The Royce Files

As I was planning my upcoming cycling adventure, I cam across a story about the largest pile of empty oil cans in the world located in Casselton, ND. Built in 1933, the pile has been a sort of attraction for the town for years. In April the current owner challenged the pile's existence and gave the ultimatum that it should be moved by May 29 or be destroyed. Folks in Casselton got moving and just made the deadline by moving the pile intact to a temporary location. Currently they are taking donations to find this specimen a permanent home . I should note I found a lot of other weird and wonderful attraction on Roadside America . This site is a hoot to peruse and despite the high fuel surcharges makes me want to see some of them. Hopefully on my bike trip I'll see a few and show them to you here. Slan.

I think I wrote a while ago about a fellow who went back to college in his 50s and played on the football (American style) team. Well the local paper put out an article about an even older player, 7o years old to be exact. Bob Bonawitz of Willmar dons the #44 jersey when he plays from the Liberty . He was in for only a few plays this past weekend when coincidentally the Liberty decimated the Willmar Mustangs 78-18 in the Fargo Dome. Yes, Bob, is playing for a foreign team but a winning team. He really want to bask in the glory since Willmar has yet to win a game this season. The Liberty are new edition to the sports franchises in town. They are a semi-pro football team. The first, to my knowledge, to play in the area. They play on the other side of the river and it appears they have used the internet to recruit talent. I wonder if any former XFL players are on the team? At work The Champ dismissed the Liberty outright sighting he knew 5 players on the team, one of which had never ...

I wonder if the marathon is stale news. Over 3 weeks have past since Eric Sondag out-foxed the competition to win the marathon. I tried to keep abreast of any news but haven't had any time to blog stuff that comes over the wire. However I did take a peak at Eric's blog entry about the race. It's in 2 parts, but I linked the 2nd part. Be smart and find the 1st on Eric's blog . In other Marathon results, about 40K was raised for charity. This is split between the Children's Museum and I think a particular children's hospital in town. The picture to the left is of Mark Knutson and partners running the marathon in the evening after the race in honor of Caroline Ruby Vetter. You can just barely make them out in the center. I was on top of the parking ramp waiting for them to pass. I nearly gave up. I didn't think the Moorhead portion of the course was that long. Well, I gotta run. And I mean it.

Late Marathon Crossing the Red, a photo of the Fargo Marathon director and companions running across the Main Avenue bridge nearing dusk as they run a marathon for Caroline Ruby Vetter. They started at 6PM and it was about 8:30 at this point. Earlier that evening a few people cheered them on in the 8th St stretch. I also witnessed a group cheering them on near the end of the Old Milwaukee Trail at the Discovery School. This "event" was not publicized much. I think I read about it in a marathon mailing I received weeks before. You can barely make out the runners but they are in the center of the photo. Of the people I knew running on May 17, meaning the actual races, I colleague and soccer team mate of mine, Chris Hass did the best. He placed 12th in half marathon. Others running that I knew included KT, Chris Myers, Mark M, Erin E and few execs at my workplace. Way to go!

Indeed it was crowd in the Fargo Theater lobby for the 7 o'clock showing of entries for the 48 hour Film Festival . I thought that this theater was bigger. I think if it seats 1000 then that's pushing the limits. Nevertheless, I was entertained by a wide variety of films (DVs more accurately) that made up the 12 on-time entries to the festival. One entry which did not make it in on time was screened as well and it was a top notch production. Team Testudo arrived in full force with director Charles making a fashionably late appearance. Our film was screened second to last sandwiched between 2 fictional bio-pics. I remember most of the films but unfortunately their titles elude me. Well, not all titles. "No Shoulder," an entry in the drama genre was well executed with some excellent shots. However, it seemed to fall prey to the cliche that drama=yelling and fighting. Nevertheless, it was one of my choices for best film. The other bio-pic which followed our "Fantasy...

J eff Kolpack blogged the men's race suboerbly from start to finish but did not get his early predictions correct. He was probably quite surprised by Eric Sondag overtaking the Kenyan John Rotich in the last few miles. On Monday, Rotich's coach reported that Rotich injuried himself during the race and was not fatigued by his previous Lincoln marathon. He thus downplayed Sondag's strategic assumption that Rotich may not have enough to keep pace in last 2 miles. Sounds a little bit like rhetoric to me. Injuries in running can be the result of fatigue, lack of stretching, or over-exertion. There might be more. Nevertheless, even injuried, Rotich finished 3rd. The men's half and marathon course records made this weekend were not too substantial. Neither broke the previous record by large amounts. I suspect the wind may have been doing a bit of damage. Fargo has yet to break the 2:30 barrier in the marathon despite a few runners who have bested that mark. The presence of the...

H ours after most of the runners had completed the course, race director Mark Knutson and 2 friends laced up and ran the deserted Fargo course in honor of Caroline Vetter and I suspect raise money for leukodystrophy research. 5 year old Caroline succumbed to the disease recently. A mile of the marathon near Lindenwood Park was named for her. I finished filming for the 48HFF at 5PM and wanted my fix of marathon. I caught up with Knutson and his posse as they arrived at the Lindenwood split and snapped a photo. I then furtively followed them through the south Fargo portions of the marathon up until the infamous Troll bridge. I only missed them in 2 sections: coming back from the turnaround and Condcordia. As they crossed back into Fargo it was getting too dark so I headed home satisfied to cover this run.