Flint River Trail: Mott Park; Run Time: 56:04 + 2-minute kick

Back to the blog after a long post-covid hiatus. I stopped running altogether for approximately 2 weeks, and then I slowly worked my way back up to my running times. It took awhile to get there, and even now, my running speed is down from where it was pre-covid. I definitely experienced loss of energy and stamina. Also, my work trips have been spaced out more lately, so this was the first full run on the road since the run right before I felt symptoms.

This trail started near downtown Flint, which was basically a ghost town. There were a few people fishing in the Flint River, which somehow found a cement channel to run through. The trail ran through Kettering University, which also seemed almost empty. A rain shower came through and cooled me off, which was nice.

Of course, Flint gets a bad rap due to the water issue. Clearly there are vacated properties. I did not see much of the city, but what I saw was clean, if run-down. I got off the trail rather than cross a main road, running through mowed fields. I keep forgetting to run in the grass or dirt next to the cement/asphalt when it is available.

I had already driven to the trailhead and prepped for the run when I figured out I had left my earbuds and headphones at the hotel. This was my first run in ages with no music. Probably wasn’t a bad idea, in case the nazi zombies came out of one of the abandoned houses to chase me down. It wasn’t as much of a drag as I thought it would be.

I listened to a podcast recently about how the evangelical culture has been overtaken by the political right. It is disturbing – one thing I often wonder is why so many Christians fail to “be like Jesus.” I was raised Catholic, and even I was taught that Jesus was all about love, acceptance, forgiveness, and charity. I think it is rather convenient to be jealous, spiteful, mean, and controlling, and to veil it in the cloak of Christianity.

The thing is – I know that there are millions of Christians who embody the practices of Christ, or at least put forth a good-faith effort to do so. I am going to suggest that it might even be the majority of Christians. Unfortunately, it seems that this kind and loving majority is overshadowed by the loud and lousy minority.

We need this majority to SPEAK UP. Especially in the evangelical factions, which have high visibility, we need the true Christians to actively promote Christ-like behavior. In this case, I believe (and I am an atheist) that the Word is greater than the words of the charlatans who are leading your churches. They have other motives. They have no desire to spread the teachings of Christ.

With regard to politics, I have a feeling that it is neither the Republican nor the Democratic party that has our best interest at heart. I have a feeling it is a Third Way, and a Fourth Way, and possibly more. Maybe modeling Christ is one of those ways.

Running Time: 55:53 + 2-minute kick

Dunham Park/Silver Valley Greenway Trail

Another last-minute venue shift. I saw this trail running along a river as I got off the freeway for my hotel, and it looked inviting, although it was paved. It was walking distance from the hotel, and it got away from traffic about as well as could be expected within the city.

Turns out it was not a river, and certainly nothing as exotic as the Missouri River, but rather it was Skunk Creek, which turned out to be oddly appropriate. It was a picturesque route, and there were no foul aromas – just the occasional goose poop to avoid.

The weather was warm and windy. I ran upstream and into the wind for the first half, then turned around and glided back to my starting point. The trail took me past some ballfields and over some quaint wooden bridges. A fair amount of walkers, bikers, skateboarders, and runners were out.

The foul part of the run was not the run but the aftermath. I had a nice beer at a taproom right next to the hotel as I waited for my Ruby Tuesday dinner to be delivered from next door. I ate and worked, and went to sleep, and woke up with chest congestion. I got a Covid test and – negative. I went about my day. The next night I hardly slept at all. I took a second test – positive.

So now I was in Waterloo, Iowa, with a flight to catch in Omaha that evening, in a rental car, in a Holiday Inn. I called the rental car center in Omaha and arranged to switch cars. I canceled my flight. I reserved a room for the night in North Platte, NE. I drove to Omaha, switched cars, then drove to North Platte, spent the night, then drove Saturday to Salt Lake City and picked up my car and drove home.

My symptoms were mild. That made it possible to drive from Waterloo, IA, to Santaquin, UT, in two days. Mostly I just felt tired and sleepy. DayQuil knocked down the symptoms efficiently. I stopped a lot and rested. I actually like the feeling of sleepiness, so it was not an awful time. But, I would be coming home contagious and putting the family at risk – not good.

