Regrow Redevelop Renew

It took a few years from my last post to re-grow, re-develop, and renew. It was finally in 2014 when I left the job with my longtime employer and got away from the toxic manager. It was a difficult to go through, and I hope never to find myself in a situation with a toxic boss or toxic co-worker ever again. I learned a lot during that experience. I was rewarded by exercising the resiliency I have worked so hard to have. When the toxic person went low, I stayed on the high road. I stayed true to myself. Here on the other end, several years later, I am really happy with where I am. With regards to Zoe, she is coming along. We had our setups during the last few years. Zoe had a surgery to remove the splint bone in her right hind leg after a small fracture over-healed and the callous threatened to interfere with her suspensory ligament. It was causing recurring lameness. She had the surgery in June 2016, and I am happy to report that in December 2016 she is back in full work and I have been happy with her progress. I still have to throw out the feelings that we are so far behind everyone else. We do have more in us, and she is getting older, but that doesn't mean we aren't amazing and we won't match the successes of anyone around us. Our successes are our own, unique to our own journey, to us. I'm glad to be able to sneak a short update post in here. Maybe with the holiday approaching and having a few days off next week, I can come back write some more.

Back To Beginner

I had great success a few years ago when I allowed myself to reset my mindset about riding dressage and training my young horse. I approached my riding and training just as though I were a beginner. I let go of all the ideas I had about being "such-and-such" a rider at whatever level. I accepted that I no longer knew my body after cancer and that this change in confidence had impacted my dressage training. I saw that I was having problems, and while some of those things were indeed physical, I accepted that a majority of my problems were probably mental. My confidence had eroded and I had more self-doubt about my abilities than ever before. It was strange for me since I usually approached things without worry and with some level of expectation that I would succeed. So when I gave myself permission to reset to "Beginner", I felt unexpectedly refreshed. I got on my horse without performance expectations for myself or for my horse. I listened to experts and friends around me who wanted to see me succeed and be happy with my riding. And although there were definitely days and maybe weeks when I would feel pessimistic about my abilities, I was also feeling the improvements coming through in my riding. I had totally lost my rhythm, and it took time in the saddle and overcoming a lot of self-doubt that helped me regain some of my basics. My horse started performing better as she started to trust my seat and aids. Before I knew it, we were both enjoying our rides, getting through the challenges with ease and ending every ride with exhilarating positives. I could see my beginner status moving into intermediate abilities. Two years later, my horse and I are performing better than we ever had in the past, and I have my sights set on showing at the highest level I have ever achieved, and improving even beyond that. It feels good. I don't think I could have done this without letting myself become a beginner again. And today I find myself looking at my work situation with high levels of frustration, boredom and disappointment that my expectations aren't being met. It occurred to me that these feelings are similar to the dread I felt when I thought about my dressage training a few years back. Disappointment, self-doubt, lack of passion. These are feelings that I do not enjoy having on a daily basis. What's worse is that I know that if I continue along this path, I will end up hating everything about my job, this workplace and what I am doing. That would be sad since I've been passionate about this area for most of my life. How can something that meant so much to me become so dreadful? Definitely my unfulfilled expectations and general disappointment generated by years of reorganizations and other peoples' lack of vision have made me question my passion and abilities. So after reflecting upon my success with my riding and dressage, and the contentment and rekindled passion that has brought to me, I have decided I am going to let myself be a beginner again. It doesn't matter that my title and job description are not aligned with what I think I should be doing. No, I will listen to the professionals who are supposed to have the vision and I will allow them to let their ideas develop so they can organize and orchestrate the conditions that will allow the horse (me) to perform. I will let go of my expectations for my own performance and approach my work with a sponge attitude - watch, listen, feel and execute well. I know my beginner status will not last forever, for I have one giant advantage. I have not lost my experience and I know what my success will feel like. The freedom of being a beginner liberates me from my own preconceived notions that may actually be holding me back. I accept that I no longer understand my context and that I must redevelop the relationships that helped me succeed in the past. I do this knowing that when you take the time to revisit the basics, you will accelerate your improvement and come out better for it on the other end. So today, workplace, I am your student. I am here to learn and to accept that starting back a few steps will catapult me forward. For that, I thank my horses.

5 months later

Zoe stayed with Dressage International for a total of 3 months. It was worth the expense, as she got immaculate care and Jochen is one of the best trainers I have ever come across. I have rekindled my passion for dressage and look forward to riding my fabulous horse every day. It is nice to be reconnected to something I thought I lost through my breast cancer journey. It's not over 'til it's over.

