20 miles
bde maka ska and back*
52 degrees
*river road, south/minnehaha falls/minnehaha creek path — past lake hiawatha, lade nokomos, the bunny/lake harriet/william berry parkway/bde maka ska and back
20 miles! The first half of it was fine, then I had some unfinished business and no porta potty for miles. I had to wait 3, or was it 4?, miles before I reached one at lake harriet. Then I went to another one at bde maka ska. I should have returned to the lake harriet one again before heading out into the porta potty dead zone, but I didn’t. Soon, it was difficult to run, so I did more walking than running for the rest of the time. Finally at the lake nokomis pickleball courts, another porta potty! As I waited to use it, I appreciated how lively and crowded it was: packed pickleball courts and playground. It’s great to see people using the park so much. In terms of the unfinished business, why is it such a problem? It is the cliff blocks I’m taking every 3 miles?
I listened to a cozy murder mystery — The Marlow Murder Club — which seems like a pale imitation of the Thursday Murder Club, but was a good distraction. I took out my headphones between the bunny and lake harriet and listened to the creek and a wailing kid.
20 Things
- sparkling river water through the trees
- heard, not seen — laughing kids across the creek — joyful exuberance
- minnehaha creek — first calm and flat, then bubbling, then gushing
- the path by nokomis, which was closed for the summer, has reopened — no more running on sharp gravel!
- early, around 8:30, the pickleball court was already filled
- a few barks from a dog, then a strange, terrible whining noise that I think (hope) was a machine and not an animal
- a hopping squirrel — so graceful and fast, moving across the shaded grass
- 2 adults, an upset kid, and a stroller under the bridge
- more slashes of red, but not much color anywhere else
- heard, not seen — more laughin exuberant kids playing at the creek at the spot where the tall, pedestrian bridge crosses over to the other side of the creek
- lake harriet was crowded — difficult to dodge walkers with dogs coming both ways
- a beach with no buoys, an empty lifeguard’s chair
- a woman adjusting her hiking poles, almost whacking me with them
- taking william berry parkway to reach bde make ska, running down a steep hill
- a striking contrast: waving blue water with bright green grass
- images of butterflies imprinted in the sidewalk
- a honking noise, sounding like a big ship — what was that?
- a flotilla of sailboats, all with white sails
- a real bunny hopping through the grass / a bronze bunny beside the creek path trail
- a single, small leaf, floating under the duck bridge as I crossed it
20 miles was difficult and uncomfortable, but not terrible. I can definitely go farther in 2 weeks. During the last mile, I kept smiling, proud of myself for what I was accomplishing and how far I’ve come since getting injured during marathon training in 2017.