Triple-vaccinated, ardently masking – still at risk. Somewhere in my trip this week, I came close to an unmasked contagious person, maybe when I had my mask off. And it beat my immune defenses. No guarantees, people.

Omaha Riverfront Trail

Running Time: 55:50 + 2-minute kick

This is my second Omaha entry. I had planned to run on a dirt trail across the border in Iowa, but it was a 27-minute drive, and I got into Omaha late, so I picked the closest paved trail, which was urban and boring and a little smelly.

I was thinking there was not much river to this riverfront trail. It was only when I looked later at the map that I was running along Carter Lake, and I never got to the where the trail met the Missouri River. That could explain some of the smells, though I imagine the Missouri River is no Cinnamon Scentsy.

It was hot and muggy, and my legs felt heavy, so it was a heavy jog, which is fine since I was on concrete. This is actually my second Omaha post. When I was here last year, I ran at an alternative high school near my hotel. I stayed at the same hotel (not good), and I passed the school track on my way back from the run. The run also took me back along the route I took from the airport to the hotel, so there was a depressing redundancy to the whole day.

Trying to eating less standard restaurant/fast food fare and something perhaps locally sourced or at least created, I got the idea to look for a food truck after the run. First place was a vacant property – no food truck. Second place was an unmanned food truck. Third place was a hotel parking lot – no food truck. Fourth place was a standard cafe – no food truck. I finally gave up and tried to eat at the Burger Theory in my hotel. 15-minute wait, no help. Crossed the street to a sports bar and had a decent Coffee Stout while I waited for my BLT to go.

Omaha would not be my first choice of a place to live, but it also does not seem representative of Nebraska. Nebraska in May is green and beautiful. The next day I found a little cafe in Hastings called the Back Alley Bakery, where I had a delicious egg salad half-sandwich with a side of cabbage slaw. There was bacon in the egg salad. Also, it was dine-in only, so no to-go trash waste. Delightful!

I never saw Big Ben in Omaha, so I guess he delivered his hogs and moved on.

Jacoby Ridge Rural Trail

Running Time: 55:38 + 2-minute kick

This was a nice run, even though it was out in the shadeless scrub. It was sunny – I do not mind the sun. Cast off the sunscreen, I say, follow the tan. It was windy and a little cool, so the exposure was not too much. The trail itself was 2.3-mile loop with some inclines. A creek ran alongside one edge, and though it was shallow, it had clear water that looked drinkable.

A defined loop that was less than half the distance I run meant Prefontaine circuits. I ran the first loop in 24:19 and the second in 22:21. 2.3 miles in 22:21 translates to 9:43 per mile. How the hell do people run miles less than 4:00?

The elevation actually felt like it kicked my ass on this run. Normally I run at nearly 5000 feet above sea level in Utah. Laramie is over 7000. I actually did not know that until I just looked it up, but my body told me it was a lot higher than Utah when I was running. My lungs were working hard. Still, at the end my heart rate was 140ish, so that is acceptable.

Laramie seemed like a nice town. I rank it a couple notches above Cheyenne. At 7000 feet, I bet the winters are brutal. I have written about this before: Utah and Colorado make a big deal about their elevation. Wyoming sits there and thinks, what are you all making such a fuss about down there?

The trail was wide and gravel, but a good running surface. The inclines took you up to a ridge where you could overlook the golf course and the city. So the trail elevation was probably 100-150 feet above the city. There were access points on either end, and a portable john at one end. A few people were out walking, most with dogs. One poor young lady walking with a male friend did not hear me approaching from behind and jumped like she had heard a rattlesnake when I passed her.

Burke Park/Gallagator Linear Trail

Running Time: 55:35.5 + 2-minute kick

This run was fine, although I got off on the wrong track and did a fair amount of muddy wandering, but the scenery was much better on the wrong track, it turned out. The plan was to run the Gallagator Trail out and back. It started behind the library in downtown Bozeman, and it was asphalt, which threw me, because I thought I had seen photos of a gravel path on All Trails.

I do not like asphalt. It promotes concussions. There was a muddy trail up a hill – too steep and muddy for a run, but then I came to a road and saw a better trail headed up the hill, so I took that.

This diversion took me into a network of dirt and gravel trails that covered a ridge and spilled into adjacent farmland. The mud almost got me on the initial incline, but I shifted over onto the grass. The view from the ridge was spectacular, even on a cold and wet day.