Zoe On Her Way

We leave January 2, 2010 to head for Double Lucky Ranch and training with Jochen.

Evaluation Complete, Still Waiting for Stall

The final analysis of Zoe: "She will be a project." 

However, Jochen said he would take her for 60 days of training and now I am waiting for a stall to become available. He was worried that there might be something wrong with her back because when he was riding he could feel her take some irregular steps at the walk and trot. I know exactly what he was feeling. It feels like she tenses up and threatens to kick and buck. I concluded last fall that something physically must be wrong with her, but thousands of dollars and many tests and scans later, it was left as "undiagnosed". So I believe that her issues are muscular-skeletal. She needs to develop the proper muscle to carry her frame in balance, and there will be a period that is very difficult for her and she will have an attitude. However, I firmly believe that if a skilled trainer can get through the hard developmental stages then she will return to being my ridable and talented horse. So I told Jochen that he needs to kick her ass. Now I am waiting for the stall. 

Big Evaluation Coming Up

I have finally accepted the fact that I am a changed horsewoman after breast cancer, and that after having a young , vibrant horse out of work for so long, the task of bringing her back into training is too big for me. I am quite proud of where I got her before her injury. We competed successfully, I rode with an Olympic medalist, and we were steadily making progress. Shortly before the tendon injury, I came off and scraped my arm on the arena wall. Afterwards I went through 6 months of physical therapy due to the swelling/lymphedema that can probably be attributed to the multiple skin wounds. I have found that since then, I am too aware of the risk that I am putting myself in when I am riding. If I do injure my lymphedema-affected arm, I may have permanent damage that reduces the quality of my life forever. I am not okay with that. So I find that I am riding more cautiously than before, and I also get the sense that this isn't the best way to train this horse. So, I will send her (hopefully) to a top German dressage trainer in the area. He will be evaluating her on Monday, April 27, 2009. I hope beyond all hope that he agrees to take her. I hope beyond hope that I somehow find the money to pay for 60 days of training with him. My mom has committed part of the money for me. I still wonder how I will come up with the rest, but I know I will somehow. I do think this is the best thing I can do for myself and for Z, and I can't wait to have her back once she has been put back into training. I love riding her and I look forward to moving ahead in our training together. 

Jimmy Update

This is a quick update. Jimmy seems to be doing fine, but it has been a long year of trying to figure out what is winning: old age or EPM. I am dealing with a tremendous amount of guilt about Jimmy. I knew as I was being treated for breast cancer that I would not be able to keep Jimmy as fit. I couldn't find enough willing people to ride him for me regularly, and I certainly didn't have the energy to do it. The root of my guilt is that I knew that it would be really hard to build his fitness back if he lost it, and I had to watch him lose it. At first, it was not very quick, but after about 8 months, you could start seeing his muscle turn to fat. After a year, you could tell his topline was not as fleshy. And after about 13 months, you could start seeing the residual EPM pecularities show up in his walk. And he seemed to have more problems with arthritis. Sigh. So I took him to the vet, got him all injected up, and he did well. But the EPM residuals never disappeared, so I had to ask myself whether I thought it was coming back, or if this was just old age. I treated him for a month for EPM (Sulfa/pyreth/VitE/Folic acid). I don't know if it made a difference. Maybe a little? When I took him for his reevaluation, he actually had a foot abcess hidden under his right hind shoe. That could have caused irregularities. So I didn't continue treatment, and he seems to be doing well. So now I will see if I can enroll him in an arthritis study for a new drug that you spray on the joints. It comes with free lameness exam, x-rays and blood work. It will be good to have another vet evaluate him. Now if the weather would cooperate, I might actually be able to take him in to get him started! I did ride him on Thanksgiving and he felt great. I really love that horse. I hope I am making all the right decisions for him. Wish I could be riding him every day again. I miss my horses in that way. I love taking care of them, but I really, really miss riding them right now.

