Sunny and crisp

The Twin Cities Marathon is tomorrow. The race begins in downtown Minneapolis, initially heading south past the Chain of Lakes (including, I believe, right past the front window of Ms. Wireless). The course then follows the creek over to the river and then back north to Franklin Avenue where it crosses to the Saint Paul side. The route then heads south, crossing the actual city limits and entering Saint Paul before turning east at Summit Avenue. The final approximately 6 miles are down Summit to the Cathedral and then finishing in front of the Capital.

We headed over to view preparations and ride the last 5 or so miles of the course. This is at about the 22 mile mark. BB is photographed at the top of the Snelling hill, one of the last significant uphills on the course.After 22 miles many people will be suffering by the time they reach this hill but if they can make it to the top the rest is mostly downhill.

Here BB is at the finish line.As you can see by the stopped clock behind her, if she had turned in this time tomorrow she would be the new world record holder. Of course, she would also have to actually start at the start line in Minneapolis instead of our garage in Roseville, and the Bianchi would not be permitted as a means of transport.

These kinds of tiny details are all that stand between the TOPWLH and worldwide acclaim.

We proceeded on past the Capital and climbed up to the downtown overlook located on the hill back there. It isn't a very good picture as the sun was all wrong for this angle but it puts the two big stone buildings both in the photograph in a way that no other location does.Off in another direction is the building where I work. The horizontally striped building near the bottom and on the left edge is the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center (aka Jail). Behind it across the street are two converted brick warehouses. The left is the PCA. The one on the right is where I work. Just visible are the top 3 floors including on the 4th floor corner what we have been forbidden to refer to as the Jail View Conference Room.There is huge news today from France. FC Nantes got a late goal from Cameroonian forward Christian Bekamenga to break a scoreless tie and went on to steal three vital away points at Grenoble. The good news was compounded just moments later when Le Mans got 2 late goals at Le Havre to overcome a deficit and win that game by 2-1. The combination of the two results allowed Nantes to escape, at least temporarily, from the relegation zone. Les Canaris rise to 17th place in the table as Le Havre slides all the way to the bottom.