Day 499 – US – Montana [Hathaway to Miles City]

16/08/21

34km

  From Hathaway (Montana) to Miles City (Montana)

North America

22 miles to Miles City on a very smokey morning, I’m glad it was a short run

The one with “Jerome” written on the shirt is Jerome – I’m the one with the sun on the hat 🙂

This morning it was Jerome’s turn to give me a hand! I met Jerome two days ago in Forsyth, at the Joseph Saloon. He is a long distance runner who also volunteers at many events. It’s quite natural for him that he offered me whatever help I needed. So at 6:30 this morning, he was waiting with his pickup truck outside my motel, to drive me back to my run start point in Hathaway. Since he is a runner himself, I really hope he will be able to run a few miles with me on some of my next stages.

Through the smoke…

At sunrise, the sun and sky were already telling the story of the many wildfires around. The air got thicker and thicker through the morning. I found it quite difficult, which is not a common occurrence for me on this journey. The air quality was labelled “unhealthy” and by the halfway point I was starting to feel nauseous and my breathing was quite laboured. I am surprised I still ran a 6:40/km run, as it felt a lot more difficult than any other day. If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you know by now that I don’t pay attention to the numbers as I run (my 2 GPS devices display kms and elevation only) – I only see the numbers retrospectively as I download the data on my computer. So yes, it was surprising….

Smokey or not, still beautiful – entry to Miles City

I am glad tomorrow is a rest day, I feel I need to breathe at a lower intensity and take it easy for a day. It’s almost a month since I have entered Montana. I am truly amazed by the place. The variety of landscapes, geology, elevation, vegetation, fauna… the isolation, the generosity of the local communities and the care & support I receive from the people I meet is overwhelming. Again, when I started the journey, I said the only thing I was really “expecting” from the journey itself was to be surprised by it. It keeps fulfilling its promise… I am still the happiest and I feel the luckiest person in the world, really…

Check out today’s flyover video: https://www.relive.cc/view/v7O9DB8VWQv

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: