North Community Park

Run Time: 62:16 + 2-minute kick

Not high-60s and sunny, but not freezing either. It had rained the night before, and part of the day, so I felt fortunate to get an hour of dryness to run in. I stayed in Fargo the night before, and there was a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. I woke up and thought, “I hope this doesn’t wake up Barb.” Then I remembered I was in Fargo. It wasn’t likely to wake up my wife in Michigan.

This was a boring run, in a boring place, on a boring sales trip. The day was gray, and so was my mood. The park was fine – wet turf but runnable for about 50% of the circuit around the park. It was a slog. I got to the hotel early, so I was running early enough to not feel like I was behind on everything else, but some days running is just a slog. The win is that I ran anyway.

I could take inventory of the reasons for my feelings of gray, but why do that? Why not take inventory of reasons why it was weird that I felt gray? I am in good health. I make decent money. I am married to a beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, unpredictable and vibrant woman. I have three beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, unpredictable and vibrant (but in completely different ways) children (they might have inherited some traits from my wife). I have a beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, very unpredictable and vibrant grandchild, with another on the way. My brain works pretty well still. I have goals and calendar items and no lack of things that I want to do. I have a great measure of personal freedom, which has extreme value.

All of these things, and many others like them, do not keep me from feeling gray on any particular Minnesota fall day, but they help me to remember that all feelings are temporary. Everything, in fact, is temporary. This is consolation when things are not so great — less so when things are great. Thank goodness, though. I want them to be temporary for as long as possible.

Mankato East Senior High School

Run Time: 62:15 + 2-minute kick

A beautiful, sunny day in South Central Minnesota. High 60s. I ran in shorts and a t-shirt, which was a pleasant surprise. The route from the hotel to the school was short but hazardous. I sometimes get the feeling that GPS mapping routes vehicles through sections of towns that were not designed to accommodate heavy traffic. The local citizenry might be thinking the same thing, although the increase was probably gradual and therefore insidiously normalized.

Various sports teams were practicing on and around the school track, so I ran on a path around the park next door instead, which was better. You know I prefer trail running to track running, if the conditions are safe. The turf alongside the asphalt path was flat and not slippery, and some of the trail was actual trail, which was ideal.

I felt fortunate to hit good weather in Minnesota this late in the year. I have had some dicey trips across Minnesota in late fall and early spring. I heard that this winter in the North Central U.S. is supposed to be mild — an effect of El Nino. I’m all for it. I do not want to drive in snow and ice for work. It is an unnecessary risk. If Tennessee and Texas have to get the freak ice storms so that I can drive care-free through South Dakota in January, so be it. Blame the Weatherman, not the Rational.

Really, it is silly to drive in frightening weather when you don’t have to. No work is that important. What we need is better planning, to get all of the driving done in clement weather. Can’t all of the chips and sodas and meat sticks be delivered to the Dollar stores before and after the snow? Can’t all the packages be delivered by drone when the roads get bad? Can’t hockey be played in the summer? Let’s all plan efficiently for 10 months of the year and then hunker for 2.

Pigtail Connector Trail

Run Time: 32:08

Another lucky find in an unlikely place for a short run in the early evening after a long drive across Idaho. I had stops in Boise and Idaho Falls, with nothing in between, so rather than take I-84/I-86, I took a more direct route on US 20, the most ubiquitous route in my territory. I had never driven this stretch, though, and I thought it might be more interesting than the interstate.

It wasn’t that interesting, unless you are interested in having to pass slower-moving vehicles on a two-lane with limited vision of the road ahead. There were some hills and some mountains in the distance, and an occasional dry streambed. A lot of scrub-brush. Not much wildlife. Not even much livestock.

So I felt fortunate to find this short trail very close to the hotel, running along I-15. Normally, a trail alongside an interstate is not ideal, but traffic on this stretch of I-15 at this time of night was only occasional. I followed the trail to a neighborhood street, then ran down sidewalks to a “downtown” area by an old railroad depot, then ran back.

