Day 907 -- Welcome to South Dakota

Thomas Autry uploaded this image to his pBase gallery. It was apparently taken during his honeymoon, in 2003. Not a whole lot of people go to South Dakota for their honeymoon, I bet. In any case, I ran well into South Dakota this morning.

I admit that I faced today's 20 miler with some trepidation. It's 10 weeks to the marathon, and it's time for a 20 miler, but there's some psychological baggage there. Thank goodness the weather was cooperative. If it had been hot and humid, I'd be dead now. In fact, it was relatively cool and dry, and I just barely made it. But made it I did. I'm sore this afternoon, of course. But also happy.

Day 906 -- More Beulah

From the scrapbook at Beulah.com, an entry from a 2004 parade. No information on what kind of parade it was. Today is the day that I actually reached Beulah, and tomorrow, I should run into South Dakota.

As promised, I took yesterday off. In the afternoon, we drove back home from Grandma Jogger's town. Having skipped my workout, I wasn't at my most patient in the afternoon, but we made it home.

This morning, I got up and ran about six and half miles, at a decent pace. It was a little less humid than it has been, so it wasn't so bad.

Day 905 -- Beulah

Again from Webshots, a sign for Beulah. I'm not sure that I'm quite to Beulah, yet. I ran less than four miles today. I needed an easy day. In fact, I need a day off, which I shall take tomorrow.

Day 904 -- Aladdin

From Webshots Travel, a picture of the General Store in Aladdin. You probably won't be able to read it in this photo, but the sign says, "Population 15". That seems to be an exaggeration. The 2000 Census lists the population of Aladdin as 0. Unless I'm reading that wrong.

Aladdin isn't actually on I-90, but I think I'm close to the exit for it. In any case, here it is.

We got a gully washer yesterday evening, and it was still threatening rain when I went out this morning, but it cleared up, rather than raining. I think I wish it had rained. The rain didn't do anything to clear out the humidity. So 7 miles flew by like miles. But I made it.

Day 903 -- More Sundance

No, I'm afraid that these kids aren't calling me a hero. They are participating in the Milken Festival for Youth in Sundance, and they are preparing to award the "Hometown Hero" award to Les Hooper, for his work in cleaning up the local creek.

I did an easy five miles today. I'm not sure it was any less humid than yesterday. I just wasn't working as hard.

Day 902 -- Sundance

As I approach Sundance, I'm temporarily crossing paths with Del, who seems to have made his cross country journey the old fashioned way: he actually traveled across the country. He uploaded this photo of Sundance, with the note, "Back in the late 1800s, Harry Longabaugh spent several months in the Sundance, Wyoming jail (for rustling cattle, I believe). Of course, that's how he got his nickname, 'The Sundance Kid.'"

I took yesterday off, and I don't apologize for it at all. With almost 34 miles in the first four days of July, I earned it. In fact, I was still fairly stiff when I started out today, even after the day off.

We drove down yesterday to Grandma Jogger's house for a visit. My aunt and uncle are visiting from Japan. We don't get to see them very often, so we thought we would come down. So today's run was in Grandma Jogger's town. It was good, if a bit humid.

Day 901 -- Keyhole State Park

If you go north of Interstate 90, instead of south, you'll find Keyhole State Park. (If you stay on I-90, you'll find a whole lot of nothin'.) According the Wyoming Department of Tourism, the park "offers excellent fishing for walleye, catfish, small mouth bass and northern pike." So pack up that rod and reel and come visit.

When I hit the door this morning, I was surprised to find a steady rain. I briefly thought about rescheduling my run, but I didn't. It was only rain, no lightning, so the major effect that it had was to keep me cool. I had a nice long run -- 15 miles, as scheduled. I won't say that it was easy, but I did finish it, and I've been feeling OK.

The rain continued through the Independence Day parade that I took the Little Joggers to this morning. We found a spot under a tree, so we didn't get too wet. However, we were set back from the street, and a couple of families sat on the curb ahead of us, so we didn't get much candy. Oh, well. The girls are definitely too old, and the medium Little Jogger should be. In any case, it was a nice parade. We hadn't been to this particular parade before, so we didn't know what to expect.

Day 900 -- Thunder Basin National Grassland

Lying south of where I am currently running is Thunder Basin National Grassland. It's a big old thing. It covers 570,000 acres, in two bits. Of course, it's just a tiny bit of leftover grassland from what used to stretch from here to the Mississippi.

Having run a hard 9 miles yesterday, and planning to run 15 tomorrow, my choices today were to take the day off entirely, or to take a short, easy run. After some debate, the latter won. I wanted the exercise, and I wanted the endorphins, and I wanted to chalk up a day toward the 25 I'm shooting for in July. Short and slow as it was, it was still a tough run.

Political Surprise -- with Update

Thanks to Jesse at Pandagon, I have found something that I have in common with the governor of Alaska. Up until now, it's pretty much been that we are both human. But it turns out she's a runner. And, politics aside, I like some of the stuff that she says about running. Perhaps she and I will go running together some day....

Update: Another thing that we have in common. By the end of the month, neither one of us will be governor of Alaska. I guess that means she'll have more time to run with me.

Day 899 -- Devils Tower

According to RockyMountainRoads.com, this is the exit I should take for Devils Tower National Monument. The tower itself is a piece down the road, so this is as good an excuse to pose in front of it as anything. I didn't want to miss it, having seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind all those years ago. (The International Movie Database says it was released in 1977. Can that be right? 32 years ago?) As you can see, this photo of Devils Tower is from National Geographic. Oh, and the name of the monument seems to be spelled without an apostrophe. Apparently, those are plural devils, not a single devil that owns the tower.

