It was in the early 1990s that Erich Mische first met the thin and dapper attorney with dreams of public office.

“He was a skinny lawyer working in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office,” said Mische, recalling how Norm Coleman wooed him at a coffee shop to become his campaign manager. “He beguiled me with his tales of how he was going to turn St. Paul all around.”

Coleman, then still a DFLer, ran for mayor against a crowded primary ballot that included DFL-endorsed Andy Dawkins and won. He would go on to serve for eight years in City Hall.

When Coleman, who became a Republican over the course of his years of service, was elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota, he tapped Mische — who also served as his communications director — to join him in Washington, D.C. as his chief of staff.

Not all their adventures were successful.

Mische recalled leading an effort to bring the Minnesota Twins to St. Paul — “we lost miserably.” But the Coleman years will nevertheless go down in history as memorable ones.

That’s in no small part due to Coleman’s efforts to build downtown St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, which lured professional hockey back to Minnesota.

On Friday, Mische will celebrate his former boss’ 70th birthday with an unusual feat. He’ll walk the quarter-mile concourse of the Xcel Center all day, overnight and well into the next day if he has to until he’s reached 70 miles in honor of Coleman, who has been battling cancer since 2015. That’s 290 to 300 laps.

The ground-level lobby is “one big circle,” Mische said. “I’ve run seven marathons before, but I’ve never actually walked 70 miles before at one time. I’m either going to end up with a pair of shoes that lean in one direction or I’m going to be really dizzy.

“As (Coleman) told me when I told him I was going to do it, he said, ‘You’re insane,'” Mische said. “I’ve known him long enough to know most of the time when he says that, it’s a term of endearment.”

At the end of his walk, he’ll cut a cake and send a video message to his old boss, who begins his next phase of post-surgery cancer therapy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. on Wednesday. Coleman, in a Facebook post on Monday, said he had part of his lung removed three weeks ago but is still keeping a busy schedule.

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“The arrows in the quiver are getting a little thin,” said Coleman, in his social media post. “This week I start on immunotherapy at Mayo. I’m hoping it’s more than just a Hail Mary (even good Jewish boys can embrace a successful Hail Mary!). But the bottom line is I’m keeping the faith and confident we can tame the beast.”

Mische, the longtime director of the charitable organization Spare Key, said anyone who cares to join him for part of the walk can sign up for a shift at tinyurl.com/NormColemanWalk.

He’s asking participants and well-wishers to make a donation to a family in need at helpmebounce.org, a crowdfunding platform that Spare Key built to directly benefit families of critically ill and injured patients.