My run time was short because my time is short in the evenings if I do not get to the hotel in time. I always have a fair amount of laptop work to do when I have been on the road all day. Plus, I have to eat at some point, and since I snack on the road and do not eat lunch, I am typically very hungry by 5 pm, though running usually abates my hunger till I am done running.

I do not like deciding whether or not I am going to run when I get to the hotel, or how long I am going to run if not the full time, just like I do not like deciding what I am going to wear in the morning. Decisions use up mental energy. So I came up with a plan the week before this trip: arrive at the hotel by 16:00 = full run + strength training; arrive by 16:30 = full run; arrive by 17:00 = full run -10 minutes; arrive by 17:30 = full run -20 minutes; arrive by 18:00 = full run -30 minutes; arrive by 18:30 = full walk -30 minutes; arrive after 18:30 = no run or walk.

This plan tilts toward the run and away from work. If I lose 30 minutes of time to driving, I only lose 10 minutes of running/walking. It is not a fun decision: do I sacrifice work for health, or health for work? If I am on the laptop from 7 am – 8:30 am working, then on the road making sales visit till 4 or 5 pm, then arriving at the hotel from 4 – 7 pm, am I obligated to work 2-3 more hours on the laptop at the hotel? No. If I don’t, the work of emailing back-and-forth with accounts and prospects piles up, and the work of projects piles up, and staying organized flies out the window. Health is important. The quality of work is partly determined by health.

So, a compromise. Or a partnership, however you want to look at it. For me, the important thing is to make the decision once, to set parameters, and to just live with the results. Weather is the factor that will disrupt the process. Occasionally I will decide that the weather is bad enough that it is not worth leaving the hotel room, except for food.

I do not like working that many hours when I take a work trip. I also do not like doing half-assed work, or falling behind on work tasks, or not communicating with customers and prospects in a timely manner. I like exercising and getting enough sleep. On occasion, I will get to the hotel and just take a nap, and that evening I will do the bare minimum of work to be ready for the next day. Or I will do the bare minimum and then watch West Wing for two hours. I like being able to do that on the rare occasion and not see my work schedule blow up as a result.

And besides, some of my best work gets done when I am running.

North Idaho Centennial Trail

Run Time: 62:07 + 2-minute kick

A rainy day in Northern Idaho. It was just a drizzle as I started. The further I got away from the hotel, the harder it rained. It peaked at the turn-around point and then stayed steady all the way back. I got soaked. It took two days for my running clothes to dry.

I found a good trail that ran along the Spokane River to Lake Couer d’Alene, past a Wastewater Treatment Facility and a college campus. There were signs with details about the Native American culture that had been destroyed so that industry could poison virgin land. Most of the trail was asphalt, but there was one gravel section. I ended up running in a bike lane for a half-mile or so — not sure where the trail went at that point.

The drive from Missoula to Couer d’Alene was beautiful, of course, although there were a lot of yellowish fir trees that didn’t look right. Probably beetle-infested. More driving and fewer sales visits on this trip. Some troubleshooting of distributors’ systems. Is it my job to troubleshoot a distributor’s system? My job is to do whatever it takes to help them help their customers. I will do whatever I am permitted to do, and usually just beyond that.

Outside Sales remains a viable practice in the business-to-business world. It works. One nice thing is there are almost as many ways to do it as there are people doing it. Anyone who promotes a sales program and says it works better than any other program is full of total bullshit. We have four outside sales reps, and I would bet that we have four very different approaches and methods. We are given a lot of freedom (well, I am, anyway — not sure what goes on with the other guys), which is wise.

Sometimes I feel isolated because I have very little contact with my coworkers, and most of that is email, but in actuality, I am the opposite of isolated. I have been set free to roam and to scout and to hunt. I love roaming and scouting and hunting. I put together my sales trips the same way I put together a hunting trip. I look at maps and I devise strategies and I buy cookies and potato chips for snacks. I suppose I’m technically not helping the deer and elk the way I do our distributors and their customers, but that’s just one exception to the similarities.