I didn't feel much like running this morning, but once I got going I was OK. I ran 9 miles, in three 3 mile loops. It seem less when you run 3 mile loops than if you run only one or two bigger loops. I kept up a good pace, and I was pleased with my run. If it never warms up again, this could be a good summer.

Day 898 -- Rozet

Via MerchantCircle.com, we have these wicked bikes from Cobra's Custom Cycles, in Rozet, Wyoming.

The cool weather that we have been experiencing all week continued this morning. It was bordering on cold when I set out. Of course, after I got out and got moving, I was plenty warm enough. I ran almost six miles, at a sedate pace.

Day 897 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Jun
Distance	5516.5	932.2	188.1
Time	36 days, 12 hrs, 9 min	6 days, 11 hours, 59 mins	33:05
Days	897	140	24
States	19	4	1

I ended up taking yesterday off. I hadn't planned to. I turned off the alarm and slept in. I thought about running at noon, but I didn't do that, either. However, 7.5 miles today actually pushed me up to the longest month of JogAmericaBlog, by 0.2 miles. If only I had run yesterday, I would have shattered the record.

Oh, well, I expect to break it again next month. My official goals are 24 days and 160 miles. But if I make the 24 days, I should easily go over the 160 miles. Lately, I've been stretching my short runs from 3 to 5 miles up to 5 to 7 miles. That extra mile or two every day really adds up. Also, of course, I have four long runs scheduled, which is 75 miles right there.

I thought I'd also compare my progress at the half-year mark. In 2006, I had run 119 days through June. In 2007, it was 133 days. In 2008, it was 128. So, at 140 days, I'm ahead of previous pace. My total mileage through June, 2006, was 648. In 2007, it was 805. In 2008, it was 813. This year, 932, again way ahead of pace.

A Public Service Announcement from USJogger, Inc.

When you are using a string trimmer, wear long pants.

That is all.

Day 896 -- Gillette

Destination360.com says that "Gillette Wyoming is the best city a cowboy can get." They don't elaborate on what exactly that means. Anyway, this seems to be a Rock Pile Museum in Gillette, which sounds interesting to me.

It is noticeably cooler and less humid here in Wisconsin this morning. So today's 18 miler wasn't quite the struggle that last week's 17 miler was. I won't go so far as to say that today's run was easy. I don't know that I'll ever be in such good shape that 18 miles will be easy. But I didn't feel nearly as bad over the last five or six miles as I did last week.

It is now 12 weeks to the Community First Fox Cities Marathon. I'm feeling fairly positive about where I am in my preparation.

Day 895 -- Force Road

Sticking with RockyMountainRoads.com, we come to the exit for Force Road. They say, "As we now enter the Gillette metropolitan area, signs of civilization emerge." The population of Gillette is less than 20,000, so we may be stretching the dictionary definition of "metropolitan."

I ran another seven miles this morning, at a decent pace. It was quite humid, but not so hot as it has been.

Days 893 and 894 -- Barber Creek Road

From RockyMountainRoads.com, Interstate 90, exit 102, Barber Creek Road. I have no idea where you go when you exit Interstate 90 at Barber Creek Road. There ain't nothin' around for miles.

I ran yesterday and today. Yesterday I made 7 miles. I was shooting for 8, but it was too darned humid. I actually ended up walking home about a mile. This morning, I ran 6, and I was only shooting for 5. So it all evens out, I guess.

Scout camp has wrapped up for another year. The fourth day is always the hardest. On Thursday, we shift from our normal 9 to 3 schedule. We start at 1, then have a program for the parents at 6:15. You can't expect to have a program at 3, because lots of people have regular jobs, and don't get the summer off. So, after a long, hot week, we have an especially long, hot day. Everyone gets a little frazzled. I did better this year than last, because at least I was expecting it.

Will I do scout camp again next year? I don't know. We'll see how quickly the pain of this one fades.

Overhead (by everyone!) at the littlest Little Jogger's soccer game...

A young lady, about 9, turned to her dad, who had been cheering loudly, but not, in my opinion, being at all obnoxious, and said, "Dad! What did I tell you? Zip it!" Ouch! Wait until she's 15, and he embarrasses her merely by existing.

Day 892 -- More Scouts

Well, I ended up taking yesterday off from running, in a sort of unusual way. I got up, put on my running stuff, started my warm-up walk, but I found myself so worried about getting ready for Scout Camp that, instead of running, I jumped in the car and drove to camp to get things ready. Camp is at the county fairgrounds, about 20 minutes away. I drove out there, messed around with stuff, drove back, had breakfast, then took the littlest Little Jogger back out to start our day.

What was I worried about? Three things. On Monday, we all got way too much sun. We had a canopy, but it was hard to keep the kids under it. So I moved our venue to the cow barn. This has some obvious disadvantages, but it was fairly well cleaned out, and we really needed the shade. I also wanted to make sure that I had a convenient water faucet, so we could play some water games. We did. That also helped with problem number three, which was making sure that I had enough activities to fill the time.

So Tuesday went better than Monday, and so did today. There were some problems, still, but we worked through them. One of the kids had a horrible tantrum on Tuesday, but we just put him in a "time out" chair until he calmed down, and he has been no trouble since. A different kid had a mini-tantrum today, but his mother is my helper, so I just let her deal with him.

