Tuesday, August 9, 2016

A Little Run Across America's 4th Largest State

I live in Indiana, but I called Montana "home" for 31 years. It is the 4th largest state in the USA and is slightly larger than Japan. In Montana you can access some amazing national parks, such as Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. It's the best of America's west and stretches from the Northern Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains.

I ran 620 miles across Montana during my solo coast-to-coast run across America in 2006. Most days during my 21-day run from the Idaho border to the North Dakota border were in 95+ degree heat. Crops and cattle were dying from the heat and forest fires were blazing. It was very difficult to cross the state in 3 weeks without a support crew. However, I managed to do the west to east run.

Two years later, in April 2008, I decided to do another run across Montana -- this time east to west. I began at the North Dakota border and had chosen to run the same route as I did two years earlier, just in the opposite direction. I had three days at 40+ miles each, and seven days at 33+ miles each. I ran solo, pushing a stroller of gear, food and water (which weighed around 70 pounds when full). I started in the Great Plains surrounded by oil wells and antelope. I ran west, eventually reaching the Rocky Mountains. It was springtime, but I encountered two snow storms and some days reaching over 90 degrees. Rain, wind, sleet, and plenty of desolate countryside were all a part of the experience. In short, it was a very difficult run!

I maintained an online classroom as I ran, uploading pictures, videos and journal writings from the road so that students around the world could experience my adventure. I taught about Montana, running, health/nutrition, Native American traditions, and geography. I received wonderful words of encouragement from a global audience who would write in my online guestbook.

On the second day of the adventure I strained a ligament in my left foot and had to slow my running pace, although it didn't keep me from meeting my daily mileage. It just meant that I had to be on the road longer each day. I even managed to run 247 miles in the final week up the Northern Rocky Mountains to the Idaho border... of course, while pushing the equivalent of half of my body weight. The headwinds were much stronger for the east-to-west run across Montana, mainly due to the easterly flow of the jet stream. I persevered through chapped lips, bad blisters, toenail loss, wind burn, and the ligament injury to finish that 2008 run across Montana one day faster than I had done it in 2006. A total of 620 miles in 20 days on the road. Highway 12 across Montana didn't have a shoulder most of the time and running in the rough slant on the edge of the road was challenging.

I'm the only person to have run solo across Montana. Having run across that state both ways, I can honestly say that if you ever consider taking on the challenge -- run west to east. Start in the mountains and run down to the Great Plains. Your body will adapt better and you'll be in for quite an adventure!

I wrote these words in my journal after completing my 2008 solo run across Montana:
"My east-to-west trek across Montana this spring was harder than my west-to-east Montana crossing in 2006. What was the main struggle? The wind! I seemed to have persistent headwinds nearly every day on the road, and those winds would dehydrate my body and certainly cause damage to my skin. The effort I had to expend in order to make progress through a 35 to 42 mile day was often indescribable. I burned many more calories due to the amount of exertion needed to accomplish the large daily distances, and my energy levels were often operating below what is usually acceptable for such ultra-endurance treks. My recovery time at night was shortened due to the extended amount of time I had to be on the road each day to accomplish the distances in order to complete the 620-mile course in 20 days on the road. It was truly exhausting. The weather tossed at me everything I could have imagined. I ran through two snowstorms, many moments of cold sleet, rain, and days of heat that were so intense that I couldn't keep the sun block lotion on well enough to fully protect my skin. I burned my left ear, my nose, my left collarbone, and my left shoulder blade. By "burn" I mean literally bubbling up the skin on my body in those locations due to heat so hot that it cooked my skin. Since I was always facing west, the sun would come up in the morning behind me and slowly work its way around my left side (the south side) and eventually end up right in front of me. As a result, the right side of my body was spared the damage that the left side received. I'm still working on recovering my skin from the intense heat. After eastern Montana, the heat did not return until my final three days, when I would see the temperatures soar up to 90 degrees. In all, I trekked through temperatures ranging from 19 degrees to 90 degrees. There was quite a bit of damage to my feet on this trek, and that damage started during the rain, slush and eventual snow of day three. My feet got soaked in my running shoes and began to deteriorate. From that point on, I never had enough time off the road to repair my damaged feet (there were some very large, intense blisters). I would spend 20 minutes each morning just bandaging my feet to push them into my shoes for another day. The pain for the first three miles of each day was intense at times and I would walk slowly and try to mentally block out the discomfort. After awhile, my feet would become numb. However, if I were to stop for 20 minutes or more, the pain would return with a vengeance due to the blood flow increasing in my feet (part of the body's damage control process). At the end of the day I dreaded having to take off my running shoes to discover what else may have happened with my feet."
Yep... it was a tough adventure to accomplish. However, I experienced Montana border to border on foot -- similar to the way explorers Lewis and Clark had done 203 years earlier.

I just had to close this post with a picture of my two sons pushing my stroller, "BOB" (short for 'Beast Of Burden'). This picture was taken a couple of days before I finished my run across Montana in 2008. Kyler (left in the picture) was 10 years old and Brian was 8. I'll never forget their encouragement as I was pushing up the final mountain pass for the Idaho border.

From Him, Through Him, For Him (Romans 11:36),

Paul J. Staso
_____________________________________

Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,