Weekend Roundup

Action shot: Taken in Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wi near mile 3 of a 4 mile training run.

Well, my camping trip to Devil's Lake was mostly a wash out. I got one good night of weather on Friday, and woke up to a beautiful morning on Saturday which was good enough to squeeze in my training run.

After noon on Saturday, the clouds started to roll in, and so did the watches and warnings- and I mean LOTS of 'em- flash floods, thunderstorm watches, severe weather warnings, high wind warnings, tornado watches and warnings... the whole gamut of weather-related craziness. There were tornado sirens going off all around me, and I know of two tornado's that touched down about 7 miles from where I was, and countless funnel cloud sightings. It was serious stuff.

And then there was the rain- it just poured and poured buckets. There was a brief break in it all in the early afternoon on Saturday, that is until more tornado sirens went off and it all started up again- GOODNESS! I'd just about had it.

Now, I've camped through severe weather before, and don't get particularly shaken up by it all as long as I have a safety plan. My plan this time was to head towards the only solid, brick structure around- the shower building! It would do, 'cause that's all I had that was solidly bolted to the ground. Fortunately, I never got to use it.

But I know when enough is enough. It was getting dark, the sirens were still going off, and the rain would_not_stop. I packed up and shacked up in a hotel room near the park Saturday night to dry off and have a peaceful meal. I'm glad I did, because it rained ALL NIGHT, and into the morning. They probably would of found me stiff, and floating down some river still in my tent.

Still, I loved the experience, and gained a greater respect for all that nature had to offer me that day- the cute stuff, and the dangerous.

I did manage to get a great training run in Saturday morning, and found the fast, high sloping hills and the high elevation of the park quite the challenge both mentally and physically. There were actually times I wanted to stop! The hills absolutely killed me, but I can't wait to go back and run there again before Chicago.

Thanks to those of you who were concerned for my safety, but all is well and I am unscathed.

Until the next adventure...

See more photos of my trip on my Flickr page.