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Spike Out Cancer Tournament

Volleyball under grey skies

Morning Session

Kathryn and I played in the morning session of Amy’s Spike Out Cancer tournament with Scott and Bill on our team.  The weather was cool and damp. the Tournament raised over $1200 for the American Cancer Society and everyone seemed to have a good time.  We finished shortly before 2pm and went to Eric’s soccer game in Barneveld.  We got there just at half time.  Eric had scored two goals in the opening quarter.

Hero Rush

Kathryn recruited a team of 5 for the Hero Rush. Hero Rush is the tough, crazy, fear-facing fun 4-5 mile race with 17+ totally unique firefighter and “hero” themed obstacles.

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Clint, Beth, Valerie, Kathryn and Chris.

Team Photo Race Completion

AYSO U10B Soccer Games 1-3 Summary

The U10 Boys opened up their season with a home game vs Oriskany-Westmoreland and played to a hard-fought 0-0 tie.  Each team walked away from the game regretting lost opportunities; both missed shots and shots not taken.  Week Two’s game was at Sauquoit and the team lost 0-2, again missing a couple of shots and passing up on opportunities.

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Week 3 changed the team’s fortunes as they scored 6 goals in a 6-3 win over Whitestown.  Nick scored 3 goals, including one off a perfect crossing pass from Eric.  Carter and Eric each scored one and Whitestown accidentally kicked in one of their own.

Mighty Run

Kathryn and Eric competed in the Mighty Run.  Eric did a 1/2 mile kid’s run with 14 obstacles: mud pits, balance beams, spider’s web, tubes, log over/unders, and a Drill Sargent.

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Eric and I left shortly after the kids run, picked up Devante and went home.   Kathryn, Pam and Sue did a later run and came in in the low 600’s of a group of 680 total.    The course map and obstacles are shown below.

Mighty Run Course Map

The Tired Wall    Finish Line Mud Pit

  Walking the tires

Kathryn through mud pit Carrying log

Kathryn&Pam Running  Kathryn on Waterslide

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The Mighty Run – Utica OD Article on Kathryn

From The Mighty Run features strategy, obstacles — and mud By BEN BIRNELL Observer-Dispatch Posted Apr 29, 2013 @ 06:00 PM

http://www.uticaod.com/news/x522262986/The-Mighty-Run-features-strategy-obstacles-and-mud

Kathryn Muller doesn’t mind getting dirty. That’s good, considering the Holland Patent resident is participating in The Mighty Run, the inaugural 5K adventure race Saturday that focuses on strategy and features 12 obstacles. The run is on the Masonic Care Community’s sprawling 400-acre campus in Utica. Event organizer JP Kidwell said all proceeds will go to the Masonic Care Community.

Kidwell said people from seven states have signed up, and he anticipates about 2,000 will participate. “For a first-time event, the size of our field far surpassed our expectations,” Kidwell said.

According to the event’s website, participants can expect mud crawling, monkey bars, river running and cargo nets among the course’s obstacles, and it is geared toward individuals and teams at all levels of fitness which will also get a complementary cbd oil roll on by fresh bros to use in during training. The event also will feature a half-mile run for children, ages 5 to 12. The events aren’t timed. Kidwell said the race was planned with the whole family in mind.

It will be Muller’s fourth foray into events such as The Mighty Run. “I’ve always been someone who enjoys climbing and crawling and trying to figure stuff out,” said Muller, 59, who will run on a team named “The Grand Mudders,” with close friend Pam Heller. “It’s just something fun to do and get exercise.”

The Mighty Run will be the second such event for Heller. She said she likes the camaraderie of the event. “Climbing over things is not something you usually do,” said Heller, 62, a Vernon Center resident. “We laugh and have fun together.”

In their first race in September, Muller and Heller participated in the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Buffalo. Muller said she was instantly hooked. “That was so much fun,” said Muller, a licensed clinical social worker. “I came out of that race thinking, ‘I’ve got to do more of these.’”

Muller participated in Syracuse’s Run of the Dead in October and the Daniel Barden Highland Mudfest in April in Deansboro. “For me, it’s not about winning or finishing in a certain time,” said Muller, who hasn’t participated in competitive racing. “Winning, for me, is having fun and completing the obstacles.”

Muller’s 10-year-old son, Eric, also is getting involved. After seeing his mom run in Buffalo, Eric took part in Deansboro and will participate in the kids’ run this weekend. “He’s a pretty active kid,” she said. “Plus, mud attracts 10-year-olds.”

