one way
saturday i headed west on the glacial drumlin trail on a one way trek to my wife’s uncle’s house which is located three towns west of our house. temps were in the lower 30’s and was fairly pleasant. i had run the first 9 miles or so on various training runs so that part of the effort was fairly unremarkable. after passing through Wales and getting out past Hwy C, i was in uncharted territory.
i rolled into Dousman at 12 miles and stopped at the BP gas station to use the bathroom. since i had a little cash on me, i bought a can of coke and stood inside the gas station while downing it. needless to say, i got a few strange looks as Dousman is a pretty rural area. the cashier asked what i was up to…to which i replied that i was running from Waukesha to Sullivan. the look on his face was priceless.
heading back out onto the trail, i headed through Dousman and at the edge of town the trail went from paved to dirt. unfortunately, much of the trail in this section is also shaded which means alot of ice/snow/puddles on a sloppy trail. i even put on my gloves as my hands were getting cold. it felt like i was climbing all the way to Sullivan and it was much slower running as i had to think about where to put each footstep. at 16 miles i used a gel and took a draw on my water bottle.
finally, i could see up ahead that there was a road crossing the trail and that cars were passing by on it. (a sure sign of civilization) i rolled into Sullivan and made a right turn onto hwy 18 and swung into the street that my wife’s uncle lives on. after a hot shower i was greeted with a corned beef sandwich and a heineken, thanks to my very supportive wife. in the end, the trek was 19 miles at about 8:30 pace.
sunday morning i planned to head out for an easy run. i woke up before the alarm and admittedly turned it off to go back to sleep. i was still pretty sore from that last 7 miles yesterday.
monday morning i headed out for an easy 5 miles. temps were in the upper 30’s with a bit of a wind from the south. i mustered 8:40 pace and felt like i was running in quicksand for most of the time.
i now stand 6.5 miles short of my first lap around the world.