On Ancestry it says that 8% of my DNA is Indigenous Americas – North. If you go back four generations, my great-great grandmother was Native American. Also, her mother was Native American, and from that point backward, that line was all Native American. Somehow that ends up at 8% now with no more Native American blood into the mix. I cling to that 8%. It is the identity I hold onto. The 38% Germanic Europe I have no interest in. That 8% is running the show.

Unnamed Lake Trail

Run Time: 61:51

No trail marked on the map, but there was a new cement trail all around this lake, only a block from the hotel. Running laps is boring, of course, but convenient. The grass alongside the trail was a little uneven, and my energy was low, so I stayed on the cement mostly and kept a mild pace. A long day of driving across Nebraska and Iowa. Only two sales visits, bookending the day. Doing less is sometimes more tiring.

It was hot and windy for the run. I’m not going to complain about the heat, because bitter cold is right around the next bend in the road, and I find that much more discouraging than high heat. It’s all good — we need to be uncomfortable more than we need comfort. Comfort does not promote good health. If it did, I sure as hell wouldn’t have to run five times a week to maintain my weight and lung capacity.

When I am on the road, I try to look at my emails multiple times a day, just in case there is something that needs my urgent attention. This was one of those days when most of the work emails were for some kind of non-work shenanigans, most likely some kind of football pool. My interest in football is nil. Generally, I separate work from non-work, and I prefer to focus on one at a time.

I find it amusing, however, when you have trouble sometimes getting someone within your work organization to respond to multiple emails about some important (to the business) issue or problem that likely needs them to put forth effort of some kind, and then someone blasts out a sign-up for the chili cook-off, and 17 reply-all responses immediately populate. People are hungry for non-work when they are at work.

Not me, though. My life is full enough that I don’t need more recreational activity. I have 276 books in my library “for later” shelf. I have upwards of 3000 podcasts episodes in my queue. I have a wish list of several destinations outside of the U.S. to visit and sit in cafes and pubs and enjoy beverages of choice. My wife would like us to see a baseball game in every Major League ballpark. I think it is great to have friends at work, and to even do things with work friends after work, but I kind of see a business as a ship at sea for 8-10 hours a day. If you’re on the ship, and you’re not doing your ship duties, why are you there? I want everyone on the ship to be engaged in their ship duties. When we get to port, we can leave that all for the next day.

I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, though. To each his own.

Pheasant Ridge Trail

Run Time 61:50 + 2-minute kick

Alma is way down in south-central Nebraska, near the Kansas border. It is small. Subway is the only fast-food option. The Motel 8 was closer to a 4.5. I was not expecting to find a good place to run. But there was. A very well maintained cement path ran along a large lake just south of town. It made turns and went up and down rises and in and out of groves of trees. The grass on either side was runnable. It was another lucky find.

I passed a few dog-walkers, and they came up a rise, and a group of teenagers came running toward me — must have been a cross country team. They were going the other direction, in groups of 2 to 5, probably 25 in all. The last few were walking, way behind the others. I got nods and smiles and a thumbs-up from some of the boys. The girls just gave me a “what’s this old dude doing out here running” look.

I think it is valuable for some high schooler in rural Nebraska to see an old geezer out running at dinner time. They might be thinking, running sucks, I don’t know why I joined the cross country team. Or I’m going to be in this excellent physical shape all of my life, regardless of whether or not I keep running. But then they see me, and they might think, that’s cool, I think I’ll keep running till I’m 70.

I’m nowhere near 70. I’m just thinking what some hayseed Nebraska cross country runner might think.

They were a healthy-looking group of kids, not a single overweight one in the group. That speaks well for the area. You generally can’t say that about kids in most places, or adults for that matter, but I suppose a cross country team would not attract the massive. Still, I was thinking maybe the entire Senior class in a town this small would be 25 kids, so it was encouraging to see 25 athletic kids out running in the sun.

