Author Archives: nicholaskemper

Mount Pleasant High School Run time: 58:10 + 1-lap kick Another lonely winter track, with leaves piled onto walkways, and mats laid across the track for the football players to access the field. This one had cement grandstands on both sides, so I ran a lot of stairs. The grandstands were built on human-made hills,Continue reading “Mount Pleasant, MI”

Ben Franklin Junior High School Run time: 57:48.5 + 1-lap kick You get to the hotel after a long day of driving and sales visits, and you have just enough time for half a run before darkness falls, so you pull out the phone and look for a running track, and you find one, andContinue reading “Stevens Point, WI”

Ashwaubenon High School Run time: 57:46.5 + 1-lap kick Another dusk track run, another upscale high school. This is only a few miles from historic Lambeau Field, where the Packers play. I was never a Packers fan, though I never rooted strongly against them either. I watch little football these days. The racism of theContinue reading “Ashwaubenon, WI”

Pewaukee High School Run time: 57:44.5 + 1-lap kick Last trip of the year, first real winter trip. It got cold in Idaho last month, and there was snow, but it still felt like late fall. It is the early darkness that seems so stark this week. The photos do not do it justice, becauseContinue reading “Pewaukee, WI”

Decker Lake Park Run time – 57:31 + 2-minute kick This pocket of Salt Lake City might be the Mormon Slums. The hotel was right next to I-215, tucked into a barely accessible mini-neighborhood with two sketchy apartment complexes and a facility with a very high cyclone fence, the kind that inverts in a largeContinue reading “West Valley City, UT”

Sandcreek Middle School Run Time: 57:29.5 + 2-minute kick First snow run and first night run on the year. The lady at the Hertz counter in SLC wisely recommended an upgrade from a compact to an AWD mini-SUV. Woke up in the morning to 27-degree weather but did not see snow till I got upContinue reading “Idaho Falls, ID”

Kiwanis Park Run time 57:14.5 + 2-minute kick It was windy in Galesburg. I know – surprise, surprise. We used to live in the Eastern suburbs of Portland, near the entrance to the Columbia Gorge, and we would get the east wind a lot, but it was intermittent. These Northern Central states – they seemContinue reading “Galesburg, IL”

Bishop Garrigan High School Run time: 57:12.5 + 2-minute kick Back to the comfort of a school track. It was just across the road and through the cemetery from the hotel, so… hard to resist. A beautiful Iowa afternoon in a small town that I choose to pronounce “All-gone-a.” There is a serene beauty toContinue reading “Algona, IA”

Run time: 57:10.5 + 2-minute kick This was an ultimate rural run. I ran around the perimeter of a newly-mown corn field, mostly in the corn field itself. Turns out if you stay in the space between the rows (now rows of corn stalk stubble), you can run just fine. There is some harvest debris,Continue reading “New Hampton, IA”

Run Time: 57:08.5 + 2-minute kick Wintertime is coming. Started the run in the daylight, finished it in the dark. I was a little late to the hotel, but the weather was clear, and it seems a little easier to start a run now that I alternate walking with running, especially when the first 10Continue reading “Loves Park, IL”