There were, in fact, many treacherous areas of potential slippage along the route I ended up taking, but that also meant no other runners. It was only when I got back onto asphalt that I found human company.

When I came back around to the library, I had another 12 minutes or so to run, so I headed back down the Gallagator Trail and crossed the road I had stopped at before, and lo and behold, the trail turned into a gravel trail. I just had not run far enough.

The day had started with snow in Twin Falls, which followed me through Pocatello and up to Idaho Falls, where it warmed slightly and got sunny on the way to Butte, and then the rains hit between Butte and Bozeman. I found a gas station with a good beer selection near my hotel in Belgrade and tried a couple local beers that night that did not disappoint.

Auger Falls Park Loop

Running Time: 55:32.5 + 2-minute kick

Finally, All Trails for the win. This was a nearly perfect run. Thunderstorms were threatening, but they moved through to the north. I felt a few sprinkles carried up the gorge in the wind. A half-hour after I finished some heavy rains moved through.

The trail was glorious. The dirt was soft from a recent rain. The trail was narrow and there were rocks to navigate and cliffs to skirt, but it was challenging and fun. The scenery was magnificent.

I had a productive work day as well – 8 prospect visits and 300+ miles driven. I visited a Rush Truck Center and asked if they had any Auto Transport customers, and the guy said, “All the Auto Transport guys drive Peterbilts.” They were Cummins and International. I left there and saw a Peterbilt sign down the road and went in there, and they confirmed – they did have Auto Transport customers. It opened up two Peterbilt dealerships groups and 15+ potential distributors to visit in my region. You never know when valuable information is going to drop in your lap.

Anyway, as I said, the scenery was magnificent. I will let the images speak for themselves.

University of Illinois Campus; running time 55:21.5 + 2-minute kick

Another All Trails Fail. I had planned to run on a trail around the perimeter of a city park. I made it about 300 yards and then found swamp. No bueno. I then drove to a middle school track, but there was track practice in progress, so that would not work. I then drove to the University of Illinois campus, where I found a running track mostly empty, but there were workers doing repairs, so…

I found some green space with gravel roads and went for a leisure run. There were some soft trails, and some running over grass, and I might have inadvertently triggered an allergic spell by running through a research area with a sign that said “Pollinarium.” There were tons of people out walking around, including a lot of parents, so it must have been a parents week or something. And it also must have been “take your parents out for an awkward and silent walk hour,” because there seemed to be a lot of that.

It was a pleasantly warm afternoon, so I ran in shorts and a t-shirt, which felt great. I really was stuffy in the sinuses, which was not great. I didn’t try any sequentially faster circuits – just ran slow and steady.

Baraboo High School; Running Time 55:18.5 + 1-lap kick

Cool, crisp, sunny afternoon to run – ideal conditions. I had tried and failed to find an easily accessible trail to run on, so I defaulted to the local high school track. It was a 10-minute drive – more than I normally like to do – but this track was really good. There was a baseball game in process, and every time I hit the top of a grandstands staircase and made the turn, I could watch a pitch being thrown.

In preparation for this trip, I visited AllTrails to find non-paved trails near my hotel on which to run. I found a state park within a few miles, with multiple trails, and I had one picked out. However, even though there was no one working at the state park, and one only car in the parking lot, there were multiple signs warning that a state park permit was required, or payment of $11/day. I had no cash, no check, and no desire to test the system, although I am sure it would have been fine.

Baraboo is a quaint little town near Wisconsin Dells, which is where the hotel was. I had a crapload of work to do in the evening. When I travel for work, I still have normal emailing and troubles to shoot and triage work to accomplish, and if I am trying to hit all my targeted visits and have to drive a lot, I do not have much time to stop and check emails on my phone throughout the day. Plus, we sent out new pricing recently, and I want to make sure all of my accounts saw it, which requires a lot of emails. Some nights I am still working at 10 pm +. But I am not about to sacrifice my running for all of that.

My wife and I traveled to Western New York the week before. We are thinking of moving there. I drove through a few nice places in Wisconsin and couldn’t help letting her know that Lake Geneva and Horicon and Mayville are nice places, and then she would sent me some Zillow listings. We have been living with our daugher, son-in-law, and granddaughter in Utah for the past 8 months, but they are going to move somewhere this year (maybe Western NY as well), so we need to find our next landing place.

