, not a lot but we were not concentrating on numbers. We DNF's 4 I think, but that number might not be as high if the weather had been a little warmer. It was frustrating getting cold while looking for the caches. It's April......It should not be this cold, not to mention the snow that was on the ground when we got up this morning.

One other side note about birthday caching this year. The month of April has always been my busiest, (most caches found) month, birthday caching trips have helped. But there was one day of the month that I had never found a cache, April 16th. Convenient that my birthday trip fell on the 16th this year. ;)

Kris: I tried to do my best to video the experience so here ya go.....sorry it was a bit windy!!

Earth Day Half Marathon

2011-04-21T22:32:00.003-05:00

Earth Day Run Half Marathon

Kris: This past weekend Mark and I went up to St. Cloud for the Earth Day Run Half Marathon as a two person relay. Unfortunately our training this past week got a bit off so I was a bit nervous as to what kind of pace I could push through. It was a very chilly morning so we had to drag out the cold weather gear after being in our shorts the past week or so. I ran the first half and was hoping to hang on to the 7:38min/mi (1:40 half) group for as long as I could. I knew it was very unlikely that I'd stick with them for the whole distance but I want to push myself a bit as opposed to running a) without a pacer or b) with the 8:00 min/mi (1:45 half). I was fairly confident I could do the 8:00 min pace so I had to jump down to 7:38. Plus, looking at last year's results, Mark and I were confident in the possibility that we could place as a co-ed team if we ran a combined time of under 1:40:00.

I was really nervous at the start since I knew it was going to be a fast pace for me but we took off and, without throwing too many elbows, tried to stay right on the heels of the pacers. The first two miles didn't feel too bad but right after mile 3 I got that "wall" feeling and I started to slowly trail off the back of the group. Holding on for 3 miles though felt good and makes me a bit more confident at a potential PR at this weekend's Chamber Challenge 5k.

My half was fairly flat and I was happy with how I did. Ended with an avg heart rate of 182 (yeah...i know it's high but it's always been that way :-P) I definitely think running with music again this year has been helpful for me. It puts my mind on something other than my severely heavy breathing and pounding heart rate and allows me to push a bit faster (I think).

Mark: After the race started I had a little time to kill so I dropped off our stuff at the car and then came back to the field house to stretch and stay warm until it was time to head down to the exchange point. After a short walk I warmed up by running down the course a bit which brought me to a GU stop and then a water stop which was idea as we had breakfast much earlier in the morning and I knew I might need a bit more energy. My goal was to run the second half in the 6:46-6:52 pace range which is about a 42:00-42:40 10K.

While I was waiting for Kris I watched the other relay teams come through the exchange and to my pleasant surprise, when Kris got there only two Coed teams were ahead of us, unfortunately they were a couple minutes ahead and it was unlikely that I could catch them but perhaps I could claim 3rd place for us. I kept a close eye on who I was passing and the very few runners that passed me, relay teams had an ankle chip as opposed to one on the shoe and it was bright orange so it was easy to spot. All in all I think there was only 2 other relay runners who passed me, and as the race wore on I desperately tried to keep them in my sights but they just got beyond my reach. One in particular was easy to spot as he was wearing a bright orange hat, as as it turned out that was the one I really needed to stay with.

Kris already mentioned that it was cold out but on my half of the course the wind became a factor and it was quite strong and we turned to head back at the southern most part of the course. The southern part of the course was also rolling hills and combined with the wind slowed me down a bit, plus I was getting tired. 10K is about the limit that most runners can maintain at or above Anaerobic Threshold. For me my predicted max HR is 182 and I averaged 167 for 7+ miles.

Here is a map of my half of the course.

I was also running with music (Daft Punk Alive 2007) I think it is helping me out as well and for most of the race I was in my own zone but near the end as we were approaching the stadium, with about a 1/4 mile left, I had an opportunity to have a little fun. Another relay runner passed me and on the side of the road, what must have been his partner was screaming and yelling at him to pick it up he was almost there, running beside him to encourage him on. I let him go not worrying about them being a coed team and just focused on my finish. As we turned the corner and headed onto the football field (That is second football field finish line in as many weeks, Goldy's the week before) I dropped the hammer and took off. Now I don't know if this is a failing of mine but I have always been able to finish a race, last 100-200 yards at my top speed, perhaps I am not leaving enough on the course but that is what I have always been able to do, I would love any opinions about that. So anyway the guy who passed me was about 10 yards ahead and I easily caught him and then dropped him like a bad habit, I think his team mate pushed him to start his sprint for the finish line too soon as he was fading fast. Good thing I did pass him. ;)

Kris: After the race we hung out and chatted with a number of friends that were there running and/or cheering. We were both in serious need of a stretch, Mark's calves have been getting tight and my IT and quad seems to be a little unhappy after cool-down. I haven't noticed any problems DURING running though so I'm staying confident that I'm going to make it through the marathon distance. I'm still ramping up my mileage very slowly compared to a normal schedule but I'm finally up to distances that makes me feel a bit more like a runner again and obviously the reduced mileage per week hasn't had an effect on my pace. If anything, Mark and I have been chatting about how we both seem faster this year and don't entirely know why. Part of me thinks it may be due to the fact that I'm about 10 lbs lighter than I was a year ago.

I was very excited that Tonic Sol-fa was part of the post-race entertainment. I've been such a huge fan of their music and tried to be close to the stage without looking like a mosh-pit stalker as most people seemed to be standing at least 40 ft back from the stage.

Here is our post-race recap video:

Awards came and went without our name being called. I was kinda bummed but at the same time excited to find out we came in 4th place out of 66 co-ed relay teams and 10th out of 202 total teams. Mark: (Catching that guy at the finish paid off) Kris: We missed third place by 57 seconds!! We both enjoyed the race and have agreed that we would like to come back to try for a new team PR and hopefully a podium spot :)

McMillian Running Calculator - Is it right?

2011-04-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

Recently we've been using the McMillan Running Calculator to try and figure out our training paces and what pace groups we should try to stay with during races. I've heard a lot of people talk about how great this calculator is for figuring out what paces you should be training at and what your body "should" be able to do in terms of setting PRs so now that I figured out the best way for me to use it, I wanted to post what I learned and see what you all think.

First Calculation: Based on my half marathon PR from last year of 1:54:58 (Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon), the calculator says I can do the following:

1 mile in 7:10.8
10 mile in 1:26:34
Marathon in 4:02:28
Easy Run Pace: 9:46-10:16min/mi
Tempo Runs: 8:25 - 8:47min/mi

CONCLUSION: This was not a good basis for pacing. My current PRs for all of the above listed races except the marathon is faster than what this calculation said I could do them in. Plus running an easy pace at 10:00min/mi is much slower than what I normally do and consider an easy pace.

Second Calculation: Based on my 10 mile PR from last year of 1:24:02 (Monster Dash), the calculator says I can do the following:

1 mile in 6:58.1
Half Marathon in 1:51:36
Marathon in 3:55:22
Easy Run Pace: 9:29-9:59/mi
Tempo Runs: 8:10- 8:31/mi

CONCLUSION: This was a better basis for pacing my current training but still didn't feel quite right. Granted I was slighly injured when I made this 10 mile PR but these times were not enough of a push for me personally. My 1 mile PR is already 12 seconds faster than what's listed and my tempo runs currently get down usually in the 7:50s.

Third and FINAL Calculation: Based on my 1 mile PR from last year of 6:46 (TC 1-Mile), the calculator says I can do the following:

10 mile in 1:21:36
Half Marathon in 1:48:21
Marathon in 3:48:32
Easy Run Pace: 9:14-9:44/mi
Tempo Runs: 7:49- 8:06/mi

CONCLUSION: BINGO!! I just got a new 10 mile PR last week of 1:19:55, I've been thinking I want to try to stay with the 8:15 pace group for my upcoming half marathon which puts me at a finishing time of 1:48:05 with my ultimate goal of trying to stay with the 8:45 pace group for Grandma's Marathon which is a 3:49:25. PERFECT!!

So I am all for using the McMillan Running Calculator to determine my goals for the races leading up to my "A" race of Grandma's Marathon IF I base them off my 1 mile PR.

Who else has used this calculator and what have you figured out about it? Anyone else have feedback or suggestions on figuring our marathon training paces?

Goldy's Run - Check This Out!

2011-04-09T23:06:00.001-05:00

Kris: Two new PRs and a podium finish. Yeah.....seriously!

I wasn't really sure what was going to come out of today. Originally I wanted to try for a straight 8:15min/mi pace. Then after our last long easy run that felt like maybe it would be too much so I decided to stay with the 8:30 pacers for 5 miles and then try to take off for the second half. Then we found out the course was actually quite hilly. Ah, wtf do I do?? Stick to the plan and hope for the best. Mark: After our last long run where we were testing out our pacing, I decided it might be best to stick with the 7:30 group and save some speed for the last couple of miles.

Kris: I was feeling pretty good by time we hit the start line since we had quite a few friends around us.   We found Don and Scott from MN Running Wild, Tina, Adam and Leah were pacers for the race, Steve, Tony (Gilby) was there for his first road race in his training for Grandma's and of course the ever awesome Brandon and Theresa (Team Baby Dinosaur) up from CO for the week. Mark: Last night I tweeked my hip and it was still bothering me when I woke up this morning so I was not sure what was going to happen. Luckily some Biofreeze and Ibuprofen made all this difference and by the start of the race I felt great. It really was a who's who of people who we know, in addition to our friends Kris already mentioned we also ran into Pete and saw several TNT'ers as well.

Tony and I ran the first half with the 8:30 pace group which was actually being led by Leah so it went by really fast since we were distracted chatting quite a bit. Part of me wanted to take off before the 5 mile mark because I knew it was flat but I stuck to my plan.   It actually worked out great because shortly after the 5 mile mark was this wonderful LONG downhill that gave me a great recovery and lots of speed. I had my Garmin lap set for 0.25mi and one of them going downhill was like 7:16 min/mi.   Geez! Granted then I got my rear handed to me going up the LONG uphill. I have this habit of trying to power up hills and then recover after. It works but it gets my heart rate up . I think I was around 190 at least twice on the course.

Mark: I started out with the 7:30 pacer and as much as I tried I could not stay at that pace, so after the first mile I settled into my own pace which was somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30 and slowly pulled ahead. This course was indeed hilly but for me that works to my strengths, I honestly like hills and I make most of my passes on climbs. Since I recently got a new Garmin I have been keeping an eye on my HR during training runs and now races. At the top of every climb I quickly checked and my HR was consistently at 161 with the last major hill peaking my HR at 162 so I was very happy with that.

Kris: I had my headphones on for the race and honestly I think it helps me pass the time much better and not think so much about how tired I am. I also would love to credit my new Newton's for some of my speed. They are extremely comfortable for me.   Granted as you can see by the below picture, if I'm not concentrating (like when I flag down Steve Stenzel who's cheering and taking pictures), I am a horrible heel striker.

Of course here is Mark, not in Newtons, in a perfect stride as usual :-P

The race was very unique in that the finish was around the TCF Stadium and down onto the field, ending at the 50 yard line. So the last 1/4 to 1/2 mile was flat, around the building and down the ramp. I do have to say it was a seriously awesome finish area. (could probably use a few more post race treats though ;) Mark: After you loop around the stadium, you enter Gate D and run through the dark tunnel which is a stepped slope down to the field level, and if you're not careful you could loose your footing, luckily I was able to hit the field at a full out sprint and even passed a few more runner on the way to the 50 yard line.

Tony, Kris and Mark

Kris: We all hung out at the finish, took some photos and then myself, Mark and Tony decided to further drag Brandon and Theresa into the awesome obsession of geocaching. There was a creative hide on campus that we brought them over to and had them make the find. And while enjoying a mocha treat at Caribou, without any prompting, Tony also told Brandon how ridiculously awesome it is that he's a pilot and could rapidly fill in the states map. (See Brandon.....geocachers may be nerds but you would be a really cool nerd! :-P )

So the race was great and the company was really great. Mark came out with a killer PR. Mark: Thanks Honey! My previous PR was over 3 years old and I thoroughly enjoyed testing my legs, I am definitely a better runner then I was in 2008, my first season. I improved my PR by 11:04! Now I just need to break 1:10, but I promise not to get obssed with a sub 1 hour 10 mile. ;)

Kris: And I took about 4 minutes off my previous 10 mile PR, managed about a 8:06 min/mi average (up for discussion as the course measurement seems to be about .20 different than our GPS watches).

The only REALLY unfortunate part of the race was that I got 3rd in my age group and could have been part of the awards ceremony but I had no idea and left!! AHH! I age up in 2 months and will likely have little to no shot at a podium finish against 30-34 women so I was super bummed that I didn't know and we didn't stay. (Hey Podium.....please make sure their is a REALLY obvious place to get your results immediately after the race. We briefly looked for it before we left and didn't see it) So I'm very excited to get my award in the mail but really bummed I wasn't part of the ceremony. Mark: Congrats Honey!! Your so much faster then you give yourself credit. You will have a chance at another podium real soon.

Kris: I have to be very relieved and happy though that I didn't ONCE think about my knee. It didn't hurt or feel "wanky" at all during the race. Tonight sitting here writing this it's tight and hot but that's OK. I am feeling more and more confident that I'm successfully getting over this injury and can make a really push for Grandma's and Whistlestop this year.

Kris: 1:19:55 - Mark 1:10:35 - (FULL RESULTS HERE)

Next up....Earth Day Half Marathon Relay. 6.65 Miles.....can I go sub-8?? Not going to get my hopes up....but it would be seriously sweet ;)

First Run Race After Injury....Nervous?

2011-04-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

Kris: A little....

This is the first time in a long time I actually am having pre-race jitters.   I haven't "raced" a race since last October and even then I was starting to feel the IT band injury.   So post wedding marathon, it was two months of no running and then super slow return to mileage.   So this Saturday will be my first attempt to "race" in about 6 months.   #1 I just want to be able to run hard and NOT feel the injury and #2 potentially pull a new PR.

I never thought a new PR would be possible this spring since my running has been so restricted but there might be something to that "less is more" mileage plan.   At least while recovering for me.   My paces have been sub-9:00 for most of my runs and I've been feeling good.   Every run I feel pretty fresh so I'm excited/nervous to see what happens.   It's the Goldy's Run 10-mile. Pretty flat and I get to try out pacers this time around.

Mark and I have both decided we are going to try to use the pacers in marathon training this year.   Unfortunately I think my ideal pacer pace for Saturday would be 8:15min/mi but they only come in :30 sec intervals.   Last weekend we went for a long run and without pushing myself too hard I think it was fairly clear that trying to stay with the 8:00 group would be much too fast.   But the 8:30 group might be too easy.   To PR, I need to beat my previous PR pace of 8:26 so my plan to go for a new PR but also see what it's like to run in a pace group is to run with the 8:30 group for the first 5 miles and then, provided everything including the left knee/IT is feeling good, I'll break from the pack and rev it up a bit for the second half.

Mark: I am also hopefully will be trying for a PR. Granted my PR for the 10 mile is over three years old, 100% Irish in 2008 and I am a much more experienced runner since then. 2008 was my first full season of running, having run my first race on Thanksgiving of 2007. Since my 10 mile PR, I have run 4 other 10 milers, but the focus has been running with Kris and this will be my first opportunity to try out the legs and see what I can do. McMillian says I can do it in 1:11:33 (based on my 1 mile PR) Not sure I am up to that but I think I can manage a sub 1:15, it might just depend on how I feel on Saturday. This past Saturday when Kris and I were testing our legs I actually set a PR during my training run so I am feeling good going into this weekend.

Like Kris mentioned I am also going to be running with the pacers to start out with, and somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder if that is a true test of what I can do but yesterday the new Runners World showed up in the mail and there was a big article about "Rabbits" who are essentially paces for the elite runners of the world. So if they can do it and set World Records, then I certainly can set a PR with a pacer. Did you know that when Roger Bannister broke the 4:00 minute mile he had two rabbits to help him.

Feedback anyone???   Runners please comment if you have either

Come off an injury that had you not running for a few months or
Had a good/bad experience with starting to use pace groups to set new PRs.

New Cache Placement - LPC Series

2011-04-04T21:53:00.000-05:00

Kris: Ah, finally almost all the snow is gone and caches are coming free of the ice left and right :D Mark and I are getting very excited to spend some upcoming weekends out caching. Plus we've made plans to visit North Dakota and Colorado this year so I'll be adding two states to my map :)

Two weeks ago I placed my cache that is going to be part of the MN LPC Series. We captured the coordinates on the GPS but then a few days later wiped the memory to upload new information and lost the coordinates. (Drat.....) So today we were back out in Waconia, checked on our creative container and grabbed the coordinates again. I have always gotten a kick out of "skirt lifter" caches and the creation of this series by EP Minnesota has really brought out some fun containers in what is normally a very "film canister filled" environment

And if you would like to claim the prize I refer to in the end of the video. Please email me at trichick7 (at) yahoo.com.

#Geocache365 - Day 236 - Out with the Team Dogs crew

2011-04-02T21:59:00.000-05:00

Kris: Quick find on a beautiful day so we brough Truffle and Journey along to get some fresh air:

#Geocache365 - Day 230: Our First Garmin Chirp Find

2011-03-31T09:09:00.000-05:00

Things are Looking Up and a Change in Racing Plans

2011-03-30T17:16:00.000-05:00

Kris: This is going to basically be a quick mish-mosh of some of our current happenings that, for once, are all moving us forward!!

Injury-wise I'm still only running 3 days per week but been keeping a decent pace on the longer runs and knee is feeling less and less achy on the days I'm not running.   Mark took a week off due to an Achilles strain and then took it easy and has been running with me this week and seems to have avoided any further damage.

It did dawn on us yesterday morning that we are less than 3 months from the Pipestem XTERRA triathlon and haven't been in the pool for a training swim in months.   Luckily the financial situation is turning around a bit so as long as we can motivate ourselves out of bed next week, we can pay our way back into morning Masters swim training 2x per week. Getting out of bed has been impossible for us lately but we've been trying to force ourselves to bed earlier so it's not such a short night.

MY TOWNHOUSE IS FINALLY GOING UP FOR SALE!!! :D :D :D
We managed to get a loan lined up and so the townhouse is being listed next week. Granted it is being sold for much less than I bought it for but at this point, it's killing us financially so even at a loss, we'll end up with a smaller, much more manageable loan.   That will allow us to start paying off some debt, fix up our current house and start thinking about buying one that is better suited for us. Cross your fingers!!

----------
Well we did just find out one UNfortunate thing this evening. Boulder 70.3 filled up before we got around enough money and courage to sign up for it. Sorry Team Baby Dinosaur :( :(   So bummed that we aren't in for this one now but maybe we can rearrange and create a solid plan to come visit Colorado in September ;)

But that does mean we are now looking at any other race possibilites for July and August.  Something probably here in the Midwest so we can just make it a weekend driving trip.   Road or off-road triathlon or some unique endurance events.

If you know of a great off-road triathlon, half iron triathlon or some other fun, unique endurance event, please comment and let me know!

Favorite Beer??

2011-03-26T22:31:00.003-05:00

OK, so today while Kris and I were walking around the the Mall of America she asked me what my favorite beer was? I actually had to stop and think about it and I could not come up with an answer. So she asked me my top two favorite beers..... Still I had to think about it and I could not come up with a definite answer. So I spent some time and tried to think, if I walked into the liquor store or a bar what beer would I buy/order?