The Horse: The Fat is Phat: Adipose-Derived Stem Cells for Tendon Injuries

The Horse: The Fat is Phat: Adipose-Derived Stem Cells for Tendon Injuries

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5th Wedding Anniversary

Tomorrow my husband and I celebrate our 5th Anniversary!! Congratulations to us! We are throwing ourselves a big party, expecting about 70 people. Apart from starting to panic about what seemed to be a good idea a few months ago, we are excited to see everyone. It's the first big (non-holiday) party we will be hosting at our place since being on the "farm". Preparations are going okay. Our lawn mower starter went kaputt last weekend, meaning we won't have the nicely groomed look that we had hoped to have, our barn flooded 10 days ago, which means we worked hard to get the mold and mildew smell and moldy hay cleared out of there, and the house is messy beyond what our current psyches could actually take, so we have ignored the huge cleaning required until today (the day before the party). Other than that, everything will be perfect. At least we have our health, and that is really something considering all the things that have happened to us in the past 5 years. We are different people from the ones who walked through the vineyard five years ago. But we are still in love, and my husband is still the most precious person and most important thing in my life. I am looking forward to celebrating this milestone with him and look forward to the next 50 years!

Back To Work

Memorial Day weekend I officially put Zoe "Back To Work". That meant I took her to a friend's riding arena for 3 days and longed her each day. Then took her back that Wednesday and found she was lame-ish. While there was no obvious swelling, taking lame steps, or heat in the leg, she was moving conservatively. When I palpated the tendon she never moved the leg, but I could feel her shoulder muscle contract slightly when I pinched the original site of the injury. That was enough for me to do 2 things:
1) Feel horrible that I overworked my horse in the first 3 days of rehab, and
2) Put her away and gave her several days of rest.

Due to bad weather (lots of rain and flooding), Zoe has had about a week longer for resting than I had planned. I took her out 2 days ago and put her on the longe. She still seems to be moving a bit conservatively, but it looked more like she just didn't have any energy or stamina. She was content to just walk and trot on the longe. She was very well behaved, but I think I would have rather liked to see her try some big fancy trotting and some desire to canter. She did get tired quickly. Remember, she is really out of shape and being conservative on both of our parts is just what we need. I am a bit concerned that maybe I did too much Memorial Day weekend and maybe she really did reinjure herself. Aaargh. There is no heat, no swelling, and no other indication of that, but really only another ultrasound would tell me for certain. I am going to give us a couple more workouts to see before I take her in for a re-check. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Old Age

I took Jimmy in for an "old age inspection", aka lameness exam, about a week ago. I've noticed over the last 2 years (he's 22 now) that his arthritis was getting worse in his left hock. I also noticed that his right front leg seemed to be a little off once in a while. And at the end of March when I started to ride him more, he got really sore and looked awful for about a week. I felt awful about it! So, I took him in with the intention that I would inject every joint with pain killer and start him on expensive supplements and regular treatments. The exam revealed that, indeed, his left hock and right front fetlock were the worst joints affected by osteoarthritis. The vets and decided, after a $300 exam with radiographs of 2 joints, that it would be a reasonable start to his treatment if I were to start using Adequan and more joint supplements to see if they relieved his pain any. We chose the most non-invasive treatment for now, just so we wouldn't have to go into his joints with injections. I think that is reasonable, but afterwards I did feel a little bit like I copped out. I had fully intended to have his hock and fetlock injected before I showed up at the clinic. It was about 3 years ago that I almost started using Adequan with Jimmy. I even had some in my hands once, but I decided that was really too much to do at that time, so I sent it back to the vet. Now I wonder if it was the right thing at the time.... Where would we be now if I had done that then? We'd probably be at hock injections! At that would have been after spending $600 a year on Adequan for him. I do think Jimmy has been pretty comfortable up until this year. I have kept him in regular exercise up until this winter. He really did lose his fitness and muscling this winter, and it is going to be hard to bring him back up to the level he was last year (before breast cancer). Not only do I have my own physical problems now with lymphedema, but I also have no outdoor arena to work him in. I feel pretty limited. However, I am working on his training and supplements. I already increased his joint supplement, added Hyaluronic Acid (HA), and switched to a different brand with different doses. I think he does look better already, but maybe my observation is just affected by my own feeling that I am doing something for him.

I also took Zoe in for her tendon evaluation. They did a lameness test on her and ultrasounded the tendon. She looks great! The healing has really progressed in the last 2 months, and she was okayed for limited turnout! 1-2 hours/day for a week, then increase to half days for a week, then regular turnout with everyone else. I can start riding her somewhere in there (when I feel safe about it!). I think I will let her have her turnout for a few weeks, then start lunging her. I will have to take her to my friends with arenas, since good footing is essential for her work now. So it won't be easy, and it will be time-consuming. But I can't wait to be riding her again.