As you can see, we went fishing yesterday. Here you can see one of my tigers has landed 2.5 inches of furious bluegill. We were at the public park there in the county seat, and it was all catch and release. Too bad, because this whopper would have made a nice little fish stick. Anyway, the kids had fun. You can see that the scout doesn't think this fish is too small.

Oh, I did run today, a medium-swift four miler. I think that the humidity is down, which helps a lot.

Day 891 -- Scout Cam

With the Interstate 90 in Wyoming utterly failing to provide good photo opportunities, I decided to post a photo from real life. Here you see a photo from the Blackhawk Area Council Cub Scout Day Camp, 2009. These are the Tigers. If you've been reading for a year, you may remember that last year, I helped out in a small way. This year, I jumped in with both feet. I am the leader of the Tiger Camp.

The main camp has kids who have already been in scouts for at least a year. They have a kind of a rotation. A couple of people do crafts, and they rotate each group through, the same craft, seven times. Then someone else does nature, and they rotate each group through, the same lesson or project, seven times a day. Someone else does BB guns, and they do the same thing seven times a day, and seven more times tomorrow, and seven more the next day, and so on, forever, because it doesn't take any planning to do BB guns. You just keep an eye on the kids and make sure that they don't shoot each other's eyes out.

The Tigers are different. These are kids between kindergarten and first grade, who will be in scouts for the first time next year. Rather than mix them in with the bigger kids, they shunt them over to the side. The leader (that's me, remember) then has to do crafts and nature and rubber band guns (no BBs for us) and games and more crafts and more rubber band guns and more games and more rubber band guns. Since they have a five minute attention span, and camp is six hours, I need 72 activities. OK, it's not that bad, but I needed more than I had prepared. Nothing seemed to take as long as I had planned. So we had to keep throwing in activities. "OK, let's see who can be quietest the longest!"

It was approximately 1,000,000 degrees out. We had a canopy, but half the activities took us out from under fairly often. And even under, it was still 9,999,900 degrees. Three of the Tigers burst into flames. And it's not going to be any cooler all week. At least I have water games planned for tomorrow, which will help keep us cool.

I did run this morning. I could easily have taken the day off, but I figured I needed my endorphins to face the day. I think that's probably wise. It was a long slog, but not nearly as long as it would have been if I had skipped my run.

Three more days. Three more days. Three more days....

Day 890 -- Campbell County

The Campbell County courthouse is in Gillette, some 35 more miles ahead. But I just crossed into Campbell County, so that's an excuse to visit the courthouse. This photo is from the Flikr stream of someone with the handle "courthouselover". They say that "Henry Therkildsen A.I.A. designed this courthouse in 1971. It replaced the county's previous courthouse which stood where this one now does." And, being a courthouse lover, I guess that they would know.

Yesterday, when I was listing the things that might get me through 17 miles today, I neglected to include (c) I can be as stubborn as a teenager when I want to be. Pretty much after mile 12, stubborn was all that was keeping me going. It helped that right about then, I ran into two different members of the Sunday morning crowd who asked how far I was going today. I said "17 miles", and they were both impressed. Well, after that, I had to actually run the 17 miles, didn't I?

The Joy of Running

Greg, over at The Runners' Lounge, posted a thread about "The Joy of Running". I liked my answer so much, that I couldn't stand for it to just sit in the one forum on The Lounge. So, with a little editing, here it is:

The first thing that running does for me is that it gives me time to think. When I'm not running, there's always something to distract me. If I'm not working, I'm probably checking my blogs, or playing an on-line game, or doing a crossword. The only time I get to just think is when I'm on the road. Sometimes I thinks about important stuff, like work or classes or family matters. And sometimes I just thinks about my next blog post.

The second thing that running does is feed my endorphin addiction. No matter how bad I feel before I start, I always feel pretty good when it's over. Usually, that feeling lasts at least through the morning, if not all day. I know that it's just chemicals, but what the heck! Some people pay big bucks for chemicals to make them feel good. And endorphins are legal!

Another dirty little secret is that when I'm running, I'm allowed to sweat. I'm a big guy, and I sweat a lot. I sweat when I'm teaching. I sweat when I'm walking. I sweat when I climb a flight of stairs. Sometimes, I sweat when I just sit there. Sometimes, it's embarrasing. But when I'm running, I'm supposed to sweat. On a day like today, when my socks are squishy by the time I'm done running, nobody complains. (OK, Mrs. Jogger complains a little, but she gets over it.)

Finally, of course, running keeps me relatively healthy. I'm not at the weight that I'd like to be, but if I wasn't running, just think of where I would be!

So, anyone else with a running blog want to chime in? If you do, be sure to leave me a comment telling me to check you out.

Day 889 -- The Middle of Nowhere

If you do a Google image search for "Middle of Nowhere", this is the number one photo. OK, so it's actually "somewhere" north of Agadez in Niger. You're not going to hold it against me, just because this is half the world away, are you? I'm sure that the area of Wyoming where I'm currently running looks almost exactly like this, only with mountains and trees and water and wildlife.

Today's five mile run did not bode well for tomorrow's seventeen mile run. Although it was slightly cooler and less humid than yesterday, I still got pretty sweaty and very tired. The only things that I have going for me tomorrow are (a) I usually don't have two bad days in a row, and (b) I'll be taking walk breaks every mile. I hope that will get me through.

