Snow had fallen earlier in the day, and the temperature registered at 13 degrees. But I was jogging in cropped leggings and a T-shirt — not on a treadmill and not on a track so small I'd get dizzy or bored before I put in 3 miles. I was circling the upper concourse at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Just one day earlier, the Vikes had powered through a game on the field below, beating the Detroit Lions.
"Every win is tough," quarterback Kirk Cousins said after the game.
I feel that about every mile. But knowing I was clocking my distance in the home of professional athletes — guys with the kind of drive and grit I could never match — put a kick in my step. What really made me happy, though, was running free of the gear that usually comes with winter. No gloves, no facemask, no layers, no ice beneath my feet.
When I arrived at the stadium, I took the elevator to Level 4 and stepped onto the concourse-turned-running course. When I asked, an usher told me that the bag check was back downstairs at the Legacy Gate. "Most of the runners just tuck their stuff into a seat," she said. I did the same, taking in an unencumbered view of the field.
With upbeat music blasting through stadium speakers, I peeled out. Occasionally, I could spy in-line skaters on the concourse below breezing along on their wheels.
On my third round, I began to doubt the usher, who had told me that about 2 ½ laps make a mile. I stopped to ask another stadium employee, one who had mentioned during our elevator ride up that he had once been a track-and-field coach. It's about 400 meters around, he told me in track speak, then translated when I looked confounded, "a little more than four times around should make a mile."
I decided to stop worrying about mileage and run as long as I liked. Drinking fountains were nicely spaced, as were bathrooms. But when I began to notice the other hallmarks of a stadium — food stands, now darkened, like Andrew Zimmern's Canteen and Fong's Chinese — I figured it was time to head home for dinner.