When I'm at a restaurant or a bar, the first beer that I look to see if they have is Blue Moon. A great beer on tap or from the bottle, but it has to be served with an orange.
Along the same lines is Leinie's Honey Weiss, served with a lemon wedge. I used to drink it a lot but recently it has fallen out of favor with me, not because I don't like it just because I think I have had my full.
Another beer that I truly enjoy is Michelob AmberBock. If I want to drink it though I have to buy it at the liquor store as it is a rare treat when you find it on tap in the bar.
Recently I find myself ordering Stella Artois whenever it is available. It is a great beer that has great bang for it's buck.
A new beer that I have been enjoying lately on a limited basis is New Glarus Brewery's Spotted Cow which is a great local beer from Wisconsin. Unfortunately it is only available when you take a trip into cheeseland.
A "Green" beer that I frequently purchase is Dos Equis. A good beer form south of the border that needs a lime wedge to enjoy. I am sensing a trend... Orange, Lemon and Lime's
I love REAL Irish beer and if I had to choose just one from the emerald isle I would have to go with the obvious choice.... Guinness. It is a beer that has to be server at just the right temperature, if it is warm it is as my brother would put it, like chewing on a tree branch. But when the temp is just right, it is a true pleasure to enjoy. Of note it is great as part of a Black and Tan as well.
If I include a German beer on my favorite list it would have to be Paulaner. A beer that I was introduced to several years ago during Oktoberfest at Gasthof. If your going to have Paulaner, make sure that you have it in a boot.
The last beer on my list would be Coors, and don't be mistaken and think I like Coors Light, No I am talking about the Original Coors Banquet Beer. It is really good, a great summer beer when it is hot. If you have never tried it or are only familiar with the "light" version, go out and buy the real thing!

When I was younger I used to drink different beers and I suspect that has a lot to due with the fact that I have grown up and have a better pallet. In my 20's I used to drink MGD a lot. I suppose it was cheaper and everyone else liked it so it was easy to bring a 12/24 pack to a party. In my late 30's I drank a local "Irish" beer, and if you have ever seen the tattoo on my arm you would know what beer I am talking about. Unfortunately that "Beer" has lost it's vision and not really worth it.

So can I answer my wife's question?? Sure. My favorite beer is any one of them on my list and depends on my mood and what I might be eating at the time. I am always open to suggestions and if you know of a beer that you think I would enjoy, please feel free to leave a comment let me know.

Mr "OK-So-Actually" and Mrs "UH-So-Actually"

2011-03-19T22:58:00.000-05:00

Kris: I've trying to find a better way to keep up with our blogging and also the posting of our videos. Most of the videos we put together are part of our #Geocache365 Project, something we are trying to use to develop into more of a short film series eventually on it's own blog/site.

Now any of you that have seen all of our geocaching videos you may have come upon our horrible speaking habits. Ever since I started watching our films clips, it's ridiculously obvious that both Mark and I stutter and severely overuse the words OK, So and Actually. So.....please know we are going to keep working on that :) Below is our most recent video of a find and some of our opinions on the archiving of the ET Power Trail. You can find the rest of our Geocache365 videos by searching for makuhn2000 channel on YouTube.

It's pretty late in the evening so I'll cut this post here. But I will say we had a really fun day today course marshalling for the Get Lucky Half Marathon. We saw a number of our runner friends and then got to hang out with Team Baby Dinosaur for the afternoon while they were in town. Those two are so much like us, it's funny awesome :) Although I'm sure their house stays much cleaner than ours and is much less......uh.....chewed on.

We spent some extra time Friday night trying to clean up so it was a little more presentable, and then I crossed my fingers that our sweet, not so intelligent Journey didn't make a puddle or mess on the floor for us to find when we arrived back at the house with our guests! We love Journey dearly, but being a mistreated puppy mill dog, she's not all there and we have to be very patient with her mess making.

We'll try to get a training, rehab, racing update to you tomorrow :)

Mardi Gras and lots of Food & Wine!!

2011-03-08T21:45:00.000-06:00

Kris: This past weekend was a busy, fun weekend again starting with our Geocaching Mardi Gras party put on by our geocaching friends NOSNOW and Shadow's Friend. It was so much fun to catch up with a number of our friends since I don't think we've been out to an event since our "Eat, Greet and Meet the Newlyweds" event back in December. I was a little concerned we were going to have to show up at this Mardi Gras event without masks but thanks to a trip through the $1 aisle at Target the night before, we were all set :) Mark: Kris forgot to mention that our $1 aisle masks also earned us each a Mardi Gras geocoin.

Kris: Sunday morning was a morning of running and classes again at Life Time for me. I could only run 6 miles and Mark was doing 12 so we ran his first 6 together on the trail from the St. Louis Park Life Time Fitness towards downtown and back and then while he finished his second 6 miles, I went in to a Barbell Strength class. While I still get cranky about not being able to feel like I'm on a "real" marathon training schedule yet, I have really enjoyed being able to get in a run plus a class or two at the club on Sunday mornings. Pace is actually doing fairly well, I've been able to keep all my runs below a 9:00min/mi pace. The knee was a little achy after we were done working out but no pain during the run :) Mark: After the first six miles with Kris I grabbed her Garmin and headed back down the trail torwards downtown, when I got to Cedar Lake the time I turned and followed the trail doen to Lake Calhoun, and then over to Lake of the Isles and back to Cedar Lake on the way back to the club. It was supposed to be 6 miles according to the map at LTF but I made a wrong turn and it ended up being 7 miles. So being me, I had to run a little more, .1 and run a half marthon just for fun. What was fun was finally having HR information for a run. My average HR for 7.12 miles was 149bpm with a high of 162bpm and that was at a 7:57 average pace. Not sure what to make of that but it is interesting.

Kris: And it was probably a really good thing that we had our longer workout on Sunday morning since that afternoon we were headed to the Food and Wine Show. I was so excited when I won two tickets for us to go to the show through a Twitter contest from Minnesota Monthly Magazine (thank you!!) The two tickets were worth $150 total. Mark: Kris wins countless things via Twitter contests, while we were at the show, Urban Eatery mentioned they had a chance to win a $25 Gift card. Guess who won? Today Kris also happen to win tickets to the Pet Expo this coming weekend.

Kris: Luckily they had a number of food items in between the wine samples because I probably had the equivalent of 4 glasses of wine. But my downfall I think was that I was so hungry coming in to the show, I ate too many larger samples so that by time we were half way through the show, we were starting to share our samplings! Mark: We ate so much, not only were we sharing the second half of the show, we were being picky about what samples we were eating. My tummy HURT for all the food.

Kris: At first I was having trouble holding on to my bag of coupons, my glass of wine, whatever the current sample was AND a fork. But I made a very helpful discovery. A lot of the samples came in a cup that fit in the top of my wine glass. So I started having fun with that......

Bloody Mary | Curried Rice with Chicken

A little coffee | Cole Slaw

And the napkins were thick enough to form a plate for my bruschetta | Turkey Chili

Mushroom Dessert (...it was ok) | Caramel Puff Corn

Baked Beans

And one of my favorite sections to go through had a huge line of cheese vendors. I can't even tell you how many different cheese there were. Everything from bleus to bries to new cheddar, old cheddar, smoked gouda....yum!!! Here's a few looking down the one line of cheese samples:

And Mark gave me a bit of insight that really paid off. He has worked at this show before and learned many of the vendors hand stuff out at the end of the last day. Basically so they don't have to drag it back home. With about 15 minutes left in the show, we started to double back on all the booths to see if anyone was giving stuff out. OMG did we come home with a stash!

We spent $5.00 to park, $2.00 to check our coats and ended up coming home with all this....

Mark: Just for fun let me itemize what you are looking in in that photo.

A case of 6 12oz Cameron Coffee (6x$7) plus two sample sizes
A 12 pack of Samual Adams
A 4 Pack of Pomegranate Ginger Ale
1 Random Amber Ale, forgot who the brewer was.
3 Wedges of Cheese 2x Gouda and Pepper Jack
6 Bottles of water
4 fortune cookies
6 Carmel Dips (for apples)

Kris: Taking into account the tickets were free, this was awesome! Especially the box of coffee :)

The Never Ending Love I Have for the Residents at Home for Life

2011-03-08T08:05:00.000-06:00

Kris: I wrote this up and submitted as a possible guest post to the Home for Life blog. It's not posted there yet but I wanted to make sure and post it to my readers as well. If you want to put your money towards a wonderful animal charity, please consider Home for Life.
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I need to start this story back a few years. I had been sponsoring a Feline Leukemia positive cat named Freeway.

He was a quiet, sweet, white cat with one blue eye and one green. We knew his time was limited but I got to give him lots of love until the end. It was a hard loss but when it was time for me to choose another cat to switch my sponsor to, another sweet white cat with one blue eye and one green stole my heart with her ridiculous amount of cuteness.

Her name was Olive and I learned from Lisa that was one of the first cats in the HFL crew. Over the years I sponsored her I just couldn’t get to see her enough as she treated my visits like she just won the kitty lottery. Always so happy and cuddly. So to cut right to it, her death was a painful loss. Her life was significantly lengthened by the care and attention she received from the Home for Life staff but unfortunately in her advanced age, an infection got the best of her very quickly.

It was hard to visit the sanctuary and not see her there but we recently made a special visit to decide who I would be transferring my sponsorship to. We spent time meeting lots of new cats and giving some love to a few that I have met many times before. I spent a day with Celeste with I volunteered at the MOA this past holiday season so she has earned a special place in my heart.

From the HFL website: Celeste was first sighted running as a stray at a trailer park in Wisconsin. Kind residents there left food and water out for her and she enjoyed and appreciated the attention. It is very likely she would not have survived had these people not reached out to her—Celeste is blind.

But you've never know it. She gets around obstacles with ease and will come running right to me when I call her name. And she's a serious cuddler!! More than I've ever seen in any other cat. She loves me to hold her and will put one paw on each shoulder and nudge my neck with her little wet nose for hours I think if I'd let her. I’ve had a few people ask me why I didn’t choose to sponsor her but it’s only because 1) I know she already has sponsors and 2) whether I sponsor her or not, I will always go spend time with her when I’m at the sanctuary.

I had made a decision that I wanted to sponsor a cat that did not already have a sponsor. There are so many “normal” cats at the sanctuary that often get overlooked for sponsorships. They don’t have any special medical condition, unique situation or tragic story; they are just cats that need love as much as the next cat. Freeway had a horrible disease and I will always miss him. Olive, was a special cat with a special situation and I will always miss her too but now Mark and I are proud sponsors to just a sweet black cat who is a little hard of hearing.

His name is Jonathan. I didn't notice right away that he was quietly following me around. He would walk around me, give a subtle rub against my leg, then watch for an empty spot in my lap. He doesn't have any defects or known diseases, he's just a cat that was found to be deaf and found his way to Home for Life.

He's got lots of character and handsome, glowing yellow eyes. We spent a few minutes with him while Lisa was giving us his story and all of a sudden he decided the best place to perch would be on my shoulders. We have two wonderful rescue cats at home, one of who loves to spend time on my shoulders. So in that one move by Jonathan, he stole my heart. He chose us.

Surviving Winter Triathlon Training! (My Social Experiment)

2011-03-03T10:47:00.000-06:00

Kris: So I'm sitting here at work and can't help but think about how lately I haven't been training nearly enough and feeling like a TOTAL slug. I know I've been coming up with a number of excuses including lack of time and $$ but the things that seem to keep me from wanting to go out to the pool or spin or run (outdoors or at the club) are:

Snow
Cold Mornings
Icy Trails
Cold Afternoons
Shorter Days
Lack of Sunlight
Layers and Layers of Running Clothing

So as an active member or the social media community, I've decided I want to reach out and see if you would all be willing to help me put together a list of Your Best Ways to Stay Motivated!

So no matter what your outdoor sport, please post your best "kick in the butt" reason or saying or whatever so we can all have a place to come back to and read when we are feeling like sitting on the couch and not getting out to train. If I get enough feedback, I'll compile them into a separate blog post for you all. Please send this to all your athlete friends who are also trying to survive this winter and ask them to post!

Thanks in advance, you are all awesome :)

Mini Golf and Golden Statues!!

2011-03-02T09:38:00.006-06:00

Mark: We managed to keep busy this last weekend attending not one but two unique events.

On Friday night Kris and I along with our friends Steve and Bobbi took part in the Skyway Open, a mini golf event setup in the downtown Minneapolis skyways. The course features 18 one of a kind miniature golf holes created by local architecture firms. Steve and I have done this event in the past and we wanted to share the fun with our significant others this year.

All in all in was a very fun evening! Our tee time was 6:30pm starting at Hole #1 in City Center, and I have to say the first 5 holes were my favorite, there were still plenty of people around and that added to the fun. Some of the later holes it was a bit sparse and then once the 19th Hole party started, a lot of the volunteers abandoned the holes they were "managing" and it was just the four of us at times. Kris: It was a lot of fun for the 4 of us to hang out but I definitely was expecting it to be busier on a Friday night.

Kris: I managed to throw together a quick video of our outing. Unfortunately I don't have the greatest editing software and video card so I'll likely say this every time I put up a video....excuse the cheap editing :-P

We were definitely not going to contend for lowest score, not even if we were playing best score for each hole. I think we even mentioned that we hoped they were randomly drawing prizes and then we might stand a chance. By the time we reached the 18th hole it was about 8:30 and the skyways were getting a bit chilly, so we turned in our scorecard and headed to the 19th Hole party in the LaSalle Plaza for the free beer and wine and free appetizers!! They even had a vodka company there making Bloody Marys with Horseradish Vodka. At first we thought that we might have missed out on the appetizers because all there was left was fruit (Kris: Which was great for me as I got a severe filling of mango slices! Then came the cookies.....) but as we stood around chatting the table was replenished and then waiters appeared passing various hors d'oeuvres. For the very first time I got to try Steak Tartar, not bad!! Kris however was not a fan. I think we finally called it a night around 11pm, funny how that seems late to me nowdays.

On Sunday Evening Kris and I attended the Aegis Oscar Night Watching Party at the Ivy Hotel, an opportunity for us to really dress to the 9's and hit the town. A few weeks ago Crowd Cut had a 50% off ticket price for the Oscar party and we decided why not, lets try something new. So after spending the late morning early/afternoon getting in our workout we went home and spent some timing thinking about what to wear. Kris tried on several different dress options and I picked my favorite, I had a good idea what I was going to wear it just came down to picking the right tie.

So after "Puttin on the Ritz", we headed down to the Ivy and walked the red carpet, got our picture taken on the red carpet in front of a "Step 'n' Repeat" (Charlie and Mike will be proud) and headed upstairs to the party.

A geocaching friend of ours Josh (who also took over as Minneapolis Geocaching Examiner and writes great articles so check it out!) and his wife Tammy were also attending along with their friends Dave and Kim so we grabbed a table together near the front and started working on our Oscar predictions. You could buy a ballot card for $10 and try to win prizes based how many predictions you got right. Unfortunately we were making some of our predictions in the blind and we ended up getting about half of them right.

Besides the some basic appetizers, popcorn, Rum and Surly specials they had a huge table full of candy for everyone to munch on during the show. They had so much candy in fact that most people (including us) went home with plenty of candy.

Another one of my friends, Colin was at the party as well and I saw him and his wife Kelly briefly when they were at the appetizer table but by the time I got over to that side of the room they disappeared. He sent me a Facebook message at one point during the evening but we never hooked up.

We had so much fun that we would do this again in a heartbeat and I highly recommend that anyone else attend as well. And on a personal note, I got to see just how BEAUTIFUL my new bride really is!! Don't get me wrong, she is always beautiful to me but all dolled up she looks AMAZING!!! Kris: Mark is incredible at earning bonus points ;) I think part of why I looked so good was because I got my super handsome husband by my side all night. You looked hot too, honey ----<{@ Love you Handsome!!!

Snowmageddon - Round 2

2011-02-21T22:06:00.000-06:00

Kris: Yesterday Mother Nature decided we needed another foot or so of snow. The sad part is that it was supposed to be done by Noon today but I think we're getting more fluffy stuff today than we did yesterday. Argh! Luckily, Saturday we got a bunch of required errands done. Then on Sunday, got our daily cache early in the morning and spent the day working on house projects. Mark worked on the main floor bathroom. It hasn't been functional in years due to bad flooring that needed to be replaced. So he got the new duct work in and the new subfloor :D Mark: I plan of writing a full blog with pictures from the very beginning to the end of the project after the bathroom is finished. Kris: I worked on a bunch of cleaning and focused on getting all the wallpaper off the walls in the kitchen.

Wallpaper was developed by devils....they thought it would be funny for the next guy to try and REMOVE from the walls.

I also enjoyed that I got to cook this evening. I made the Thai Chili recipe from our new favorite magazine, Clean Eating Mark: For any guy reading this, please note if your signifigant other likes/loves to cook, Clean Eating is the greatest magazine that you can get a subscription too. Not only does Kris get excited about reading through all of the recipes and planning on what she is going to make next but we get to eat much healthier food which tastes really good. I have tried more different types of foods for the first time since we got Clean Eating. Celeriac, Squash, Turnips, Collard Greens and Rapini. A win-win for all involved.

And here's a picture that was finally posted from BonTon Designs of when we went to a mosaic art class back on the 12th:

This afternoon we ended up making a couple short videos so I'll use those to finish this post :)

Damn you Boston Athletic Association!

2011-02-17T21:34:00.001-06:00

Kris: So I think the universe is trying to tell me I should quit worrying about Boston. Here's the sequence of events over the past few months:

We decide "Hey, let's make a go at Boston. Do it smart, take a couple seasons then make a run at qualifying."
Get a show-stopping injury while training for last marathon
Get to a point where I can "tolerate" my severly diminished training schedule for Boston to allow for proper rehab of my injury.
Finish my first week of training (2 runs)
THEN spend a week almost incapable of movement because I was severely laid up with the flu (Day 12.....still sniffling and coughing...)
Now that I'm back moving again, the BAA announces this crap.....

http://www.baa.org/news-and-press/news-listing/2011/february/boston-athletic-association-announces-new-registration-process.aspx

If you want the highlights, it's basically that they changed the registration system to allow those that qualify by 20 minutes or more first opportunity to register, then those that qualify by 10 minute, then 5 minutes, then everyone else until the field is sold out. AND....they removed the 59 second rule AND decreased all the qualifying times by 5 minutes. Basically crushing our hopes of ever being able to qualify and if we do, we might not even be able to register before it fills up.

Crap. Crap....crap....crap.....

Fitting photo of how I feel that I have in my work file :)

Mark: I am more then annoyed by the BAA. I can understand why they made the change to a seeded registration based on time, that make sense to me. Granted I can tell you right now what is going to happen, your average runners who barely make their qualification times will never be able to register for Boston because the registrations will fill up by then. What Boston should have done is placed a limit on the number of times that a runner can qualify/register for Boston. With their new system, the same runners will qualify and be able to register year after year and the average runner who's dream is to run in Boston who might be able to just qualify is basically screwed. Since they screwed the average runner, why not take it to the next step and make qualification times harder by an additional 5 minutes and 59 seconds. What a way to crush average runners dreams, thanks BAA you are a true shining light to the running community.

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On another angle of training, I am on my bike a bit more or in spin classes as an alternative to running. That's been a nice burn but I'm still really feeling weighed down by my/our eating habits lately. We've fallen into eating way too many calories a day so my weight is back up 3-4 from where I bottomed out. Mark: I hit 10 pounds since my low just before Las Vegas. Kris: It's kind of depressing me but I'm doing it to myself so I'm the only one to blame. Hoping to tough love myself back into eating right again by considering going on a calorie counting stretch again. Starting....sometime....maybe tomorrow. I think what might be the added "push" is the fact that I turn 30 in a little less than 4 months and I want to look good and feel good. Kind of like what we did before Mark's 40th last year.
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On another note we did have ridiculously beautiful weather this past week and were lucky to finally have a few opportunities to go after geocaches that were more than 10 ft from the car. We even got Sugar out with us one day for a lunch time cache grab.

Mark: Interesting to note, we used this picture for our #Geocache365 pic of the day on Wednesday, Day 192. We thought it was cute to hang the cache container from Sugars collar and she did such a nice job of posing. If you just glance at the picture quickly you would never realize that was the cache container. Fast forward about 6 hours and I get a email notification that my "Found" log had been deleted, the cache owner did not want a picture of the cache container because as he put it "(the size, the shape, the color etc.) is an integral part of the hide" Excuse me? It is a bison tube pine tree hide, there are thousands of caches just like that around the world. Nothing unique or special about this cache whatsoever. In fact we commented to each other as we were walking up to the cache that we should be looking for a green bison container. The cache hider only has 160+ finds and just the one hide so I understand that he has might not understand that his cache is just a plain pine tree hide. I did try to point out to the cache owner that gallery pictures often include pictures of the cache containers, that is why Geocaching.com indicates that any pictures have the potential to be spoilers. I respected the cache owners wishes and re-posted my find without the link to the picture. Just very annoying and typical when dealing with caching newbies.

