· Date: Friday July 5, 2019
· Where: Rapid City, South Dakota to Phillip, South Dakota
· Total Distance Covered: 114 miles
· Running Partner: Jack
This morning was another special one. The dedication from Ulman hit home. A little boy named Camden was diagnosed with terminal cancer. All Camden’s parents wanted was for their boy to pass peacefully with friends and family. Camden’s Dad was sleeping when Camden passed. I am not sure if it is because I could relate to the guilt felt by the father and his family and my guilt with Laurie, but this one was more special to me than most of the previous Ulman dedications.
Today, I ran for Camden and his Father in addition to a survivor from Sacred Heart University. By the luck of the draw, I was running with Jack again. Jack was the teammate from “across the pond,” as he used to call it. His English accent always shined bright when he spoke, and we all loved it. Jack was the first person from the UK to participate in 4K.
We loved pushing each other to run our best and had similar abilities. After running together two days prior, we saw what kind of motivation we could give each other. During our runs today, we pushed through the hills as we had on our way to Rapid City. It didn’t take much to convince ourselves to break Jack’s 5K time during one of our legs today. I was excited since this would also be a challenge for me. My personal best in the 5K was less than a minute faster than Jack’s.
The first leg was three miles and we took it nice and slow. It was the second leg where we decided to give it a go, having left the first three miles as our warmup.
We tore out at a fast pace but held back a little bit. We were conserving energy as we were unsure of what lay ahead for hills and terrain. The goal was to consistently run each mile of the 5K faster and faster. This is called negative splitting. Despite rolling hills and a breeze blowing against us, it was a huge success. Jack blew away his 5K time and we were just barely able to negative split the whole distance. The mile splits (6.44, 6.43, 6.26) added up to a time that was less than twenty seconds from my best. We were both exhausted but knew we could do better next time. Most importantly though, Jack had gotten a new record for himself!
The energy Jack and I carried from this leg gave us good vibes for the last six miles of the day. The rest of the day was a blast and I loved it.
Part of Ulman’s rules for how we run during the 4K is that there can be no more than four runners on the road at a given time. Well, we were all in a good mood that day and decided to break that rule. I think about eight of us decided to run a leg together and do some Indian runs. This is where everyone in the group runs in a line. The person in back sprints to the front of the line and leads for a little. Then the new runner in back runs to the front. This is something coaches usually do for conditioning and is similar to the way geese fly. It’s also called tomato cans. I have no idea who comes up with these names.
What made our Indian run fun was that rather than simply sprinting to the front of the line, we took turns dancing and hollering nonsense as we passed everyone to the front. I had cramps from the laughter the whole time.
It is these spontaneous moments I knew I was going to miss when 4K was over.
I think one of the best aspects of today was the views we took advantage of while running. In the morning, we ran by fields with big round bales and wide-open pastures. The rain had come down in force the day before and everything was a vibrant soaked green. When we parked on the side of the road, we had to climb through muddy ditches. Mud was caked on our shoes from climbing in and out of the van.
As we got closer to Badlands National Park, we played “Badlands” by Bruce Springsteen. The fields slowly changed to open plains. The only sign of civilization was the road in front of us with the occasional mile marker. Mowed grass with manicured fields evolved to untouched ground that was soaked from the rains.
One time while we were pulled over to the side of the road waiting for runners, we noticed prairie dogs watching us. They were all over the plains on either side of the road. Seeing these animals for the first time was something I hadn’t even thought of before flying out to California. As we let our eyes focus, we saw their tunnel systems marked by mounds of dirt and winding paths of dead grass. The prairie dogs would pop up their head and make a high-pitched noise to another one. Soon, it reminded me of Whack-a-Mole as they all started to poke their heads out of their holes to investigate the group of humans on the side of the road. It was funny to watch them look around and talk with one another. All of them ended up staring at us as if they were questioning our presence, “What are you doing here?” Their home was protected as we entered Buffalo Gap National Grassland, a portion of the Badlands National Park. I doubt they had seen many cars pull over on this section of the road.
As we passed the welcome sign to the park, we got closer to the welcome center. When we pulled up to the Park Ranger, we were nervous about the entry and parking fee. Neither of us liked asking to be let in for free since Ulman didn’t cover this expense. We also didn’t want to spend the money since we were all unemployed now. Luckily, rather than make us pay, the ranger saw the signs on our van and our tired faces. He thanked us for what we were doing and said that someone close in his family was battling cancer. It was so kind of him to do so. Then he gave us a donation and let us go for free. Although we were unable to get this Park Ranger’s name and the name of his family member, we ran for him and his family the next day. I hope they are doing okay today and are healthy.
Once we pulled the van around and into the parking lot, that’s when we saw what the Badlands are all about. Those strange dirt formations combined with the grasslands, sunshine, and beauty of the area left me stunned. The sheer unfamiliarity of the Badlands is what made this place so unique to me. I cannot describe it in words simply because growing up in Connecticut, I had never have seen anything like it. Yellowstone National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park were amazing, but so much of these parks’ scenery and wildlife, I had seen before. To put it simply, Yellowstone and Lassen were just more magnificent and greater scales of what was on the East coast. On the other hand, the Badlands were something completely different in every way. Since these formations were new to so many of us, the team decided to take a break. We had lunch and went for a short hike to get closer to the formations. As we got closer, I felt like I was on planet Mars. The pictures don’t do it justice, but the scenery made me feel like I had left our world for a minute.
At some point later in the day, we swam in a body of water for a couple of minutes. A few weeks into the trip, it quickly became an unspoken rule that when we saw water we had to swim. Even if only for a minute and then we would move on.
We also stopped for a brief break at the Minutemen Missile Silo Site. It reminded me of how fortunate we all were to be able to dedicate our summers like this. During wartime and even the Cold War, I am not sure that would have been possible. Seeing what these silos looked like reminded me of all the strange isolated shacks we saw on the Loneliest Highway going through Nevada. This kind of just makes me wonder if something is still there…
As the day ended, we arrived in Phillip, SD. It was one of the smallest towns we had been to yet, although not as small as Austin, Nevada. Phillip had a population of just under 800 people. There were only a few blocks and hardly any shops were open for food. I ended up getting a bag of beans at a gas station and eating the entire bag. We were sleeping in an old ambulance headquarters building from when the town used to be more populated. We had to sleep so closely, each of our belongings were piled on top of another person’s belongings. Some lucky teammates claimed the bunk beds in the building. These must have been for the on-call EMTs and Paramedics.
We also had a team meeting to talk about how we can continue to improve the experience and further increase our fundraising. Although necessary and required to be held when Becca was still visiting with us, the meeting was long. I think overall though, our fundraising increased throughout the rest of the run. We were going to be in South Dakota for a long time and needed to continue running West. Remaining in South Dakota for as long as we were was not our choice. But to those looking on and our supporters, it probably was going to seem like we were there forever and hardly making progress. South Dakota is just a big state, I guess. We took six days to cross this state which was the longest time we were in a single state.
Finally, I was able to talk with Annalyse on the phone. Even after such a packed day, this was still the highlight. In the end, I wished I was sharing these experiences with her. We talked for a few hours as I sat on a curb by a car dealership, which only sold pick-up trucks. This sure was an agricultural state.
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