My Week That Was - Oct 20

The Zimmer Championship Course finish line.
10/14/2018  dwm photo

One activity I enjoyed while living in Indianapolis was volunteering for large sporting events.

Over the years I helped on a couple Final Fours, the Super Bowl, Olympic Trials for Swimming, and an NCAA Convention.

It was fun to be a small piece of the giant puzzle of people who make the big events work.

Madison didn't seem to offer those opportunities, or I didn't hear about them.  About a year ago, I learned the University of Wisconsin was hosting the NCAA Division One Championship for Cross Country.  I was determined to find a way to help.

Just how I might do that was unclear.  When various online searches came up empty - I sent an email to the UW Athletic Office directed to a department I thought might be involved.  A week later I got a reply thanking me for my interest and telling me I'd hear more as information became available.

It's how I found myself at the Zimmer Championship Course last Saturday for an event known as the Pre-Nationals.  90 Division One Colleges and Universities brought their men's and women's teams competing for a spot in the Nationals and to get a feel for the course.  That's 180 teams!

While I'm glad I ran cross country back at Janesville Craig High School in 1980; it is absurd to say what I did and what these incredibly fit young people do the same thing.

A female runner for Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) was warming up as I walked around the course to get my bearings, she looked at ease taking controlled, even strides.

My job was serving as a course marshall.  It involved keeping spectators on the sidelines and out of the way of runners.  The course is designed so spectators can dash from place to place to cheer on their team or their athlete.  It is up to the marshall to keep them from getting in the way of a runner.

It was fun and amazing to watch large packs of incredible athletes, and no doubt some future Olympians, tackle the 8 or 6 kilometer course.  The nation's best will return in a month to compete again - it should be fun.

During the week, a group of us from work held our "annual" Fall Color Walk to Lunch.  It was a cool and sunny day - just perfect for mid-October.  Our destination, Panera.

I learned something at Panera that I missed in previous trips, or they may have made changes to their "Pick Two" special.  In looking at the menu board for Pick Two - I saw that it applied to sandwiches, salads, soup, and flatbread.   While I can't swear to it, I'm pretty sure on prior visits the Pick Two got me a sandwich and soup for the Pick Two price.

Not anymore.  The Pick Two number on the menu is less than the full sandwich or cup of soup, however, when I ordered a Turkey, Apple, and Cheddar on Sourdough with my "two" the Mac 'n Cheese I got a surprise.  I did order a drink to go with it, but when I was told that was $14.67 (I'm not sure of the exact change) I did a double-take and asked how my Pick Two could be more than $14.

Cheerfully I was told the Pick Two is an add-on.  So it was the cost of the sandwich plus the cost of the Mac 'n Cheese plus the soft drink.  As I said, this seemed like new information, so I canceled the Mac 'n Cheese for just the sandwich and drink which dropped the price under $10.

The folks behind the counter were friendly and helpful, I just felt bad for the growing line behind me.  The rest of the story... when my food was delivered I ended up with the sandwich and the Mac 'n Cheese after all!

The Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series split the first two home games with Los Angeles.  Then three games out west - the Crew one the first one, lost game four in the bottom of the 13th inning, and let game five get away.

Add in a Green Bay Packer Monday Night Game - won at the last second - and we're talking serious sleep deficit.  Not just me, but a lot of Cheeseheads were rubbing sleep out of their eyes throughout the day - especially when Tuesday's game didn't end until after 1 Wednesday morning.

Milwaukee won game six at home last night in a wild stadium to force a game seven to see which team goes to the World Series... that's a good way to end this week and start a new one.

Go Brewers!