Day 888 -- Crazy Eights

The humidity continues this morning. And it's heating up. It was already 75 degrees at 6:30 this morning. So it was quite a run. But I made it. I'm worried about my long run on Sunday. But hey, it's summer in Wisconsin. Heat and humidity come with the territory.

Day 887 -- Big Horn Basque Club

Buffalo has less than 5000 residents, but apparently a good number of them are Basques. This is Zaharrer Segi, the Basque dancers of the Big Horn Basque Club. They describe themselves on the web site of North American Basque Organizations:

We are a younger group, who has learned from the older generation. The dancers range in age from adult to four years old. We are supported by our local Basque Club, The Big Horn Basque Club. The Zaharrer Segi dance group provides performances for public events both in our local community and in surrounding areas. Most of the dances we perform originate from the region around the towns of Luzaide and Arneguy, in the Basque Country. We enjoy our Basque heritage and hope to keep it alive for many more generations.

I did take yesterday off from running. The only part of me that regretted it was that tiny part of my brain that is committed to running 24 days in June. This was my fourth day off, so I only get two more in the next twelve days, if I want to make that goal. However, the rest of my body and brain was ready for a break. In fact, a number of parts voted for another day off today, but the decision to run won on a narrow vote. I got in a steady seven miles. The summer humidity has arrived big time, so I was pretty sweaty by the time I finished. I guess I'd better get used to it.

Day 886 -- More Buffalo

From City-data.com, the Famous Occidental Hotel, in Buffalo.

I had a hard time getting myself out the door this morning. Once I got running, I had a pretty good run. I stopped a little short of my goal, but I went a little over, yesterday, so it all evens out. And today I was relatively zippy. It felt good.

Day 885 -- Buffalo

This is kind of a funky looking church. It is Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Wyoming. I'm still a few miles short of Buffalo, but it has been 90 miles since Ten Sleep, with nary a town in sight. And it's another 70 miles to Gillette. If you live in Buffalo, it's a long way to visit your neighbors.

I ran an easy five miles this morning. I didn't mean to go quite that far, but once I got started, I just ran. It was a nice morning for it.

The rest of the day was spent driving for Jogger's Taxi service. It started at 8:00, when I took the oldest and newest Little Jogger to the first day of Summer School, where she will be boning up on her math skills. Then it was off to the office for a bit, but not too long, because I had to pick the oldest and newest up after Summer School. After lunch, I took her and the littlest Little Jogger to a friend's house to play. In the middle of the afternoon, Mrs. Jogger sent me to the store to pick up canning supplies. She's putting up a whole bunch of strawberry-rhubarb jelly. I approve of strawberry-rhubarb jelly, so I went. At 4:00, the first Little Jogger had to go to Dairy Queen for a final meeting of Girl Scouts for the year. Home for a brief visit, then at 5, I had to drop the littlest off at soccer practice and, simultaneously, pick up the first from Dairy Queen. On opposite sides of town. I delivered the first home, then turned around to go pick up the littlest from Soccer practice. And then...peace. Until tomorrow.

Day 884 -- Flag Day

You know that you're gearing up for a marathon when you use the word "only" in talking about a 12 mile run....

Since I only ran 12 miles today, I decided to pick up the pace a little. I managed 12.3 miles in 2:08. That's a 10:25 pace, which projects to a 4 hour and 33 minute marathon. No problem. Of course, I have a long way to go before I can hold that pace for over twice that distance, but overall, I think I'm doing OK. It's 14 weeks to the marathon, and I'm pleased with where I am.

It helps that the heat hasn't hit, yet. It was a comfortable 60 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. One would expect a little more heat and a lot more humidity by the middle of June in Wisconsin. But so far, we've been lucky. We'll see what next week brings.

Day 883 -- Moose

In honor of Grandpa Jogger, a moose. This particular moose was snapped by Christian Boice in 2005, and uploaded to PBase. It's really quite a nice shot. He apparently has a monster lens -- 420 mm -- which explains why he could get this good shot without running the risk of being trampled.

I ran this morning in a light rain. It felt pretty good, actually. It was more or less pouring at 5:00 in the morning, so I went back to bed, and didn't run until I got up again a couple of hours later.

First Day of Summer

Yesterday was the last day of school for the public schools, so today is officially the first day of summer. They aren't driving me too crazy, yet. Give me another few hours.

They've been running in and out in various combinations all day. So far, they've been doing OK. The big problem comes when two different Little Joggers want to play with the same neighborhood kid, but not with each other. Or when almost everybody agrees on what game to play, but one kid doesn't want to play that. In these cases, the offended kid will come in, and depending on their own inclination, cry, whine, or sulk. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The funniest part of the end of the school year is probably the littlest Little Jogger's report card. Minutes after the end of school, we got a call from the littlest's teacher, Mrs. J. On the report card, in the spot for "Placement next year", she had put the grade that he is currently in. She had done this for all her students. She flunked her whole class. Of course, it was a mistake. We hadn't looked at it, yet, but when we did, we certainly would have chuckled and said, "Oh, that's a mistake." But apparently the very first parent to notice flew off the handle. Mrs. J was very embarrassed. Anyway, we determined that the littlest is, in fact, going on to the next grade level.

Days 881 and 882 -- More and More Bighorn National Forest

This is "the Elgin Park area of the Bighorn National Forest with the Bighorn Mountains in the background", as seen at BighornMountains.com. The page that I linked to is dedicated to photos along route 16, which is where I am actually running, so at some point, I would have this view. Not necessarily yesterday or today.

