Festival College + Bull Falls race

Good morning, friends!

For the past several years, I’ve been invited to Festival College, which is a leadership conference for the managers of Festival Foods. Festival is a grocery company, and I just love working for them. They welcome me with open arms and I coax smiles out of their attendees. They had 375 people this year, so their event coordinators run everything like a well-oiled machine. 🙂 It takes place at the Kalahari resort in the Wisconsin Dells, so when I’m not working, I get to relax at the indoor waterpark and run in their hotel gym. 🙂

I took photos of the cocktail and social hour…

  

 …entertainment (the Badger band and Brat Pack Radio!)…   

     …award winners…

…senior staff and guest presenters…

 

  

  

  

  

 …and I captured the atmosphere of the event. 

  

  

 After a few days inside, I was happy to log a few miles outside. I consider myself so lucky to live in a town with the Green Circle, and it runs right through my neighborhood. If I head out from my house, within a mile and a half, I find myself in the sculpture park. So cool!  

I was happy to be home, and Brian and I bundled up on Saturday to head over to Bull Falls Brewery for their annual Bock run. It raises money for the Honor Flight program, which is incredible in its own right and is a tear jerking cause. 😀 

Backtracking a little bit- I guess I forgot to mention during my sixteen miler that I took a mega digger. We were a half mile in to the run, and I tripped over a heave in the sidewalk. I tore up both of my knees, though my right one was worse, then I had to run the remaining 15.5 miles with skinned knees. Anyway, since I had that knee wound, I couldn’t wear pants to the Bull Falls race, so I had shorts on, even though it was in the 20s. Brr!

I ran into a few friends while we were waiting. Hi, Nicki and Kim!

 They had two races- a normal 5K, and a hilly course they called the Bock Buster. Of course, I couldn’t just run the regular race, so we lined up near the front of the pack with the rest of the Bock Buster runners.

 The race itself was, indeed, a buster. Holy hills! The upside was that it was mostly uphill the whole way out, so it was downhill on the way back. I have a relatively new Garmin, so it notifies me when I set records, and I set a record for fastest mile on the way back in during this race. There were also adorable notes to cheer us on!   

 Brian and I came in somewhere around 29:30. I hopped right on the massage table, then hugged it out with my best friend, Nikki, who ran the 5K! 🙂    

 I’m pretty experienced with races, so I’ve learned to bring dry clothes along to change into afterwards. I hate that sweaty chill! I even brought a blanket this time, and the beer helped warm me up. I had something brand new this year- carmelized beer! They took a hot metal rod and stuck it in my beer to melt the sugars, I guess. I’d never even heard of this! It was delicious.  After we mingled and visited with everyone, even this bearded monster that loves Nikki ;)…  …we headed over to Amy and Chris’ house. We took a quick shower and headed out for a wine tasting and dinner. The wine tasting was at Lil’ Ole Winemaker, and we had a great time!

After the tasting, we went straight to Thrive for dinner. 

 We talked about wedding stuff, and laughed, and had a grand old time. Thanks for the fabulous day, friends!

 

As always, thanks for reading! 🙂 

Up next? An impromptu concert, my 18 miler, and meetings in Minneapolis.

Miles this year: 182.35