Laid up sick.

2011-02-13T21:26:00.000-06:00

Kris: Yes folks I'm still alive.....barely....ok maybe I'm being dramatic but I have now been feeling some degree of miserable for 8 DAYS! I haven't been sick this long since I had pneumonia in 6th grade.

It all started last Saturday right after a run around Calhoun, I started getting achy and tired. Then we were scheduled to volunteer for the Loppet from 12-3:30. Luckily I got to sit down for most of that shift but when we were done I was drained. We ended up not being able to ski the luminary which we paid for weeks ago and rented skis for. I was so disappointed. Pretty much all day Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday I was laid up, exhausted, achy, bleh!!! My voice left sometime I think on Monday and it hasn't made it's way fully back yet. Laringitis maybe? Who knows. All I know is it's DAY 8 and I'm still feeling sick and coughing like crazy.

I guess this post is me just bitching about how awful I've been feeling. I'm depressed. I am not fully accepting of my new training schedule. I'm supposedly "in training" for Grandma's but rehab is only allowing me to run 2x per week and currently my runs are only 3.63 miles long. So after only one week of that, I get laid up sick and can't run or cross-train at all. Sludged out a run today and I can't stand that I'm sitting here feeling that stupid little twinge of pain behind my knee. Will this rehab work? I try so hard not to be mad but I just hate watching other people run without pain right now.

Our new routine...every evening I need to do my exercises and stretch and roll and Mark....paints his toe nails. He was chosen as a candidate for a drug trial for treating nail fungus so now every night for a year he needs to paint a clear coat on his toe nails. I keep threatening to throw glitter fleck into the bottle :-P

Mark has been a saint and so wonderful in taking care of me. I've been sick, sad, mad, emotional, you name it this week and he's done everything to make me feel better. I just am glad I didn't get him sick too. Well...he's got a bit of the sniffles that he's still battling but luckily that's it.

Tomorrow I need to go back to work. Last week I worked from home as much as my body would let me. At this rate I don't think my voice will be fully back tomorrow either but I'll do what I can.

Random cute cat photo. My Maverick resting with me

Married for 2 months now!

2011-02-09T11:53:00.000-06:00

This past weekend marked our 2 month anniversary (Feb 5th) AND our 2 year anniversary (Feb. 7th) and guess what we got each other? A cold/flu! On Saturday we volunteered for the City of Lakes Loppet and while we were volunteering Kris seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. And by 4pm she was gone, we even bypassed the Luminary Loppet that we signed up for and returned our skis early and she was in no condition to ski or be out in the cold for several hours. For the next couple of days Kris was basically bed ridden with no energy, sleeping when she could, so far I have been mostly lucky, I have avoided the severity that Kris has but I can tell that I have the cold/flu and it is making life a lot more difficult. Hopefully in a few days Kris will be better and I won't get any worse.

So as of this writing it is about 1 degree outside and I have had it with winter and cold and snow. So much so that I am really having a hard time motivating myself to even get things done around the house. My newest phrase is "I'll do it tomorrow" which is frustrating Kris, and I don't blame her, it is frustrating me but being stuck in the winter blahs sucks (The cold is not helping either). I am trying honey honestly.

We both are starting up our run training, Grandma's in now 19 weeks away. Last week (Week 20) I ran 21 miles and I was very happy with that and I want to be at a solid 30 miles per week before week 16. I am still desperately trying to get used to my Newtons, running around in the dome makes my left toes go numb, but as I discovered last night, basically the same this happens in my Mizuno Precision's so I will blame the solid concrete running surface and constant turning in one direction. On the plus side, last week was a bit warmer and I was able to get outside and run 4 days which felt amazing. I wore my Newtons and did not see to have the same problems as I am having in the dome. Hopefully getting outside more will help me adjust to the Newtons.

After an email request, Marathon Photos combined our official pictures from the Rock & Roll Marathon into one account and I purchased the lot including our finish line video. The raw video is basically the same time frame but from two different camera angels. For the first time I edited one of our videos and that was a blast. I shorted the beginning and ending and then sliced out some of the middle to have a fluid finish from one camera to the other. Here is my finished work. I think I could be nominated for a technical Oscar for editing. I hope you enjoy!

OK, That should gets us close to being caught up on the Blog front(for the moment). We do have a few new #Geocache365 vblogs that we hope to post in the next few days. So stay tuned!

Las Vegas Marathon Wedding - Our Highlight Video

2011-01-29T11:07:00.000-06:00

The highlight version of our wedding video is now uploaded and ready for viewing!! For our closer friends and family that haven't seen the full version yet (which is REALLY REALLY AWESOME!!) is too large to be uploaded anywhere so you'll need to let us know if you want to watch sometime. It's a 52 min feature in high definition. I feel like we're celebrities :D I'd love to share with everyone, but we only have it available on DVD.

I can't say enough wonderful things about our guys Charlie and Mike from Forever Films that put the video together for us. These are a fantastic pair of dedicated videographers that will do WONDERS to capture your big event. Please check them out for any video project you may be looking to have done professionally.

Kris and Mark's Marathon Wedding from Forever Films on Vimeo.

Driving to Milwaukee - blog via Bloggie

2011-01-28T22:47:00.000-06:00

Kris: I'm cheating and doing today's blog via video while we're driving to Milwaukee. An update on work and our updated training plans.

#Geocache365 project notes

2011-01-21T08:18:00.001-06:00

Kris: We're making some decisions to try and further the reach of our #Geocache365 project beyond just our completion of the challenge. For those of you that follow our Twitter as well, you'll notice we Tweet each of our finds with a picture, plus now that we have our new toy (The HD Bloggie) we are starting to take videos from time to time as well. We are working on developing the #Geocache365 page on this blog but not entirely sure where it's going to go yet. So for our Geocaching friends...keep an eye on our blog and the #Geocache365 page.

We were also recently interviewed on Cache-A-Maniacs and that podcast should be posted I think this coming weekend.

We finally got to see our entire wedding video as it was done by Charlie and Mike at Forever Films. It was so fantastic! I wish I could post the full video for all to see but it's 53 minutes long so I'm guessing it might be a bit much for YouTube. But....the feature highlight version should be posted within the next few days so that will be available for all of you. I was so stoked to see that we got a special message from the finish line announcer who was the one and only John "the Penguin" Bingham! I've been such a fan of his articles when he was writing for Runner's World. Charlie...that was money shot #2 whether you knew it or not :D

Mark: The video is absolutely AMAZING!! And worth every penny. We have watched the video several times since we got our BluRay copies. And honestly I can watch it over and over again, especially the highlight video at the end. It really makes me wonder why in this day and age do people place so much emphasis on a wedding photographer? What do you get with a photographer? A photo album that you will look at once when you get it and then probably never look at again. Save yourself the money, collect all of the pictures from your friends and family, everyone has a camera, and put those in an album. Take the money you were planning on for a photographer and hire a GOOD videographer, you will be able to relive your wedding over and over. And Forever Films is a VERY GOOD videographer.

Kris: Hey, Team Baby Dinosaur! You are both in our full feature video so consider yourselves famous ;) Hope we can show it to you when you venture up to our frozen tundra of MN!

Kris: And a little plug for Charlie and Mike, they also have launched this fantastic wedding video series called Forever-TV. If you are planning a wedding in the Twin Cities area or just love everything wedding, you NEED to check this out!!

Oh yeah, I tend to forget about training. Since I'm still rehabing this @#%!ing leg and the weather has been anything but favorable for running, we honestly haven't been doing much. We have been back to Masters Swim at least once per week and have been getting in short runs maybe 1-2 times per week but other than that we've been a bit lazy. It's quite hard mentally, emotionally to feel like we're being total slugs but at the same time we have been able to prioritize things like going to free social networking events for our ZapEvent work, relax and watch TV without having to be multi-tasking on something else and (most importantly for my sanity), sleeping in more than once a month! Part of me has a hard time feeling like a lazy slob that is doing nothing but becoming a worse athlete by the day but there is also a part of me that realizes if we're going to have to take a break and me rehab from an injury....now isn't such a bad time to do it.

Mark: I am very fustrated with training, the weather in particular. It is so tough to go out in the cold, the snow and the dark to get in any runs. My original plan was to run the Securian Half Marathon in a couple of weeks but at this point I will probably just do the 10K or if our lack of training continues not run the event at all, which I would be really upset at myself. Securian was the very first Half I ever ran and I have run it or a clod shortened half or the 5K every year since. I hate living here in Minnesota at this time of year.

Random Cuteness - Maverick and Neo

Something Old, Something New

2011-01-09T20:36:00.000-06:00

Kris: Sorry folks I've still got wedding on the brain.....should wear off soon ;)

This past week we finally got our new Newton Shoes and gave them a try. We got VERY lucky to both get our Newtons for free or we wouldn't have had room for them in the budget. My boss gave me mine for a "bonus" and I won a pair for Mark on a Facebook contest. Seriously that is some ridiculous luck! Mine are the trail version and Mark's are the road versions. The hope is by time summer comes around we can afford to stay out of a box....uh....I mean get Mark the trail shoes and me the road shoes.

Left - Mark's road shoes / Right - Kris's trail shoes

We went to the gym and did about a mile and a half on the short track and then did about the same on the treadmill. They feel weird but good. Very soft and I can tell I'm definitely striking mid-sole more. Leg still got sore but it was post-run so maybe improvement......?

Mark: Since Kris' shoes had to be ordered in, I have had mine for a few days longer and have run in mine twice now. The one thing that I noticed that the bottom of the ball of my foot gets a little numb after a while and my toes were starting to tingle. I changed my lacing and the second part seems to be resolved but the numbness on the balls of my feet might just be a getting used to the shoes thing, that is the area of my foot right above the "lugs" on the bottom of the shoes.

Kris: The something old...our trainers finally made an appearance! Neither of us have been on our bike seats since the Duathlon last August so it wasn't the easiest ride. Our two bikes on trainers barely fit in the living room area but it's the only place that makes sense. We just rode a consistent cadence for the first half of the Packers/Eagles game (damn it Packers won...although I don't like Vick either so it was hard to decide who to root for.)

Random, we put Christmas away this past Tuesday and for some reason when the pine cone wreath was sitting on the boxes, the cats both decided it was a good place to sit and hang out.

We both are having a hard time finding motivation to workout but we just keep trying to find the motivation. Me with the really bum leg isn't helping as we both just want to run. And a few days of poor eating choices aren't helping our "get up and go" either but I know we'll get out of that too......right after my next sugar cookie for the evening. Yeah.....we'll start tomorrow ;) Mark: Tomorrow is a Monday morning swim, that should be interesting.

My opportunity for a Random - I have been fighting with my laptop for about 2 months now, first my XP got corrupted and died on me and then after upgrading the memory and HDD I installed Widows 7, which took all of about 3 weeks to be corrupted and stop working. The ironic part is that the main problem was caused by Microsofts' own update. Well, I have now reinstalled windows 7 again (twice in about a month) and we will see what happens this time. I was able to get it to work on the HDTV and it looks really nice!

That is a full size keyboard at the bottom of the picture. :)

My two new best friends - Yoga Mat and Roller Stick

2011-01-06T22:47:00.000-06:00

Kris: ......whether I like it or not!

So I've been continuing with my PT at least once a week ($80+ per visit....sigh...) and making some slow progress on the healing of my leg issues. After today she believes I'm deformed, to put it lightly.   Without trying to go into medical speak, basically my hip joint isn't perfectly aligned and when my muscles are tight and knotted up, it causes issues.   It's not rare but it's not really common either.   In some cases it requires surgery to fix but she doesn't think I'm anywhere near that conclusion.

I have only done a few VERY short runs and am excited to pick up my Newton shoes tomorrow and give them a whirl.   I hope I'm not getting too excited that I'm going to put them on and all the pain will be magically gone.   A number of people have noted that after starting to run in Newtons they no longer had IT band issues.   Cross your fingers please :)

We have both been struggling to get back into a workout routine.   In the past couple weeks, we've been swimming a few times, been to a fitness class once and done a few 3 or less mile runs.    Having a hard time getting motivated to want to workout but at the same time I have this nagging voice in the back of my head all day saying "slacker.... go workout, you know you'll feel better, you're getting weaker, don't you want to be stronger? faster??"   I don't think the weather is helping at all unfortunately, for those of you that have followed me on my old blog you know I'm not a fan of treadmills and also hate the cold, slippery trails.

But I've had a few very panicky moments during those short runs.   I am feeling so much more exhausted after just a mile...WTF?....and I want to sign up for a 50k at the end of April and then focus on speed training for a Boston Qualifier??? Good freakin' luck right?? I was excited about it before my running world came tumbling down....

Work has been crazy this week on a number of fronts but all good I guess. Just sucks when I feel like I can't get caught up to a place where I don't feel behind.   Still going to have to wear two hats for awhile but hopefully come summer that won't be the case anymore.

And I think we just got talked into becoming co-race directors for a 5k/10k race. Stay tuned

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And we are still doing well on our #Geocache365 challenge. Today was day 151. I know we haven't posted much about it but I wanted to let you know we are still in full swing with that :)

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Oh and Mike and Charlie (Forever Films) told us that our wedding video will be ready to preview next week. They are super excited about it. I was surprised to hear that it's about 45 minutes long.   There will be a "highlight" version that comes out as well that I will post a link to as soon as it's out on the web for viewing.

Live95 Concert and Christmas as Mr & Mrs Kuhn

2011-01-02T16:45:00.000-06:00

Kris: Sigh.....here we are again trying to do a quick catchup. As some of you have noticed, I've spent some time ending my previous personal blog and transitioning to this one (yes....that would be my excuse :-P) Mark: I'll buy that for a dollar. ;)

Kris: One resolution.....keep up to date on the blog! I really want to write more often....believe it or not

Dec 17th, Mark won us tickets to go see the Live95 Concert. Mark: Actually I didn't really win them, it was more of a plea to the Moon and Staci show who interviewed us earlier in the year about the wedding contest. I sent an email thanking them for their help even though we came in second place and asked for help as Kris had been trying VERY hard to win tickets and I still did not have a wedding present for her. Moon got back to me and set up a time when they called me and helped me surprise Kris with the tickets live on the radio.

Kris: General admission so we got there super early to stand in line outside and freeze but we ended up standing against the stage. AWESOME! It was also our first time playing with our new Sony Bloggie Touch camera. Check out the video we put together:

The next night was our first time going to an infamous Holiday theme party by our friends Kolby and Jessy. This year's party was title the "Holiday Hoedown".

That guy is actually passed out...

Tons of fun, white elephant gifts, a few too many drinks and dancing to karaoke. A super fun party and we can't wait to see what next year's theme will be. Mark: Whatever it is count me IN!! I have not been at a fun party like this in years. Thanks Kolby and Jessy!

Kris: Mark and I also volunteered again with Home for Life at the annual Mall of America fundraiser on Sunday the 19th. I was looking forward to having Lisa bring Olive for me to hang out with but was absolutely crushed to learn the Wednesday before she passed away from a nasty infection that lead to organ failure. It was a very common infection for cats of her type, I won't go into details but it took her within a day. She was 11 years old so she had a longer life that usual for a cat like her with an incontinence problem but it still came as a huge shock to learn she was gone and I'd never get to see her again. Later this month (January) we will go to the HFL facility so I can choose another kitty in need of a a sponsor to transfer to. Mark: During the fundraiser at the MOA, I got to handle Shane, an absolutely beautiful doberman that reminds me so much of my own Journey. Some day I hope to be able to sponsor a dog at HFL as well and Shane might just my first choice.

Miss you sweet girl!

Kris: We also did gift wrapping for donations to HFL again at Barnes and Noble Galleria and in just two nights made $222 so that was very exciting. Mark: As part of our time donated and the money we raised for HFL, WACSO has agreed to draw a new picture of our dog Roscoe who passed away early in December. When the picture is completed, we will post it and talk a little more about Roscoe's passing. Here is a previous picture that he drew of Roscoe:

Christmas
Kris: Christmas shopping was a bit stressful as the weather around here sucked and we were crunched to get it all done in just a few short evenings but we pulled it off. Really felt like Christmas was shortened for us since the wedding kept us occupied until the middle of December. Mark: I have to agree with Kris, Christmas really didn't feel like Christmas, or at least the days leading up to the holiday I was not in the spirit. Hopefully next year will be better as we will just be celebrating an anniversary not planning a destination wedding.

Kris: Christmas parties were fun though. Mark: We ran into Kate, a former co-worker of mine who every year throws an amazing Christmas party with her husband and she extended us an invitation. We had so much fun, great food, drinks and Microsoft Kinect with Dance Central. We have decided that we "NEED" a Kinect someday. ;)

Kris: We spent Christmas Eve at my sister's for my side of the family:

Playing on the Wii with the nieces:

And Lily playing Silent Night on the infamous Bontempi:

Then Christmas Day was over with Mark's family:

Running:

Kris: My boss gave me an awesome "bonus" for Christmas by allowing me to go buy my pair of Newton shoes and then I managed to win a pair of Newton's from a Team Ortho contest so now Mark and I both have our first pair :) Mark: I am SO Excited to try out our new shoes! The entire second half of 2010 I have been working hard on modifying my running style knowing that I would need to switch to a mid-sole strike with the Newtons. Now, if only the weather would cooperate.

Kris: Unfortunately for me though the leg/knee is still not back to normal. It's getting really hard on me mentally as the recovery is taking much longer than I expected. I'm going to try as many short runs as I can but this was supposed to be THE year to start pushing hard for our run paces and look forward to qualifying for Boston.   But I wake up with a sore spot by my knee and a hot spot in my glutes and I feel like freaking out.   And get pissed.....that's my luck right?   I just hate talking about running right now because I can't do it.   Friggin' f-ing depressing..... So I'll continue with short runs in the new shoes, group fitness classes and some time spinning.

Mark: I am supposed to be running the Securian Half Marathon at the end of January, a race that holds special meaning to me as it was my first half marathon. My original plan was to use it as a good tempo/tune up race, an opportunity to stretch my legs a bit. Unfortunately my friend Steve who is also running asked me if I would pace him, he wants to break 2 hours and set a new PR for himself. I have mixed emotions about this, I am always willing to help anyone who asks but at the same time I have no had a chance to run for myself in a long time. I have agreed to help Steve so I just need to look ahead to the 50K that we are running in April.

Geocaching:

Kris: We've been doing a lot of deep snow caching lately and got a funny picture of Mark after being attacked by a pine tree.   I submitted it to Cache Advance for their "Fan of the Week" and it was chosen as the winner so his photo is their profile photo for a week now :)

Mark: Along with our daily #Geocache365 obsession there was a push on my part to get a few extra caches by the end of the year making our #Geocache365 find on December 31st my 1500th cache find and then we found 3 more caches after that one so that I ended up finding 600 caches in 2010.

The Wedding......Marathon Style and a Geocaching Honeymoon

2010-12-20T20:22:00.164-06:00

Kris: I've been trying to figure out how to break apart the pages and pages of content floating in my head about our trip and finally decided I'm going to try to consolidate my thoughts as best as possible into ONE post with just a couple pictures and a link to the whole album.

(good luck, right Honey?) :)

Mark: Right........

Kris: We had so much to do in the two days leading up to our 6am flight out of MSP we collectively got MAYBE 8 hours of sleep. We were SO tired but SO excited when we got on our flight. We arrived in Vegas and to our hotel around 1pm, high-tailed it downtown to get our marriage license and then primped and prepped for a fancy dinner. Our boss, Jeff and his wife Janna, gave us a wonderful dinner at Mesa Grill (yes folks....the real Bobby Flay Mesa Grill!!!!). It was fantastic to start our Vegas vacation with an evening just to ourselves with a few fancy drinks, entrees and desserts :)

Mark: By far the best dinner I have EVER had!! Thanks Jeff and Janna!

Mark showing off his sweet new hat he bought for the trip :)

My pre-dinner martini at Mesa Grill

Kris: Friday was the start to a very exciting but very busy and somewhat stressful weekend. We were up and dressed in our wedding garb and at the Venetian by 6:45am to be part of a chilly live news segment about the marathon, the Running Elvi and the Run-Thru Wedding. We got to meet a few other couples that all had such fun stories and look silly running in place while the LV version of Ma Rosko interviewed a few of us live on camera.