I did get up and run yesterday. In fact, I got up before my alarm, for the first time in a good long while. It wasn't a particularly long or fast run, but it was OK. Then this morning, I got in a fairly brisk seven an a half. That wraps up six days in a row of running, with over 43 miles. Time for a break, I think.

Day 880 -- More Bighorn National Forest

Steamboat Point seems to be a fairly popular thing to photograph in Bighorn National Forest. It's easy to see why; it's very impressive. This particular photo is from Panoramio. I'm not actually near Steamboat Point. It's north of where I'm running.

I finally got in my long run that I had planned for Sunday. I ran 15.4 miles in just under three hours. It felt pretty good, all told. I felt stronger than I did on my 14 mile run last week. Now I'll have to see what I can do this weekend. It's a drop-back week, so I'm only scheduled for 12 miles, but I may not even do that, because I'll have only five days between now and Sunday. We'll see.

The first Little Jogger is going to join the Cross Country team at the high school this fall. Yesterday, she brought home her summer training schedule. It's pretty flexible. They will run together two days a week, and other than that, she is just supposed to put in 600 total minutes of running over the summer. I'm excited. I'd like to see her get serious about this, and I think that she has a chance to be good. But I'm trying not to push her. She'll decide how much effort she wants to put into it.

Day 879 -- Bighorn National Forest

Welcome to Bighorn National Forest. I hope that you like it, because you're going to see a lot of it for the next week or two, because there's not much else out here. It's about 50 miles to the next town. This photo is from the Johnson County web page, and Johnson County is at the other side of the forest, so this is probably not the right sign. Oh, well.

As you can guess, I did find time to run this morning. I need to change my routine. I'm just not getting out of bed in the morning. I'm not sure why. My tendon is feeling better, but now I don't seem to have much drive. Oh, well, if I persist, I'm sure that I'll snap out of it, soon.

Up -- with an UPdate

I missed my run this morning. I'm still holding out hope for a run later today, but we'll see. In the meantime, Dean Dad has inspired me to a movie review.

Like DD, I took the kids to see Up on Saturday. I'm not sure that I agree with him that it was one of the best movies I've ever seen, but it was pretty darn good. As I believe I've said, Pixar just doesn't do bad movies. Like all Pixar movies, it was funny and touching and exciting and unpredictable. I thought it was a little less believable than most. I guess when you have a movie about talking toys or talking fish, you aren't expecting believable. But this movie was about people. I really wanted the only stretch of the imagination to be the idea that this guy could actually float his house with toy balloons, but that was just the beginning. The plot called for a lot of fairly weird stuff, and the physics was downright appalling. But I just squinted a little bit, and went along for the ride. And a great ride it was. Definitely one I'm willing to see again.

Update: Amanda over at Pandagon has a much better review than this one.

Day 878 -- Thunderstorm

I tried and tried to think of an excuse not to run this morning. I couldn't come up with one, so run I did. However, when I was about two miles out, my excuse appeared. It started to thunder in the distance. Long time readers know that I won't run in a thunderstorm. I know the chances of getting hit by lightning are pretty low, but not as low as they are when I'm sitting safely inside my house. So, anyway, I finished the first five mile loop, and came in. I'll have to run my long run tomorrow.

Rather than another Ten Sleep picture, I got a picture of a Wyoming thunderstorm from this Flikr page. No idea what the weather is actually doing in Wyoming this morning.

Day 877 -- More Ten Sleep

Don't ask why I made myself 200 feet tall in this photo. I'm just tired and in a wacky mood.

The photo comes from a blog called Messiest Objects. At first, I thought it might be a theme blog, like The Worlds Largest Things or Beans Around the World, but it appears not. It seems to just be one of those names, like "Eclectic Banana" or "A Slug In Time", that someone thought was cool.

Boy, it was hard to get going this morning. I took yesterday off (unplanned), so I should have had energy this morning, but I didn't. I did manage to drag myself out the door, but I didn't enjoy it. I will run my long run tomorrow or Monday, depending on the weather, and depending on whether I can find my mojo.

Day 876 -- Ten Sleep

I'm still a few miles short of Ten Sleep, but what the heck! According to Wikipedia, Ten Sleep is named because it was 10 days travel -- ten sleeps -- from three important locations: Fort Laramie, Yellowstone Park, and the Indian agency on the Stillwater River in Montana. I bet that's a bunch of hooey, but I don't know how you'd find out. If it says it in Wikipedia, it's got to be true, right?

This photo is posted in city-data.com. However, some user has left a comment that "This sign does not exist in Ten Sleep nor has it existed in the past 30 years." More misinformation! I'm beginning to think that Ten Sleep has something to hide.

I ran a good seven miles today. I wanted to get under 10 minutes per mile, but I didn't quite make it. Oh, well. It was still a good run. Tomorrow, I'll just shoot for an easy run.

Day 875 -- More Worland

From the City of Worland page, the cemetery. They even have an e-mail address, cemetery@something.net. I don't know why you'd want to e-mail the cemetery. Also from the City of Worland page, I note that this is the county seat of Washakie County. Now you know.

As promised, I took yesterday off. I ran a little over six miles this morning at a reasonable pace. My tendon is feeling pretty good. It ached a little at around four miles, but it hardly pains me at all any more. I'm looking forward to being 100% soon.

Day 874 -- Worland

Well, I have already covered 10% of my mileage goal for June.

I mentioned yesterday that we went to early church. So I didn't have time to do my long run before church. I could have done it after, but I didn't. I didn't have anywhere special to be this morning, though, so I went ahead and ran 14 miles. It didn't feel bad, although I think I spent every last erg of energy that I had. I couldn't have run another block.

