Road Trip: Detroit Lakes

This past Saturday our training group ran in Detroit Lakes.  The day started early with Rick and Kristy picking Erin and I up shortly after 5:00 and on our way out of town we met up with Erik and Maria.  We enjoyed chatting on the drive down and catching up on each others long run from the week before.  As we neared Detroit Lakes a thick fog started to creep in. After a quick bathroom stop we arrived at Washington park just before everyone else started to show up.  Rick was kind enough to setup a rest stop at mile 4.5 and would not be running with us. The temp was in the upper 20s and the wind was dead calm as we started off around the lake.  Kristy ran head with some of our other friends, while Kris, Maria, Erik, Lamont and myself stuck together at the back of the pack.  Erin didn't plan on running the entire 18 miles so she got a ride with Rick to the rest stop and then ran back a little to join us.

Getting ready to run

The first few miles I was a bit nervous about how my foot would hold up.  Since last Saturdays 30 miler I had only run once because it's been giving me some problems. I consciously slowed my pace down and things seemed to go well.  The route was almost the same as the Dick Beardsley half marathon and was somewhat familiar to me.  Before I knew it Erin had met up with us and shortly thereafter Lamont made his turn around leaving Kris, Maria, Erik, Erin and myself playing catchup with Kristy.  We saw her as we pulled into the first rest stop, but she was heading out as we were getting there.  We filled water bottles, said hello to Rick, got some calories down and headed off again into the fog.  The middle of the run was a lot of fun for me.  The road is right next to the lake in a few spots and with the thick fog we could not see across.  it's like the world ended just a few feet away from where we were.

We met up with Kristy at the rest stop that marked the turn around point. She was waiting for us as we again filled bottles and tried to eat what we could. She showed us one of her shoes which had gotten muddy when she stopped to use the bathroom.  As we ran we noticed that the mud had spread all the way up the back of her pants.  With a couple of miles to go before getting back to Rick's rest stop I started to feel something in my foot. I made the decision to stop my run when we got to Rick and get a ride back.

The 5 first timers heading back out into the fog

The rest of the group headed off as I changed clothes and then Rick and I drove back to the park to wait for everyone.  After I stopped the foot quickly felt better and even though I could have toughed it out I know I made the right decision. As the rest of the group arrived at the park Rick and I congratulated them on what was the longest run most of them had ever done. Rick asked if anyone was in a hurry to get back to town or if we wanted to stop and eat. It might have been because I'd been waiting for the others to finish and had time to get hungry, but I was the only one who spoke up about wanting to grab some food.  Fortunately when I suggested heading to Perkins everyone agreed.  The ladies changed clothes in the bathroom there and we all enjoyed a leisurely brunch before heading back to town. This was a great start to the weekend