155th ride - 11/18/2015

This morning I went out at 9:30, to ride under gray, gloomy skies with a light wind. (At least it wasn't cold, though, at 60°.) I had in mind doing three round trips to Marsh Park, and got started off fine—but after I reached the park and turned back, it began sprinkling. It was never a heavy rain, but just enough to be irritating to a guy who wears glasses. So I changed my plan and decided to just do a single round trip this morning (9.5 miles in 55 minutes), and, weather permitting, try to add to it this afternoon. I continue to make good progress on my Requiem that I'm composing, so I figured the time could be put to good use that way.

On the way home, I snapped a picture, looking up Lohr Rd. (actually, the sidewalk beside it on which I ride) from Oak Valley. It shows the hill I climb to conclude almost all of my rides. It is not too tough, but coming at the end of a 10 (or 20, or 25, or 30 mile ride), it is not a welcome sight. And it's made worse by the fact that I have to climb two larger hills before it, between Ellsworth Rd. and Oak Valley.

It reminds me of the running I did at St. Olaf College back in the seventies. I didn't run when I was a student (1975–79), but the year following graduation my wife Deb and I stayed on as Head Residents in one of the tower dorms (Larson Hall), and I would occasionally run then, especially in the spring of 1980. St. Olaf sits atop a fairly formidable hill (a campus nickname is, in fact, "The Hill")—much more challenging than the one in this picture—and it was always a character-builder to finish runs by climbing that hill. In particular, when my sister Marianne visited us that spring, and ran with me one day, I remember her being not fond of that climb!