I've been pretty sore all day. Not my tendon, actually. That's felt pretty good. But everything else is sore. Which is good. It's a good sore.

Although I hate to take the 2nd off, if I'm going to run 24 days in June, I think I'm going to have to, just to rest the sore parts.

Above, downtown Worland, from the photo gallery at BigHornMountains.com. I ran clean through Worland today, but don't be surprised if I post another picture of Worland tomorrow. I need to get the most out of every town I go through.

Another gorgeous cake

The littlest Little Jogger's birthday was last Monday, but with the medium Little Jogger not feeling well, we didn't really celebrate. So yesterday, Mrs. J finally made a special cake for the littlest, which we will eat this afternoon.

What do you mean, you don't recognize it? It's a Zoombini, of course! The Zoombinis are the main characters in a series of way cool video games. They have lots and lots of good math and logic puzzles for the kids to solve. The littlest has been playing Zoombinis lately, and he requested a Zoombini cake. As usual, Mrs. J was up to the task.

Day 873 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	May
Distance	5328.4	744.1	119.1
Time	35 days, 3 hrs, 4 min	5 days, 2 hours, 54 mins	20:37
Days	873	116	18
States	19	4	1

Well, I didn't make my May goal, because of the tendon thing. I didn't even make my goal of running pain free. It's better, but it's not all better. I'm just hanging in there. I've tentatively set goals of 23 days and 140 miles for June, but only if I can get my tendon back to 100%. Otherwise, I'll just have to take more days off.

I didn't get out early this morning. Fortunately, the littlest Little Jogger was singing during the early service at church, so we went to that service for a change. After that, I went and ran six and a half miles. It felt pretty good, but it's the second day in a row that I ran in the mid-morning. It gets pretty warm by mid-morning.

On the good news front, the medium Little Jogger is actually playing outside today with his friends. It's the most active he's been in 10 days. He's still sore, and no doubt he'll be whining tonight that his throat hurts REAL BAD! But at least for now, he's showing signs of progress.

Day 872 -- Race Report, Family Fitness Fun Run

Today was the first annual Family Fitness Fun Run sponsored by the public school system. We decided to get half the family involved, anyway. There were four events. First, there was a five minute run for kids in first grade or below. We have no one eligible for that one. Then there was a ten minute run for kids in 2nd through 5th grade. The littlest Little Jogger wanted to run that one. Then there was a two-mile walk, and simultaneously, a 5K run. I wanted to do the 5K, and the littlest Little Jogger wanted to do the walk, and recruited the oldest and newest Little Jogger to walk with him.

Unfortunately, we hit a bit of a hitch. I don't remember exactly what the woman said when we registered, but the gist of it was something like this. The 5-minute run was going to be around the soccer field (pointing to the west of the school) and the 10-minute run was going to have a longer course, which goes over there (pointing to the east.) What she meant was that both were starting in the same place, but the 10-minute run was going to go behind the school and make a loop on the east side. What I understood was that the 10-minute run was going to start on the east side.

So, we watched the 5-minute run, and cheered for everyone, especially the kids we knew. Then we walked over to the east side of the school to wait for the 10-minute run to start. Now, any person of normal intelligence would have figured out, after we stood there by ourselves for a few minutes, that we were in the wrong place. But I didn't catch on until they blew the whistle to start the 10-minute run.

Well, the littlest Little Jogger was pretty upset. He stood there and cried for most of the ten minutes, at which point I said, "The heck with it, let's run." So we lined up, I set my watch, and we ran together around the course for ten minutes. He flagged a little at times, but he ran the whole time. I'm proud of him.

After that, he decided not to walk the two miles. Since we were at his school, from whence he walks home by himself every day, he walked home by himself, and left me and the o&n Little Jogger to run the 5K.

I did decently, I thought. I started out too fast (of course), but still managed to finish in 26:38, a couple minutes faster than my 5K in April. The o&n Little Jogger alternated running and walking, and finished in 32 minutes or so.

By the time we got home, the littlest Little Jogger was fine. So all's well that ends well, I guess. We each got a new t-shirt, and we all got some exercise, so it was a fun event all around.

Sorry, no race photos. Nobody in our troop brought a camera. If I manage to get some photos from someone else, I'll be sure to post them.

Day 871 -- Boots

I'm afraid that this picture, from Flikr, falls under the category of "in the general area". It was taken on a road near Grass Creek, which is some miles to the west. But there ain't much out here.

I ran 7.7 miles this morning, at a decent pace. The weather has been very nice. Warm enough to wear shorts, but cool enough not to get overheated. It's a shame that I've missed so many runs in the last couple of weeks. But my tendon is feeling strong enough that I'm planning to get back to running full time.

Day 870 -- More Basin

There is a web site devoted to the woment's fur trade. It looks like they've got a lot of fun information. I visited them, because they have the story of building "bullboats" in Basin, Wyoming. The fellow in blue is Dale Bollman, aka Rabbit, and the lady is Jill, a member of the WFT.

I am getting lazy. I woke up early yesterday, but I didn't feel like running, and I just went back to bed. I felt the same this morning, but I managed to force myself out the door to run five and a half miles. My tendon is really not hurting much, except when I run. I really want to get to where it's not hurting even when I run. Soon. I hope.

Day 869 -- Basin

Downtown Basin, Wyoming, from Wikipedia.

