The Royce Files

Mark and Anna greet more guests A large crowd was on hand to witness the event. The whole sanctuary was nearly filled with guests from near and far. I sat patiently and silently waiting for the ceremony to begin. I glanced over the program which listed the whole wedding entourage. A few friends of mine were involved. David George was a sound technician. Shortly after 4pm the ceremony began. A small chamber ensemble including strings played a song from Copland's Appalachian Spring. Carefully avoiding the pillar at the rear of the sanctuary, the bridesmaids, groomsmen et al, strolled to the front of the sanctuary. I forgot the next few minutes until Neil Thielke spoke a word of encouragement over Mark and Anna.

It has been a busy wedding season for myself and my MFS (Mostly Finnish Spouse)- we have 3 down and 1 more to go. In honor of the wedding season, I am re-posting the much sought out wedding posts of the The Anna and Mark's Wedding Revue from 2001. They have floated around the far reachs of the nets for a while since the orginal site was lost- RIP Geocities and Xoom.  Mark & Anna greet guests  January 13, 2001- Mark Haugen married Anna Oglesby in an illustrious ceremony in Morris, MN at Faith Lutheran Church. The ceremony was presided over by Bernie Wing and Neil Thielke with music by Julie Goos and Jeremy Erickson. At 3:30pm I started for the church, stopping only at Benson drug to buy a card and other stuff. I arrived at Faith Lutheran at 3:50 and was greeted by Anna's younger brothers. Being modest and a bit on the elusive side, I decided to sit at the rear of the sanctuary in the overflow seating.

An Unofficial Fargo Marathon band One of the allegedly unofficial bands on the marathon route featured a banjo, and fiddle, and a trombone. Pretty odd trio. Nothing rock about them. There was a ton of music on the route again this year. I saw mostly DJs but also a reggae band and the minivan Elvis

You know a marathon has passed when you notice used packages of GU strewn on the streets, half used bottles of water on the boulevard, and remnants of orange peels tossed to the curb. I have been running parts of the course this week following the Fargo Marathon and take notice of the things on the street. The course is mostly especially around the aid station areas. But as you leave  those spots behind you see the GU. After marathon the course closes I like to bike it and see if I can find any leftover GU. There were lots of wrappers this year. However, I found only 5 unopened GU packets. Last year I found 12. So I guess either the GU was mostly consumed this year or cleaned up after the races were over. There is a still a spot on the course which was not an aid station which has a bunch of orange peels on the ground. I call it orange peel pass. Why no one bothered to clean up the mess I am not sure. In all the excitement of seeing 8000 runners pass they probably forgot.

On article of clothing did stick out more than the rest this year- the headband. Nike's resurrection of the image of Steve Prefontaine has done wonders for the headband market. I've been wearing the sweatband for at least 5 years now from more of a practical standpoint that one of fashion statement Here are a few wearers of the headband. To start us out we have a rainbow headband- reminding the wearer that there may be gold at the end of this marathon. Next we have a yellow headband with sunglasses- sure to make you cruise to the finish with charm. If you cannot afford those special wicking headbands, use a bandana and spend your money on lime green over the calf socks. And forget your shirt at home. This guy is perhaps the most styling fellow in whole race. He also uses the bandana but gives it a generous width. Sunglasses, water bottle, Ipod, and cool watch- he knows how to run and chill at the same time.

Continuing the beyond the race coverage of the 2012 Fargo Marathon we present you with a few runners who were shared their impressive body art with us. Running attracts many kinds of people. I was considering make this the major focal point of our beyond the race coverage but did not encounter enough of them to make a decent amount of entries.  Some of them cross genres which we have explored before (beards) and will examine later (headbands and no shirts.) I do not recall any women with tatoos, so we have just a handful of males. Colorful biceps moving gracefully by with a beard. A full frontal tattoo with beard and abandoned carpet. He also makes the shirtless category. Looks like a floral display in the center and some artistic doves on the lower shoulders. The abandoned carpet is a leftover from clean up week. Seems nobody wanted the scrap. And not to be outdone- a duplex of tattoos, and bonus trifecta- shirtlessness, beard, and a headband. You could ...

Where other media outlets stop at the winners and a few human interest stories, the Royce Files goes further in its coverage of the Fargo Marathon. A highlights video has been posted on YouTube that allows you to see winner Oliver Hoffman flash by. <p><br><br><br>The</p> The Royce Files HQ on the marathon route was right on mile 8 for the half and near 22 for the full marathon. Just down the street from WDAY. No live Tweeting, however. I was a one man operation with 4 cameras. 2 ran out of batteries plus I had to grill hot dogs and bratwurst and play banjo. Fortunately I had a little help from my friends. The streets were crowded earlier on around mile 8 for the half marathon but dwindled as most of the pack passed by. Still there was plenty of cheering happening when the 1st marathoners arrived. . Royce Files HQ  And speaking of...