Distance today = 38.38 km; Total distance = 6140.51 km; Location = Cheyenne (25 km east of) – 41 09.555′ N, 104 37.497′ W; Start time = 0852 Finish time = 1413

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/175962906

Before I begin, happy birthday to my daughter, Hannah, and also to our friend Marcelle. Hope you both had good days.

I decided to see a bit of Cheyenne during the run today, so I traversed from west to east, taking in the city and some of the suburbs. With a population of around 60,000, it’s a very nice size, and I enjoyed seeing much of it.

However, after several days of record high temperatures, the weather decided to snow on me this morning. I can’t say I was prepared, as I had no gloves and just a jacket over my T-shirt. I was cold for a while, but I’ve experienced worse.

Cheyenne has a lot of information boards extolling its history. I didn’t realise that it was the richest city in the US per capita around the 1880s. This was off the back of the first transcontinental train line, with all the cattle barons shipping their beef back east via Cheyenne. The first transcontinental paved road, started in 1913, also passed through Cheyenne. I ran on this road today; the US-30. Many layers of repaving can be evidenced by the height of the road above the neighbouring gravel. I reckon an archaeologist will have a field day in the future, taking a nice transect through this road. The road has since been superseded by the I-80 in Cheyenne.

I ended with a relatively short day, then we headed back to Denver by car. This is part of a planned logistics and rest break. We have several things to get organised, so I am not planning on being back on the road for a few days yet. I am not injured, tired, or burned out – in fact, my legs felt fantastic today and I would like to have run 20 km more. However, I am going to stick to the plan, as in past years I’ve pushed myself till something breaks – I can’t afford to do that on this run. So I’ll play it conservatively, especially as I’m so far ahead of schedule. I’m sure I’ll come up fresher than ever.

Stay tuned, and I’ll try to give an update on plans in the next few days. I will be doing short maintenance runs in the interim, although these will not count toward my run around the world. And I will be recommencing the world run from exactly the spot I finished at today in Wyoming.