Running in the Dakotas and Beyond

 Marquette, MI

Marquette is a pretty town on the shore of Lake Superior. It’s great for running, too; there are all-purpose trails galore. For the two runs that I did there, I mostly followed the one that runs along the lakeshore. It was dark and cold and wonderful.

During my second 10-mile run, I came to an aid station. This was unusual because there had been almost no other people on the trails at this early hour. I asked the person whether it was for a race of some kind. We have a “rough march” going on, he said (I think). Then I saw that the station was the turn-around for soldiers (perhaps National Guard), dressed mostly in fatigues and carrying backpacks, running in groups of two and three. I ‘soldiered’ on myself, passing some coming toward me, and others that I was catching up and passing. Most said hi as I went by. This all gave me something to concentrate on for the run: catch as many as possible. Out of a few dozen, I think I may have got them all.

International Falls, MN

I thought that if I just ran straight north, I’d come to the border, which is a bridge to Canada (they may call it the bridge to the USA). But in the dark, all I could see was the industrial stuff going on, run by a paper/packaging company called, PCA. There were sluice pipes and piles of pulp all over the place, not to mention smokestacks and factories.

Not finding the border crossing, I jogged around town in several directions. As it began to get light, I returned to where I thought the border crossing was, and it was right there where it should be. You just had to drive under the sluice pipes and next to the smokestacks. I knew I wouldn’t be allowed into Canada, but I just wanted to know that it was there.

Later, I ran by the Smokey the Bear statue (largest in the world!) and also the Bronco Nagurski (now there’s a football name!) museum.

Dickinson, ND

We stayed in Dickinson in order to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Dickinson is home to two universities, and I managed to find (and get in) a stadium in order to hit the track. It wasn’t easy to get moving after all the slow and easy running I’ve been doing, but I did manage to get a tempo run in. Glad I did.

Psoa that’s what happened. I went to the track for my second consecutive day of Something of Slight Substance. This time it was mile repeats. Things we going swimmingly until I noticed that my left leg was numb and I couldn’t pick it up to move forward properly. I’ve had this problem before, and now I’ve got it again. I stopped at three intervals and limped home. My thought is that it may have happened due to my lack of strength and stretching exercises on this trip. I’ll need to work on that.

Rapid City, SD

Rapid City would be our staging area for visits to the Black Hills, including Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave NP, and also Badlands NP. Although it’s supposed to be a real nice city, the area we’re staying in, right by I90, decidedly isn’t. It’s all freeways, trucks, exhaust, and fast-drivers. In other words, there’s no place to run.

Not that I’m very good at running anyway. After that psoa problem, I’ve decided to take it easy and run slow. Yes, even slow for me. That means not getting very far. Oh well. It could be worse. Not running at all is worse. The best news is that that psoa problem seems better.

And that’s it. I’m keeping the streak alive, but I can’t be real proud of that right now. At least I’m vertical.

For a nicer description of the entire trip, check out this Horvaths Travels post.