Minnesota #38 and Wisconsin #39

It’s obvious that I didn’t take the most direct route from Oregon to St. Louis and now I’m at the reason. Racing in states #38 & #39. The main reason for this trip was getting a chance to watch both Chase and Haley play hockey and if it worked out all of us running our first 5k together, three generations! But since we didn’t have hockey schedules yet and Stacie and Tom weren’t going to be home from their trip until after I arrived I got on my favorite race site, Running in the USA and found races that were doable to continue my 50 State quest. 

The first was a homecoming event at St. Cloud State in Minnesota and keeping with the hockey theme of this trip it started and finished at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on campus. It was a fun event that included the band, cheerleaders and mascots. It was their 150th homecoming. 













That’s about the time that the national weather map was showing I had come through at the right time to miss all the snow that was coming behind me. I was going into rain at my next race though. 



I didn’t see much of Madison, Wisconsin. It was pretty much get up and drive to the race in the rain and dark and then leave to drive to St. Louis right after awards because it rained off and on the whole time. The course was hilly but pretty around the Henry Vilas Zoo neighborhood. 









And here is what my race map looks like after completing 39 states. Eleven to go hopefully!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Talk About a One Two Punch!

Image
I was surprised when I noticed this morning that it had been two weeks since I wrote the title of this post and I have written nothing since. I’ve picked up my phone two or three times with the intention of doing this post and each time put it down after just trying to organize my thoughts. We’ll see how it goes this time.  So what is this 1-2 punch I’m talking about? The first is one that affects everyone worldwide as we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic with a new deadly disease. Covid19 Coronavirus. As I write this on May 26th we will be going over 100,000 deaths in the United States. A mind boggling number that just increased my anger and frustration every time I hear or see some fool complaining about having to wear a mask infringing on their “rights”. While this pandemic has brought out a lot of good in people it has really shown how there are so many self centered, self absorbed, egotistical, selfish, oblivious, assholes there are in this world. And of course ...
Read more

Tired of Being Tired 😴

Image
It’s been over three weeks since I wrote the title to this blog and with the one positive exception of starting treatment there really hasn’t been much reason to post. The good news is that I believe the treatment works based on my first two. I’m still normal out is shape old man tired but I don’t have the overwhelming fatigue that stopped me in my tracks as soon as it hit with no chance of a second wind. The first two treatments were only two weeks apart but from now on they’re supposed to be every eight weeks. I’m curious to see if there is regression the further out from treatment I get. “Time will tell” has never been a more accurate cliche.  And of course all this is taking place during the ongoing Covid pandemic that shows no signs of letting up.  The cartoon says it all! Staying away from the news is one way to pretend things are okay. Unfortunately I don’t have that willpower because I just feel the need to know what’s going on with Covid and maybe more importantly I w...
Read more

Walking Lynx Hollow Road

Image
To say that this April has been unusual would be a huge understatement even though my plans this year were to not leave Oregon to travel until May because of doctors appointments. Every year from 2015 - 2019 I was on the road in April visiting family and friends and adding more states to my states raced list.  Sometimes all of my April races were in Missouri and other times I raced other states going to or from Missouri. The main point is that April has been a big travel month for me. In 2015 I raced twice in St. Louis. In 2016 I was recovering from knee surgery and my first race post op was an 8 mile race in the snow in Greenland, Colorado on my way home from Missouri. In 2017 I raced three races in St. Louis including the first that Chase ran with Stacie and me. That spring 2017 trip including visits in Missouri, Georgia, Florida to celebrate my son Jeff’s 50th birthday, Massachusetts to see my uncle Billy for the last time, New Hampshire to see my son in law Tom’s parents and b...
Read more