Quick Run at Big Stone Lake State Park

Last Wednesday, I posted about a great camping trip the boys and I had in western MN at Big Stone Lake State Park. I left out a part about heading out for a run on our final morning there.

The boys were still quite tired when they woke up (common for anything but the first day of camping), and they just started reading in the tent without wanting to head outside. So I thought I'd just have them stay parked there as I went for a little run.

There were some grassy trails between the campground and the highway, but they were roughly cut with like a Bush Hog and not a nice mower. So they would be wet and nasty after the downpour we had 2-3 hours earlier. The highway outside the state park was winding with no real shoulder, so it wasn't safe to run on. But there was a gravel road on the other side of a cattle farm, so I just had to run about 300 meters or so on the highway:

My route (with HALF MILE splits noted - I didn't run 8+ miles).

After I got up a hill next to the cattle farm (where all the cows ran over to see me), the road looked like this:

Looks like where I grew up.

I decided to turn at the next intersection (as the map above shows) because there was a big farm yard up ahead, and what I've learned from growing up training for CC in the country is that big farm yards can equal big farm dogs. Big farm dogs that aren't used to people trotting by their farm. So I turned and ran past wheat and bean fields and turned around here:

I had to stop and take a pic of this gorgeous wheat field.


Headed back down the hill next to the cattle farm with the highway up ahead,
as well as parts of Big Stone Lake peaking through the trees way up there.

My legs were tried/heavy from camping, so my 1/2 mile splits started slow and descended as I worked my way into it (even though this was just a "run" with no effort or goals): 3:56, 3:53, 3:42, 3:40, 3:39, 3:33, 3:23, and 3:40 (before another few minutes of cool down).

It was a great morning for a little run! I got back and we all had breakfast.

Here's my post about camping if you missed it.