Mark: Kris fogot to mention how cold it was. By comparison to back here at home it was balmy, but standing around in just our running outfits at 7am was just cold.

Friday AM at the local news segment about the wedding

Kris: Friday afternoon we scurried to the Expo (unfortunately no nap as we had hoped!) and picked up our race packets and nabbed our bracelets to get into the Sunday night After Party for the first 5,000 runners to stop by the Wynn booth. I was a bit anxious to get those FIRST and then come back to look at everything in the Expo.

Mark: What Kris is leaving out is that we had to be in line before the expo opened and as close to the front of the line as possible to get the VS After Party, at least according to Kris that is. The funny part is that late in the afternoon, they still had plenty of bracelets left.
Kris: We splurged a bit of money to get sweatshirts and RnR jackets. We figured this would be our one big purchase for the weekend.   And yeah.....over $300 in apparel counts. One of the most exciting moments was when we got to meet Mark McGrath (granted it took me a minute to figure out who he was).  Mark: Let's be honest honey, I had to tell you who Mark McGrath was. Kris: He was super nice and was so excited for us to get married during the marathon that instead of one Snickers Marathon Bar (he's a spokesperson for them) he gave us a whole box! He will also likely be in our final wedding video as he was kind enough to say a few words of good luck to the camera when our videographers from Forever Films (Charlie and Mike) showed up.

Then, almost simultaneously Mark's dad got into town and he, Charlie and Mike showed up at the Expo.   We walked around and took some fun video, then it was off to a fabulous dinner with Mark's dad at Canaletto restaurant at the Venetian.   We even had a fun, VERY Italian waiter named Mario :)

Then we took a long bus ride down to see Fremont Street in the evening and were very lucky to get there just in time to see the Queen Tribute.   Mark was jumping up and down like a kid in a giant candy store.   It was loud and bright and so much fun to people watch. Mike and Charlie even got some great footage of a Dale Ernhardt impersonator dancing with a trophy.    I do wish we had a few extra $$ to ride the zip line that went down through the Fremont Tunnel during the show.

Mark: Kris is right I was super excited that of all of the Freemont shows that we could have seen, it was the Queen show, I LOVE Queen!!

Meeting Mark McGrath at the Expo

Fremont Experience during Queen Tribute

Kris: Saturday was up EARLY to get going to Hoover Dam. Unfortunately due to VERY large parking ramps, we had a bit of trouble finding the car but even with the late start, we had plenty of time to check out the Dam, get some great video and photos and even do the Power Plant Tour. Before we left the area, we quickly crossed the border into Arizona to get a Virtual Cache and then walked out on the new Memorial Bridge. I had to admit, that was a bit scary being over 800ft in the air over the Dam. What an amazing view though!!

Mark: An amazing view that Kris refused to even stand next to the railing on the bridge and would not look down to the river. I was kind of funny.

(l to rt) Mark and Kris with our videographers Charlie and Mike

Kris: The rest of the day consisted of attending our pre-race meeting for all the wedding couples (about 30 getting married and another 30 or so renewing their vows), then off to a buffet dinner with my parents as they just got into town. I will say though a highlight of our day was FINALLY getting to meet our friends Brandon and Theresa. We have been connected only by following each other's blogs for quite some time now so getting to meet in person, then run the few few miles of the race together and hang out at the after party was a blast! (You two rock....love to ya from MN!)

Mark: We were running late getting back from Hoover Dam and walked into the pre-race meeting a little late, granted we underestimated how far the convention center was from our room, and the convention center was in our hotel. I agree with Kris, Brandon and Theresa are awesome! I am looking forward to seeing them during their trip back to Minnesota in the spring.

Kris: Race morning was a little stressful making sure we had everything in line and everyone had what they needed but when we arrived our meeting area...it was the start of a party! The Running Elvi and Wedding couples met in the same area to take group photos and rock out to Elvis music.

Mark: It was fun to take turns with the other wedding couples taking pictures with the running Elvi.

Pre-Race Photo with the Running Elvi

Kris: Unfortunately the camera we usually carry during races took a tumble and we didn't get any photos along the course. But we did get some video and so did Charlie and Mike so once that is done you will get to see more of the course. Running the first half of the marathon on the strip was so much fun and the group ceremony went beautifully. Here's a link to the local news that captured the ceremony live. If you look very closely, you can just see us, we are up very close to the reverend's podium, just to the right and in front of the "Run Through Wedding" banner.

Mark: I have to be honest I was sort of expecting the ceremony to be a little cheesy but it was really nice, beautiful flowers and they gave every bride a bouquet.

Kris: I won't dwell on it here but I'm sure my personal blog will continue to have a lot about my physical/mental struggle with an IT issue that has stopped me in my tracks more than once and caused me to have to take almost two weeks completely OFF from running leading up to the marathon. I got in two therapy sessions with a physical therapist before the marathon that I know helped me survive the marathon. I was hurting, but not like it had been in the previous weeks. My endurance was down from not getting in all my long runs and mentally that was hard for me to overcome. We had to walk a lot more of the second half of the marathon than I wanted to but we got through it. Hand in hand we crossed the finish line for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn. Charlie and Mike tipped off the announcer to who we were so they called us out just as Mark went to scoop me up and give me a big kiss. We got an "aw!!!" from the crowd so that was a very sweet moment for both of us.

Mark: Kris does not give herself enough credit, she did great on the course. My legs were very tired by the end of the marathon and when I picked up Kris I had the briefest moment when I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep standing. (That would have been bad to fall down while holding Kris) The vast majority of the wedding couples ran the half marathon and just a very small handful, 3-5 couples ran the full marathon. Besides the fact that I picked up Kris across the finish line, I think some of the "aw!!" was also due to the fact we were the first full marathon wedding couple to finish race.

After crossing the finish line, I was scooped up for a kiss :)

Kris: I couldn't get the smile off my face from finishing but as my teeth started chattering from the cold, we grabbed our mylar blankets and quickly spotted our friend Mike LeSage and his wife and friends. They were also in town from Minneapolis to run the half marathon. They were sweet enough to bring us a bottle of champagne and as we stood there chatting, our glasses kept getting re-filled and we quickly polished off the bottle. Let me tell ya, after finishing a marathon and having very few calories left in the system we were feeling nothing but GOOD (and tipsy). It was great :)

Mark: Not only did they bring us a bottle of champagne but they also got us a very nice set of champagne flutes to toast our wedding and finish with.

Kris: Again we had very little time so no nap to catch up on sleep. Just a quick shower, a chilly ice bath and then off to dinner with the parents at House of Blues where we managed to inhale everything that was set in front of us. Then we left to go to the after party at the beautiful club at Encore called XS. Not a place I think I would typically want to go to but considering it was filled with nothing but runners celebrating their victory, it was pretty sweet! I was still battling quite a bit of stinging pain in the left leg but it was a blast to hang out with Brandon and Theresa and down a few free drinks. Well ok chatting with Theresa while watching Brandon work the pole was right up there with the free drinks in terms of entertainment ;) lol

Mark: The club was open from 7-10 just for the runner after party and the first hour was open bar so that was fun and explains the two fisted drinking. I need to find more reason to wear my new hat!

LINK TO OUR AWESOME HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

Kris: Monday morning was another fabulous buffet for breakfast before we said goodbye to everyone and headed out on our own for our "honeymoon" vacation touring the countryside and geocaching our way in a rental Jeep. I think this trip has thoroughly solidified our decision that our next vehicle needs to be a 4-door Jeep Wrangler so we can go off-road geocaching and bring the dogs and our bikes :)

Mark: I have been thinking about getting a Jeep for awhile and this was the perfect oppertunity to really get a chance to test drive one. Our rental was a 2 door and it was great but we definately need a four door.

Kris: Our first day started by zipping up to Utah to fill in another state of geocaching. Then as we came back through Arizona and Nevada, we were going farther and farther into "Open Range" territory so it was a lot of open road, open land, no cities and lots of cows. Right after we got started on the Extraterestial Highway, we pulled over on the road, turned off the Jeep and just stood outside the vehicle. I think that was the quietest, darkest moment I have ever stood in. It was amazing. There were more stars in the sky than I think I have ever seen and even without the moon, it was surprising how much the stars lit up the ground. We saw a couple shooting stars and even a UFO! (ok well maybe it was just a test rocket or "something" from the nearby Air Force base but seeing a light moving across the sky and them promptly do a 180 was a bit freaky for a second or two) Standing in the middle of the road under that beautiful sky was surreal. And how often do you get to steal a smooch standing in the middle of the night on the ET highway? ;)

Kris: To summarize our accomodations on Monday night....uh....let's just say after getting there and realizing we had NO cell service, NO WiFi, not even any TV connections, then seeing the rough necks behind the bar and the local guy drinking at the bar telling us about all these crazy big things he's done in his life (including a stint as a competitive accordion player), we carefully ate the sandwiches we ordered, went to our room in the divided mobile home and promptly got ready for bed by curling up in our clothes with the lights on. In hind sight it wasn't that bad and the owners are actually really appreciative of the geocaching community bringing business to our area. The rooms were just a bit.....well....rough at the Little A'Le'Inn.

Mark: Yeah the Little A'Le'Inn was not as bad in the morning but Kris is right, it was more then a bit creepy checking in as late as we did, especially when a inebriated "Agent 51" was shareing stories with us. No idea what if anything he told us was true but his claim about driving a Jaguar was true, there was a Jaguar XF in the parking lot. I really can find us some awesome cheap lodging!

Kris: We got up early the next morning and had the most amazing geocaching day. (I'll try to spare you and summarize....)

104 caches total with about 50 of them from the ET power trail.
We hid a cache in Rachel, NV
Were carefully watched as we neared the entrance to Area 51 (the "camo dudes" drove by us 2x and parked looking right at us while we were taking pictures)
Drove 110 miles to the nearest gas station,
Got a great view from a rest area that only the Jeep could take us to,
Picked up the oldest cache in Nevada and
Saw wild horses out playing and crossing the roads

Mark: We also got to give the Jeep a good test drive. On the way to the olest cache, it was about 20 miles off the main road on a "minimum maintence" road that kept getting worse and worse the farther we drove. I actually put the Jeep in 4x4 for the trip out because it was REALLY muddy and I wanted to make sure we did get out, again no cell service to speak of.

Wild Horses roaming in Nevada

Mark at the location of the oldest cache in Nevada (GCF9)

Kris: Tuesday night we made a rather lengthy drive to get into California and spent the night in Death Valley. It was much too dark for us to see anything driving down into the park. And when I say down I mean we were driving downhill for about 20 miles. Waking up and seeing the mountains was amazing. It's such a beautiful area with so many places to explore, one day was definitely NOT enough.....so we're planning to go back for a much longer stay :) We picked up a couple virtual caches, an earthcache and one traditional on the way out. Our main goal in going there was to get the virtual cache at Badwater (which is the start of the infamous Bad Water Ultra Marathon. Getting the park caches also put California on our geocaching state map :)

Mark: The virtual cache at Badwater is the lowest elevation cache, -278 feet below sea level, in all of North America. We also got our highest elevation cache during the trip as well, over 6000 feet. Death Valley is definatly on the list for a future anniversary trip..

Kris: On the way back to Vegas we had to stop and scrub off the Jeep. Believe it or not we had to sign that we would NOT be taking the vehicle off-road (seriously? It's a Jeep people.....) so we spent about $12 to avoid the $250 penalty.

Mark: That was the best $12 investment I ever made! ;)

Kris: It's so hard to summarize our trip but there was my attempt :) The whole experience was fantastic and one-of-a-kind and while it's hard to be back at home and back to our insanely busy routine, I'm very happy and lucky to now be Mrs. Kuhn ;)

Mark: And as much fun as we had, and as tough it has been to be back here in MinneSNOWta, I am very happy to have a Mrs. Kris Kuhn in my life.

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LINK TO OUR FULL PHOTO ALBUM

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Pre-Wedding Details - written Nov 20th (late posting)

2010-12-10T17:04:00.000-06:00

(so I KNOW this is a late post as I am starting the blog posts for our post-wedding updates. I just realized I never finalized the content on this one with Mark and had him post. Ratz..... But I think it's still worth posting and stay tuned for our post-race posts that should be up in the next few days)

Kris: Again I have gone much too long since I've posted anything so a quick recap to get you caught up. Weight loss has been going pretty good. Kind of hitting another plateau lately at 140-141 but that means I'm down 15 lbs from the beginning of the year.
Mark:"

As for training.......below is a picture from the Monster Dash 10-mile (Oct 30th)

And here is a picture of our backyard, two weeks later, Saturday Nov 13th

Kris: So how do you think training have been going. Shitty, shitty.... 1) because of the slippery, snowy trail conditions and 2) because my IT band has been giving me serious trouble, especially when slipping or trudging through snow. Mark has been amazing trying to keep me from freaking out but.....I'm still freaking out. I've been taping, stretching, rolling, Adviling and havent run more than like 5 miles in two weeks. Yesterday we went out for a 12 and I thought everything was feeling pretty good. But again, mile 5 my IT started to freak out. Inside my head I was just pissed but we continued the 12 miles, stopping about every mile for a very quick stretch since it was really cold out and we didn't want to cool down. And now this morning my entire IT band is on fire. Treatment....no running until Vegas :( :( :( I don't want to further injure myself and I have done enough training that I have the endurance. I don't want to hobble through my wedding so it's off running until Vegas. I'm a runner, take away the run in me and I'm miserable but I know it's the smart thing to do. It's potentially going to cause me to slow my overall pace and probably struggle a bit more through the last few miles but I'm counting on adrenaline to carry me though and the ultimate goal for me is to successfully finish my first marathon as Mrs. Kuhn, hand in hand with my husband, and celebrate our new life together (not on crutches ;)

WEDDING TRIP ITEMS OF NOTE:
Kris: Here's what I have so far and THANK YOU!!!!! to our animal babysitters while we are gone, Marks' brother Michael and good friend, Steve.

Just found out we get to be part of a series of LIVE segments that will be done the Friday morning before the race for the local FOX news :) All I know so far is that we need to be in our wedding attire and show up by 6:45am at the Venetian. Fun!! I did ask and I will get the links so I can post them here for you all to see after the race. But for any of my Vegas readers we may have.....get your morning coffee and watch for us! :)
Finally get to meet our blogger/runner friends Brandon and Theresa! They will be running the half marathon. Kick tail you two! :D
Thanks to a generous wedding gift from my boss, we will be having a really nice dinner out together one night.
Saturday evening we will likely be spending with the videographers
Sunday - RACE DAY! We only know so far that the marriage couples will be in Wave 14 and you can sign up to "track" us here: https://www.competitorwireless.com/. Keep in mind our first split time will look really slow since we will be stopped for the ceremony :)

Quick Wedding Updates

2010-11-01T21:49:00.000-05:00

I just realized that we've been so geocaching obsessed on this blog that I posted wedding updates to my personal blog but not here.   Sorry, here goes....

Not much real planning to do any more without the reception so we're basically just down to making sure we have all of our outfits in line. Mark picked up his wedding shoes a couple weeks ago so we are going to use them for short, clean runs to get them broken in between now and the wedding. I picked up my tulle and some other shiny, sheer fabric. I've got some fun ideas for my veil but now just have to figure out how in the heck to actually put it together.

We have completed our first 20 mile training run (which I affectionately call our "wedding rehearsal") and we both have our nutrition down pretty well. I have been having knee pains which have been annoying to rehab but it's tolerable so far. Been trying to stay on soft trails for our long runs. We managed to hold a 9:20-something average pace for the 20 miler so I was very happy with that.

We've also decided that we are just going to do a potluck type get together with our immediate families and a couple close friends at Mark's moms house in mid-January when the wedding video is finalized.   Not quite the grand unveiling and celebration I was hoping for but at least the important people to us will be together.
The Course Map and Elevation Chart are also available now if you are interested in seeing the RnR route. The second half is a LOT of twisting and turning but luckily the final 6 miles are nearly all at a nice downhill grade.

You can also sign up for runner tracking HERE if you are interested in keeping an eye on how we are doing on the marathon. We will be running all of the marathon together so you will only need to really get updates on one of us :)
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FOR OUR GEOCACHING FRIENDS (my shameless plug) - Be sure to follow my Examiner.com articles for fun geocaching related news and events.   Examiner.com Geocaching in Minneapolis

#Geocache365: Week 9 - October 4th-10th

2010-10-15T09:07:00.000-05:00

Monday: Day 57 - Resorting to some night caching when we DNF'd before having dinner with the family.

Kris: Unfortunately DNF'd an attempt before dinner with Mark's family before his Dad headed home to AZ so we had to go after dinner and therefore, in the dark. Mark: Now that the sun is setting before 7pm, we are having to find more and more of cache a days in the dark. Having o find cache on the fly that can be found in the dark can prove to be a challenge. I think we got lucky tonight. This cache was a milestone for me, it was my 1000th cache find in Minnesota.

Tuesday: Day 58 - A truly very EVIL hide! It is a good thing that the muggle drivers are unaware of the evil.

Kris: Aptly named puzzle cache in a high traffic area. We were heading down the parkway on the way to the lakes for the run and wanted to get this one to verify the final coordinate placement. Mark: The published coords for this puzzle are in the middle of the nearby lake and during a run earlier in the day we saw a great place for a cache hide but we figured this cache was nearby. After our run I spent some time solving this cache to see if our potential hiding spot was available. Unfortunately not, but the moment when I realized how to solve this puzzle was fun.

Wednesday: Day 59 - Thank You for Geocaching!

Kris: Near our favorite Lifetime club we had to again go for one in the dark. Weather has been holding out for us though so it's just fighting the dark for the find, not the cold...yet. Mark: One of the things that makes night caching for #Geocache365 an issue is not necessarily finding the cache (in this case it was very easy and i got us to ground zero just using the satellite map on my iPhone) but rather trying to figure out what to take a picture of, my iPhone does not take the greatest nighttime pictures. After struggling a bit Kris figured out this picture and it turned out to be very appropriate. A second milestone this week, this is my 1000Th Traditional Cache. So Thank You!

Thursday: Day 60 - Ready, Set, Go! No bug spray required.

Kris: Had to make a quick find nearby to home so Mark could get to the recycling center and drop off an old TV. Plus I wanted to get home to start a batch of turkey chili :) Wishing I had my hiking boots on though for this one. Mark: To often caches are in the woods and there is not much around that makes for an interesting picture, not so today. The cache was just off a single track mountain bike trail that I have ridden on several occasions and right next to the trail is the very backwater scummy pond which today looked very pristine especially with the power line tower. I was also amused by the cache "container" and I could not help from dropping a veiled reference in the tweet for the day.

Friday: Day 61 - Must be Homecoming?

Kris: Over in St. Paul to use our Living Social coupon for a comedy show and came across a nearby park. Funny there were two houses nearby covered in TP. Hence today's description. Cache was in an obvious beacon in the middle of what seemed to be a somewhat abandoned park. Mark: It is one thing to look at the geocaching map sitting at my desk and pick a cache to find in Mendota Heights on the way to a comedy club but when you get on site things take on a different perspective and grabbing a quick cache is a lot harder then it looked. After driving by our original intended cache an realizing there was nowhere to park we resorted to this cache which work out rather well.

Saturday: Day 62 - A skirt lifter. Sure, but which one?

Kris: We were on our way through my old stomping ground to a 30th birthday dinner for my long time friend and came upon a cache with a name that implied it should be a quick find. Mark: A cache named "Skirt Lifter"? Sure enough, made for a quick P&G. Took more time trying to figure out what to take a picture of.

Sunday: Day 63 - 10/10/10! A day full of events with a Cherry on Top!!

Kris: A fantastic day full of geocaching events! The final event was from 10:10:10pm until 12:01am at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Mark: Nothing like looking for a cache with about 20+ other people and spending far to much time not finding it. After taking a few pictures and watching everyone else for a bit I decided to get my hands dirty and really give it a good look. After looking around the structure for a bit I came to the conclusion where I would hide the cache which caused me to pause and look around. Sure enough Gilby was standing there with a few other caches and it was obvious that he had the cache in his hands. After staring at him for a few seconds he said I suppose I will put the cache back so others could find it. He put it back right where I thought it should have been.

