Talbott Springs Trails 52:38 + 2-minute kick; Thunder Hill Trails 52:40.5 + 2-minute kick

A long hiatus from track/trail running on the road. I had some difficulties probably related to the Vegas Fall when I traveled to Baltimore for a trade show in November. I became disoriented, felt nauseous, had cognitive problems, and had extreme difficulty communicating and performing familiar tasks such as sending a text message. It was very scary. Fortunately my youngest son Christopher was with me and shepherded me through it.

So here I am back in Maryland – this time a training session at the corporate office of my employee, followed by a company holiday party. First night I ran on the treadmill, then I explored two connected trail arrays that were close to the hotel.

Brain injuries are unpredictable, it seems. After I got home from the Baltimore trip, my wife got me in to see Lauren Ziaks at the Park City Physical Therapy Center. Dr. Ziaks is a Concussion Specialist. She ran me through some tests and put me on a program of daily exercises. The turn-around was quick and profound. I had no idea that recent problems with reading comprehension and mental focus were related to the Baltimore episode – apparently they were. Within a couple of days of starting the exercises, I was reading with more comprehension and focus than I have had in years, perhaps more than I have ever had. Many of the exercises involve core muscles, so my strength and balance improved.

I took a break from running just to make sure things were going to be alright. I started doing some walking instead, and I waited for my follow-up visit to Dr. Ziaks a few weeks after the initial visit before I started running again. I did a full weekday track run at the local high school near our home in Utah, and that went well (other than sore muscles). The treadmill run went better than most treadmill runs, and these two trail runs were good. My calves are stiff and sore. Asphalt, of course, is not ideal.

When I was in the midst of the fog, I really had very little idea what was happening to me. I had been having trouble focusing, and I had been unable to think of some words, and it got really bad when we landed in Baltimore. At the rental car facility, I could not remember the name or location of our hotel, and I also could not remember how to look it up on my phone or laptop. I finally managed to find it in an email, and we got there somehow. The next day I drove Christopher to St. Johns College to visit his friend Amado, and then the wheels really fell off. I could not figure out what to enter into the mapping app, or even really how to use it, and I should not have been driving at all. I somehow got on the right freeway at some point and followed the signs to Baltimore, and once I got to the Inner Harbor area, I circled around endless blocks until I found the entrance to the hotel parking garage.

I was supposed to attend multiple trade show events, and I was unable to attend any. I also could not communicate effectively. I sent blank emails and texts to multiple recipients. Phone conversations with my wife back in Utah were painful and scary. I think I might have gotten a glimpse of what some symptoms of dementia are like to experience. Being unable to think of a word is terrifying. When it happens frequently, you feel helpless and hopeless.

I am relatively confident now that it was all related to recent and previous concussions, and that the PT program Dr. Ziaks has me on is leading to long-term fix. Still, though, I wonder what might trigger the same type of episode, and how to handle it if it happens. I am hoping that my body can help my brain stay on the right track, and running will continue to be part of that. It’s good to be back on the track/trail.

Summit Middle School

Running Time: 52:32

Lucky break in the weather for this run. It had been raining on and off that day, and it rained hard all the next day for my drive into and around Indianapolis. But this cool and breezy afternoon run was a joy. I pushed the pace harder than normal.

I was double lucky in finding a proper track to run on. The big city high school was across the street, and there was some kind of band or drama activity (or combination thereof) going on at the track. I punched in the coordinates for another high school several miles away, and then I saw this track at the middle school. They also had multiple ballfields, which is always a good sign.

Halfway through a second consecutive week in the heartland, and I was getting hardening of the arteries. Road life is both liberating and tedious. I work more hours when I am on the road, because driving is part of work. After I get to the hotel and then go for my run, it’s 3 or 4 hours of laptop work to stay caught up on emails and messages and sales reports.

There seems to be a lot of water in Indiana – standing water, or just below the ground surface. When there is a break in the flatness, there is often water. On the edges of lawns, corners of fields, in gravel parking lots where I have to park. It doesn’t seem like there has been enough recent rainfall to have created a groundwater excess, but maybe there was a monsoon the week before I got here.

Fort Wayne seemed a pleasant mid-size town. It doesn’t appear to have suffered from its loss to Hickory in the 1953 State Basketball Tournament. Go Huskers!

Thornton Fractional South High School

Running Time: 52:29 + 1-Lap Kick

I am not sure what a Fractional High School is, but this one seemed Whole. It was a large campus, with a lot of activity. I got there a little earlier than normal. Football practice was in session, but not in the stadium. However, some runners came out and started doing some stretches and sprints, so for about half of my run, I exited out of the stadium and ran around a large grass area on sidewalks and parking lot edges.

It was sunny for most of my run, in spite of what this Weather screenshot indicates. I had flown into O’Hare the day before – what a clusterfuck that was. Try to find your way to the rental car center using existing signage – can’t be done. Myself and this other wayward traveler found ourselves at a skybridge dead end. I finally got some second-hand advice from a guy waiting for a parking lot shuttle and made my way to the third-world terminal and squeezed onto the rental car shuttle.