I managed just over six miles today, my first back-to-back runs since the whole tendon thing started. It feels pretty good, overall. It does tighten up when I'm running, but I ice it right after, and then it doesn't give me any trouble all day. I hope that it will cease hurting when I run before too long.

The medium Little Jogger's recovery continues slowly. He is holding up pretty well, all things considered. He is a pretty sensitive little guy, actually. He likes to have his tags cut out of his T-shirts, because they itch him. So something major like pieces sliced out of his throat is really going to give him pain. The word "stoic" is not in his vocabulary. I just hope that it gets better soon.

Day 868 -- Greybull

Here I am in front of the former Masonic Temple in Greybull, Wyoming. If you are interested, this building is for sale for $36,900, which seems like a bargain, to me. It has "Numerous commercial opportunities."

I ran almost six miles today, at a decent pace. Saturday's run was dead slow. Today, I managed to run under 10 minute miles, which felt pretty good. I've iced my ankle. Now to see if it will hold up to another run tomorrow.

Mrs. Jogger and the Little Jogger had another rough night. Right now, they are dozing in the living room. I sure hope that he starts to feel better, for all out sakes.

And Happy Birthday to the littlest Little Jogger, who turns eight today. He is definitely wise beyond his years.

Twenty-two Years

May 24, 1987. Mrs. Jogger and I tied the knot. Twenty-two years later, we're still together and still in love. How's that for commitment?

It hasn't been the most pleasant anniversary ever. The medium Little Jogger is still pretty miserable. He hasn't been able to sleep, so Mrs. J hasn't gotten much sleep. The other four of us have been walking around on eggshells all day. But this, too, shall pass, and Mrs. J and I will get a chance to celebrate together. Someday.

I took another day off from running. My tendon is hardly bothering me at all. I hope to start stringing together two running days in a row, starting with tomorrow and Tuesday. Then we'll see what happens on Wednesday.

Day 867 -- South Big Horn County Airport

As I slowly approach Greybull, I'm passing the South Big Horn County Airport. There, in 2001, JetPhotos.net user Stephen Boreham took this photo of a Lockheed C130-A Hercules. Apparently, this particular plane crashed in 2002 while fighting a fire, with three crew on board.

I ran 12 miles today! I felt good about it. My tendon is a bit sore, but it held up OK. In the middle of the second four mile loop, I thought maybe it was going to give up, and I would have to cut my run short. But I didn't. Now I'm going to go back to taking it easy. I hope that by my next long run, next weekend, I will be good to go.

The medium Little Jogger is slowly getting better. He's still in a lot of pain, I'm afraid. We've heard that the third day is the worst. We've also heard that the fifth day is the worst. We'll see.

Day 866 -- Otto

From Flikr, the old silage barn near Otto, Wyoming.

I ran a little over six miles this morning, my longest run since the tendon flare up. It's definitely feeling stronger, but not quite all there. I'm trying to figure out just how far I can push it. The days off seem to help. I'm thinking I'm going to take another, then try a long run on the weekend. We'll see.

One hurtin' cowpoke

No run today, but I have an excuse. We had to have the medium Little Jogger at the hospital in Dubuque (a half hour drive) at 6:45. He had his tonsils and adenoids removed.

He's been having recurring sore throats for a couple of years, that have been really bad this spring, so they finally decided that his tonsils have to go. They will run some tests, but they are hoping that this will end it. I hope so, too, because the poor little guy is pretty miserable right now. And they say it's going to get worse for a few days before it gets better. We're trying to keep him on pain medicine and popsicles, but I can't help feeling that five days of heavy sedation would do the trick. Not for him, for us.

Day 865 -- Emblem

Emblem, Wyoming. Population 10. Give or take a few, I imagine. This photo was posted by Ari Kahn to FotoTime. No idea what she's holding over her head, or why.

Well, with two more days off, and only 4 miles run today, my May goals have fluttered out the window. My current goal for the month is to run pain-free. I'm getting there. My tendon is definitely not as sore today as it has been. I just need to continue to take it easy.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today, Grandma Jogger has reached 3/4 of a century. She is coming up later this afternoon for a celebration. We'll be happy to see her. We intend to hold onto her for at least another quarter of a century, if not longer.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

[Cake by Wessex Catering]

Day 864 -- Wagon Box Social Mountain Trail Run

I've posted photos from Burlington for two runs in a row, and I'm actually still not there. So I decided to go a little further afield. Back over my right shoulder is the town of Meeteetse, which hosts the Wagon Box Social Mountain Trail Run. They have a 5K, a 10K, and a 13K race. This year's race is June 27. I don't think I'll stick around to run it.

I did five miles this morning, and my tendon held up OK. I'm icing it right now. I have decided that I'm not going to run at all tomorrow. I was thinking about testing it on a long run, but a long run was what got me into trouble in the first place. The most important thing is to get it healthy, so it doesn't become a chronic condition. So no run for me tomorrow, and I'll shoot for 12 miles next weekend.

The semester has come to an end. I have my exams mostly graded. One class is entirely graded, and I only have a few questions on each of the other finals. I will try to get it done today, but so far I don't seem to be motivated to work on it. Grades aren't due until Wednesday.

In medical news, the medium Little Jogger is going to have his tonsils and adenoids out on Wednesday. He's been having troubles with them all spring, and the doctor just decided enough is enough. The surgery is routine, but the recovery promises to be pretty painful. I hope that it will be worth it, and he won't have sore throats like he's been having.