#Geocache365: Week 8 - September 27th - October 3rd

2010-10-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

Monday: Day 50 - Park Here! Really? Are you sure I won't come back and have to say Hi to the nice officer.

Mark: Driving out to Waconia for dinner with Kris's parents and since we did not bring a dog with it allowed us to head into the woods to grab a cache. Kris: Now as you can see this doesn't really look like an actual parking space. It was a bit nerve-racking leaving the car (hoping a cop wouldn't be ticketing it when we got back) but we had a nice walk into the woods where there were a couple of obvious beacons. Luckily the mosquitos were down and we made our way to the right one.

Tuesday: Day 51 - A quick P&G despite what the previous logs indicate.

Mark: I met Kris at Byerlys for some grocery shopping and then we grabbed a cache in nearby Valley Place Park. Kris: Nothing too special about this find as we just had to find something for the day. With the nice weather though we did have to pretend to look like we were hanging out behind the sign with a purpose other than looking around in the rocks for a pill bottle!

Wednesday: Day 52 - Good thing the "May Require Swimming" attribute was not selected.

Mark: Met Kris for lunch and we decided to grab a quick cache after dropping off some ZapEvent fliers at Downtown Dog. Kris: Always nice to go caching along the river. There were two obvious types of beacons to search and it was hard to search both quickly (before the meter cops came around) with lots of muggles on the trail. Luckily we found it and could sit on the ledge without looking like we were obviously up to something.

Thursday: Day 53 - There are a lot of bulls-eyes around here, not sure which one to target my search.

Mark: Down in Edina for dinner with a coupon and to see Zola Budd and the new Newton Trail shoes at Gear running store, we picked up another of the CoJ puzzles that I had the solution for. Kris: Mark already had the solution to this puzzle and we happened to be in the area. Unfortunately this is one where I wish they gave an altitude along with the coords. Took a bit longer to search all options before we found it.

Friday: Day 54 - Nope, no deer tonight. Well except for this one.

Mark: A very quick stop on the way to Byerlys to grab some dinner. Kris: This one had a cute cache name and was a quick find walking along the sidewalk. Traffic made it difficult to grab and replace though without being seen.

Saturday: Day 55 - Hangin with Marcy, reading our Delorme Map books.

Mark: In St. Paul for the Twin Cities Marathon Expo, we had a chance to park right next to this cache and we grabbed it on our way out. Kris: Great spot for some cute pictures (as you can see). The description and hint pretty much lead us right to the spot but again had to be mindful of muggles and pretend to be bending down for a reason other than to search benches undersides for magnetic containers.

Sunday: Day 56 - Believe it or not this view is only a few feet from the road, just like the cache.

Mark: We spent most of the morning cheering on at the Twin Cities Marathon but we forgot to grab a cache at the ALARC 20 mile wall so we ended up picking up a non-winter friendly cache near the house. Kris: A quick find just a few feet off the road and finally a day without a location full of muggles! Leaves definitely cover up a lot more hiding spots in fall though so there was a bit more digging to check all the possible spots before we found the right one.

#Geocache365: Week 7 - September 20th-26th

2010-09-30T17:12:00.000-05:00

Monday: Day 43 - Going back to correct a DNF. Success!!

Kris: A little bit of a swampy walk off the trail but nothing horrible. Surprised we didn't find it the first time, must have been shoved in a little too far last time we were here. Lots of those sticky bushes to dodge on the walk in and out and the mosquitos are bad! Mark: Recently we DNF'd this cache while we were doing the Golden Valley History cache. Not one of my favorite types of caches to begin with. The mosquitos were vicious and distracting all at the same time. We originally spent about 10-15 minutes looking for this one before calling it quits. This afternoon, we approached from the other side of the "bridge" and I had the cache in hand in under a minute. Sometime the environment can be distracting enough to cause a DNF.

Tuesday: Day 44 - 1st time we spent 30 minutes without finding it, 2nd time we found it in less than 5 minutes.

Kris: Another one I couldn't figure out how we didn't see it the first time. Very busy stairwell with lots of metal so our minds both went to look for something magnetic. Problem here is you can get to GZ and not know which level to look on. Mark: Looks like we are starting the week by cleaning up a few DNF's. This cache was one of the puzzles originally included in the Cup of Joe puzzles edition where they provided the answers to about 40-50 puzzles. That CoJ event was over two years ago and to this day you will often hear cachers talking about it and asking if you have the solutions packet. I have held onto my packet knowing that eventually I would go back and grab all of the remaining available caches. This was our second attempt, the first time we spent more than 30 minutes looking and it was after dark, which may have been a factor, but this time in the daylight I walked right up and grabbed it almost immediately.

Wednesday: Day 45 - Grabbing a quick cache at lunchtime, trying to beat the dark clouds on the horizon

Kris: Fairly simple grab once we got positioned in the right parking lot. Luckily there weren't too many people outside on their lunch break or it may have been a bit more challenging to get to the cache and not look suspicious. Mark: Running errands and grabbing a cache has become a common occurrence since we started the 365 challenge. We know there was a forecast for a lot of rain this afternoon/evening (which turns out was an understatement, this was the day that all of the flooding rains fell on southern Minnesota) so we decided to get our cache find out of the way before it started raining. But as you can see the clouds were on the horizon.

Thursday: Day 46 - A Red Herring! No. A Yellow Herring. No. A Yellow Duck???

Kris: Love this one! Not only did we fall for the cute trick left by the cache hider but the actual hide is one of my favorites so once I was re-directed I got it right away. Pulled up to GZ and we had to choose between a couple medium sized trees and a lamppost. Where would you look first? Mark: Now this was fun and one of those occasion when finding a cache leads you to something completely unrelated but makes you smile. Pulled up to the cache coordinate and I quickly had a container in my hand, but to my surprise it was not that easy. The cache hider had placed a red herring in the OBVIOUS beacon and it simply stated "You didn't really think we'd place the cache in a lamp post did you? This is not the the cache, please try again, thanks for visiting..." I even took a picture of the note and container intending that to be our picture for the day but after finding the real cache, about 20 feet away we saw a much more appropriate picture. Because our #Geocache365 is more about our experiences while finding a cache every day, who can resist a giant inflatable rubber duck?

Friday: Day 47 - One of these things is not like the other...

Kris: Ah, another one of my favorites. An easy grab for me as this type of hide sticks out to me. One of my first finds was of this type and I thought it was the most creative thing ever! Beautiful little spot with the creek flowing through and not too much traffic driving by. Mark: Our first attempt at a cache for today was a lot of fun but unfortunately the cache itself was missing so we had to fall back and find another cache nearby to go look for. We pulled up and were looking for about a minute when Kris said found it, and she was surprised that I had missed it, and so was I as this is one of my favorite types of caches and based on GZ I should have known to be looking for it. It is funny how much a cache like this stands out after you find it but if you don't know it is there you would never see it even though it is right out in the open.

Saturday: Day 48 - When worlds collide. Trail running meets geocaching. Birkie Trail Run 2010

Kris: A gorgeous place for geocaching! A quick, quiet walk down the ski trail and a few feet off into the brush. Pretty typical forest hide since this is an area where I don't think many people get off the trail. Mark: After finishing the Birkie Trail Half Marathon we drove back to the start line to find our cache for the day. How appropriate that our cache was right near the starting line and we actually ran within 30 feet of the cache when the race started. A beautiful day and the colors were amazing as you can see in the pic.

Sunday: Day 49 - Shameless Plug :) "Skol Vikings, Let's win this game"

Kris: Figured a good downtown cache would be good for us today. Picked one quite a ways out from the stadium so muggle traffic wasn't too heavy. GPS wasn't locking us in to one spot but knowing the size of the container it narrowed us down to just a couple of obvious beacons. Mark: Yes, I know that was a shameless plug, but they did win (Kris: barely!). Kris and I have been parking in her work parking lot and then walking about 1 1/2 miles to the dome for the game, which of course gives us an opportunity to look for a cache on our way. We had to spend quite a bit of time looking for this one as there was not many places to hide a cache at GZ and it eventually required a hand search of every nook and cranny and then I ran my fingers over it and it popped of out it hiding spot and fell to the ground. When I put it back I was shocked that I did not see it at all before finding it. Off to the game!! Go Vikes!

#Geocache365: Week 6 - September 13th-19th

2010-09-23T22:07:00.002-05:00

Mark: This past week was highlighted by Geocoinfest 2010 Mega Event on Sunday and the other events associated with during the weekend. Kris: I won't lie, I spent the whole week looking forward to Geocoinfest! (Nerd stamp for me :-P)

Monday: Day 36 - Our Journey to find the cache

Mark: Another Monday evening driving out to Waconia, this time bringing Journey with us. We saw this cache along the river and drove a little bit out of the way but still got to the Chiropractor on time. Kris: Just into the trees on a muggle-filled trail. One we like to run on actually. Not a hard find, just had to dodge the mosquitos and help Journey down the slope. Then it was a brisk walk back to the car and some quick driving to get to my appointment on time!

Tuesday: Day 37 - Tuesday Night Lights

Mark: Drove to Dred Scott field in Bloomington to watch Kris' niece's football game. Kris: We figured we would have to wait until the game ended in order to grab the cache. The game was over (Lily played awesome!) and most of the parking lot cleared out so we wandered back to this little building and took a seat on the bench. Made the find without looking too suspicious. Gotta love the "shoe tying" trick ;)

Wednesday: Day 38 - Sometimes you have to find them in between the rain drops and still run into another cacher

Mark: As we were debating about what cache to find for the day a new cache was published not to far away while it was raining and getting dark. Kris: We can't resist a good dash to try for a FTF. Fortunately it wasn't raining too hard when we parked. Unfortunately we were parked on the wrong side of the pond so we had to leap the creek and saw a bright yellow jacket wandering in the woods. Sparkfry was already at GZ. It was getting dark but luckily Mark made the find but blindly sticking his hands into crevaces in the trees (not really my thing in the dark). We ended up STF with Sparkyfry as someone else already signed FTF. Gotta be quick around here!

Thursday: Day 39 - Not your typical cache and certainly not Tupperware in a Log

Mark: We had an errand to run down in Bloomington during lunch time and along the way I found this unusual cache for us to find. Kris: Wow now this is one where you are kind of uncomfortable no matter how many times you check "yes it really does say placed with permission!" This one almost bordered on a multi or puzzle cache since it actually took figuring out a bit of trivia and then going to two locations in the building to find. After doing the trivia, you end up with a 5 digit number and when you go to the Suite that is listed, the "cache" is pretty obvious. Very fun and clever. Might be a bit weird though when the office at that suite is actually open for business! But I'm sure they all know what's going on and get a good kick out of it :)

Friday: Day 40 - Potluck, S'Mores and a random TB Frog

Mark: The GCF S'Mores event was in Crosby Park and we took the opportunity to get in our run before attending. The event was not our planned 365 cache for the day but due to really poor quality pictures taken in the dark at a cache we resorted back to a picture we took earlier in the evening at the event. Kris: Days are getting much too short on us in terms of daylight! This ended up being a huge event with over 250 people in attendance and some super cool travel items to discover. This big dude was my favorite and cool enough to be today's 365 picture.

Saturday: Day 41 - Trolley? What Trolley? Oh, I get it now. It helps if I actually read the entire description

Mark: Part of the GCF Minneapolis cache run, this cache was in a fairly remote part of Edina, we never new this was back here. Kris: I can't even begin to tell you how much I wish I had my running shoes on. What a fantastic trail that we never would have discovered had it not been for geocaching!! And this tree at GZ was beyond huge. Wonder how old it actually is?

Sunday: Day 42 - MEGA Event!! Geocoinfest 2010 - Volunteering, Geocoin Poker, Pathtags and Geocoins! So Much Fun!!

Mark: The Mega Event was at the Holiday Inn near the airport and there was so much to do through out the day. What a great event! Kris: Today was go, go, go! We had to start the day with a 12 mile run and then off to the Geocoinfest event for all day fun! First we volunteered at the Silent Auction table which was a blast since we got to chat with so many cachers as they browsed the table. We scanned the vendors that were there and spent the afternoon chatting and pathtag trading. We ended the day by playing in the Geocoin Texas Hold'em tournament. I had no idea what I was doing but we both hung in there about half way through. We stuck around to see the winner and made our way home, exhausted from a long, exciting weekend :)

Geocoinfest 2010

2010-09-22T22:56:00.000-05:00

Kris: This past weekend was go, go, go, go, go! The Twin Cities had their very own super awesome nerd fest at Geocoinfest 2010. There were events to attend Friday night through Sunday night. So here's how it went for us....

Friday night - "Let's Make S'Mores!" event

We needed to get in a 3 mile run today so we decided to head to the event and run along the river trail through the woods in St. Paul. Unfortunately we didn't remember to bring the GPS along on that run because our turn around point was within feet of one of the cache run caches. We got back and filled our faces with potluck type food and a 20oz bottle of Mt. Dew. Mark: After our run we were a bit warm and was still in our running gear during dinner. Afterwards we changed into some warm clothing so we could go caching. It was funny later in the evening when MnMizzou saw us and commented that we had put some clothes on. Kris: We had some time before the door prize drawings so we took off and meet up with our cacher friends Sharknose Bunnies and Trista74. Of course it got super dark and with about 10 minutes to get back to the picnic area we all decide to trudge up a terrain 3 to pick up one more cache. With like 2 minutes to get back, we made the find and started the trek back.

Sharknose signing the log in the dark

Hope I didn't seem totally unsocial as I was power walking to make it back. Never fails if I'm not there....I'll miss winning something! (Which I didn't by the way but they had a ton of great prizes!). We hung around to chat for a while longer, made a few s'mores and event traded a few pathtags before we headed out for the night. Mark: During the S'mores event another cache apporced us and asked if we had any of our Coffee Love pathtags with us, it turned out to be Mayberryman, who we ran into at a cache in Iowa back in April on our way to MOGA. It was really cool to talk with him and trade pathtags.

Saturday...Cup of Joe, Cache Runs and the Meet and Greet.

It was early up on Saturday to get to the Caribou at the MOA for the Cup of Joe. There were so many cachers here and we got to chat with some folks from Iowa and Nebraska. Also again got to trade a few pathtags :) Mark: At the event we finally got to meet Tank Hounds, who we have have found her pathtags in cache when we have been traveling on a couple of our longer outstate road trips. We also both one something during the prize drawings at the end of the event. Kris got a Cup of Joe geocoin and I won a trackable Patch.

Cup of Joe Mall of America - Saturday AM

At 10am we all took off to pick up caches for the cache runs. We had to get a minimum of 4 caches from the cache sets designed for the LRT, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

We opted for the Light Rail first. It was a bit crowded as there were a lot of people heading down town for the Twins Game (yawn!!!) but we got about half the caches on the route. Due to time constraints we decided to get the rest of the LRT caches a different day. Mark: Which will make for a another fun afternoon, we can start at the new Twin Stadium (yawn!!!) and pick up the remainin LRT caches from the north.

No idea what these are but they were at the 2nd stop along the light rail. Made for cool pictures.

Next up we went for the Minneapolis caches and picked up some Jamba Juice for lunch. I was so starving I was getting faint!! We managed to find two really great trails that we want to investigate for trail running while picking up caches in Edina. The one back to this one REALLY made me wish I had my run shoes with me! We got back to the cache to find this enormous old tree! Mark: During the Minneapolis cache run we picked up 4 pathtags in the caches taht we found. Kris was hungry before our first Minneapolis cache and I kept promising that we were on our way to Jamba but out route took us litterly right by two caches, within 50 feet of one cache so WE HAD TO STOP, it would have been silly not too.

Mark showing his climbing skilz at Trolley?"

Then it was back up to the house to feed the kitties and let the pups out 2 P before we rounded out the day by picking up the St. Paul caches. We were running late to get to the Meet and Greet so we found 3 along the river trail.

Cache in the rocks in St. Paul

(And by the way, not sure if you can tell from this pic but we are wearing our new trackable visors. We had the idea to have custom visors made with the travel bug symbol on the front and a trackable number with our geocaching handles on the side. Every one thought they were a really cool idea :)

Our last St. Paul hide was by this group of Snoopy character statues. I couldn't help myself in this pic. C'mon...he's holding a GPS!! Mark: And the cache was not even hidden at the statue with the GPS, it was hidden on one of the other charaters.

Me and Charlie GPSin' in St. Paul

The evening finished with dinner and door prizes at the Holiday Inn. Mark: Kris is forgetting to mention that she also one something at this event as well. They were drawing names in one of the conferance rooms and called Kris', she was in the Bar at the time and I ran to go get her as they were counting down from 20 if your were not ther to claim your prize. Kris slowly got up and I had to yell for her to run as quickly as she could. She got to the room as they were chanting 3, 2.... Close one. She won a pathtag.

Sunday - Geocoinfest!

Our morning needed to start with a 12 mile run so it was up early again. We got in our run with the group MN Running Wild which worked out great and we met a few new running friends. Then it was a quick stop at the Lifetime Fitness to shower and off to the main event! Mark and I volunteered working the Silent Auction which was a ton of fun. We got to small chat with so many cachers from all over the US. Mark: While we were working at the silent auction, I learned which coins were Mystery coins. For those who might not know, there are cachers who have geocoins made up so they can leave them anonymously in caches and events, even mailing them secretly to other cachers/coin collectors. All weekend long cachers were finding geocoins that had been left in various places during all the events. Unfortunalty we did not find any, but several of our friends did find coins. Kris did get a couple of geocoins that I secretly bid on for her during the auction.

There were a number of major geocaching vendors there selling some really cool shiny objects :) And unfortunately we didn't win any door prizes but we got to do a mass trade of trackables that I currently had in my possession and again trade a few more pathtags.

The evening we decided to buy in to the Texas Hold'em game where the winner got a full set of non-trackable poker chip geocoins and got to split the pot of 144 unactivated geocoins with 2nd and 3rd place. I held my own for about the first hour or so. I wasn't the first man down but didn't make it real long. Mark: Buy in was 3 unactivated coins per person, I had to buy a grab bag of coins from a cacher who was willing to save me the cost of shipping and brought them with them to Geocoinfest. During poker I was doing fairly well to start out and I did last a bit longer then Kris. We started with 6 tables and I made it to the final 3 tables. I went all in and Anne the Geocaching lacky decided to call my bluff. Thats was OK, becuase earier in the afternoon when Kris and I meet her gave us one of the 2010 Lacky coins.

This is what I look like when I have NO clue what I'm doing.

The evening ended with watching the final rounds of the Texas Hold'em game right around 8pm. I was SO tired but it was such an exciting weekend of being a total nerd. Just like I like it ;) Mark: Kris was gettting tired, a little bored and she was really hungry but I wanted to make sure that we stuck around to the end becuase traditionally that winner gives each player one of the poker chip geocoins that were used to play with at the final table. So we each walked away from the Poker event with two poker geocoins, one from our swag bag for just playing and one from the winner. We also got another pathtag in the swag bag so not a bad evening!

#Geocache365: Week 5 - September 6th-12th

2010-09-16T22:30:00.001-05:00

Mark: This week saw two milestone caches, one for each of us, a few last minute cache finds in the dark and and a day trip to Manakto for a very fun event.

Monday: Day 29 - Kris' 500th Cache!!

Kris: We were losing daylight since we decided to wait until after my niece's birthday party. The GPS had us wandering in the woods. It was pointing deep into the brush between two paved paths in a park. Mark: Milestones, weather it is you 100th, 1000th or even 5000th cache you always try to make it something unique. We knew that another milestone cache was coming up for Kris and we thought about trying to make Geocoinfest her 500th find but after counting the the number of days until the event and the fact that we still have to find at least one cache day we realized that was not going to work out. So after spending the after noon celebrating Lilly's birthday we found a nearby cache that looked like it might have a coin in it and hopefully that would do for a milestone cache. Unfortunately no coin, we will make sure Kris's next major milestone is something cool.

Tuesday: Day 30 - Sometimes you have to find and sign them in the dark.

