Double Feature!
I'm late! I'm late!
For a very important date...
November 29 was my “long” run, about 10 miles at an easy pace. The thing about long runs is that they take a long time (go figure), and you’d think that this would offer ample opportunity for the inner monologue to generate soliloquies (and blog posts) the world over. This is often the case, but not always.
My route took me along the Red River through a string of parks I’ve frequented probably hundreds of times, in all seasons, alone and with dozens of acquaintances, friends, crushes, rivals, mentors, coaches, family, and others in between. That familiarity left me awash with all kinds of memories, so many that I entered a somewhat blank and plodding trance, putting one foot in front of the other focusing on nothing much in particular. This is not an altogether undesirable state to be in on a long run; in fact, sometimes it’s quite welcome to escape into an incoherent inner world.
My attempts at entering full dream-state were interrupted by the insistent recollection of a lunch date planned with a good friend and his wife later in the day; probably a good thing, since I was going too slow and had to cut the run short to make it on time (worth it, it was lovely catching up). Saw some intermittent people of interest: a cross-country ski team for one, and some fellow runners. Got some smiles out of them! It was cold enough that my eyelashes and parts of my beard were covered in frost, which makes me look like, dare I say, quite the winter warrior.
My run on November 30 was similarly uneventful. I rounded out the month with a jog around my digs in the cities again. Got some smiles (and some other funny looks) because I was jogging with my grocery bags…ended the run with a shopping spree.
- Mileage November 29: 8.5
- Mileage November 30: 4.1
- Mileage Week 1: 27.9
- Mileage This Week: 4.1
- Mileage on Lake Patrol: 32.0
- Mileage To Date: A lot.
About Me
Hey everyone! I’m John Christensen, the top-ranked non-finisher at the 2025 Never Summer 60k. I’ll be running the 2026 Grandma’s Marathon in support of the American Cancer Society, a nationwide non-profit in operation since 1913 dedicated to eliminating cancer.
The “Lake Patrol” blog will catalog my training and some of my pontifications and bloviations. I intend to use this as a form of self-coaching, as well as a record of my state of mind that I might appreciate re-reading one day.
If you enjoy the blog, consider making a donation to the ACS on my personal page, directly to the ACS, or to a charity of your choice.