Distance today = 50.90 km; Total distance = 8423.53 km; Location = Hastings – 44 42.941′ N, 92 50.873′ W; Start time = 0901, Finish time = 1702

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193463872

I headed out of Minneapolis-St Paul this morning – the home of the Minnesota Twins baseball team, the Minnesota Vikings gridiron team, and the setting for the 1970s series The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

I’d like to again thank Sherla and Dave for their unbelievable hospitality. They are such nice people.

I had a bit of a scare this morning when I awoke with a very sore and swollen right foot. I struggled to walk. But, amazingly, once I put on my shoes and started running, I had no pain. And none throughout the day, so things are looking good. But when running around the world, you’re never totally out of the woods. As Bob Dylan said “Don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin”. So I’m going to stay vigilant.

Speaking of Bob Dylan, when I was struggling through the floods in Duluth last week, I forgot to mention that Duluth is where Bob Dylan was born and lived till he was six years old.

My new shoes are feeling really good now. I think they just needed to “give a little bit”, so I played them some Supertramp and they responded appropriately. Seriously, though, I have been finding my shoes are getting progressively tighter, and I believe it’s because my feet are actually getting bigger due to the extreme amount of running I’m doing. Not longer, just wider and thicker. I think the bones in my feet are increasing in density and thickness, and the muscles and tendons are getting bigger. This is making it more difficult to fit into my shoes. At least the current shoes appear to have stretched adequately now.

Despite temperatures of 36C, I felt really quite good as I paralleled the Mississippi River downstream. I’ll be running along the river quite a bit over the next several days. I’m looking forward to it, but not to the high temperatures that are predicted.