I visited a few Chicago-area accounts during the day. One is a good account, but the main purchasing contact can be very surly – to the point of verbally abusive. Not in person, but on the phone. I brought in milkshakes – 3 chocolate and 3 vanilla. I highly recommend milkshakes on sales visits. I got the idea from Gayle King, a tow truck salesman at Golden West Towing Equipment. I was there for a week once working, and one afternoon he brought in DQ milkshakes for everyone in the office. It was like working in Nirvana for the rest of the day. People could not stop smiling.

In Sales, when they say, “It’s you they buy, not your product,” what they mean is it is your milkshakes. Or your donuts. Or your pizzas. Or your cookies. I also brought in some decent looking chocolate chip cookies to go with the shakes for this customer. People are busy – they don’t have time to go to a lunch or a dinner with a supplier. If they do, you probably don’t want to spend your time with them. Just bring them a goddamn milkshake! It will make them smile.

Clear Creek Trail

Running Time: 52:25 + 2-Minute Kick

Once again I risked the relative safety of a running track for a concrete trail. This one wound through the woods alongside Clear Creek in Coralsville, IA. West High School was actually within running distance at the end of the trail, but it was a late run, so I had to turn around before I got there to make sure I got back to Grandma’s house before the Big Bad Wolf came out.

It was a picturesque setting, even in the duskness. The path cuts across University of Iowa grounds, so even at this hour there was a fair amount of foot and bike traffic, including some recreational cannabis smoking. I am not sure what is legal in Iowa, if anything.

The weather looked rather ominous as I finished my run, but it never got worse than a strong wind. I managed to stay upright even in the darkness, and there were several hills to navigate. I also saw four deer as the sun went down – the only live deer I saw all week.

Olive Garden was right next to the hotel, so I had a wonderful soup and salad for dinner. Curbside pickup was the only option, so I had to drive the rental car 200 yards to get my food. The signature salad was enormous, and after the soup and a beer, I did not even have room to eat both pepperoncinis they gave me. Tragic.

Running Time: 52:21.5 + 2-Minute Kick

It was a bleak day in North Central Iowa, and this structure near my run captured the mood perfectly. Although I wondered if those were turrets up on the roof, or some other Mad Max prop.

I was planning to run on the local high school track, but the drive across town was too depressing. Plus there were fields nearby, and a rather wide sidewalk that ran east-west along 9th Street, so I ran back and forth a few times. I have wanted to avoid sidewalks after the Vegas Disaster, but it seemed relatively safe.

About 35 minutes in, damned if I didn’t fall AGAIN. I don’t even know what I hit – an imaginary crack, I think. This one was much less tragic. I wasn’t wearing sunglasses, I was wearing a hoodie, the concrete in this sidewalk seemed more forgiving, and I now run with headphones, and you can’t lose one side of a headphone. They fell off, but they still work. I just got a couple of scuffs on the outside of my right knee. I engaged in a rather graceful tuck and roll this time, and no head contact with ground.

Believe it or not, we have 3 large customers within 30 miles of Mason City, including our largest customer, who I went and visited the next day. It seems that the people of this region are very industrious, and some of them are quite assertive and self-assured, when it comes to business at least. None of them are turkeys, but here is a photo of some turkeys feeding next to my hotel.

I will be back this way regularly. And I will stay off the sidewalk, I promise.

Running Time: 52:18.5 + 1-Lap Kick

Omaha is not what I would call the most beautiful city, but it has a benign pleasantness. Coming from Portland, Oregon, I am struck by the absence of homeless encampments in all of these cities I have been visiting. There is a lot of construction going on in the downtown area of Omaha.

The Blackburn Alternative High School turned out to be a good choice. It was only a mile or so from my hotel. There was a Boys and Girl Club right next door, and a bunch of kids spilled out of there for football practice just as I was arriving. It’s always nice to be around some activity when running in a new locale.

A long drive up from northern Missouri to Des Moines for a couple of sales calls, then over to Omaha – felt good to get out and stretch out the legs. First time on a track in awhile – been trail running at home in Utah for a couple of weeks since moving there.

Running Time: 51:50 interrupted

This is my plug for safety. I sometimes run on sidewalks or pavement when a track or trail is not available. No more. Pavement is hard. If you fall, there is no give to it. It is hard on your feet, legs, hips, and core when you run on it. If pavement is all there is available forthwith, I will walk, not run.

I started out just down the road behind the Westgate Resort, where I was staying for a trade show, headed south to UNLV. It took me half of my running time to get to UNLV, so I just headed back. It had been a long day of walking a trade show floor surrounded by half-masked fools. I was most of the way back when, boom, I was down and bleeding.