Kris: Days are getting shorter and we seem to be night caching more than I would like. Definitely adds an element of difficulty! Luckily this one pointed us to what I'd call an obvious beacon on a fence by the running/biking trail. Mark: So this evening we were interview by our videoographers for our wedding video and it was at the Caribou Coffee where Kris and I met and it was a fun evening causing quite the disruption at Caribou. Unfortunately by the time we were done it was dark, oh and by the way, when did it start getting dark so early again? Anyways, we quickly checked our iPhones looking for a quick cache that might not be to difficult to find in the dark. We lucked out, there was one not to far away and it was common fence post cap style of cache that we managed to find after about 30 seconds at GZ. This cache does make me wonder what it is going to be like this winter when it is dark when you go to work and dark when you come home.

Wednesday: Day 31 - This is how this evening went; Flash, Dash & Cache.

Kris: Again...a cache after dark! But considering the GPS was pointing us right to a spot with three pine trees, we knew what to look for. Loved the container on this one! Didn't love feeling like a deer in the headlights while signing the log :-P Mark: "Flash", so we were notified that a local running store was asking for members of our running club to participate in a photo shoot in the store, pretending to be customers. It turned out to be kinda of fun, but our real hope was that we would win the $100 gift card that were giving out as incentive and as a way to say Thank you for helping. "Dash" was our 4 mile run with some of our ALARC club membesr right after the photo shoot. And then "Cache" was finding our 365 cache for the day, again in the dark. Another standard cache type but it was very easy, practclly a park and Grab, the picture was taken from the drives seat of the car. Headlight really make finding a cache in the dark much easier.

Thursday: Day 32 - The things you find while Geocaching and this cache is a Letterbox.

Kris: This one was a letterbox, placed where a traditional cache was recently archived. Learned something new about archiving caches. I guess if you archive a cache, you can reserve the location to potentially place another one so someone else doesn't "steal" your spot. Mark: This was fun. We actually missed the publication and a possible FTF of a brand new letterbox less then a mile fromour house because we did not have our notifications set for the Letterbox types of cache, that was quickly remedied. We did decide that it would make a good 365 since we are trying to include all types of caches. This is actually the third cache that has been on this old abandoned car. Over time a cache my go missing or for some other reason the cache owner may decide to archive instead of replacing and then a new cache can be placed in the same location. According to another one of our caching friends, there have been 4 caches total at this car.

Friday: Day 33 - Special equipment needed? Nope! Then definitely not a Terrain 5.

Kris: I was intrigued by this one since it was marked a terrain of 5 but looking at the satellite map, it was just a ditch area with some trees. Terrain 5 is supposed to mean "special equipment needed". when we got there, I realized what they must have meant by the high rating. Mark: We saw this one pop up on our notification of newly published caches and it got our attention because it was listed as a Terrain 5, which by Geocacing definitions, requires special equipment to retrieve the cache. After looking at the map and satellite image we were stumped as to why it rated a Terrain 5, so we decided to go investigate. When we got to GZ, we ran into TJ of TJ&JJ, he had been looking for a few minutes and quickly pointed why this was named Futon. After a minute or so of looking around a tree at GZ Kris spotted the cache and quickly climbed the tree. Defiantly not a Terrain 5, more like a 3.5.

Saturday: Day 34 - I found my 1200th cache today during the OTAK 2010 event. Thanks Mankato!

Kris: We LOVE cache run events. A great opportunity to go caching in a new area and meet new people :) Mark: We spent the day in Mankato as part of the OTAK 2010 event and had a great time. For a first time event they did really well. Kris and I found all of the available 29 event caches both the temps and permanents. This cache turned out to be our 4th permanent find (12th total) of the day and at the end of the day we figured out it was also my 1200th find.

Sunday: Day 35 - Hard to tell in this picture but there are tons of muggles in the park on a beautiful day.

Kris: Playgrounds and city parks always pose a problem in the months of nice weather as there tend to be many muggles about. Luckily this one lead us to the far corner of the park and away from the action. Mark: Not every day can be a caching adventure like our trip to Mankato, some days you have to stay home and get a few things done around the house. The #Geocache365 project still does give us an excuse to get out of the house and still find at least one cache on what turned out to be a beautiful day. This was actually our second attempt after running to Target to pick up a few things for the house, the first park had muggles right on top of where the cache was so we switched to plan B. It is really hard to tell in this picture but this park is crawling with muggles, either playing softball, having a group get together picnic. Fortunately for us, this corner of the park was relatively muggle free and we were able to grab the cache with out attracting any attention.

Otak 2010 GeoFest - Bike, Hike, & Crawl

2010-09-12T23:54:00.016-05:00

Kris: Yesterday we drove down to Mankato for a geocaching event that sounded interesting. "Otak 2010 GeoFest - Bike, Hike, & Crawl - GC2A15F" With the words "bike and hike" in the title...you get our attention! We had to get up at 6am to make it down there in time so after a big mug of coffee we pulled into Mankato.

It was a beautiful day and we brought along the mountain bikes and our run shoes, not really knowing what was in store for the cache run portion of the day. Once we got the coordinates for the 30 cache run caches (15 new perm / 15 temp) we were on our way through town at 9am.

After the first few finds, we realized that the diff/terr ratings weren't exactly what we were expecting. Quite a few were rated higher in terrain than they should have been. Most were no worse than a 2 / 2.5 although I'll give the one up in the tree a 3-ish and the climb down into the rocks along the river a 3 as well.

Mark: There were actually two very impressive well done caches. "The Doctor" and "You can park here" Kris made a great find with "The Doctor" and we might have been stumped had we not gotten a clue from the cache hidder of "You can park here" As soon as I got to ground zero the clue made perfect sense and I walked right up to it. This one was also a very cute cache but I never understood the name "Foul Ball"

The middle set of caches were all along the river trail so we took down the mountain bikes and that saved us a LOT of time. It was a lot of fun getting to stretch the bike legs a bit while caching (well....except for the one cache that had incorrect coordinates and us along with another cacher ended up inside private property at the water treatment facility. Seriously! Strike 2 for us in two weeks when it comes to tresspassing!) Mark: The wind was also a bit of an issue going south on the trail along the river, but it was not to bad. During our ride along the river I found my 1200th cache.

We also got to ride past the Gay Pride Festival that was going on at a river park. Saw a seriously funny bumper sticker...

Mark: Here are few other pictures we took at the varius caches we found.

Can you see the cache container in the last picture? The Star behind the Liberty Place marble sign.

The cache run was from 9am-3pm and luckily we finished up around 2:00 so we had time to get in our daily run before meeting up for dinner and door prizes at 4:30pm. Luckily along our run up the river we went past one cache location where we got a chance to help out one cacher with his two boys that made the same mistake we did in making the find. Mark: During the run we passed 5 of the cache locations and saw cachers at about 3 of them. It was fun to be the "muggle" and watch how the geocacher reacted. We also picked up a few other caches in a nearby park. After our run but before dinner.

At dinner, we both won some cool door prizes. Between the two of us we got two unactivated TB tags, a $5 Panera Gift Card, a travel mug with cache swag in it and some custom caching labels. Mark: We ended up being the only ones that found all of the event caches so one of the TB tags was the prize for find the most caches. We also learned that (and I say this with no disrespect) Mankato area is very new to the geocaching scene. Most everyone at the event has been caching for a year or less and out of everyone there, Mark had the most total cache finds by at least 300. Mark: I am never the cacher with the most finds at an event. Here in the cities there are so many people that have 1000, 3000, a few even with 5000! AND (get this Twin Cities cachers.....) if a cache gets published after dark, FTF usually is around 6am the next morning. I wish we had that kind of time to get FTF!!!! For those of you outside the twin cities area, I don't care if the cache is published at 2am, you have about 20 minutes to get there or you will not be FTF. Hounds are crazy fast around here. But I will say that sometimes does make the chase for FTF kinda fun :)

I mean no hard feelings to Mankato. It's actually the opposite. It's quite exciting to see a new area really embracing the geocaching community and I really do hope they hold this event again next year and I also hope we see some of the Mankato cachers up for GeoCoin Fest and/or other large events.

PS - and if you are wondering what "OTAK" is for in the event name as I was.....it's a local thing. Take "ManKATO" and make Kato backwards. "Otak" I think they said is the name of the Mankato High School yearbook I guess.

Mark: On the way home we could not help being distracted by shiny objects and we stopped at 3 more caches hoping to find a few geocoins, and we got lucky at 2 of the 3 with each picking up a coin. The second stop was this wayside rest outside of Jordon but the cache took us back in the woods to the edge of a beautiful creek. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera or phone so no picture.

So the cache count for the day is 35 caches (20 regular caches and 15 Temporary event caches). I scanned our copy of the log sheet from the OTAK event.

Next Up is Geocoinfest 2010 this coming weekend. Activities all weekend long.

Southeastern MN caching day trip

2010-09-10T23:24:00.000-05:00

Kris: Last Sunday was what we dedicated as our FREE day as we haven't had an entire day to do whatever we wanted to in a long time. So of course....we slept in and took off driving south to go geocaching all day. Our intention was to drive STRAIGHT (Mark: Straight if I would have taken 52 and not 35W, adding at least 45 minutes to our drive time) down to the two state parks we wanted to pick up for the day and then spend the rest of the day caching our way home. But about 3/4 of the way down there we spotted this really cute little road with an old bridge and stream running through it. (shiny object!!) So we turned around and spent a few minutes exploring and taking pictures.

The first park we got to was John A Latsch and it's a super small park. We got the Safari multi in probably less than 2 minutes and then we were after the other cache in the park that supposedly had a coin in it. But walking past this sign, I was wondering what we were in for.....

591 old wooden stairs later, we were at the top of this climb with very tired legs but had a great view over the river. Another couple came up and took our picture for us. She said "kiss him!"...so I did ;)

The cache was a short hike past the viewing spot but easy to find as it was called "Timberrrr!" and was a regular. Not sure how great a muggle would feel accidentally stumbling across this ammo can in the woods.

Explosive is maybe a bit scary......

Once we finished up here we got a few quick caches and got distracted by a few that hadn't been found in a long time. The first one was a multi that took Mark's poor Ford Focus onto roads built for a Jeep.

When picking up the final stage way up in this remote area, sure enough a muggle comes by on a 4-wheeler. There we are probably looking all suspicous and he asks "you two seen any other people around up in here? We've had troubles with people setting fires" Then (it gets better...) The guy mentions some cool caves just up the road. Not really pointing at the road on the left or the right, we decide to see if they are up the road on the left (wrong!!!) As the road narrows and becomes increasingly hard to navigate much less turn around I notice we pass a "Private Property, No Trespassing" sign. Having no where to turn around we keep going up (and I keep waiting to hear a shotgun) find a place to turn around by this house and make our way back down. Sure enough, we meet up with this old truck with two older gentlemen and a dog. We stop as we were passing each other and he gives an interesting grin...."Whatcha doin' up here?" Sigh....I figured geocaching was a bad answer so we went with playing dumb, didn't see the sign, someone said something about caves and we couldn't find a place for our little city car to turn around. Great!! I'm waiting to be summoned to court for either starting forest fires or trespassing.

Once that fun was over, we noticed another cache with a relatively high difficulty rating that also hadn't been found in awhile and had a coin in it. Mark: We had juts gotten done finding a graveyard cache, one of Kris' favoties when we noticed this other high difficulty cache and were debating about trying to grab it or not when Kris mentioned that most likely the coin was still in the cache so I turned the car around and we headed to where the description talked about parking, As we drove to the parking spot we got to within .1 miles of the cache, remember that as I continue to tell this story. So we park and head up the trail, which turned out to be a ATV trail, kind of rough in a few places but plenty wide. (The picture below gives you an idea of what the trail was like) So we started our hike and it was not to long before we were passed by a family out on their ATV's, we let them go by and continued on our way. We walked for quite a ways and during that time I kept asking how far, .25 miles, then it was .3 miles and everytime I asked, Kris kept telling me I don't want to know. As we were approcing a final bend, hopefully back twords the cache we were passed by a second group on ATV's this time there was about 8 or so, OK this is their trail after all. So we get to the bend in the trail and finally we start heading towards the cache, as it turns out we ended more then a half mile from the cache before we actulley started getting closer. Eventually we got to GZ and made the find VERY quickly, not to hard considering it was an ammo can leaned up aginst a tree trunk. We still had to be stealthy as the ATV'ers were still up here at the lookout at the end of the trail. Unfortunally as we opend the cache and investigated we saw that the coin was missing, the coin sleeve (with the tracking #) was still in the cache and there was a entry in the log dated with todays date, "found while peeing, this is my first geocache." One of the ATV'ers found the cache stole the coin and signed the log. Sigh..... All that way and the coin was gone, that was the main reason why we decided to try for this cache, and it had not been found for months prior to this day. We were so close, remeber me mentioning being .1 miles from the cache. Since then I have checked on Geocaching.com and no one else had logged a find or logged the coin, so even though they signed the cache and replaced it, it was muggled.

Weird you can't really tell from this picture if we are looking up or down hill :)

We were definitely getting tired by this point but had to pick up Frontenac State Park so we scooted over there pretty quickly, got our passport stamp, safari cache and then headed out for a nice quick 2.5ish mile trail run to pick up the Hiking Club word. Very pretty park with some steep terrain on the trails

Kris heading up a long a-- hill

All in all we ended up getting a little TOO distracted by caches that took a long time so we didn't get a high number of finds this day but it was quite the adventure. 3 multis, 4 traditionals, 2 earthcaches and 1 virtual.

Next adventure (tomorrow) we are heading down to Otak 2010 GeoFest - Bike, Hike, & Crawl in Mankato. Bringing the mountain bikes along for the caching part and then hopefully will have time for a nice run as well.

#Geocache365: Week 4 - August 30th - September 5th

2010-09-08T21:16:00.001-05:00

Mark: Week 4 found us still working on finding the stages of Golden Valley History and then on Sunday we headed out for a 1 day geocaching road trip to grab a couple more State Park Safari caches. Kris: It ended up more of a hiking adventure than a road trip :)

Monday: Day 22 - Mosquitos were so bad they almost carried off Truffle.

Mark: Out in Waconia again, this time with Truffle and before Kris' chiro appointment we decided to grab our cache of the day. Kris: Yikes the mosquitos were vicious! It was a short walk into the woods followed by a quick signature and carrying little Truffle briskly back OUT of the woods.

Tuesday: Day 23 - Woof, Woof, Woof.

Mark: This was a quick grab on our way out to a Fajita cruise on Lake Minnetonka. Kris: Cute little park with this pretty walk through area. The cache had a super cute name and very fitting for the item it was stuck to :)

Wednesday: Day 24 - Shhhhhhh.... People sleeping.

Mark: This cache was a direct result of one of visiting one of the stages for Golden Valley History cache. Great example of a quick fun multi-cache. Kris: Bleh!! I never do like cemetery caches but luckily this multi didn't actually make you go in the cemetery. You had to use information from within the cemetery but could stay on the outside of the fence.

Thursday: Day 25 - Coffee and a Cache, and yes Kris is throwing her gangster signs for 25.

Mark: After stopping for coffee in the morning we decided to get our cache of the day out of the way early. Kris: OK walking closer to GZ it was obvious that it had to somehow be ON this bridge but the GPS was jumping all over the place within 20ft of either end of the bridge. By reading some of the prior logs, we were able to narrow our search to a particular feature on the bridge to make the find. One muggle did come by as Mark was under the bridge so he sat like a silent troll while I politely said "good morning" and made it look like I was just hanging out enjoying my morning coffee ;) Oh, and this was our Day 25 find, hence the gangsta signs.

Friday: Day 26 - Found it as the light was fading fast.

Mark: This was supposed to be a quick find on the way to the store, but by the picture you can see we were running out of light. Can you see Kris in the pic? Kris: This is a little less accessible in the summer since there is a lot of tall brush and potentially hidden poison ivy (I'm a little paranoid...) but we found a sort of path in to near the cache location. There were a few muggles on the trail so I tried to hide as best I could ;)

Saturday: Day 27 - 13 Stages later we found "someones" stash.

Mark: After almost two weeks of visiting the various stages and figuring out the final location we finally made the find. A very long multi but also very fun! Kris: This was a fun multi for history buffs since it made you find a lot of historical places around Golden Valley that you would otherwise drive right by. The final stage was obviously "found" by a critter who packed the cache location full of their winter stash. Yes folks, we did put it all back before we left.

Sunday: Day 28 - 591 steps, good grief! At least we made the find!

Mark: One of our stops during our Labor Day weekend State Park Safari challenge road trip. The trip to and from the cache is what made it our cache of the day. Kris: Holy flip that was one hell of a climb! I suppose when the sign at the bottom says "difficult, one hour, 450 elevation" we should have had a pretty good idea of what we were getting into. Cache we were after is called "Timberrr!" so we knew what we were looking for. A long climb and short hike brought us right to the big beacon lining the path.

#Geocache365: Week 3 - August 23rd-29th

2010-09-03T12:21:00.000-05:00

Mark: Week 3 found us not only finding our daily cache but also working on a 13 stage multicache in Golden Valley. I decided that we should try to find the information that we need at one stage every day along with the #Geocache365 cache, so I made a point of finding the closest cache to each of the 12 stages need to solve the final location and this week 4 of the caches were dual purpose. Kris: I've always like multicaches so being able to do this one WITH our #Geocache365 has been fun.

Monday: Day 15 - Tennis Anyone?

Kris: Fairly simple micro in a local park. Muggles were a factor in this area today as they are with most parks on a summer day. Mark: When we walked up to ground zero there were some local muggles playing hoops on the court next to the tennis courts so we had to keep an eye on them as we searched. We were the only others in the entire park so we looked a bit out of place as we parked and walked up but after watching the players for a little while we decided the did not even know we were there, which is always a good thing when dealing with muggles. Kris can just been seen in the picture on the left side.

Tuesday: Day 16 - Close to the cache, 14ft w/25ft of accuracy.

Kris: Pretty easy find, typical pine tree hide. Mark: This is one of those times when I don't agree with the hide as it is obviously adding an opinion/view point/belief into geocaching. Geocaching should be universal and should not highlight one religion or another. So instead of a picture of the surroundings I chose to focus on the distance/accuracy of our GPS, everyone is different and it takes a bit to learn your particular GPS. In the picture we were actually about 7 feet from the cache.

Wednesday: Day 17 - Creek/Crick... Looks like water to me.

Kris: This one was a quick find along the sidewalk. I love how I can be staring at my GPS, walking along the road and most people look at me and just think I'm staring at my smartphone :) Mark: Sometimes the cache hider adds a bit of local color into the name of the cache. In this case the creek in the picture has different spelling depending on who you ask. In this case is it "Bassett Creek", "Basset Creek" or 'Bassett's Creek"? What ever the correct name is you have learned something new about the area you are geocaching in.

Thursday: Day 18 - look out for prickly/sticky things!

Kris: This was a 2-stage near the running track we were on our way to. Road provided muggle traffic to be aware of and Mark's bright blue shirt didn't do much for camo :) I didn't venture all the way in for the final location due to the bushes that you had to go through. Mark: OK, I hate these things. The little stickers, seeds and other prickly things that attach themselves to your clothes and shoes when you are walking in an overgrown area. I am actually about 10 feet from the road but even here I had to be real careful grabbing the cache so I did not get to much on my clothing. That stuff really likes to stick to the technical race shirts that I like to wear.

Friday: Day 19 - As soon as we quit playing around we found the cache.

Kris: Hidden by good caching friends of ours, Trista74. Playground not too far from home. No one in the park today so we had plenty of time to search. Mark: Playgrounds! These are a real headache and are high on my list of cache types that is dislike. A well hidden/creative container can frustrate you for hours on playground equipment, there are so many repetitive, similar hiding holes and like today, I thought I check all of them but as it turns out, the one that i didn't check is where Kris found the cache.

Saturday: Day 20 - A nice surprise this morning, an unactivated geocoin!

Kris: We had a busy day planned which was originally going to start by going to a nearby Breakfast Buddies event but we noticed a local cache with a log entry about a coin. Mark and I are fond of shiny objects so we re-routed our morning a bit to try to make the find in a city park area, just off a walking path. Mark: So if caches containing Travel Bugs get your attention, and Geocoins are actively sought after by coin hounds then finding an unactivated Geocoin must be the best prize your can find in a cache. Having a bit of inside information that the coin was there didn't hurt, certainly got us to adjust our plans very quickly so that we could go find this cache.

