Gift Wrapping at Ghisallo Running

The entire staff of Ghisallo Running has been certified to wrap holiday presents after completing an arduous course offered through Washington University's School of Continuing Education. The course, which certifies one who completes it as a Gift Wrapper Specialist (G.W.S.), began with an overview of the art, quickly followed by an introduction to the arrangement and selection of papers, boxes and bows. The emphasis of the rest of this session was centered on "Presentation" with, as you can see, a capital "P". A specialist in spatial analysis was followed by a disciple of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ("Less is more") and the morning concluded with several pithy remarks made by Xi Li, a world-renowned expert in the art of Feng Shui. After a lunch of oysters on the half shell, the staff returned to the afternoon session. Two of us watched enraptured as Helmuth von Hoffman (H.v.H.), the "wrapper to the stars", gave a virtuoso demonstration as he simultaneously wrapped, ribboned, and bowed six gifts of different sizes to the strains of the "Blue Danube Waltz" while the rest of the staff attended a symposium on the ancient art of Malayan bamboo paper wrapping. Finally, it was time for the diplomas to be confered, several with honors and one with an oak leaf cluster, very rare indeed. We are now fully recovered and ready to wrap!

Holiday Ornaments

The Holidays are upon us and thus comes the frantic need for those last minute gifts. Well why not get a gift everyone can enjoy on the tree of an ornament. And at only $6 per ornament why not get two. The selection is good now. But when they are gone they are gone. So don't get left looking at an empty tree, come down to Ghisallo Running today.

Group Run

Come join us for an easy group run on Monday evenings at 6:30 P.M. from Ghisallo Running. We will all start together and have a 5-6 mile loop and a 10-11 loop for those wanting to go longer. The shorter loop route will go through Clayton down to Forest Park and then come back to the store. The longer route will take runners the same way adding on a loop through Forest park. Hope to you see this Monday.

Ghisallo Racing

Great job over the weekend by Bruce Nie and Dennis Fricks. Bruce won the Masters title on saturday at the Great River Road run 10 miler. His time was 57:12(5:43 pace). Dennis was second in the Kirkwood /Webster Turkey day 6 mile run. His time was 32:32.

Running and Yoga

Starting Jan. 8th Ghisallo Running will be teaming up with The Center for Mind ,Body and Spirit for a group run followed by a beginners yoga class. The run will be approximately 2-2.5 miles and start at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. The Yoga class then will start at 7:15. The price for the Yoga class will be $12 for drop ins and $10 for multiple times. The run is free. If you have any questions don't hesitate to come by the store or call 314 727-IRUN(4786).

ROAD ID - a great holiday idea!

Whether you're running in the dark, far from home, or have medical issues, you'll feel safer and make those who care for you happy if you wear one of the Road ID products: Wrist ID, Ankle ID, Shoe ID, FIXX ID (necklace), or Shoe Pouch ID. These inexpensive items, ranging from $19.99-$24.99, can be ordered online, by FAX, phone or mail. We have the forms at Ghisallo Running to allow you to select the specific style six lines of your version.

After Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving is the perfect time to come in and get some new running gear. After all, we all need a little extra motivation after putting on a few extra pounds from the turkey and pumpkin pie.

Jill Petersen finishes third at San Francisco Tri

Check out Jill's account of the race:


