My second mistake...

While the fishing thing will injure my wallet, at least it could be fun.

Here's the mistake that won't cost much, but will make me suffer all winter and spring: In an extremely ill-advised fit of optimism, I issued an invitation to a bunch of people, among them members of my marathon team, The Ibuprofen Warriors, to come up here in May and run the Fargo Marathon on May 19.

The race has been well-attended by the federal clerks in the two years it has been run – Ann of crunchy blinking eyeballs fame ran it, for one. And many of the court security officers, who, enviably, have to keep in shape as part of their job, will be running the marathon or some portion of it this year. My Fargo colleague has been introducing me around the building as "the runner," though I haven't been much of one in two years (and even then wasn't much of one...).

So far, 30 or so of the 38 people I invited are on the "Yes" list. A more conservative count, listing only those who have actually said "Yes," instead of those who have not unequivocally said, "Hell, no!" puts it at 7. I think I can grow that number a little, and we should field a respectable team. But oh, man, it's going to be some long cold days on the treadmill this winter.

The race itself should be as nice as a marathon can be. They had about 1,000 finishers last year, the last rolling in at around seven hours, so I should be able to maintain my personal goal of never coming in dead last. And it appears to have been a very well-organized and well-supported race. If you're interested in being a Warrior, drop me an e-mail or a comment on this post! We have great tee shirts.