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Your first big test

June 7, 2008 in metablogging, training by michael | No comments

It’s T minus 1,049 days, and you’re overdue for a trial run. Here’s your plan:

- Fly to Minneapolis to see your dear friends Erik and Ann get married.

- Sleep for a few nights in Erik’s dad’s sailboat. Don’t worry, you shouldn’t need a bag. How cold can it be during mid-May in southeast Minnesota?

- Take a three-day kayak trip down the Mississippi. Camp wherever you can find a spot.

- Take a few days off while staying with your friend Andy in Red Wing. Andy’s the one who sometimes calls you to announce that he’s just purchased a ten-pound cube of dangerously potent cheese. You’ll enjoy hanging out with Andy.

- Get Andy to drive you to Waterloo, Iowa, then walk from there to Grinnell, Iowa, where you went to college. That’s 68 miles — five days, at a nice, easy 14 miles a day. After all, Iowa’s flat as a pancake, right? Hey, you lived there for five years. Of course it is. Shouldn’t be a problem. So don’t bother swinging by the REI or anything. You won’t need expensive socks for this light jaunt.

- Keep a journal. When you get back, use the notes to keep a running set of blog posts in more-or-less real-time, three weeks after the actual events.