Day 863 -- Back in the Saddle

I got out and ran this morning. I admit, I was nervous. It blew up so fast. I went from no pain on Saturday to a twinge at the end of my long run on Sunday to too painful to run on Monday. So I didn't know how it would hold up. I ran a really easy 3 miles, and it held up OK. It hasn't bothered me too badly today. I'm going to try for five tomorrow. We'll see.

This is Kenra, a horse that's for sale. Or was for sale. The owner is in Burlington, so that's why Kenra came up on my Google search.

A Tender Tendon

When I finished my long run yesterday, my Achilles tendon was a bit tender. I didn't make much of it. It wasn't that bad. It was a little tight at times during the day, but I kind of shrugged it off.

I got up to run this morning, and before I made a mile, it was hurting pretty badly, and I was thinking seriously of the possibility of lasting damage. So I stopped, and walked home. It has been really sore all day today.

I'm not sure what to make of it. I hope that it's not going to last. Right now, I'm just going to rest it. I'm not even going to think about running tomorrow, and I'll re-evaluate on Wednesday. I'm a bit frustrated, but I hope that it will bounce back pretty fast.

Days 861 and 862 -- Burlington

Well, approaching Burlington. I'm still some 10 miles short of it, but there's not much out here to blog. This shot is from WyomingTourism.org.

I did run on Friday, but never got around to blogging it. Then I didn't run yesterday, and never really thought about getting caught up. So, sorry about the slight hiatus.

This morning, I did a long run of 11 miles. I did the Jeff Galloway, stop-and-start thing for the first eight miles, then just cut loose and ran the last three. In fact, I ran the last 5K in about 29:24, which is 5 seconds faster than my official time in the Fitness Means Life run a couple of weeks ago. If you'll recall, that run was not preceded by an eight mile warm up. So I feel good about that.

Friday was the last day of classes, with finals next week. I have some grading to do, of course. The Math Ed students have turned in portfolios to document their learning throughout the class. And the Discrete Math students have turned in their final proofs. I also have to write two of the three finals. The Math Ed final is in pretty good shape. It just needs some polish. But I'm having a lot of trouble with the Discrete Math final. Pretty soon, I'm going to give up and start stealing questions from my old finals.

Happy Mother's Day to Mrs. Jogger, Grandma Jogger, and all you mothers out there!

Day 860 -- More Cody

The historic Irma Hotel in Cody, was built by Buffalo Bill himself, and named after his daughter. According to Dr. Lobojo, it has a lot of ghosts wandering around its halls. I believe that, at least metaphorically. Also from the same page is this truck. Dr. L doesn't really explain it. Oh, well.


I had a tough time getting going this morning. It was raining when I woke up, and very foggy. I almost took the day off. But finally, I dragged myself down to the gym and plodded out 5 miles. It was tough, but I made it.

Days 858 and 859 -- Cody

Here's an article from the web page of the Moto Guzzi National Owners Club. A Moto Guzzi appears to be a motorcycle. I have no interest in the article, really, but they do have a nice picture of "historic Cody, Wyoming". I'm a few miles short of Cody, so that will do.

I did run yesterday, an easy five, and then again today, a harder 7.5. Both days felt good, although I was really stretching it this morning. I will either take it very easy tomorrow, or take it off entirely.

My cold has eased up, but not quite gone away. The medium Little Jogger, meanwhile, has come down with some horrible thing that is affecting his glands and giving him a sore throat. They are running tests for strep and mono, and meanwhile have given him a cocktail of medicines that would make House, M.D., blush. The poor little thing. I hope that he will be better, soon. For all our sakes.

Day 857 -- More Wapiti

A little shout-out to my fellow blogger at FollowTheComet. He doesn't seem to have an "About me" link, so I don't even know his name. And he doesn't seem to have blogged since last November. But before he disappeared, he visited Wapiti, and posted two interesting photos. Above, a little coffee shop, where I can pick up a latte. Below, some kind of unfinished tower that someone inflicted on the Wapiti hillside.


I got in a nice 6.5 mile run today. It was a pretty morning, cool with no wind. Speaking of no wind, I'm still not 100%, but I finished the run, and that's what counts.

I went back to work today, and my students don't seem to have missed me that terribly. They are clearly in survival mode, with heaps of projects, papers, tests, and who know what-all. They don't want to hear anything but what's going to be on the final.

Day 856 -- Wapiti

According to B&B On-line, Horseman's Paradise Bed and Breakfast, in Wapiti, "has been featured not once, but twice, in Horse & Rider magazine." Can't beat that. I guess you can stay there even if you don't have a horse.

Friday, I was so sick, I not only took the day off from running, but also from work. The second-to-last week of classes is not usually the best time to do that, but there it is. I got a colleague to cover the Math for Educators class, and I just canceled the Stats class. Friday was going to be the last day of new material, and we were going to have three days of review this next week. So now I'll finish up the new material on Monday, and we'll have two days of review.

Saturday, I felt much better, but I still slept in, and never found time later to run. So I got another day off. The last time I took two days off in a row was January 18 and 19. But I needed it, and I feel better today. I still had kind of a tough run, because I don't yet have all my wind.

Today was the official first training run for the Fox Cities Marathon. I have a more casual training plan this summer. Rather than planning out every day, all I have planned is my long runs. I have a gradually increasing schedule of long runs through the whole summer. But during the week, I'll just run as I'm able to. We'll see how that goes. Today's run was only 10 miles, and I'm actually grateful for that. I couldn't have done much more.