I saw several hawks, and a few deer tracks, along the trail. The bugs were abundant. A lot of crickets and grasshoppers. As I mentioned on my last visit to Nebraska, the fly is a common regional companion, but out here in the wetlands I did not encounter any. The lake was low, but picturesque nonetheless. It was a very peaceful run, one I will probably never repeat, given the remote location of Alma, Nebraska, and its unfortunate dearth of a decent hotel.

City Streets

Run Time: 61:49 + 2-minute kick

I started out with a plan to run at Central High School, which was only a half-mile or so from the hotel, but plans change. The football team was having practice, and half the team and the coaching staff were on the track, so even if someone didn’t ask me to leave, it was going to be awkward every time I threaded through. So I pivoted. Sometimes you pivot, and when you do, you are careful to not tear a meniscus or bump into the elderly. The High School was beautiful, though, so I am including a photo anyway.

If it was not a refurbished historical government building, it was at least built on the site of one, because a sign indicated it was on Capitol Hill. It was a stellar example of an urban high school — on the outside, at least. There appear to be no shortage of facility funds in Nebraska, though appearances can deceive.

Instead, I just ran up and down three parallel main downtown streets, between the hotel and the freeway. Not ideal, but the traffic was light, so fumes weren’t too bad. I cut through an alley at one point, but the alley denizens looked sketchy, although there was some excellent graffiti that I neglected to photograph.

Most of Omaha’s downtown leaves something to be desired. This church was magnificent, though. The cell tower on the property detracted just a little from the solemn grandeur. Like any city, Omaha has pockets that are welcoming, but lots of freeways and industrial squalor. My work visits are typically in the working-class commercial districts or along freeways. I rarely get to visit the garden district. It’s why I so appreciate the long drives between cities. Thank goodness my sales region is primarily in the West.

My good friend, the Missouri River, separates Omaha from Council Bluffs, Iowa. I see the Missouri a lot – in Omaha, Sioux City, Chamberlain, Pierre, Bismarck, Williston, Great Falls, Helena. There are no real headwaters, because it starts where the Gallatin, the Madison, and the Jefferson converge at Three Forks. Who Gallatin was, I have no idea, but his PR people didn’t measure up, apparently.

But that is a long way from Omaha, in more than one way.

Wilson Middle School

Run Time: 61:48 + 2-minute kick

The hotel and the neighborhood were not ideal. A lot of hotels are near a freeway, which does not help, but sometimes there is an additional level of dubiosity. A little more trash than necessary, a rock holding the hotel door open, weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalk, people with bad teeth — you get the picture. So I was happy to find a school about a mile away with a track, and far enough away from the freeway that you couldn’t really hear the traffic. The homes around the school looked homey, and a few local denizens joined me at the track to walk or, in the case of one heavy-set old guy with long hair and jeans, to run sprints. So it felt safe.

This was an old-school track. Which was appropriate, since it was at… an old school. It was a cinder track. Well, maybe not actual cinder. Faux cinder. It was fine red gravel. Which makes for fine running, frankly. Who needs old recycled tires? When you watch “Chariots of Fire,” the Olympic runners are digging their own footholds with hand tools in the packed cinder. They are not setting up the tilted shoe-size measurement devices modern-day runners use. The footing on this track was as close to perfect as one needs while on a sales trip across Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.

The night before the trip I watched “Get Out.” It was scary, it was suspenseful, it was well-crafted, and it was thought-provoking. As I figured out what was going on, I felt nearly as immobilized as the main character felt when he was in “the sunken place.” What was so frightening about the movie was the psychological aspect of the danger that threatened him. I actually felt the urge to enter the screen and pull him out. I probably told him to Get Out as I sat on our couch alone watching the movie. And, of course, I felt more real fear after the movie than I felt before. Not that what happened in the movie could happen — which it probably could — but that some form of it has been happening, is happening, and will happen more to people who are robbed of the power of self-defense.

What people with power will do to retain power, to rob others to attain wealth, and to gain an advantage over others who are friendly and generous without suspicion is an abomination. We are too nice to those people with power. I am reading “Dune” right now, and on the planet the characters inhabit, violence and killing is an everyday occurrence, and it leads to a somewhat ordered civility. I wonder if powerful people who routinely game the system might not think twice if every third person they fleeced might not just take them down.

