Tag Archives: Decorah Iowa

50 Years of Running: Getting past the crap and the flies

The year was half over, and running races in March, April, May, and June was fun, but the brain and body needed a rest. By late July of 1984, I was ready for a break from racing, but there were … Continue reading

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50 Years of Running: Life tectonics

By the winter of 1981, I’d completed much of the fictional book Admissions that I’d written on the train while commuting to Chicago. One of the main characters in the book was a professor that invented a concept called Life … Continue reading

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50 Years of Running: Snake Eyes

During four years of college in Decorah, Iowa, I got to know the landscape pretty well. It helped to be enrolled in a field biology class, where we explored native prairies, caught frogs in cold freshwater springs, did duck surveys … Continue reading

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50 Years of Running: The Achilles Heel

On October 2nd of 1978, our cross country team ran a hill workout in Palisades Park, a bluff reserve on the southeast side of downtown Decorah. That weekend, we were scheduled to race at the St. Olaf Invitational. My former … Continue reading

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50 Years of Running: Sweet summer sweat

Following high school graduation, the pressure to find a summer job and earn “money for college” entered the picture for the first time. I stumbled around the first few weeks looking for who-knows-what kind of job, then got offered a … Continue reading

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Life is a long letter being written one day at a time

The letter was written seven weeks into my senior year in college, the season in which our cross country team would go on to place second in the NCAA Division III championships. Continue reading

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How much do you value your college experience?

I’m leading off today’s original thoughts on running, riding and swimming by asking readers to consider a question: How much do you value your college experience? And then I’ll follow up with a confession. Perhaps I’m one of those people … Continue reading

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There is still some Wonder Left

One of the most difficult tasks in life is sustaining a sense of wonder about the world and daily experiences. So much of our existence is taken up by routine and obligations that finding a thrill can be tough as … Continue reading

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Finding unity in a sweet season

This is the sixth in a series of articles about the Sweet Season of 1978, my college senior year when our Luther College team placed second in the nation in NCAA Division III cross country. To follow the chronological narrative … Continue reading

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No better place than Decorah, Iowa

As a freshman at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, the new environment around our college campus was a mystery. Those first few weeks looping around town in training for cross-country amounted to one unveiling after another. There were gravel roads … Continue reading

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