Eric Walker

From a distance it just looks like light snow on the trees but up close you can see it is frozen drops.

By the time I got out today it was clear but that didn’t stop the pain in the top of my foot so I called it a little early today 🙄

Wasn’t a bad day running along this old rail trail. In fact I did a quick tour through Garfield.

To think a year ago I ran this same route and took this same picture but it was much warmer and no ice on the lake.

Come to find out later in my run those dark clouds had snow in them 🌨😆

It was later in the day than planned but got my birthday run in while the girls were at dance. Went longer than planned but now I have connected some more places on my heat map 😆

Another trip around the sun for me as I flip my internal digits to 41! As I am sitting down in these morning hours, hoping the kids will sleep in longer as they are on Spring Break, I am actually struggling what to write. It isn’t that I don’t know what to write but there was actually a lot of things that happened and I know I won’t capture them all or well enough in this entry. I am still working from home for the most part which is a blessing some days and a curse other times.

However, using past entries as a guide I will follow up on some things I alluded to last year and just talk about other things.

Year two with the RV was much like the first but a little less camping this year as we didn’t know what to expect with kids camps and stuff coming back. We never made it on a real long roadtrip but we visited a couple new places and old ones. I will say even though it is a chore getting the rig ready and cleaned out it seems like once we are at a place everyone enjoyed their time.

*On the top of Mt. Tom in Sibley State Park, MN *

Hanging out for much longer than I would have expected at the Mississippi Headwaters. Everyone enjoyed it!

Sometime just taking a step back and putting your kids in the right surroundings and they will wow you.

Lainey Lou the Doodle loves camping and her favorite camp chair… Sorry humans!

It was my 40th this past year I had some big things planned in the area of running…. The good thing is I did complete the Twin Cities Marathon that I did 20 years ago that day which was just a fun accomplishment in my mind.

My crew really supported me the whole way with cheers.. I loved it!

However, the second thing I had up my sleeves didn’t pan out which might have been for the best. I would have had limited time in between each event so it might have made that Marathon extra hard. However, I decided to embark on my own adventure of a 4x4x40 which I then decided to complete the entire 4x4x48 (which involves running 4 miles ever 4 hours for 48 hours).

Doing a 4x4x48 means sometimes you find yourself running at night in the snow/rain. It’s fun right?

It was one of those fun accomplishments that I was doing for myself and no one knew but me so that made it all the more fun. Kind of like when I ran a 5k a day for 365 days as no one really knew much about it till the end. It wasn’t that I was hiding it but it was something that I wanted to prove to myself just like the 4x4x48. I am not really sure what this year will bring as I haven’t signed up for anything but I keep plugging along. If anything I am going to keep exploring as a good thing about being able to run further from my house is I find new places to explore.

Following some new to me paths in the Riley Creek Conservation Area

As I looking forward to this next year, I am looking forward to traveling again. We have a couple trips in the works for the summer that should be really fun. One with the RV and the other just flying somewhere. As a family we haven’t flew anywhere for such a long time. Additionally, I need to work some more on my “Project Shed” to get it in a better place to work before summer when the kids are at home every day.

I don’t think I did much around “Learning” this past year and for the life of me I am not sure what I was going to do. I guess silly as it is I learned (re-learned) how to be a longer distance runner but I don’t think that is what I was thinking. This year I am still going to focus on other aspects of “Embracing” which has been kind of an ongoing one but more around Embracing moments. I think being kind of locked up for the last two years (which it was good to be safe) has led me to not be as outgoing as I was and I know that needs to change slightly. I think there should be some easy wins here but just need to make the time and commitment to do it. Probably part putting myself out there again after all this time at home 😁.

Previously: 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 ..

The snow finally stopped today and even melted by the time I could get out. Maybe I will choose another route than get my feet soaked 😁

Feeling it in the legs today after the long one yesterday. However, it was 65°F so I had to get out there after work was done.

Found some time late today to hit the streets and trails. It was great exploring some new areas of Eden Prairie and getting some miles in.

Bridge out is a sign I wish was here or that I would have considered my choices a little better. Instead this puddle looked innocent in my quick assessment until it wasn’t as it was well over my ankle when I tried to quick step through it. Made for a wet rest of the run 🤦‍♂️

The adventures today took me running through the Golden Triangle industrial park.

Thankful for the 54°F weather today but that just made everything a wet mess. Ran across these turkeys and quick pulled out my phone to take this photo while running by (look close one is flying up).

Bridge building… I really can’t wait for this to be done as I talked about it to a running buddy back when I took up running again. The road was very narrow with no shoulder. Probably shouldn’t have run on it for all these years and couldn’t get by the barrier today😆.