Why do we let CEOs get paid 5000 times what their lowest-paid employees get paid (notice I said “get paid,” not “earn”)? Why do we let men who rape women get lawyered out of accountability? Why do we let racists block minorities and immigrants from advancing? Why don’t we use AI to figure out the quickest and fairest road to reparations, instead of how to game the stock market?

It’s heartbreaking. Confusing and heartbreaking.

Saller Woods Trails

Run Time: 61:40 + 2-minute kick

Burlington is a small community, and I was staying at another AmericInn, half of which was under construction. The desk clerk was nice, but it was her second day, and the credit card reader was not working, and she had to call her boss and get instructions over-the-phone for how to enter my card info manually. I asked her if she could check to make sure that my Wyndham Rewards number was entered, and she pleaded for me to come back at a later hour and ask the next person to do that.

All of this, plus the hotel was right next to a busy divided road had me assuming that my run would require a drive to a safe running spot. I looked at the map on my phone, and it looked like there was a gravel road or a wide trail running alongside the busy road, and then it crossed road and ran alongside another road and then maybe through a forest. Worth a shot.

It was only about 12 minutes to the forest, and then — voila — beautiful wide running trails. The main trail snaked through the forest and meadows and wetlands to another road, and several spurs cut off in both directions. No one else in sight. Some mild slopes and grassy sections — paradise.

These were hiking/running trails, yes… in the summer. What they are really designed for, however, is snowmobiles. There were little snowmobile signs at certain junctures to help the winter recreationalists in times of blizzard, I suppose. There were a lot of bike tire tracks, so obviously I was not the only summer recreationalist to partake, but I feel somewhat appreciative of what Wisconsin does to keep their snowmobilers happy.

I had a grand time zigging and zagging out of forest and into open spaces. Some of the trees were decent size — and conifers, not leafifers. The shade of the forest was very welcome. I saw no critters and wildlife, but also felt no mosquitos or bees. There was a little of conservative backwoods vibe, but I kept my head on a swivel.

It is the unexpected pleasure that hits best. At the end of a long day of sitting in a car, snacking on Santitas and peanuts, trying to stay awake and hydrated, typing sales notes into a phone screen, listening to the map lady interrupt my podcast or my music, patiently waiting for the AmericInn newbie to get me checked in, this network of snowmobile trails made my day.

I felt more energized after the run than I did before. I showered, ate leftover nachos for the third consecutive night, finished the last of the sauvignon blanc my wife sent with me, practiced some guitar, did all my catch-up work, and watched a little West Wing. And the hotel was very quiet. Breakfast in the morning was a little meager, but the AmericInn is not known for its fine dining.

Proviso West High School

Run Time 61:38 + 2-minute kick

Still stuck in Chicagoland. This was not a bad community. I cut through the back parking lot of a Best Buy or something similar, crossed the tracks, and zigzagged through a residential pocket to get to a gloriously empty high school track with cement grandstands and some shade.

It was hot, and the stairs were double-depth, so it was a workout. I started flagging the second time around the track in each running segment, hauling my ass up those long steps. Some stretching of the lungs occurred. That, coupled with the lunges/squats/push-ups before the third running segment, seriously tested my endurance. Felt great.

The railroad tracks ran right next to the hotel. I actually had thought about running along side them before I figured out I could just run in the back parking lot. They were raised quite a bit at that place so that they could cross over the street. Later, when my wife sent out a request for Blue Moon photos, I climbed up to the tracks to get a good photo, and I was surprised at how loose the rocks and soil on the steep grade up to the tracks was. I question the engineering. Does not seem stable enough for supporting train traffic.

I was careful to avoid vegetation while clambering up the rocky slope – no need for more close encounters with poison ivy. It was the last Blue Moon that was also a Super Moon until 2037. It was really big and full, but the moon never looks as good in a photo as it does in reality. I didn’t see it when it was close to the horizon, which would have been even more spectacular, even from a crappy hotel outside of Chicago.