PRESS RELEASE - Gear West Ski & Run and The Bookcase are pleased to welcome Christopher McDougall, author of the bestselling book "Born to Run."

The event will be on Wednesday, September 15 at 6:30 in the evening at Gear West in Long Lake (1786 West Wayzata Boulevard).

McDougall traveled to Mexico's Copper Canyon to discover the running secrets of the Tarahumara Indians. For centuries, the Tarahumara have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest. How do they do it? That's exactly what McDougall wanted to know.

Part cultural anthropology mixed with personal memoir and the history of running, Born to Run is "hilariously funny, weird, and nonstop fun to read. Runners can sink their teeth into it," says Bill Rodgers, a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon.

Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and is now a contributing editor for Men's Health. A three-time National...

Matt Payne's wife is named Tiffany, though she could easily pass for a "Gretchen," or a "Barbara." Not Debbie or Mildred. And certainly not Brunhilda.

We digress.

Tiffany likes to tease her husband, who is a very fast triathlete; so fast that he has won nine multisport races in his young career, the most recent of which was this morning at the 8th edition of the St. Croix Valley International Triathlon, which was a totally awesome race. She thinks he looks like a...

By Kortney Haag (jacked from kortneyhaag.blogspot.com)

I signed up for the Maple Grove Triathlon pretty early in the season because I knew I would be able to do the race since Keaton would be about 10 weeks old. Derek's parents were going to come up that weekend as well because they bought us tickets to see the musical Wicked for an early Christmas present so we would have babysitters for the race.

The race was on Saturday so Friday was an extremely busy day trying to get ready for the race. I like Saturday races because you have the next day to recoup before going to work or in my case having Derek go to work and getting some time to rest with the two boys. My brother, sister in law and nieces were visiting from Kansas and arrived Wednesday night so I wanted to be sure to spend as much time with them as I could since I do not get to see them that much. We had a great day on Thursday going to the Walker Art Center, hanging out downtown at Loring Park and visiting the ..

Mosquito Man Stuff - According to the ever-astute and always very tall Curt Wood, "a little guy in a Tri Rochester outfit won..." He was talking about the men's individual competition at the 1st annual Mosquito Man Duathlon. The women's individual winner was, unsurprisingly, Jenny Wilcox, who is a very, very nice person. But then most multisporters are, aren't they?

The central focus of Mosquito Man is it's relay competition. Going 1-2 were a quadrumvirate of total studs:

10th annual St. Croix Valley Sprint Triathlon Stuff - Today's SCVS winner, Nick Madrinich (photo center), is very, very tall. And apparently the famous Eiffel Tower, which is located smack-dab in the middle of downtown Europe, is not nearly as tall as everyone thought it was...