I think I turned to look at something on my right, and I did not see a construction mat lying across the sidewalk. I landed on my left shoulder, and my left eyebrow struck the pavement. It opened up 3 large cuts, possibly aided by my sunglasses, which cracked. I also lost one of my earbuds.

I made it about a block before I realized that the blood loss was a problem, mostly to my appearance. My shirt was covered in blood. I had to somehow get into the hotel and up to the 27th floor looking like I just fought Mike Tyson. As I pondered this, I saw an ambulance getting gas at the 7/11 across the street.

I walked over there and they patched me up. They cleaned the wound, put a loose bandage over the wound, and wrapped gauze around my head to keep it in place. Now I looked like a triage patient. The paramedics told me I needed stitches and suggested I got to Elite Medical.

I managed to get into my hotel room largely unnoticed. Those that I did see didn’t seem much phased by my appearance. I took a cab to Elite Medical, paid a grand + to get my stitches, then took another cab back to the hotel. I took some ibuprofen and went to bed. I hadn’t eaten since 8 am.

So it is track or trail running from here on out for me. Pavement is for walking, if I have use it. And Vegas is not my town.

Running Time: 51:43.5 + 1-Lap Kick

Long drive through Billings and Butte and up to Great Falls, with stops in each. Made it to the outskirts of Great Falls at 4:54 pm, stopping at a trailer dealer who is listed an authorized repair center on an auto transport trailer website, but they have not been for 5 years. They did point me to an auto transport company next door. Chatted with the mechanic, who told me that I-15 is a main route for bringing cars into and out of Canada. Four auto transport companies in Great Falls, so an ideal place for a distributor.

Great Falls High School is right in the middle of the city – an old school with a stadium, so stairs again in the run tonight. No Trespassing signs, but the gate was open. I made a small attempt to locate the Falls, but could see nothing prominent on the map app, so I did no reconnaissance. I had a longer drive in the morning, after one quick visit to a trailer parts joint.

Going through Butte, I saw the famous abandoned Anaconda Copper Mine pit, though I could not see the water level from the highway. Also, there is a creepy white statue way up on the ridge above town. I was relieved to later find out it is of a woman, the Lady of the Rockies. That made it seem less menacing.

The sections of Montana that have timbered mountain ranges are beautiful. It’s a shame that there have to be any highways there.

Running Time: 51:40.5 + 1-Lap Kick

Sheridan is a beautiful small town near the Wyoming-Montana border. I chose it for my hotel stay because it is midway between Casper and Billings, adding equal amounts of extra driving time to the end of one day and the beginning of another. It turned out to be a fortuitous choice, although most of the restaurants were closed by the time I finished my run.

My running buddies were several deer and a rabbit. Sheridan Junior High School has a beautiful track with six lanes, situated on a bluff overlooking the town. A picturesque walkway runs along the southeast side of the school. Half a dozen couples strolled past while I ran.

I somehow crossed the Continental Divide three times on my drive across Wyoming, twice on I-80 eastbound, and once on the 2-lane highway north to Casper. I was thinking maybe the sign guys did not understand the concept, but then my wife sent me an image with maps of the continental divide, and there appears to be an oval in the middle of Wyoming that drains to no major body of water. Whatever water accumulates there apparently just soaks in or dries up.

Shortly before reaching Sheridan, I cross the South Fork Crazy Woman River, which gave me fair warning to get the phone camera ready for the Middle Fork Crazy Woman River just a few miles later.

It was also interesting to cross a Continental Divide at 7,000 feet above sea level and to be on extremely flat terrain. Utah and Colorado love to market how close to the heavens they are, but the whole state of Wyoming is uphill from them and seems to think not much of it.

Running Time: 51:37.5 + 1-Lap Kick

Just finding a place to run on the way back to my daughter’s house, after a day of visiting account in the SLC area. We are moving here in a month, and my road trip has multiple purposes. 1 – I am on a full week sales trip through Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. 2 – I am driving my wife’s car, and I will leave it at my daughter’s and fly home at the end of the week. 3 – I transported most of my wife’s houseplants, along with most of my vinyl, and a few other boxes that would fit into the Accord.

On the way from Oregon to Utah, through Idaho, I came up behind a tractor/trailer that had an open roof trailer with tall sides. I could see the hooves of a dead cow handing over the top edge of one of the sides. The trailer, which was probably 30′ long, was full of dead cows, and it smelled like it. That can’t be an acceptable way to transport cow corpses, even in Idaho.

Jake at Rocky Mountain Wrecker Sales in SLC had some blunt but fair criticism for us. He is not happy with the way our company has been operating, but that is one of the reasons I was brought on in May – to help turn the ship around. It’s a big ship, though. The turn will be long, wide, and slow.

When we move here next month, we are moving in with our daughter, her husband, and their 10-month old daughter. They have a full basement with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, so that will be our new home. I’m looking forward to the change, and to the adventure, and to spending time with my daughter and my granddaughter. And flying out of SLC for sales trips will be easier than flying out of Portland.