· Date: Tuesday July 9, 2019
· Rest Day: Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Today was a rest day and for what seemed like the first time in a while, I took advantage of the time and properly rested. Yesterday, Tyler S. and I had planned on doing a workout at a track we had found on google maps. It would be about a two-mile run to get there and then we had planned on doing an interval workout. But when we woke up this morning, we both were not feeling the greatest. Tyler ended up sleeping for most of the day and complained of body aches, a headache, a sore throat, and a stuffy nose. I was starting to have similar symptoms, but not as severe as Tyler’s. A few others on the team had also had these symptoms and were either currently struggling through them or had fended them off. The cold that we noticed begin to go around the team back in Billings, Montana, had evolved to something much worse. It seemed to either knock people out for an entire day of exhaustion and overwhelming feelings of sickness. Or, symptoms would linger for a few days, but with less severe symptoms. Tyler and I decided to call off our extra mileage in the hopes that refraining from running on our rest day would help our immune systems.
So today, I rested. We woke up to an amazing breakfast with pancakes and oatmeal. Lunch and dinner were also served by the host which had different people from their congregation cooking in the church hall with each meal. It was a great way to get to know different people from their church. I enjoyed talking with them and trading stories. I was finding that those who were hosting us were generally hosting us out of the genuine kindness of their hearts. The most gratitude, support, and guidance we would receive throughout the summer were from church communities. This realization made me think about the values of service and community regarding one’s faithfulness. Did you have to be faithful to value service and community? Or did you have to value service and community to be faithful? I wondered if you could have one without the other. I wondered if you needed faith to be loving towards others, or if one taught you the other. Maybe, I would find the answer to these questions along this journey as well.
Throughout the day, I napped and blogged between meals. It felt great to lay in my sleeping bag and write, go through pictures, and talk to those at home. Even better, it felt amazing to rest. The downtime made me realize how much I was missing everyone.
Today, Amber was also working on creating a video for Ulman to use as a promotion and fundraising. She had a nice camera that she used to take pictures and videos of ourselves explaining who we were and why we were participating in the 4K for Cancer. I am not sure where this video ever ended up, but it felt cool to watch everyone in the finished product. Seeing all our stories briefly documented in a clip that was a few minutes, spoke volumes about the group we were and what we were achieving as well.
Later, just before dinner, a few of us took some of the vans and went to the laundromat. This was one of the nicest, cleanest, and most inexpensive laundromats I had ever seen. It blew my mind to see it this way and I found myself wondering if maybe the entire facility was new. We threw our laundry into the machines and then walked over to the mall.
Once we got to the mall, I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to find a top for my water bottle. Throughout the summer, I was using a wide-mouthed Nalgene bottle that would often spill all over me in the van. Although I didn’t mind the cool water on me when it was hot out, this didn’t take long to be annoying. A few others on the team had rubber stoppers in their bottle that narrowed the opening, so I wanted to find one for myself. Later though, I realized the flaw in this. We hardly washed our hands in the van except with some hand sanitizer. To refill the bottle, people would have to touch the rubber stopper to open the bottle, but this was where my mouth would go. I was worried lately of getting sicker than I already felt and never ended up using the stopper.
We also went to a running store which was in the mall. Tyler S. and I talked with the manager and some people working there. Although they couldn’t donate anything for the team, they were still great to talk with. We asked if we could try on the new Brooks Ghost 12, which had just been released. Since Tyler and I were both big fans of the earlier model, we wanted to try on the new one. The manager said that he didn’t have any of them in his store. He told us how at the time, Brooks was relocating their main headquarters from the East Coast to the Mid-West. This would help the company to decrease shipping times and the shipping costs to their customers who were not located on the East Coast. In the process of moving though, the company had lost eight tractor-trailer trucks which were all filled with shoes. Tyler and I couldn’t believe it. How could a company lose eight of the largest vehicles on the road, which were filled with millions of dollars of their product? During the summer of 2019, this is why it was hard for people to find their specific shoes from Brooks.
After dinner, some people who had cooked for us at the church told us if we hadn’t been to Sioux Falls yet, we had to get there before we left in the morning. A group of us decided to go and check it out at a park called Falls Park. We were so glad we did! I expected a large waterfall with a magnificent drop, but that was not the case. The Big Sioux River was full and flowing strong because of the recent rains. It seemed more like a cascade of water that was tumbling over some rocks. Because of this, the locals told us that the falls were not as impressive as they usually were. Regardless, it was fun to be back by a river and some water again. Rob and I skipped some rocks in the water and climbed some boulders together. There is a tower in the park that people can climb up to observe the falls from. But given the fact that it was late in the evening and there were a lot of families picnicking, it was crowded over there. Rob and I decided to take the path less traveled to a railroad bridge that was just over the falls. We couldn’t see the display as much from there, but it was much more peaceful and quieter. Plus, the bridge was higher than the tower and we could see more of the surrounding city as well. It was magnificent. Seeing the crowds in the park made me remember the family picnics that I was missing out on. It made me miss everyone even more and I wished I could be with them or they could be with me.
That night, I went to bed early, hoping to prevent myself from worsening my cold. For some reason, when I got sick, I always felt the symptoms for a week, and I was hoping this was not the case. I had been experiencing a stuffy nose and postnasal drip for almost a week now!
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