Hi!

I am still hammering away in the pool, I haven't missed a day since I've been in North Dakota. Today I went to the Turtle Mountains along the U.S. - Canadian border, and swam in Strawberry lake. It was nice, the water was really cloudy because it rained hard all night, but I never saw another person. I did see some Moose tracks. I also ran about 2 miles, on some old overgrown forest roads, and made an illegal entry in to Canada. That was kind of fun. I've been testing out my ITB by putting in some really short gentle runs, but I still don't think its ready to go. I can't believe how bad this stupid injury is crushing me down. Sooo Frustrating.... I get 2 days off for Labor day next weekend, enough time to get deep in to Montana, but since serious running isn't much of an option I have my wetsuit and will be looking for a nice glacier fed lake to swim in .


I wonder if they would really arrest me for this??

Minot.....

I have been in Minot, ND for a little over a week, and its looking like I will probably be here for a couple of months. Not thrilled, but at least there is a decent YMCA here in town that I have been able to swim at every night after work. I am getting in some pretty intense workouts and I am pretty happy that I should have a couple of months to start working on my swimming again. Hopefully the next place I end up will have a masters team and I will be in good enough shape to join it. I still haven't ran a step since the marathon. I am trying to heal my injuries once and for all, I think I'm gonna give it another month before I start slowly easing back in to running. I played Disk Golf in the Montana Badlands on Sunday. That was pretty neat. I am hoping to do an open water swimming race on Memorial day in Glacier National park in Montana. I have to try and get enough time off work to be able to make the drive though. I will probably sign up and hope for the best. With my job it always comes down to not knowing if I can go until like the night before.

Grand Island "trail" Marathon

This was a nice run. It was by no means a trail marathon, like they advertised. But the nice flat shaded two tracks made this fairly painless until it was over. Considering the handful of runs that I have done over the last 3 months, my goal was to finish in under 6 hours and not hurt myself. the time goal was easy, but the ITB flared up pretty bad afterwards. I guess the toll will be another couple of months of no running. I will probably take up knitting or something that my body can handle I suppose.
Heath did an awesome job. He wore a wonderful full body spandex outfit and wore a camelback on top of it. I saw him once on an out and back and he was happily in second place at that point.

Jason, Nick and Heath made this trip a lot of fun. I loved swimming in Lake Superior. I need to spend a lot more time there.

Not sure what happened with my map. Begin and end should be at the same spot. I think the distance is accurate though.