Yes, I like Gordon Lightfoot! I listened to his records a lot as a kid. Also The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald made me terrified of Lake Superior.

Yesterday was absolutely dreary. It snowed in the early morning, changing to a “wintry mix,” as they say, and then the sun made a brief appearance as I was driving back to Minnesota over the high bridge. I take that as a sign from above.

I am absolutely sick of every road running route I have. Today would have been a nice day to get out of that rut, but I didn’t want to risk ending up on a sloppy mess of a trail, so I ran on the road. 5 miles. With wind gusting up to 35 mph. I totally walked about 20-25% of the run. There was no way on this earth I would be running uphill into the wind.

While I was learning about welding today, I made a list of state parks I need to run or hike in this summer (or spring or fall). Here’s my list so far:

Banning
Jay Cooke
Gooseberry Falls
Split Rock Lighthouse
Tettegouche
George Crosby Manitou
Temperance River
Cascade River
Grand Portage
Soudan Underground Mine
Itasca (maybe)
Lake Bemidji (maybe)

I skipped a few parks in the Arrowhead, because I’ve got to leave something for next year, and I put the Northwestern parks as maybes because I’m not sure we’ll go to Bemidji. I’ll grab a state park pass the first time I’m at one; they’re $25 and good for a year. Some of the closer parks should be good for some of my long runs during this training cycle.