In the meantime, a friend of mine bought a grand prix schoolmaster. She has offered to let me take lessons on him twice a month and get some rides in edgewise, when possible. I rode him for the first time last weekend, and Wow! I had so much fun, and did pretty well on him. The people watching didn't laugh too hard, and were complimenting me at the end. I was so excited. I will be able to learn a lot on him -- the right positioning of my body, making sure I am light on my aids, and the psychology of a grand prix horse. This will make me such a better rider and trainer for Zoe. It's a really great opportunity.

So it appears that with the weather, my horse life is also improving. Everyone is back on track, including me. I will focus on rehabilitating my beloved horses, and improving my own riding skill. Yep, just in time for winter, I will be back ready to ride full time and then will have to deal with freezing temperatures, dark days, and the general unpleasantness of winter chores. Boy, am I psyched!

Breast Cancer 3-Day

I am walking in the Chicago Breast Cancer 3-Day for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Won't you consider sponsoring me?

European Vacation 2008

We visited my sister in Holland the last 2 weeks. Awesome! Traveled through Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. Walked for miles and miles -- 20 miles in one day! Amazing that nothing happened to any of the horses or other animals while we were gone, and I only had 2 anxiety dreams in which I dreamt I forgot to feed the horses and had to clean a ton of poop. :-) Found great tack shops, and if the US Dollar weren't so weak, would have had really killer deals on tons of stuff. Instead found some decent deals and unique items like a halter and cooler with the Friesian flag motif.

One Year, Come and Gone

February 6th was my 1st year anniversary for my diagnosis of breast cancer.

February 26th was my 1st year anniversary for starting chemotherapy.

Today is my first year anniversary for having a catastrophic car accident that totaled my Ford F-150 and a grain truck pulling 900 bushels of seed corn. We all walked away with hardly a bruise.

One year feels so different. Things seem so far distant, yet they still affect me like it happened yesterday. Does the surreal juxtaposition of life and death always stay with a cancer survivor like this?

Scientists discover how BRCA1 gene causes cancer

Whoa, gotta pass along this article. Apparently my husband saw it weeks ago and forgot to send it to me!

I found it through this great new organization I discovered today, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation. I didn't like reading how my form of breast cancer is the most aggressive out there, but it is nice that there is an organization focusing on TNBC. I will get more involved with it.

WikiFido

I haven't visited this site in a long time, but I found that Fred and Stella still have their pages there!

I guess all they need now are their own Dog Blogs.

It's Meez

Here Meez iz with my pup. We went to the Grand Canyon last weekend.

Perfect Fall Weekend

It was another weekend with excellent weather. At least the temperature was closer to normal, around 75 degrees or so. On Saturday I spent most of the day riding my horses. Darn near perfect to me! I got to spend the evening with my husband, which ended the day on a good note, too.

I took Jimmy over to the old Starfire place to go on a road ride with B and one of the boarders there. It was great to take Jimmy to a new place to ride and explore. I chose to take Jimmy because the horses had to be in for a few days due to the rain and bad weather and I trusted that Jim would be well-behaved. I thought Zoe would be a bit too energetic. It was a great ride for Jimmy. The person we went with was a bit conservative since her horse had some lameness issues and could only trot for a bit at a time. Jimmy was unhappy with that and took any opportunity to start trotting. I love that about him. He has such good energy and willingness, and truly loves to ride down the road. I felt bad keeping him at a trot since I could tell he really wanted to move a bit more. But we made it around just fine. It was a pretty decent ride, about 6 miles. The barn owner's dog came along with us. At the end Jimmy still seemed to have a lot of energy and wanted to keep going, so I told B that I would go ahead and ride him home. I started out from the barn, got about a mile away, looked back, and saw the dog still following me. I live 4 miles from the barn and didn't want the dog to follow me the whole way, so I turned away and cantered back to the barn, the poor dog following me as fast as he could.

B was riding in the indoor when I got back, so I joined her with Jimmy. J was super! So light and floaty. He is such a great horse and I love riding him. I could tell he had a good time that day, too.

After lunch I tacked Zoe up and started riding her through the soybean field next to the house. We walked and trotted out towards the neighbor's house. I could see some people at the house, so kept going over to say hello. About halfway there, Zoe wanted to veer off to the right. When I asked her to stay straight on to the house, she thought it would be a great time to start cantering, and even more fun to buck. We started bucking across the field. Luckily she was bounding through the field in a nice, balanced way and I could easily keep my seat. I sat deeply and relaxed my legs (do you know how hard it is to keep your thighs loose and relaxed when you start to think about falling off a bucking horse??). My feet stayed underneath me and I never pulled on the reins. I kept a steady, calm voice and repeated, "whoa, Zoe" over and over again and gently steered her back towards our yard and the tree line on the north side. I was relieved to feel her slow down the closer we got to the trees. We started trotting about 10 feet from the trees, and walked into the yard. We came up to a rotted out tree stump and Zoe stopped dead, looked at that, snorted, and jumped over the small hole. I saw Sven walking near the driveway, so I yelled for him. At this point, the danger was over, so my adrenaline started kicking in and I could feel the shakinesss starting as I caught my breath.

"She bucked me across the field!" I yelled to him.

"So what?" he replied.

So what?, I asked myself? That was a big deal! Does he have any idea how close I might have been to dying or getting hurt??

"They were big bucks!" I retorted, almost defensively. "She bucked all across the field," I added as I pointed back toward the field to emphasize how big the field is.

"Well, you look okay to me."

"Yeah, I did a great job of keeping my seat. My feet stayed in the stirrups and everything."

I started to take my feet out of the stirrups, and he pointed at me urgently and wanted to know what I was doing. I just said I kept my feet in the stirrups!

"Yeah, I am getting off the horse now," I admitted. I still hadn't caught my breath and I was worried that the adrenaline shakes would affect Zoe and set her off again. I wanted to get off while I remained calm and get her on a longe line so she could burn off some of her steam.

Once I got her on the longe line on the circle, she took off. She ran full steam around the circle for at least 10 minutes in each direction. Finally she settled down to a trot, though still showed no signs of pooping out. I got back on her, rode around the yard a bit, then went back out to the field. Zoe did great. I came back in the yard, worked on lateral movements. She was very light and responsive and cooperative. I took her back out to the field to go in all the directions and to do a final test of her calmness and ability to listen to me anywhere in the field. Again, she did a super job. In the end, I was very happy with the ride and how Zoe worked for me once she worked out the extra energy. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit tired after all the excitement.

Sven and I dropped off the painting he did of Lili and we came home and had some dinner and watched a movie ("Next" with Nicholas Cage). It was a nice evening. I managed to not fall asleep during the movie. :-)

Physical Therapy

One of the side effects from my cancer treatment is lymphedema in my right arm. Since I had lymph nodes removed from that side, my lymphatic system has slowed down and when I am active (which is almost all the time), the fluid has a tendency to build up because the system can't process it fast enough. So I've had a couple of instances of bad swelling in that arm. Luckily it all goes down if I rest for a few days, but I need physical therapy to help my body cope. I go today for my second appointment with PT. The first one was to have my arm measured for a sleeve and gauntlet (fingerless glove) that will apply compression therapy to the arm when I am active. This appointment is for having the sleeve and glove fit. Next week I start PT twice a week. I think the biggest inconvenience about the swelling is that it makes my whole arm ache. Well, I feel good about treating this before it is a huge problem.

My Hero

I want to mention, and congratulate, my husband's huge accomplishment this month. I am proud to tell everyone that Sven Ran For Survival in the Chicago Marathon on October 7, 2007, and did a fantastic job. Not only did he raise $4,000 for the Young Survival Coalition, but he also outran experienced marathoners in some brutal heat. He finished a little slower than his target time (of under 4 hours), but considering the horrible conditions (heat and humidity in October!), his time was fantastic. He looked strong the whole race through. I can't give justice to the intense feeling of pride and excitement I got the first time I saw him run past me. His dad and I went to about the 3 mile mark, I found a newspaper box to stand on, and I watched for him, scanning every runner that came by, zooming in on anything pink. He was wearing a pink Fighting Illini basketball shirt because the YSC custom made shirt didn't get to our house in time (they screwed up the address, sending it to Champaign instead). I am glad he was wearing pink because it made it a lot easier to spot him.

