I’m not sure how Mainly Marathons finds their courses. Today there was no street address as the North Shore Marina, Bowman-Haley Lake, Bowman ND, is on an “unnamed road.” So they gave us GPS coordinates:
N45.99869, W103.26302
I got there this morning … albeit my google maps app took me through a field with a road cut through by a tractor. To be fair, the makeshift bushwhacked trail I drove over was EXACTLY as it appeared on my map — twisty, windy, curvy. The only thing missing from my iPhone display was the 3-D representation of the grass… that in real life were often higher than my hood as I drove on.
There apparently was a paved road way in and I just took the shortcut. Again, I made it, so who can complain too much… but I was pretty weirded out by my early morning bush drive.
The course was a twelve loop deal, a route that was entirely on paved roads… proving I REALLY went the wrong way at 4:24 this morning!
Running beside the water with little wind was a pleasant change from the previous day’s conditions. The lake at Baker, MT, had been drained by FEMA as storm damage had blown half the town into the water. It’ll be refilled but for now it’s a large dry bed. So with minimal wind, round and round we went.
Once the sun rose, temperatures started to climb. There wasn’t a lot of shade so I was glad to be finishing up my loops just as it started to get really hot. The folks who were out there for hours after me are true superheroes.
As I came in to ring the finishers bell, I realized I was one marathon closer to my commemorative “50 races with Mainly” calavera skull. But that’s not until Day 5.
Before that, it’s onto South Dakota and Wyoming. I once again screwed up my hotel planning and am staying farther afield than I should be. To be fair, there’s something about driving those empty roads in the morning to get to the start… even if it occasionally reminds me of some of the spookiest imagery from Twin Peaks.
But I DO prefer paved roads to trailblazing!