The San Francisco Triathlon was going to be an ITU point’s
race, but due to a minor oil spill (58,000 gallons of oil) was dumped
into the bay on Wednesday, November 8th. We were racing on
Treasure Island (witch was kind of close the crash site), needless to
say the swim was canceled! Instead of swimming we were running,
it turned into a duathlon (that meant no points), run- bike –run.
Run:
It was two loops totaling 6.5K (2 miles each), to start! That’s
a long way! We started off the first lap under control and it felt good,
we had a group of 10 girls in the first pack. After the first loop Haskins and Julie decided they wanted that group
to be smaller, they picked up the pace A LOT! Those two dropped
everyone except Groff and I, I really didn’t want them to get away.
I hung on and made it back to transition with them. (Run time is not
on the results; 23 min 51 sec)
Bike:
It was 6 loops, technical 40K bike. To top the technical bike
course it was also very rough, lots of potholes and uneven pavement,
sand, and glass. At least it was flat; with one hill (this had the nicest
section of road
). Our pack stayed together, while each girl took
there pulls. It took me a while to get into the swing of things with
Haskins, Julie, and Groff; I had never ridden with them before but
after a few laps I felt more comfortable when taking a pull on the
bike. They are all really strong riders; it was great to ride with them.
Run:
Coming off the bike and going out for a 2nd run, hurt a lot more
than just swimming before hand. We had to do the same loops we did
earlier, but this time we had to go 3 laps (10K…a little long). At the
start of the run my feet were numb and that made the run into transition
painful. The girls just took off form the start, I couldn’t keep up with. I
tried not to let them get too far away. I had lost a tone of ground to Julie
and Haskins but Groff only put 20sec on me, and I caught back up to
passed her in the last 1.5 miles. That moved me into 3rd, I started to gain
some ground on Haskins but it wasn’t enough.
This was a huge step for me and I learned a lot from being able
to race with the best of the US triathletes! I made podium with the next
Olympic hopeful’s! (Julie Ertel-Swail and Sarah Haskins!) One more
race December 1st, my first World Cup!
Race Website: http://www.tricalifornia.com/treasureisland/2007/
Results:
http://www.tricalifornia.com/treasureisland/2007/results/olydvelt.cfm

The Perfect Glove!

These things are cool! Please, get rid of those old gloves!

Finally, a running glove for St. Louis weather...with MicroSensor®-Thermal for warmth and a hidden, stowable mitt for wind protection, the Pearl Izumi Shine Wind Mitt is the perfect cool and cold weather running glove.

The MicroSensor®-Thermal fabric is warm, soft and breathable- the silicone screened palm has a performance grip- and the back of the glove is covered with reflective piping and logo for superior visibility.

They are currently in-stock at Ghisallo, but not for long...

Grand Opening

The grand opening was a huge success. We will be annoucing the winners of the Mizuno shoes and other prizes this week. Thank you to all those that came in this weekend. Special thanks to Dan from Mizuno.

CREPUSCULAR SAFETY BY BROOKS

As soon as central daylight savings time (c.d.s.t) ended, twilight occured an hour earlier than it had the day before and darkness will continue to descend a few minutes earlier each day until the winter solstice at 0608 hours 22 December. Even after the daylight begin to lengthen it will be months, although it will seem like years, until it's light again for those evening runs. Protect yourself and the financial future of your loved ones by investing in the Brooks Nightlife Collection that feature bright color and 3M Scotchlite retro-reflective detail: shirts, vests, jackets, tights, hats, and gloves.

Mizuno Breath Thermo®

Funny how whenever the weather starts to get cold outside you can never find your hat and gloves. Well now is the perfect excuse to come in and get some great new winter gear. Mizuno has a great new technology called Breath Thermo. A unique type of insulation fabric that generates heat from the absorption of moisture. Heat is generated via a chemical exchange between perspiration and the properties of the Breath Thermo® fabric. This is especially useful for the protection of the muscle groups and protecting the human body from cold temperatures.

VIBRAM FIVEFINGERS ARE HERE!

Running shoes are wonderful for protecting an athlete's feet from hard surfaces and debris, but running barefoot should be the most natural activity for humans. In fact, none of our species would have survived if they couldn't have outrun enemies and predators to survive and pass their genes on to us. But unless you live on a golf course in a warm climate your barefoot running will probably be limited, at least until now.

A Teammate to the Olympic Trials!

Faster 'sans' her jersey... Colleen Casey qualified for the U.S. Womens Marathon Olympic Trials by running a time of 2:46 at the St. George, Utah Marathon back in October.

We apologize for the delay in letting everyone know about her awesome accomplishment-- we were searching for pics of runners wearing yellow...

YOGA for Runners!

Does the word hamstrings make you nervous????

We will be offering a Yoga for Runners class soon.

Please stay-tuned for updates.

Running News and SO MUCH MORE!

Nice of you to come visit! Come back often and find out what's going on in the wonderful world or running.