My timed circuit for this run was 2 full laps around the track, with double sets of stairs on both grandstands, which were both solid. One had four sets of stairs and the other five. When I run stairs, I reenter the track at the same spot that I left, so I always run the full length of the track. My first circuit was 19:26, then I dropped to 17:42 for the second circuit, and I was on track for a faster third circuit, but I must have bumped my Wyze watch, because it was stopped at 1:08.

Central Cass High School

Running Time: 55:12 + 1-lap kick

What a charming little town on the North Dakota prairie, just west of Fargo, charming enough that I thought it was charming on a windy, drizzly, dark early April day. It says something about a town when you look for a place to eat on Google Maps and there are no fast food options. It says something good.

There were technicians working on the stadium speaker system at the very nice high school track, which sat next to a very nice baseball field and a very nice softball field, so I did not run the stairs and disturb their work. They had country music blaring loud, but turned that off and did some tests, and I was able to contribute by signaling that I could hear their 1-2-3s when they sent them out. I felt like an important community member.

I was thinking, this would be a nice place for our kids to go to school, then remembered our kids are all done with school, at least through high school. I organized my Modified Prefontaine workout into groups of 4 laps. I always run around the outside track lane, which is 446.2 meters, so 4 laps is 1784.8 meters, which is approximately 1.11 miles. My times for the first 4 sets were good: 11:13, 10:34, 10:24, 9:49. I didn’t think I would bring my time down for the fifth set, so I was looking at my watch after each lap – first lap 2:33, second lap 5:00, then I must have paused the time, because when I got to the end of the third lap, it was still 5:00, so I just jogged out the rest of the run till the kick. Again, the acceleration kicked my ass, and I felt great after the run.

Earlier in the day, I hit a snowstorm crossing from Duluth to Fargo – about 4 inches dropped in an hour or so. Not fun. Did I mention that I am ready for Spring? Dry, snowless North Dakota looked welcoming when I got there, even if it did start raining later in the afternoon. I met with an account in Casselton – no appointment set – and was greeted by the owner with, “Perfect timing! I was just going to send a request for a quote.” We talked about their needs and some things we have they are buying elsewhere, and I told him about a product he should consider manufacturing, and it was an ideal sales visit. Like I said, a charming little town.

Roseville Area High School

55:09 running time + 1-lap kick

This is my first road run since watching “Without Limits” on the plane ride back home from Detroit a couple weeks back. Fewer things are more dangerous for a runner than watching a Steve Prefontaine biopic. I immediately instituted what I call Modified Prefontaine to my running sessions, which is the attempt to increase my speed throughout my run. Prefontaine just ran as fast as he could from start to finish, but once Bowerman talked him into steadily progressing his speed from fast to faster. Each of 12 laps of a 3-mile race he increased his speed by 1 second. Never mind how insanely tough that would be – how in tune with your body are you when you can increase your lap speed 1 second on purpose?

The track at this high school was in good shape. I also ran the cement steps, which were not uniform, which is always trouble. The end flights were the worst – there has been settling on either end of the grandstands through the years. I ran the 6 flights twice each with each circuit around the track, mostly to lengthen the total run time around the track, because Modified Prefontaine demands that you reduce the total run time each time around. If you are going to be dropping lap times, you want to reduce the number of laps, so that you don’t have to hit world record pace by lap 20. I was able to complete nearly 8 full laps with double stairs in my run time. I was not able to better my time each lap, but I did good: 7:47 7:27 7:17 6:55 6:41 6:42 6:46. It was easier than I thought to speed up slightly, but I don’t know how anyone could speed up 1 second per lap intentionally.

The weather was sunny but brisk. It had snowed that morning in Minneapolis, so I was happy with 45 and sunny. I have been doing the Modified Prefontaine on my home trail runs, but the circuit around the lake is in the 18-minute range, so I can only run 2 full laps during a run. It is easy to improve your time on lap 2 only. Try it on lap 7 – I don’t care how short the laps are, that is tough. I was dead at the end of this run, and you know what? It felt great. Prefontaine’s running strategy was balls to the wall, go for broke, and I love it. It is how I would like to live the rest of my life.

I will give Modified Prefontaine a go for awhile. Once my lungs and heart are a little stronger, we’ll see about Full Prefontaine.