Small Game Beware

The Bear and the Panther are on the loose.

The Hylton clan is heading down to Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park for Friday and Saturday night, with the intention of driving up to Eagle Bluff (about 10 miles away) for me to run the race Saturday afternoon. T-Clog, a little allergy-induced dropoff notwithstanding, will be testing the results of one of his finest periods of sustained cariovascular exercise regimines; and experience the thrill of being part of a pack of sweaty humans, bounding through the woods to the cheers and encouragement of onlookers (including Sharon, Lucy, and Rose). Personally, I don't do all that many 5k runs these days. For me, running for time rather than as a test of endurance, it's the most painful of all races. To get a good time, I need to head out at an uncomfortably fast pace, feeling herky & jerky and not into the flow, and sustain it for 20-21 greuling minutes (longer on a trail, I'm sure; I've actually never done a 5k trail race). In a longer race (10 mile, 25k, etc.), I can ease into my race pace as my body warms up over the first few miles. I've been told that I should run a mile or two to warm up my body for a 5k, but I've never really been able to bring myself to do it, thinking that I'm just going to need every ounce of energy I have for the run itself. Anyway, in the shadow of T-Clog's training is the relatively quiet reality that I, myself, am still in the midst of one of my own "longest sustained cardiovascular exercise regimines." My experiment with the health club at work began on June 9 and I'd have to say I'm still averaging five workouts a week. In recent times, with this race (and actually another race or two) looming, many of my "elliptical" workouts have given way to running over lunch and during the weekend at home. It's not been totally running-specific training, overall; so I really don't know how to guage my "running-shape," per-se; but I can say that I think I'm in about the best overall physical condition since my marathon training days. I am highly curious to put it all to the test.

I'm also looking forward to the camping. It definitely adds an element of challenge (or jsut subtracts an element of R&R), camping with a < 1 year old. Lucy's at an age of curiousity, exploration, and capabilities where almost all experiences shared with are are universally joyful. Rose, however much she may enjoy the fresh air and millions of curious new things to see, is going to need constant supervision. Especially being a lot more mobile & driven to try and stick things in her mouth than was Lucy at that age.

Forestville/Mystery Cave Park is a natural area wth multiple dimensions. I think it has the highest usage by any state park by campers on horseback. It also has some pretty fine trout streams and the wildly varied topo that is common in SE Minnesota. But the two things that really set it apart from most other MN state parks are a restored frontier town with living history presenters (Forestville), and the 12th (not sure about that stat - it's somewhere around there) largest cave in North America. 12+ miles of underground passages that have yet to all be explored, and remain at a constant 48 degrees year-round (it'd be an awesome place to camp in mid-summer). We'll be taking a one hour tour that encompasses quite a bit but apparently is hilighted with a sighting of a transluscent turquoise lake. It almost sounds a little too close to my recent Jules Verne experience for comfort. If we run into any giant lizards with sails glued on their backs, I'm outta there.

rock on, Bear!