Marathon Monday!

We did it! Joel and I met bright and early at 7:00am in Taylor's Falls and drove up to Wild River State Park for our first Marathon Monday. We were both hoping for a nice warm, sunny morning but what did we get? Cloudy, 30 degrees and occasional snow flakes. Oh well. In another few weeks it will be 90 degrees and I'll be dreaming of snow flakes. We began our run at the Interpretive Center and headed north 10.5 miles to the bridge at the Sunrise River. Once across the river we decided to check out what appeared to be a nice 3 mile loop trail. With our return trip this would give us 24 miles so we'd only have to find another 2 miles someplace along the way. Given that the park boasts something like 35 miles of trail we were pretty confident we'd get in our 26.2. As we began the 3 mile loop it seemed like a nice trail, reminding me of much of the Ice Age Trail, with gently rolling hills and some low muddy spots. Soon the low muddy spots turned into big ponds. We decided to take a bushwacking detour through the woods to try to make it around the pond. After about twenty minutes we made it back to a dry section of trail. It was at this point we realized the pond we had just stumbled around was actually the over-flowing St. Croix River. One-hundred yards later we arrived at another flooded spot in the trail that stretched off into the woods farther than we could see. The flooded area of trail was fairly narrow so we decided with all the nearby logs we could just drop a few into the water to create a bridge. Joel picked up the first one and dropped it in. It sank almost three feet, bobbed back to the surface and began to float away. There would be no bridges and no easy way across. Time to backtrack. Between bushwacking and backtracking we found those remaining two miles we needed so at least we didn't have to worry about that. We made it back to the bridge at the Sunrise River and headed south to the car. From about mile 19 to 21 we walked and talked, catching up on what had happened in each of our lives the previous week. We talked about the incredible story of Mamo Wolde, his life and death, his wife and kids, and the hardships they now face. We talked about the fact that their lives would be so much different had there not been caring, insightful people that put the effort into rescuing them from Ethiopia. We also talked about the amazing new concept of Starburger! Brilliant! We're surrounded by a Starbuck's culture so why not embrace it and truly live it! Starburger is the future.
OK, back to the run....due to the time spent walking I got a great second wind at mile 21 that lasted all the way to the car. I felt truly horrible the first 11 miles but I seemed to improve as the day went on. Today I'm a little fatigued but not sore. I'll not run today but maybe do a few miles tomorrow. My goal is to get in 50 miles a week so I need at least three more decent days. Another four weeks of Marathon Monday's and then we begin adding in a good hill run at Afton every other week. Just over 3 months to Leadville. I'm sure the time will go all too fast.