Road ramblings from the past 4 weeks

Which way do I go? (in Jackson, Minnesota, July 4, 2007)

Four weeks and one day - and 705.5 miles ago, this adventure began! And today, July 5th, is a rest day in Fairmont, Minnesota which happens to be celebrating its sesquicentennial and put on one heckuva fireworks show last night. Being able to stay up late to watch fireworks and sleep in the following morning was one reason we chose today as our rest day rather than taking all of the 4th off. And boy oh boy did I need a rest. Since my leg soreness, I've not had a full day off - and it turns out I've run 414 miles over the last 12 days. I was none too perky by the end of yesterday's run. But! Some ice towels, cold drinks, an ice bath, and a meal later - I was on the rebound and stayed awake oohing and ahhhing the fireworks until 11 p.m. Now, half a rest day, another ice bath, a latte, and a pizza later, I feel like a new woman!

Now for the road ramblings:

• Waving. I do believe it's a Nebraska countryside national pastime and there's a fair share of it here in Minnesota as well. And it's contagious. The passing motorist waves; I wave. I wave; the passing motorist waves. Truckers seem to wave the biggest - arm high up in the air so I wave high back at them. There are the fingers lifted off the steering wheel waves, the wiggly finger waves, the waggly hand wave, the palm straight out wave, the wave from the wrist, the wave from the elbow, the pump the arm in the air wave, the peace sign wave, the guy who moved his arms like he was running wave, and the oh-my-gawd-don't-wave-with-your-steering-wheel-hand-while-holding-the-cell-phone-with-your-other-hand-wave.
  
• Kendall also gets waves as he drives down the road in our motor home. Our motor home, by the way, is now named Hedwig: a bright white, smooth-gliding, welcome sight.
  
• The most tempting looking diversion so far: tubers on Cedar Creek near Ericson, Nebraska. Floating in water would be a delightful antidote to soaking in sweat on some of these hot humid days! Overall, though, I've been really lucky weather-wise. The hottest was in Colorado (close to 100 - but a dry heat), I've had a few humid-90s days, a bunch of humid-80s days, and some fantastic light cloud cover and/or fog, light wind, 70s-80s days.
  
• Which leads me to my next ramble: the best campground shower hands down was at the Jackson, Minnesota KOA. Big clean shower - with a lock on the door, two hooks, temperature controlled by the showerer (many campgrounds come with a one-temp shower), with a nozzle I could take down and use to spray my legs with cold water, and a giant shower head that did a marvelous job of dousing me in hot water when I was ready for real shower business.
• I started this run with a plan to run 37 minutes, walk three minutes, walk the hills, drink at least every 20 minutes and eat every 40 minutes. Ah well, it was a good thought. There have been so many hills (once I left eastern Colorado), just walking the hills provides plenty walking interludes. And the guys (if not biking with me), leap frog me every two miles for drink/food. If for some reason they can't meet me each two miles, I carry my single water bottle belt which is good for about an hour without additional aid. I'm definitely drinking more than I ever did in training. Sometimes I wonder if I'm gushing sweat or gatorade.
• Another plan was to have a full-leg ice bath at the end of each day - and we brought a big plastic tub thing with that in mind. It's turned out to be very tricky to fill the tub with ice water - and/or to soak in the tub outside with mosquitoes buzzing about. A decent substitute has been iced towel rub downs and soaking at least my feet in ice water. And if there's no water available for that, at least wrapping my feet in ice packs. Ice still remains the miracle drug of this long distance runner.
  
• As for the guys and their roadside support - they're top drawer. One tough end-of-day (the northernmost bit of Iowa - I was fighting some stomach upset the last few miles) they started meeting me with musical entertainment. "There she was just a runnin' down the street...singing doowahdiddy diddy dum diddy doo" (Paul was on chorus and was cracking up cuz he didn't know which song Kendall was going to sing - just that he was to sing chorus. I didn't know there were so many variations on doowahdiddy.) Also "It's a long way to Minnesota" - which Paul and I turned into "It's a short way to Minnesota" when he ran the last mile with me.
• At one stop in northern Iowa, a fellow pulled into the road the guys were waiting on and asked Kendall if he was checking out every county road in Iowa. Apparently he'd seen Hedwig many a time throughout the day. Kendall said no, they were the support vehicle for his wife who was running. Truck Guy: "Where are you from?" K: "Boulder" TG: "Where are you going?" K: "Michigan" TG: "Now hold on a minute; you want to run that by me one more time?"
• At another stop, in Minnesota, a cyclist came up to Kendall and asked him how far I was running - apparently he had seen me and the support crew during his grain truck deliveries back and forth along the county roads. He had great advice for Kendall on the various routes I'll be taking from here north to Mankato and the Sakatah State Trail.
  
• Brain over body. Sometimes I feel so tired I think the body is cooked and brain is fried. Then I'll be standing at the highest point in Iowa - Hawkeye Point, 1670 feet - ready to quit for the day, the guys will point to some silos a couple miles downhill and tell me it's the state line, and I'll be running again. Undoubtedly the body is still cooked, but the brain has taken over, focusing forward.
• As for moving forward, back when my leg was hurt and I really didn't know what was going to transpire, 19-year-old Paul gave me very sage advice. Something along the lines of "Mom, when you get up in the morning, just take it one step at a time and we'll see how it goes." That next day it went 22 miles.
• Minnesota county roads are unbelievable. The shoulder-less roads still have at least a ribbon of dirt/grass you can step off on if need be due to passing traffic - but the traffic volume is extraordinarily light along the shoulderless roads. I timed a full 15 minutes between cars along one stretch and pretty much all traffic that has passed has moved to the other lane. It feels like farm country again.
• A couple of days ago there were big black clouds all around us with thunder rumbling in the distance. The temperature was falling, the wind was picking up, and when I met up with the guys, Kendall commented that there was an unusual smell in the air. My response: "That would be me, dear."
  
• Yesterday I had to turn myself around in a circle: there was corn, soybeans, and blue sky for as far as the eye could see, 360 degrees.
• Also yesterday we finished off our second bottle of sunscreen - and our first roll of RV toilet paper.
  
• For a July 4th surprise - we had our first along-the-road visitor! My cousin who lives in the Twin Cities rode his motorcycle down yesterday and joined us for lunch. What a treat!
• Additional treats: text messages, emails, blog comments, web page guest book entries. All very much appreciated. Thank you!