Sidewalk

Last summer our Amish neighbor, Daniel, stopped by because he had heard we wanted to get rid of our old concrete silo.  Daniel wanted the concrete staves to use to build sidewalks.  I told him he could have the silo in exchange for clearing the brush and trees around the silo.  During the fall Daniel stopped by horseback to say he hadn’t forgotten, he just hadn’t got to the silo.  On Saturday morning Daniel knocked on the door and said he was taking the silo down.  He was assisted by his father Levi and two young men.  They worked from 10am – 4pm and had the staves stacked, brush cleared and dropped off 30 concrete staves at our house for us to build a silo.

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Monday afternoon I began digging 5-6″ below grade.  By the end of the day we had the area prepared.

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On Tuesday afternoon we pegged down the landscape fabric and shoveled about 1″ of sand gathered from the roadside and from Eric’s old sandbox for underneath the blocks.  We leveled each block and then placed edging alongside the blocks to deter grass from growing between the blocks.  Finally we back-filled the edging with dirt along the roadside and partly with sand along the house side.  The house side will later be filled with mulch.

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Overall we had about 14 hours into the project and used left-over staves, landscape cloth, edging and sand.

April 20th

Eric and Kathryn treated me to breakfast in bed for my 60th.  Later that day Joe, Barb, Jeanne, Rob and Linda all came for dinner and tomato soup cake.  A fine time.

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About 10am Daniel, his father Levi and two young Amish men showed up to take down our concrete silo.  Daniel had inquired about it last summer, stating that he would use the concrete staves for sidewalks.  In exchange they cut the brush and trees around the silo.

Sunday Kathryn and I took a 2 hour hike using the new trail to the old farm foundation on Pen Bonc Hill returning via the loop.  There was logging going on along the logging road and our flagging tape indicating the access to the loop trail was gone.

Late afternoon we joined the rest of Eric’s 3rd-4th grade basketball team for recognition at the Rome Sports Hall of Fame.  There were 7 youth teams honored and the ceremony ran about 1 hour.

Daniel Barden Highland Mudfest

Daniel Barden, 7, was one of the first graders killed in the Sandy Hook, CT tragedy in December 2012. A niece of organizers of this event was inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School that day. She escaped physically unharmed. Her dear friend and next-door neighbor, Daniel, did not.  The goal of the Daniel Barden Highland Mudfest is to raise money for The Barden Fund, a fund established for the family, including two remaining siblings. The first annual Daniel Barden Highland Mudfest took place on Saturday, April 13th, 2013 at MKJ Farms in Deansboro, NY. The event featured both a 1/2 mile kids run and a 5K mud run that climbs and falls over the hills of Deansboro.

Eric and Trevor did the 1/2 mile kid’s run, designed for ages 5-12,  in about 10 minutes and declared it to be “too easy”.

2013-04-13 Daniel Barden Mudfest

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The 5k run utilized existing trails designed for hunter pace courses.  There was 900′ of elevation gain, deep ravines, natural stream crossings and man-made obstacles such as a wall, culvert crawl and mud pits.  The course designers were concerned the course was too dry so they asked the Deansboro Fire Dept to water the course on Thursday; then it rained all day Friday.

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There were 1,000 participants sent off in waves every 30 minutes starting at 9am.  Kathryn and Beth went off at 10:30.

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The last obstacle was carrying in firewood to the finish line.

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Kathryn tries to warm up next to one of the natural log ‘torches’.

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Here is a good video of the entire course run.

April Fools Day

Kathryn went swimming and I was awake early so I prepared Eric’s door for April Fool’s Day.

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Eric said “Ha, ha, very funny, Dad!”  He responded by telling me my teeth needed to be brushed again and he had prepared my toothbrush for me.  (It was soaped…)

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Annual April Fool’s dinner: Menu (banana pudding, rolls and spaghetti and fruited jello – in that order). Table set with pots and pans and pitchers and utensils (no dinnerware allowed). Crazy outfit.

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Flocked

When we came home from volleyball on Thursday night we spied this flock of flamingos.  The Holland Patent Tornado Squad has conducted a fund raiser this winter using pink flamingos.  For a donation they will set them up on someone’s lawn.  Families could pay to have someone ‘flocked’, pay to have them removed and/or purchase flamingo insurance.   The Tornado Squad students will head to New Jersey during their spring vacation and help build a home for a veteran through Habitat for Humanity.

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Eric was thrilled.  We were happy to make a donation to the cause.