40 Days: Life, Love, Loss and A Historic Run Around One of the World's Largest Lakes

by Steven Cannon

It reminded me of a man starving for water after days in the desert. Once lucky enough to find water, it is not wise to guzzle. However, the temptation is impossible to resist. The AC was no different. Each day had been so brutally hot. We had some respite in the RV, but it was impossible to get the rig really chilled. The problem with dropping the room temperature to sixty degrees or less is that the body really shuts down. It feasts on the cool temps, convincing itself that the torture is over. Many years prior, while bike touring from Colorado to Iowa to meet up with RAGBRAI, I had encountered the same issue for the first time. Mighty (AKA Keri Mounce) and I had decided after a few days of fighting 100-degree-plus temperatures through Colorado and western Nebraska, that we would treat ourselves to a hotel sleep. It had been nearly impossible to drag ourselves out into the already sweltering day the next morning. We had to make a vow of silence for the first few hours because we were so fouled out. It was either silence or a fist fight. Mighty is all of 120 pounds, but in her mood, attempting conversation would have been the equivalent of sticking my head into a bag of cats. Silence seemed a better plan. The savior that morning for Meeks and me was that sleeping in was not an option; we had an interview at 7:30 a.m. with Chicago television station WCIU that had been covering us for weeks before the run. The You and Me This Morning crew had been real friends to the run. ...