· Date: Monday July 8, 2019
· Where: Mitchell, South Dakota to Sioux Falls, South Dakota
· Total Distance Covered: 75 mi
· Running Partner: Amber
Today was another short day. In terms of mileage, it was even shorter than two days ago. I just didn’t understand why it seemed as though we were meandering our way across the country rather than running. Why Ulman had placed such low mileage days, without any service event or other way to spread our message, left me puzzled.
Because of this, we each ran six miles again today. Knowing how early we had been done as we ran into Pierre a few days ago, we slept in. I think we didn’t leave Mitchell until about seven-thirty in the morning. This extra sleep really helped since John-Hanson and I had been up late. I had been writing my blog and John-Hanson had been working on things for grad school.
As the day’s miles started, Amber and I quickly realized that our miles today would be different. This was another day with a few miles having almost no shoulder on the road. We ran in a single file and had trouble talking with each other as large dump trucks and tractor-trailers blew our clothes in passing. There were still plenty of farms in this area, but soon this gave way to a more urbanized area that reminded us of suburban life. This was the first time we would be running into a town like this for quite some time. Soon, the last portion of our miles was on sidewalks. We would stop at intersections and run through crosswalks that had parents pushing strollers and kids walking dogs. We passed chain stores, department stores, and large strip malls. We were in a city.
This felt extremely strange to be in a city so large with so many crowds. Just a few days ago, we were in Broadus, Montana that had a population that hardly surpassed 450. Our team made no dent to the almost 182,000 people who lived in Sioux Falls.
What was strangest for me, was that rather than waiting on the shoulder of the road, the van would wait for us in a parking lot near the street. This was much safer for those in the van, but that first time this happened, it was strange to see the van waiting there. We now had to get out of the van and mark on the sidewalk, directions with chalk for our teammates to follow. This would prevent those running from making wrong turns and help them to get back to the van safely. Our miles today were so different from the past few days!
At some point during the day, we also made a detour to drop Becca off at an airport. Her time visiting with us was over and so she flew to a location down south. She would meet up with Team Baltimore where they would have many of the same meetings with her that we had. Our time with Becca had been much more effective than on the fifth day in Reno. Overall, I was glad she had come and visited, or else we probably would not have had a lot of team discussions that we did. I think the most important team discussion we had was last night when we talked about how our “Why’s” had changed throughout the trip so far. Although we all knew exactly how the team had evolved, verbalizing this change as a group made it official. Regardless, her presence was like the presence that parents have around their children or teachers have around their students. We had been on our best behavior and everything had been in tip-top shape when she was around. We hadn’t changed how our team was functioning when Becca was visiting with us, but we all breathed a sigh of relief when she had left. Today, Team Boston was much more relaxed.
While running today, Amber and I talked about food challenges. So, when we finished our miles for the day, we decided to run a donut mile together. The host for the night was a church with a large parking lot that measured a quarter mile exactly, along the perimeter. So Amber and I each ate a donut, then ran a lap around the parking lot. We repeated this sequence three more times until we had run a mile. A few others on the team watched us and cheered us on. Erin, who was in the Host Van today, had gotten us the donuts and they were the heaviest flavors she could have possibly bought. Our stomachs felt so bloated after doing this. Apple fritter, Boston cream, Jelly, and lemon crème would not have been flavors I would have chosen for this challenge! Trying to catch our breath after running a fast quarter mile, while stuffing our face with another donut was comical and had us all laughing. Our stomachs didn’t think it was funny though. Each quarter mile got slower and slower as our stomachs got bigger and bigger and we tried not to throw up. We ended up finishing all four donuts and all four laps in about ten minutes.
I don’t know why, but food challenges like this I always thought were fun. Over the past few days, I had been trying to convince anyone on Team Boston to do one with me. I was hopeful that someone would do the Ben and Jerry’s 4x4 with me next. But I think the thought of eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s then running a mile and repeating this combination three more times scared people off. In the fall semester, while at college, I had tried this challenge with a friend. I still have never been able to complete it. The farthest I have ever gotten is halfway through the fourth pint before my body started rejecting the ice cream and refusing to listen to me.
Today ended on a great note as well. This was the second mail drop of the trip and I was so appreciative of my family. Annalyse had sent me cliff bars that I would eat throughout the remainder of the trip. Between all the running we were doing throughout the day; it was hard to plan lunch and granola bars and peanut butter crackers was something I found myself buying repeatedly. My parents, hearing that I was going through socks fast and having trouble washing them right away, sent me about fifteen more pairs. They were so soft and were also perfectly designed for running. They had tight stitching around the arches and my toes which helped give support. My feet had been swelling a little because of the amount of mileage we were doing, and these would help to reduce that. I also got another pair of running shorts so that I now had three black pairs. Now I didn’t have to wear the blue split-leg short shorts provided by Ulman. When the wind blew, I felt like everyone could see my butt cheek in these shorts! I was glad to stuff them in the bottom of my bag.
Tomorrow was a rest day and I was glad. I was getting tired, and the cold that had been going around the team seemed to be making its way to me as well. I needed my rest before it got worse and I prayed it wouldn’t. The host tonight also told us that they would be providing us with six meals. We couldn’t believe it. No host had ever done this before. We were given dinner and ate with some members of the church community. We would then receive breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next day because we were staying here for our rest day. We would also get breakfast the following day and they planned on giving us food to take for lunch as well. It was incredible and we were all so appreciative. This amount of food had never been given to us by anyone and would never be surpassed as the trip continued.
I went to bed early, compared to last night, after talking with my family and thought about the day’s events. I was still disappointed that we had run such few miles. We very easily could have gotten farther east today. Maybe Ulman needed the trip to take forty-nine days exactly for some reason? Maybe they wanted us to stay in Sioux Falls because previous teams had such good experiences with this host? I wasn’t sure.
Comments