What a busy Halloween weekend we had!

Benjamin was pretty sick all last week with a fever on and off, so we took it easy Friday (Halloween) during the day. Luckily, he felt better in the evening and he was well enough to trick-or-treat for about an hour or so in our neighborhood. Mike and I also dressed up in our costumes before taking him out and we got some pretty nice comments from the people in our neighborhood about all of our costumes. Mike was Marty McFly from Back to the Future, I was Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy and Benjamin wore his homemade T-Rex costume. We all looked great!

After roaming the streets, we packed up and headed over to Laura and Eric's house for a small Halloween party with the kids and adults. Everyone there looked great in their costumes, especially Jen and Nate who got extra crafty this year, dressing up as a crayon and Rubix Cube!

On Saturday morning, we were supposed to depart for the Tomah/Sparta area for the Rails-to-Trails Marathon that Mike was planning to run, but Benjamin was still pretty sick. Luckily, Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed came to the rescue and drove down to stay with Benjamin at our house until we got back on Sunday. So Mike and I had an unexpected night away, which gave Mike the opportunity to get a night of uninterrupted sleep, for which we were both grateful! The race began at 8am on Sunday. It was a perfect day weather-wise for running, though the wind did pick up a little toward the end of the race. While Mike was off with some of our Rochester running friends who were also running the half marathon, I drove to my spectating spot (in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin!). I had big plans for an awesome cheering station with Benjamin's cd player, a cd full of fun running songs, a pink wig, a red boa and some cowbells. When the batteries pooped out about 4 minutes into the cd, I should have known that the great day we had hoped for was not to be! I cheered my heart out for Mike, our friends and the other runners at about miles 4 and 7 of the half (I think) and mile 20 of the full. When Mike ran up to me for the second time, at about mile 20, he told me that his "wheels were coming off" and he was cramping up big time. After he passed, I got in the car and raced down to the finish line/mile 23 (yes, they made the runners run PAST the finish line for their last 5k of the race, just cruel). Mike looked pretty haggard at mile 23, but he was probably going to pull off the 3h:45min run that he had planned on. Unfortunately after he passed us the cramping got worse and he added some more time to his finish of 3h:57min. I know he is disheartened at his performance, but he learned so much about his limits and what not to do/what to do for next time. This was his ninth marathon and to wait until now to turn in a bad race is pretty darn good, I think! He is planning to do the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins in May for his next race.

I got news that an acting opportunity that I did a few months ago finally came to fruition recently. The History Center of Olmsted County (the county Rochester is in) is recreating the election of 1872 on their website with a series of taped campaign speeches. I wrote the script for and performed the Victoria Woodhull (first woman to run for president) speech. Visit this website to view the videos and vote in the election! The results are supposed to be revealed on December 1st, hopefully I (Victoria) win!