Sunday Day: Day 21 - Sometimes you have to find whatever is available on the way to a BBQ.

Kris: We knew we had little time to think about what cache to grab today so we just did a search nearby for ANY cache that was in the area of a friend's BBQ that afternoon. Nothing super special, just a city park micro hide. Mark: At the end of our third week, we have come to the conclusion that not every cache we find for #Geocach365 is going to be neat , or cool or even interesting. Sometimes, you just run out of time in a very busy day and have to find a cache as your going from one set of plans to another which brought us to this cache. It was very convenient, on our way to our friends BBQ and only took a few minutes.

Wedding Updates and other Geocaching stories

2010-09-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

Kris: So first off I should point out that I forgot to mention something a few weeks ago. During our Ragnar Relay race, we were quickly trying to duck away here and there to grab nearby caches. At one point, I was in shorts and sandals and we were waiting for our runner to go by. But there was a cache just over 500 ft away in the woods. We made the decision to make a quick run for it. It led us along a small path and then OFF the path towards some fallen logs. We made the find and got out of there just in time to see our team runner go by. Now let's fast forward two days......

Picture doesn't do it justice. Should have taken my shoes/socks off to show you all the spots on my feet and ankles!

Yeah.....that's right, poison ivy folks. And I'm positive the above recollection is when I made the unfortunate contact. 3 nights of little sleep from itching....it finally went away.

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MN State Fair
We went out to the Fair last Saturday to catch my favorite A Capella group Tonic Sol Fa at Leinie's Lodge and then do LOTs of people watching. Nothing too exciting to report from the fair and if you believe it or not, we were there for 4 1/2 hours and only split one plate of Aussie Battered Potatoes and each got an ice cream treat from the Dairy Barn. Mark: It was strange to spend so little time at the fair this year and to not eat very much. One other thing that we did at the fair was got our BMI/Body Fat % tested. :( I will be talking more about that in my personal blog if anyone is interested.

Baby Piggy

Baby Chicks

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Vikings Pre-Season
We actually had to hurry from the Fair to pick up our race packets for the Mpls Duathlon the next morning (see our individual blogs) and then get to the first Vikings pre-season game. Nothing too exciting their either, they played well and I see some new talent lurking. Favre played through the first half. We also got to check out our new season ticket seats which are the same distance up in the upper deck but instead of in the corner, we are straight up from about the 12 yard line on the Vikings bench side. Mark: I spent most of the game looking around trying to get used to my new perspective. I sat in my old seats for 10 years. It will take a bit to get used to but I do like the location, right in the middle of the Red Zone.

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Al and Alma's Fajita's and Margaritas!
We purchased two tickets through Living Social to this cruise awhile back. $17.50 for both of us to get a 2 hour narrated cruise on Lake Minnetonka with a fajita buffet dinner and one free margarita. It was a great night to be on the water. Only downside is that we were so hungry by time dinner was served, our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs. Mark: Wanted to get the most for our money!

I was still full the next morning!

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We are VERY much looking forward to Geocoin Fest which is being hosted here in the Twin Cities the weekend of Sept 18th. We are planning on not missing anything going on for the event and even hunting down unactivated geocoins for the buy in needed to play in the Geocoin Poker :) Mark: A Texas Hold-em tournament where the final table plays with real geocoin poker chips and winner keeps them all. Really looking forward to that!

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Oh yeah, and I'm going to just say this quickly because it really bums me out every time I think about it. We came to the unfortunate decision that we will not be holding a reception after our wedding due to financial setbacks. Without one or both of us taking on another job, we just can't pay for it. While our marathon wedding is going to be very unique and very special, I just feel like part of the "getting married" experience is going to be missing....celebrating with friends and family back at home :(

#Geocache365: Week 2 - August 16th-22nd

2010-08-24T22:38:00.001-05:00

Kris: So this week posed two challenges. We had a two day relay race and NO idea if we would have the opportunity to get away long enough or far enough from the team to pick up our caches. Thank goodness for Pocket Queries!! Using the Geocaching.com tool, Mark created a route which plotted all caches within 0.25 miles of the race course and we crossed our fingers. Also, after several days of staring and obsessing over the History Cache I at Wild River State Park, Mark (with the permission of the cache owner) put together an unofficial event to gather up cachers that have been working to solve it. Mark: Since it was less then two weeks I was unable to create an Event Cache but Minnesota has a very active geocaching community and by posting a note on the MnGCA.com event forum I was able to get a number of cachers interested in getting together to compare notes. We met at the park and hoped for success. Lucky for us, the prize included a pathtag.

Monday: Day 8 - Plan B Welcome to Victoria, Sugar.

Mark: The original plan was to find a cache out in Waconia after dinner with Kris's parents. Decided that it was getting to late for the hike and could not find where to park so we reverted to plan B. Kris: We've also decided that each of "Team Dogs" will be making an appearance during our #Geocache365 challenge. My girl Sugar is the first. She enjoys coming out caching with us. Once we saw the cacher that placed this one, we knew exactly what type of container to look for :)

Tuesday: Day 9 - Only Outdoors is right.

Mark: This was a lunchtime getaway with dual purpose, not only did we find our cache for the day but I also got my new Timex Ironman Global Trainer in the store. Kris: Easy find, very friendly first find to anyone who just purchased a GPS from here :)

Wednesday: Day 10 - Penguins are more familiar with Southern Stars.

Mark: This used to be the Viking Council back in the days when I was a Boy Scout. Kris: Always love these types of hides. While somewhat obvious, they are still fun and more interesting than a camo-taped peanut butter jar. Plus I got a new addition to my penguin collection. See him?

Thursday: Day 11 - First to Find!!!

Mark: This one popped up just as we were walking into Target to shop for our Ragnar Relay trip. 1.2 miles away and we could not resist. Kris: I just moved from Eden Prairie to Robbinsdale, a good 13-ish miles away from each other but we were back in EP this evening to do a few Ragnar errands and sure enough, a cache is published nearby. A parking lot favorite in terms of the placement. EP has a few FTF Hounds that are often hard to beat to the cache but I think we lucked out that it was right at the end of the work day and they may not have been back home yet :)

Friday: Day 12 - Graveyards & Ragnar Relay Exchange 6

Mark: We were wondering how and when we would find our caches during the Ragnar Relay but Exchange 6 provided us with plenty of time and a cache very close by. Kris: Not a big fan of caches near cemeteries but this one was within 0.12 mi of where we were hanging out for a few hours. Luckily we could walk AROUND the stones to the back wooded corner. An easy find once we got there, probably not much of a need to go over-board on the camo....how many people would really wander back here anyway?

Saturday: Day 13 - Watching the Ragnar Relay runners scurry around like cockroaches.

Mark: Again, a major exchange, #30 along the Ragnar Relay route and there was a cache very close by. Kris: We were a little loopy from lack of sleep. There was an easy find but one that requires looking out for a lot of muggles near a parking lot. This was a very common parking lot cache type. And luckily all the muggles around were paying attention to what was going on with the race.

Sunday: Day 14 - Success!! Collaboration works!! Thanks Everyone!

Mark: This was really fun! We spent a few weeks collaborating with a few other geocachers on how to solve a VERY HARD puzzle cache and here we are making the find after spending some time at the park comparing and review our answers and then coming up with the final coordinates. Kris: The amount of brain power it took to figure out this cache was crazy! I give serious credit to the creator, Naturalist Dave, for coming up with this. It really makes you learn about the park and it's history in order to solve it. Plus you learn, typos aren't always just typos, they often have meaning in cache puzzles.

#Geocache365: Our new Project - Week 1

2010-08-17T10:07:00.000-05:00

Mark - So last week one of KB's challenge caches came to my attention because someone created a new event to celebrate there completion of that challenge. The challenge cache is GC1AG09 - A Cache a Day... for 365 days? where you have to find at least one cache per day for the next year. And having just updated my Geocaching stats I thought this might be fun to try, my previous longest streak with a find every day was 19 days. I suggested it to Kris and she was all over the idea. So we accepted the challenge and counting the cache we found on the previous evening (Monday) we were on our way.

But rather then just finding a cache everyday we started to think about it and way to make it more challenging and interesting. We just happened to take a picture at the cache we found last night so we thought why not take a picture at every cache that we will be using for our cache a day. We determined that the picture might not necessarily be of the cache nor will is be of us at the cache, but it could be a picture of anything that we found interesting or unusual that we found while we were looking for the cache. Basically a picture that contains our experience with that cache.

Sounds fun right? But we even decided to take it one step further and to Tweet about each cache each day and include that picture in our Tweet. Just a short message about the cache or our experience. We also wanted our Tweets to be found if you did a key word search so we used the hashtag concept # and came up with our own hashtag for this protect. #Geocache365. If you go out on Twitter and search for that hashtag you will find our Tweets.

We are also planning on doing a weekly recap of our finds for that week and include the pictures that we took. So this blog is the first installment.

#Geocache365: Week 1 - August 9th - 15th

Monday: Day 1 - Along here somewhere

Tuesday: Day 2 - cache with a discount

Wednesday: Day 3 - Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick

Thursday: Day 4 - FTF? Nope. STF? Yes and a surprise! #pathtag

Friday: Day 5 - No it is not on Private Property

Saturday: Day 6 - The name says it all?

Sunday: Day 7 - At the end of our 7 mile long run. Nicely Done! Kris: This one is going on my favorites list :)

Results are in

2010-08-12T23:07:00.000-05:00

Kris: RESULTS ARE IN AND COUPLE #20 TOOK THE WIN :( Mark: Booo Hissss Kris: Really bummed out about this one because technically they won't even use anything they just won FOR their wedding. Their wedding is next weekend. She already has her dress and I'm sure they have a photographer lined up. I don't have my dress nor are we thinking we'll have a photographer at the reception. Sigh....thanks again SO much to everyone who helped us and keep up to date on our plans by watching this website! Mark: Yes Thank you sooooo much to everyone who was so patient with our mass communcations during the past 2 weeks. Thank you so much for voting.

Kris: We didn't get to do our video interviews tonight as the heat index was over 100 and then storms rolled in so we'll have to try and reschedule for next week. Mark: Yeah I deided to give them a call this afternoon and question the logic of trying to do video interviews when at the time the heat index was about 102 degrees.

We are starting to put in more miles each week to kick start our marathon training. We officially are in training starting this next week. I find that I like to get our runs over and done with in the morning before work but I've been feeling much stronger in the evenings. We took Sugar out for a run with us last week and I think it may have been a little much for her as she was a little sluggish the next day. Mark: In Sugar's defense we did take her out for a 4 mile run and she almost never runs, probably should work her up with some smaller runs first. Same goes for Rugar, our other potential running dog.

Other wedding details:
1) Mark's wedding marathon shoes are in so we need to go pick those up. Pictures will be posted soon :)
2) I ordered our visors that we will be having embroidered and a veil attached to mine
3) Save the Date cards should be going out this weekend!
4) Meeting with a friend of mine that I went to school with tomorrow. She does some floral work on the side and is going to quote us on flowers for the reception.
5) Our wedding pathtags will be submitted for proofing tomorrow.

Geocaching:
We started a new adventure on this front! On 08/09/10 we started the "A Cache a Day...for 365 days?" challenge. My thought is that I will post about this challenge once a week and cover the caches we picked up for that week. Since i'm not very good at keeping the blog up to date by more than a week or two. Mark: We are taking a picture at each cache for the next 365 days. Pictures will not neccesarily be of the cache but might be of the area or something interesting about the area, the cache or something we found in the cache. If you are on twitter you can follow our progress by searching for #Geocache365 and then that tweet will also be the "Found It" Log. A typical Tweet/Log will look like this "#Geocache365: Day X - Something interesting http:\PictureLink" Otherwise the weekly wrap up blogs will also include the pictures we took for the week.

Stay Tuned!!!

2010-08-11T22:26:00.000-05:00

Kris: Just a quick update for those of you holding your breath......the wedding contest oddly concluded last Friday and the website has stated, since Monday night "Check back tomorrow to see who won" It's now 2 "tomorrow's" later...still no results.

Just wanted to let you all know we are still waiting and hoping could #20 either didn't exist or totally cheated :-P. Other than that, the Save the Date cards are almost out the door and we ordered our blank visors today that we are going to decorate for the marathon.

We also have another video session with our guys Mike and Charlie from Forever Films tomorrow. Should be fun :)

Quick Post: Please vote for us! 20 Fabulous Weddings Contest

2010-07-28T22:49:00.000-05:00

20 FABULOUS WEDDINGS CONTEST

WE NEED YOUR VOTE!! OUR STORY ABOUT HOW WE MET RUNNING AND HOW WE ARE GETTING MARRIED RUNNING IS A FINALIST IN THE "20 FABULOUS WEDDINGS" CONTEST!!

PLEASE VOTE FOR US EVERY DAY FROM EVERY COMPUTER YOU HAVE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW!

PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO VOTE FOR US AS WELL! WE'RE CURRENTLY IN SECOND PLACE!!

VOTE ONCE PER DAY FROM EACH COMPUTER YOU OWN FROM NOW THROUGH AUGUST 6TH

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR WEBPAGE AND VOTE FOR US!

The Move

2010-07-23T12:36:00.000-05:00

Kris: This last week has been quite chaotic but we're getting a lot of things done as far as moving me into Mark's place. Last Friday we had a contractor in to build in a closet, make a half wall a full wall, put in a door to the upstairs and also frame in a few windows. It looks really nice and with that all in place, the upstairs is now a dog-free zone.

New Linen Closet

Window for the pass through

Half wall and new Door

Mark: One of the benefits of separating of the upstairs for the cats is that now the wall unit air conditioner works incredibly well. Had to actually turn the air down to low, a first in the 10 years I have lived here because it was too cold upstairs.

Kris: We spent a good chunk of Saturday cleaning and putting in some shelving. I was cleaning floor to ceiling upstairs and Mark was working in the basement and on the main floor.

Finishing off the Basement for the Dogs

New Shelves in the Kitchen

Mark: Amazing what projects I am getting done now that there is a female influence in the house again.

Kris: Saturday morning my Dad and a friend came over to take my grandfather clock. We decided the best place for it is at Mom and Dad's house.  It will have to stay there until we get our new house. Late afternoon the plan was to go for a longer bike ride with a group of our friends but the weather blew in storms and tornado watch/warnings so unfortunately that got canned :( But we did have a group of our Tour de France friends over in the evening to watch Stage 13.

Sunday was a full moving day. We rented a U-Haul truck to get all of the large items moved around. We had stuff from Mark's to go to storage and stuff from my place to go to storage and another load up to the house. Kind of a bummer for me that I had to take apart my bed set and throw all that into storage. All except for the bed as we switched out Mark's doggie king for my kitty queen. Makes the bedroom look huge and my bed look small! And thank goodness we got a few extra hands to help us get the monstrous items moved.   Michael helped us get my bed set cabinets into storage and then Michael and Steve helped us get the bed and couch into the house and up the stairs. (yikes I was seriously thinking the couch might not make it through the door)

Mark: If I have not mentioned it, I hate moving and it stresses me out beyond belief. And technically I am not even moving.

Kris: This week is going to be lots of car-fulls from my house to Mark's house.   And since the bed is gone, our temporary sleeping arrangements are a sleeping bag and two blankets on the living room floor. We opted for the living room so we can watch the Tour de France right before turning out the lights.

So the goal remains to have me and the kitties completely moved in next weekend. And our new bigger goal..."Out by France" (Short story on that one, we want to have enough money saved up that we can be in a new house and plan on going to France in July 2013 which will be the 100th running of the Tour :)

A Really Big Change

2010-07-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

Kris: So it's been awhile since we've been doing a whole lot of adventurous type things. And there is a very good reason for that. Well...two reasons. 1) No Money 2) I'm moving Mark: Sigh to #1 Yea to #2

Yes folks, the short story is that we came to the realization that with a little remodeling at Mark's house, myself and the cats can move into the upstairs and get out of my townhouse. Cats will NOT come into contact with dogs. That was my #1 priority.

It's one of those things that is going to save us a ton of money so we can start crawling out of debt, pay for the wedding and start saving for the house we really want. But I have to admit it was a very sad decision for me. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to getting us all into one house and having more time at home and with the cats and with the dogs but I love my townhouse. I guess it will still be my townhouse because we also found out a few days ago that I can't afford to sell it so we are going to us a rental agency to rent it out for now. I don't feel like I got much of a chance to "live" in it and I've grown very fond of Eden Prairie. It's such a wonderful city with all the conveniences a person needs. (Especially now that they finally got a Brueggers :) Plus my place doesn't need any fixing up or remodeling where we are going to have to do a number of projects at Mark's while we're there to get it ready to sell sometime in the future as well. My "previous life" included a lot of remodeling projects and I guess I sort of would like to be done with that for awhile.

But I know this is the right decision for us and to get us going in the right direction so that some day we can go find the house we want. So we're hoping to get me all moved in by August and have it rented out beginning asap.

Wedding plans have been halted for a few days, our training has taken a back seat as well but I just try to keep thinking that everything will get better in terms of our scheduling as soon as this move is complete and I become an official resident of Robbinsdale, MN.

Mark: I will confirm that this was a very tough decision to make and the ironic part was that we each came to the conclusion separately and it was during a stressful talk about wedding expenses that we realized we were both thinking the same thing. But now that we had made the decision it is full speed ahead and trying to move what we can, put stuff we won't need or don't have the space for in our new storage space while we wait for the contractor to make a few remodeling modifications to the house (new door and extending a half wall to a full wall, a new linen closet and putting a window in a the pass thru from the bedroom to the stairway). And a day yet to be determined in the next couple weekend, renting a truck to move all the big stuff around. I will post before and after pics of the remodeling and as we move Kris in.

Grandma's Marathon - Caching Duluth and a Few State Parks

2010-06-25T23:02:00.000-05:00

Kris: Last weekend we were up in Duluth to run the Irvin 5k on Friday night and then watch a handful of friends run the Grandma's Marathon the next morning. Friday we walked through the expo and there was a discount on registrations for the Rock 'n' Roll races so we are now officially signed up to get married at the Las Vegas R 'n' R Marathon!!

The 5k went ok but the weather was hot and very windy. So we both missed our goal times but I managed a new PR and Mark won his age group (yay! my wonderful speedy man! :) It was a ton of fun cheering on our friends along the marathon course. Mark: After the 5K we drove about 14 miles to Fon Du Lac to attend a Geocaching get together, it was a nice chance to meet up north geocachers but at the same time we saw a few familiar faces. After the gettogether we found a very challanging cache, had to follow a trail deep into the woods and then navigate to the bottom of a rack wall/cliff.

Kris: Mark did one of his infamous "in action" photos when he went out on the course to run a few steps and snap a picture with his buddy Steve.

After the marathon was over and the marathoners were showering and napping, we took off to cache out to the Minnesota Point and back. It's such a beautiful little hike. We were snapping nature photos along the way.

There was also an abandon building and remains of a lighthouse that we stopped to take photos of.

Mark: Technically we are not supposed to be able to get to the lighthouse, there is a chain link fence surrounding the ruins but someone at some point tore down a big hole in the fence and it looks like people have been in and around the light house for years. Take a look at the names that have been scratched in the bricks.

Truth be told, I have been wanting to get back to see this lighthouse (remians) for several years. Last time I was here was not as good as an experience. ;)

Kris: There was a cache at this location called "Ah, sweet relief". Yes folks, that's an old outhouse :-P

We picked up a virtual and an earthcache that I didn't have before leaving town and also snapped a photo of our friend Steve by the Grandma's Marathon logo stamped on the ground by the finish.

Congrats again Steve on becoming a Marathoner! :)

On the way home we picked up our Passport Club, Hiking Club and Safari Challenge caches at 3 more state parks.

The first park we stopped at was Jay Cooke and this is probably one of my two current favorite parks! Granted we were there hiking and TIRED after about 3 hours but the paths were great, the scenery was beautiful and they had this great swing bridge. There was the park multi, a traditional and an earthcache that we picked up. Mark: I loved this park! Everyone should take the time to stop on there way to or from Duluth and spend some time at Jay Cooke.

