Finally, Inidana

I can't remember exactly when I made the goal, but I want to run an ultra in each of the 50 states, plus D.C. In some cases I'll settle for a marathon, but I'd rather run an ultra. While I'm living in Illinois I'd like to take care of most of the Midwest since travel is now much easier and cheaper than it will be after we move.

I live about 40 miles from the Indiana border, so next to Illinois one would think this would be the easiest state. For some reason, tho, it has taken me 2 1/2 years of running ultras to finally get this state done. And it wasn't easy: I had to run 50Ks on two consecutive weekends. Well, that or choose between Indiana and Iowa, both states where ultras are hard to come by.

My plan was to run strong at Hawkeye in IA and just take HUFF as it came. If you read my last post, you know "strong" is not a good description of my run at Hawkeye. So I wasn't sure how HUFF was going to play out. I just knew I'd take it easy.

The trails at HUFF were completely covered in snow. For scenery this gave us a beautiful blanket of white covering the forest. As a running surface snow tends to suck out energy as every attempt to push forward results in some reverse motion. In other words, the footing was less than firm. Since the snow was packed down, tho, it still was very runnable. The weather was also good. At the start the temps were in the single digits, with wind chills below 0 F. The sun was shining as it continued to do all day, and temps rose into the 20s before most of us finished.

As it turned out, I never really faced battles at HUFF like I'd faced at Hawkeye. I never questioned a finish (just occasionally begged for it to come soon). I did cramp in one spot in one quad, but not until late in the race, and I realized I was favoring that leg.

So 8 states down. That's California, Massachusetts, and a few in the Midwest:

42 to go. The plan for this spring is to knock-off Minnesota, Missouri, and Michigan.