St. Joseph, MI: Finally State #40

I made up my mind even before leaving Oregon that I was going to try to do a race in Michigan if at all possible. It’s been two years since I was able to check off a new state and I feel like I’m running out of time. 

I found a race in SW Michigan right on Lake Michigan so that was my goal. The plan was to spend Friday night and race then leave immediately after the race and drive to O’Fallon, Illinois to catch Haley’s game. The first part worked out well, the second not so much. 

On the way up I got to visit Indiana Dunes National Park and get my National Parks Passport stamped for the first time in a while. It’s a beautiful park with a lot of beach and hiking trails. 





The race was good with only some slight hills. The people were friendly and it felt great to be amongst the running community again. I managed to “fast” walk and alternate with very little slow “plogging” but at least it felt good to move. I even managed to finish 3rd in the 70+ age group. 









The drive home is where plans changed. I ran into traffic in Illinois where I traveled 13 miles in an hour and that made it impossible to get to Haley’s game at 3:00 in O’Fallon or Chase’s game in Decatur,Illinois that started at 2:00. So I wound up just driving straight home and arriving right after Haley and Stacie. 







One thing that was cool about the drive too is that I drove pretty much all the rest of what used to be Route 66 with the exception of actually going into Chicago. 

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