Kris: Second park was Moose Lake. This was a simple park but well taken care of. Unfortunately I think we picked up a tick or two here (hate them!! freak out over them actually.....). Took a couple pretty pictures and unfortunately missed the Virtual Cache since the office was closed but we got the multi. Mark: I think we have started a new tradition of taking a picture with every state park sign. We have gotten really good at balancing the camera on the car to take these pictures.

Kris: Last park was Banning and we did NOT like this park at all. It's the first one we've been too that we were very disappointed by. We got stage one of the multi and couldn't figure out how to get to stage two without going through a largely muddy, tick-infested area. After Mark pulled about 20 off himself and the same off of me, I was thoroughly unhappy and we decided that I would go for the Hiking Club word while he braved the trail to the second stage. Both of us ended up going along muddy, wet trails that had tall grass growing on them. And the second stage of the multi was in the absolute opposite direction of the high points of the park. I just couldn't wait to get out of the park. Mark: I honestly think that this was a case of the park ranger really did not understand the point of the Safari caches (Family friendly) and really didn't care either. The final stage was .8 miles from the first stage and was at the intersection of two trails, laying on the ground with just some birch bark laying on top of the cache "hiding" it. Very disappointing and a gurentee that we will not be visiting Banning again.

Kris: Luckily as I was stomping my way back to the car, there was a deer on the trail that actually let me walk up to within about 10 feet of him (or her...not sure). That was the high point of the trip through Banning. I took a picture, thanked the deer for brightning my horrible experience in this park and got the hell out of there.

We stopped for dinner and I was having a horrible time NOT freaking out as Mark plucked another 5+ ticks off of me and another 4 that were in my hair and probably 10 off of himself.

DON'T GO TO BANNING STATE PARK!! I'm hoping the complaints in the Geocaching.com log will get them to change their coordinates. That is not family friendly nor does it highlight the parks better features at all!

On another topic, we finally found a few moments last night to plan our veggie garden...

BEFORE

AFTER :)

So that's all I can think of for now. Tonight we have a meeting with our Ragnar team and then tomorrow morning are competing with my boss, our friend Jeff in the Tri-Loppet. Jeff is paddling, I'm running, Mark is biking. And then on Sunday we are doing the Lake Waconia Tri as a relay too. I am swimming, Mark's brother Michael is biking and Mark is running.

Should be a fun-filled, tiring weekend :)

Prospect Park, One Cute Cache, My First Annual 29th Birthday and the Engagement Photos :)

2010-06-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

Kris: This past week there was a once a year event at Prospect Park in St. Paul. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook I saw our friend Sarah McGee (who was also our engagement photographer) post a message about this. Had she not posted it we would have totally missed it! Mark: The power of Facebook! Kris: So the event was an ice cream social where you could get ice cream, root beer floats, food, there were kids activities, music and even a plant sale. We bought a couple root beer floats and made our way over to pick up a cache in the park and wait in line to climb "Witch's Hat Tower" and pick up the answers for the virtual cache. It was such a beautiful night that TONS of people were there and we were in line for a good 1.5 hours. But it was worth it, sun was just setting as we got up there. This tower is on the highest natural point in Minneapolis and has a great view of downtown. Mark: I have always looked at the tower when driving by on interstate 94 and wished I could climb the tower. Well tonight was my lucky night.

Mark: I absolutly love the view from the Witch's Tower. The pictues do not do any justice to the real view. Well worth the wait!

Kris: For my birthday, Mark and I went to Forepaugh's restaurant in St. Paul (Mark: A Living Social deal) and since we got there a bit early, we walked to a nearby park to pick up a cache. We had to be very cautious of muggles as there were a few sitting in direct view of where we knew the cache was hidden. I made my way to the spot and took a seat, reaching around when no one was looking.

Found the cache. LOVE the container, I seriously need to get one of these!

We picked up one more after dinner before heading home.

And we are super excited that we got our engagement photos back! Here's a link to check them out if you are interested. We are still working on picking out which we are going to purchase. (I want them all ;)

Kris and Mark's Engagement Photos

Also, if you are interested in following our wedding plans, be sure and follow me on Twitter (KMielke) or watch our Wedding Website on The Knot.com. I always post on Twitter when I make updates to the wedding website :)

Wedding Cakes, Films and the MnGCA Spring Event

2010-05-25T22:10:00.003-05:00

Kris: The past few weeks have continued to be trying on us financially but while it's very stressful, a few things are very exciting. One evening we went to Queen of Cakes to sit down and talk about our wedding cake and options for evening cupcakes. Their prices are very reasonable and we got plenty of options for cakes and frostings. Yikes seriously we EACH got like 10 half slices of cake on a platter to try. Both of us fell in love with the red velvet as top choice. We have some fun designs started but I think I'll keep that a secret and not spoil the surprise.

We also signed a contract with Charles and Mike from Forever Films that will be helping us to capture our lives together and help us show off our wedding. When we met with them, they were totally on the same lines of thought that we were and had some great ideas. So after a lot of careful thought and many $$$ we've got a fantastic project in play! Again, not going to spoil the fun on this one, you'll have to be at the reception to be part of this one :)

(And Charles, Mike, if you guys are reading this, I'm sure we'll get you to be Caribou Coffee fans before this is all over ;)

Mark: Kris forgot to mention another financial setback we had during the past few weeks. My dog Ruger broke open the tip of his tail and unfortunately it would not heal up and became badly infected resulting in us making the decision to have his tail amputated. He gets his stitches out on Friday and I will then post before and after pics.

Kris: We also got to take our engagement photos!! Last Tuesday our friend Sarah McGee, a fabulous photographer, took our photos down around Lake Calhoun which of course holds a very special place to both of us. We had a blast, the weather was perfect and I am anxiously waiting to see the final results! I'll show some off as soon as we get them :D

This past weekend started with a 5k race in Eden Prairie. You can check our personal blogs for the recaps on that. I just posted mine earlier tonight. Mark: I will hopefully post mine in a day or so.

Kris: So Saturday after the 5k we did a quick change and headed down to Nerstrand State Park for the Spring MnGCA event. It was about an hour drive and with the pouring rain we had to get through it took a bit longer. Here are a few blubs about our adventures :)

After lunch and a few fun caching contests (oh I won a really cool book and Mark won the Splinterheads movie!) we headed into the forest. It was go green and so pretty!

We ran into ISpy and his family and came upon this really odd tree. It looks like some time in the very distance past someone stuck a step between these two trunks and the tree has grown in. Kinda heart shaped :)

We then headed over to this waterfall which was also an earthcache.

We kept seeing these signs about endangered plants and that this one was only found in just 3 counties in Minnesota. We think this might be one of them but weren't able to find out for sure.

Before heading across the road to the southern half of the park for a "quick" multi we stopped for a picture.

Mark: So as the day was getting late we decided to try for one more cache, a multi called "A Walk in the Woods" Unfortunatly the name of the cache was was not just a name, it was very descriptive. The first stage was close by, just across the road from the park office.

Stage 1 was such a cute little little charater.

Along the way Kris decided to try her Jane imitation with a vine hanging from a tree.

Stage 2 was about a 3/4 mile walk from Stage 1 and was another very creative container.

On the walk to the Stage 3, the final stage, we decided to grab another cache that we had writted off earlier as it was too far away in the park. Apparently not since we had to walk right past it on the way to Stage 3. The cache was at a bridge at the southern edge of the park. We made the find quickly and dropped a few TB's and one of our pathatgs for the next cacher to make the trek. Now for the return trip, which was about a mile and a half back to the car. All in all this one cache took us about an hour and a half, not part of the plan, and we ended up getting home much later then we planned on, but we had a great day!

(Ok Blogger people....please make pictures faster and easier to upload. This post took me WAY to long to put together. And why can't I figure out out to put the pictures in the words anymore? Sigh....)

Geocaching 10 Years!

2010-05-09T10:02:00.000-05:00

Mark: Last weekend was the 10 year anniversary of Geocaching, of which Kris is a newbie, been doing it for a little over a year and I have been geocaching for over 4 years. For the 10 Year Celebration Groundspeak created a new event type with a special icon for and events scheduled and held during the weekend of April 30th - May 3rd.

In the Twin Cities there were several 10 Year events to choose from including what I would consider the two main events, St Paul and Minneapolis. On Saturday, the St. Paul event was hosted by friends of ours, NOSNOW and Shadows Friend. Their event was in Carver Lake Park (actually in Woodbury) and they went with a bean theme. (For anyone not familiar with Geocaching the very first geostash (cache) was hidden on May 3rd, 2000 and contained several items including a can of beans. Many years later a plaque was placed marking the location of that hide and when they were preparing the spot for the concrete to hold the plaque that found the original can of beans that was hidden in the cache. It is now sort of a treasure in the geocaching community.

As part of the Bean Theme, NOSNOW and Shadows Friend had a couple of bean games, guess the type of beans and a guess how many beans are in each size of Geocaching container. Here is Kris counting beans.

Kris: Thank you to Gilby 4 for taking this lovely picture of me :-P

Mark: In addition they also produced a special pathtag just for this event with a can of beans on it and everyone who attended received one. VERY NICE!!

In addition to the Pathtag, there was also a special 10 Years geocoin that you could purchase which was unique for Minnesota. Actually they used the same design for the geocoin and changed the colors in the coin for each state/location.

Not sure if it was part of the plan or there was a note to the effect somewhere that I missed but just about everyone brought a dish for the potluck that was bean themed. Baked Beans, Bean Salad, Jelly Beans but my favorite was the Boston Baked Bean Cookies. Kris: Yay for Boston Baked Beans!! Love those things :)

Mark: While we were at the event we conveniently found a few caches, surprise surprise, and discovered I already had a found a cache in this park that I don't even remember finding. Based on the cache pictured below with Kris you would think I would remember that.

There was a great little creek that you had to cross to get to one of the caches.

Near the end of the event they took a group photo, which Kris and I missed, tried to find a difficult cache that was a little too far away to get back in time. :( After the picture the was a drawing for prizes, they had so much cool stuff to give away, and I think just about everyone got something. (Kris was one of the unfortunates not to get anything) I got a waterproof match container that can be used as a cache container. I was hoping to get one of the numerous geocoins that were give away but no such luck.

Thanks!! to NOSNOW and Shadows Friend for putting on such a GREAT event!

We had to leave the St Paul 10 Years! event a little early to get back to Minneapolis because Kris won pictures to the Owl City concert. I originally debated about buying Kris tickets to the concert, she really likes the song "Fireflies" but decided the $40 ticket price plus the extortion money ticketmaster charges was not worth it. After attending the concert I am glad that I didn't actually spend any money, except for the beer and wine to help us tune out the teens and tweens. Kris: Ugh this concert made me feel SO old! But being old has it's perks....again please refer to the beer and wine! Great performance though and very glad we got to go.

Don't get me wrong, it was an entertaining something to add to the life experiences but the concert was almost entirely attended by teens, tweens and their Moms. There was the occasional Dad around in attendance but not many and it was one of them that gave us the alcohol idea. Thanks Dad!

Here is Owl City preforming their one hit song "Fireflies" which they saved as almost the very last song. (Made sure you stuck around for the entire concert)

On Sunday we both ran the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon which we had a great time and Kris even set a new Half PR which you can read about at her personal race and training blog.

Originally we had not planned on attending the Minneapolis 10 Years! hosted by King Boreas but we decided at the last minute to head straight from the race to the event at Gluek Riverside Park. An opportunity to get credit for attending 2 of the 10 Years events. This was a much....... simpler event. Mostly a social event, geocachers standing around talking caches. There was a potluck as well, but no theme or games and there was only one cache in the park that you could find with out even using the GPS because the grass was trampled down right up to where the cache was hidden in a pine tree.

Several of our caching friends were at the event including Ronindoc who gave us one of the pathtags he used to propose to his girlfriend the previous weekend. Kris: I thought he had a very cute proposal story! He surprised his girlfriend out in PA where she lives with a new cache and this pathtag. The full story is very sweet

Mark: A group photo was also taken at this event and Kris and I made it in this picture. We can be seen just behind KB (Holding the 10 Years! logo sign in the center) and just to the right. Also of note is our friend Gilby4 who decided to climb the tree behind the group.

After the picture was taken it was time for the potluck, which was good since Kris and I were starving, remember Kris and I ran a half marathon prior to coming to the event. After the potluck KB also had a drawing for some geocoins, not many just a few, nothing like the day before in St. Paul.

We cut out a little early but we were tired and and need to go home and take a nap. All and all we had a very good weekend at both Geocaching 10 Years! Events.

Kris: I'm also very glad we got to attend both even though it was a lot of running around over the two days but it's fun to catch up with our caching friends and for Gilby 4 and Pippin and Merry, I promise I won't forget my MOGA medal for the next event at Nerstrand so I hope you'll be there!!

Gift Registry and a Wedding Band...check

2010-05-03T14:19:00.000-05:00

Kris: We've been getting a lot of emails now that we have attended a few different wedding expos. A few we ignore and a few we can't pass up. Like last Thursday. Macy's was having a special "Sip and Scan" event where you come in do create a registry at one of their stores and they feed you hors d'ouvres. We didn't think we'd really find a lot of things to register for but decided maybe we could get some free food and register for some fun items that we may or may not actually advertise. But let me tell you....check out our registry at Macy's please! We had a lot of fun and registered for some great grilling, kitchen and bedding items. Granted there are some fairly expensive items but there are a lot of reasonably priced items too. Here's Mark registering for some new bedding sets:

We both found it quite funny that when you walk in, they hand the woman the clipboard with the checklist and hand the guy the scanner :-P

As we left we even got a gift bag with a few coupons and free champagne flutes.

And I have to give a shout out to our Macy's "attendant" Walter. He was the registry expert that got us going and helped us through the process. He had a fun personality and was great to work with.

Mark: Walter was a riot!!

Kris: Friday, Arthur's Jewelers was having a wedding band event and we had spoken with one of their salesmen, Gary, at the Twin Cities Wedding Fair. So we decided to stop over there and hopefully find a wedding band for Mark since the deal was $100 off and no sales tax if you purchase that night. Well again little did we know that when we got there, they had sandwiches, fruit, veggies, a chocolate fountain, pop, beer and wine for the event shoppers :D

So we happily ate our way around the store and looked at a lot of different rings. Gary was there to help us and was another fun person we've gotten to work with. Luckily Mark found a great ring at a good price AND we were well fed by time we left ;)

Mark: Not kidding, they had a really nice spread of food, including some good beer and wine choices.

Kris: It was such a beautiful evening we decided to put off our training run until the next morning and enjoy the weather. We ended up over at Sapor Cafe for another glass of wine and some fantastic dessert and of course as we were waiting we pulled out the iPhone to see what caches were in the area. I saw one nearby that had an interesting trackable in it. It's a "coin" that I guess is part of a set of trackables that look like the cache symbols. (TB39X75) So now I want to find one of each symbol ;)

This weekend we are going to a Geocaching 10 Year Anniversary Party (GC23T7E) and then to see the Owl City concert. They are a fantastic group that is from Minnesota and I managed to win free tickets from 101.3 KDWB on Twitter Friday :) Then on Sunday is the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon and probably some house work.

Quickly on that subject.....spoke with my realtor again this morning and it's official....we either need to come up with about $8-10k or else we need to wait to buy a house until we can save up the money. Which is ironic considering it's hard to save while paying for BOTH of our houses and we want to consolidate into ONE....sigh..... :(

Mark: Also hard to save any money when we are paying for a wedding. So we are basically getting hit both coming and going.

Mark's 40th Birthday weekend

2010-04-23T21:34:00.001-05:00

Kris: This past week we had a few fun things going on. Last Friday night I bought tickets for Mark for his birthday for us to go see "My Run" which was playing as part of the 2010 Minneapolis/St. Paul Int. Film Festival. To quote the website the movie was this:

"My Run tells an amazing true tale of two incredible journeys. One took place in 1996, when Terry Hitchcock ran from St. Paul to Atlanta in 75 consecutive days, covering the equivalent of a marathon a day. Terry’s “mega-marathon” was an incredible feat but it wasn’t even close to being his greatest challenge. That began 12 years earlier when Terry’s wife Sue, a woman of incredible warmth and strength, died of breast cancer and Terry suddenly found himself alone raising three small children. That marathon was the tougher journey, one much harder emotionally and spiritually than running 2000 miles from St. Paul to Atlanta."

I would recommend this film to everyone. It was very well done. After the screening, we went over to the after party at Zahtar restaurant. That was a fun little fancy hangout with appetizers, drinks and cake. The special was the My Run-tini which we were going to get one to share but as we were impatiently waiting at the bar for a bartender, a couple next to us said they ended up having two extra Run-tinis ordered for their table so we could just have them. Nice, free drinks ;)

The next day was crazy busy. It started out early with a run at Hyland park. Mark and I signed up with my friend Mandy and Mark's friend Steve to do the 50k Trail Mix relay race. We each had to run 7.75 miles on the trails. It was a beautiful morning for a run and I loved it. We all wore ZapEvent hats to do a little advertising as well :) I will detail more of my run experience in a following post on my blog.

Then Mark and I parted ways for the afternoon as I had to go to a baby shower for my good friend Becky and he headed home to work around the house. But what I told him was that he needed to meet me back at my house at 6:30 for "plans". Pretty sure he knew it was something relating to his birthday but he didn't know what. I actually have spent the past few weeks putting together a surprise 40th birthday party for him at my place. So he got to my place and walked into a crowd of family and friends, obnoxious "Happy 40th" decorations, lots of food and even a pirate cake I had made for him.

Mark: I knew Kris was up to somthing and way in the back of my mind I wonder if she would throw me a suprise party but then I thought that I don't have enough frineds so I dismissed the idea. I was suprised and I guess I do have enough frineds. Thanks Honey!

Kris: The party was so much fun and lasted until well into the evening.   The weather was fantastic so thanks to a borrowed grill, we got to grill for dinner and have some fun telling stories in the fresh air.

Sunday we got to sleep in (YAAAY!!) well not as much as I would have hoped since the calvary (the dogs, well mostly Truffle) decided we needed to be up for breakfast shortly after 7am. It was another beautiful day so we just moved slowly, went to our favorite spot for breakfast the Good Day Cafe, then went back to my house to clean up from the night before.   After that we headed back to Mark's to do a few house projects. His main floor bathroom has been out of commission for quite awhile and due to water damage needs a chunk of the floor replaced so we started tearing into that project.   We got quite a bit of work done before we needed to get cleaned up for our evening plans.

Mark: That project will take a few weekends to finish up. Sigh... I think getting started is the hard part of any project.

Kris: Our evening ended up being a TON of fun out with Mark's brother Michael and his wife Cari.   We started with dinner at OM Restaurant (thanks to Groupon we had $100 in gift certificates that we only paid $50 for)   Food was incredible and we got a good start on the wine here as well ;)

After dinner, we headed over to the Orpheum to see Avenue Q.   That show is a total riot. Think of Sesame Street puppets but a Rated R version.   Terribly funny! Especially when we added another glass or two of wine :-P

Mark: Cari is very entertaining when she has some wine!

Kris: Monday we decided we were going to go geocaching after work after a quick run along the river since usually Mark goes geocaching every year for his birthday. Since our weekends have been so full, we decided this year was just going to be a week night since the weather has been so great.   Well our caching starting out horribly with 2 DNFs!   Our geo-senses and high muggle traffic were making our start quite frustrating! Luckily we made the find on the 3rd cache and then picked up a nearby Earthcache on the walking bridge over St. Anthony Falls.

Final grab was a quick PnG and we added it to the list since it had a cool coin in it and luckily it was actually there too :)

Tuesday, Mark's actual 40th birthday, we unfortunately were both working all day but I did pick up a few quick groceries the night before so I could cook him breakfast of blueberry pancakes, maple sausages and orange juice :) I was out for an eye appointment mid day so I picked him up for lunch and we went to a restaurant which is another special spot of ours.   Black Sheep is where we went on our first official date :D and is in between where he works and where I work downtown.

That evening we went to use another Groupon gift certificate to go try out the restaurant Moto-i. We had $50 to spend there on dinner.

Mark: I really liked Moto-i, the food was very tasty and more then a little bit spicy.