To surprise him, I made some signs on some hot pink poster board while we waited for him. "Go Sven! You Rock! Run breast cancer into the ground!" I screamed like crazy and waved the sign for him as soon as I saw him coming. He blew me a giant kiss, and I think that made my whole day. My heart felt so full and my eyes teared up with pride and happiness. Jon and I ran to our next lookout spot that we had planned the night before: right about the midway point, just before mile 13 when they go over the Chicago River. I found another newspaper box to stand on, and thank goodness this time. Some very selfish people started crowding into the street, narrowing the lane for the runners to only 2-3 abreast. It was crazy and inconsiderate, and made it so anyone else on the ground couldn't see anything coming down the road. Sven almost didn't see me standing up on the newstand. The guy next to me yelled his name in a huge voice, and that got him to look at the last minute. He still looked strong, and he wasn't pushing it, so his dad and I felt a lot better about it. It was starting to get hot even at that point.

Right after the midway sighting, we headed for our third lookout point: Chinatown. We got on the CTA Red Line and headed out. On the way, we chatted with some other folks who were supporting runners. A woman with a toddler sat behind us and I asked who she was supporting and she explained her husband. This was his fourth time running the marathon. She advised that Chinatown could be really crazy and too crowded to get close enough to see. We almost waiting to get off after Chinatown, but when we got to the stop we saw that it wasn't too bad and some really good spots were still open. So we jumped off and parked ourselves right up front. This was one of the more entertaining places to wait. There was a dragon or two dancing, music booming, and a DJ doing some talking. This was at mile 21, I think, so by the time runners got to this point, you could start seeing some exhaustion. Still, the people we saw were still going pretty strong. Again, we were really relieved to see Sven come by. He was looking more tired, but we were so happy to see him still looking strong. My heart jumped for joy to see him running by. He blew me a kiss, and I think I smiled for the next 2 days thinking of that. :-)

The final spot for looking out was closer to mile 25, the final mile. That's when we started seeing more people walking, some sitting, and a few wheelchairs. A lot of hurting people. Sven came running by and you could see sheer determination pushing him every step further. I can't imagine what your body must be feeling like during the last mile of a marathon, but his dad and I decided we might just mark off "Running a marathon" from our list of things to do in life. It didn't look fun. We were sweating and dehydrated just from watching these runners, so when you looked at the runners, you could only imagine. I wanted to run with Sven the rest of the way in, to give him my energy, to show him how proud I was of him, and to keep his body moving forward. After he passed me by, I couldn't help yelling at Jon that I was going to run to catch up with him. I started sprinting down the sidewalk after him (he was finally going a pace I could keep up with). When I caught up with him, I starting yelling and cheering and jogging with him. He smiled through the pain, but in the end wasn't too happy that I was making him run harder. (whoops) I could only hope that I helped to keep his determination going, and that he knew how proud I was of him.

After that short burst, we didn't see him again until we finally got to the family/friend meeting points that were set up closer to the start/finish area. By this time I could tell I hadn't eaten any lunch and hadn't drank enough water. I was getting grumpy and my feet hurt after running in my sandals. It was really hot. Sven was really exhausted when we finally met up. He wanted water, and I couldn't find any bottled water anywhere for him. None of the vendors we passed had any water left. That was pretty sad. He drank the gatorade we brought for him, but we only had 2 small bottles. We made our slow trip back to the el, back to our car in Forest Park, and drove on home. He got to rest a little bit (me, too) before we departed again for a very yummy dinner hosted by the Young Survival Coalition at the China Grill restaurant in the Hard Rock Hotel. China Grill ended up donating the dinner to YSC. How awesome. It was a great day and a lovely dinner.

China Grill is a great restaurant. Check out their menu, and if you ever get a chance to go, I'd recommend any of these appetizers and entrees we had:
curried chicken satay
lobster pancakes (or was it shanghai lobster?)
thai shrimp cakes
pan seared spicy tuna
grilled garlic shrimp
sake marinated "drunken" chicken
a beef dish (I didn't eat this, so I don't remember what it was)
wild mushroom profusion pasta
sablefish
one other meat dish


Sven's Race Results:

Stephen Johnson | Bib # 23151 | Champaign, IL - USA | Age 31 | M
START 5K 10K 15K 20K HALF 25K 30K 35K 40K FINISH
0:08:17 0:28:21 0:56:26 1:24:06 1:52:50 1:59:16 2:23:34 2:58:30 3:32:41 4:11:27 4:25:02
TIME Chip Time: 4:25:02 Clock: 4:33:19 Pace: 10:06

Placement Overall: 7224 Gender: 5039 Division: 801

Sven, you are my hero!