Weekly wrap-up. All of the emotions happened this week.
Monday: 45min easy. I don't remember anything about this run. I don't even remember doing it. Apparently I went out at like 8pm, probably because last week was hot?
Tuesday and Wednesday: off. We had school open-house, packing for a camping trip, and a lot of last-minute things to do for DS1 to get ready for move-in day at college.
Thursday: Family camping in the UP. This is the 2nd time our XC team has made this trip, and it's pretty fun to get most of the families and most of the runners all together in a big group. We book sites near each other in Van Riper State Park, which is about 45min west of Marquette. The campground has sites with electric (fill holding tanks at the entrance for water) and a nice modern bathroom facility in the middle. The sites aren't as tiny as they are at some state campgrounds, and there is also a great playground, a beach, and several hiking trails just across the road. It takes about 6hrs to get there from our house, and we wanted to include enough time for a breakfast stop, gas, slow traffic, and lunch before DS2 did the course walk-through for the meet we were traveling for. Our initial plan for this trip was to take the camper up on Wednesday afternoon/evening and stay through Sunday afternoon. So we booked a campsite for that plan. And then about 3 weeks later we found out that this was the same weekend as DS1's move-in day for college dorms. I went back and looked at the booking site again, because we know there are a few cabins AT the campground; of course those were all booked, but just a mile down the road was a rustic cabin (no water/electricity) for less total cost than 1 night in a hotel room! We decided to book that instead since pulling the camper that far for a 48hr stay seemed a bit silly. Since we would lose the price for the camper site, we kept it in case they needed a place to put additional tents or for cooking/cornhole boards/anything else extra space might be needed for. We ended up being thankful for the cabin because it did rain pretty heavily the first night, so we stayed dry
even though I was basically unable to sleep for most of the night for whatever reason.
So on Thursday morning we were up and driving at 7:30am. We ate lunch in Marquette and then met the rest of his team and coaches at
Presque Isle (Black Rocks) park to do the course walk-through.
I walked the course as my workout for the day and let me just say: that courses is a doozey. Then it was off to the campground to help set up tents that other runners were borrowing from us, and have dinner.
Friday: a super-early wake-up so we could be driving to the meet by 7:15am. I had pre-made breakfast burritos at home, so we just tossed those on a grill to warm up. DS2 ran OK. He has what we think is a big mental problem in races because he goes out and crushes his workouts at practice and those times/paces indicate that he could be running a full minute faster than he is (like he "should" be running low 17s and not low/mid 18s.) But for whatever reason that's not happening. After the meet we did a team/family picnic and then checked out the Black Rocks for a little bit before we left to head back to the cabin for a very much needed nap. After a few hours of sleep we
hiked the 2.5mi trail behind the campground area we stayed at. The trail was pretty good, and they had recently come in and repaired or installed some stairs for one portion. That night we had some faint northern lights appear (I would have stayed on the beach for a few hours in the the early morning to watch them, because it looks like they peaked at about 2am from other pics I saw) and lots of laughs and fun with the other parents and the kids.
Saturday: the kids did their long run (7 to 12mi depending on the group) and then we did a massive group breakfast where everyone brought their breakfast stuff to one campsite and we had 1 full-size blackstone grill, 3 small ones, and an electric frying pan going. No lie, they cooked 10# of bacon and probably that much sausage as well. We had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, french toast, 3 kinds of berries, toast, croissants, coffee, juice; really the whole thing was a bit ridiculous and completely awesome. And then we packed up our personal stuff and headed out for our 6hr drive home. We stopped in Mackinaw City for fudge (JoAnn's is the best, in case you were wondering) and got home in time to help DS1 get the remainder of his stuff into the car and get sort-of a good night's sleep.
Sunday: Up and on the road by 6am. Yes. After driving home from the mid/western part of the UP, we were back in the car to drive down to the greater Detroit area. This is our oldest kiddo, so I had all of the mom-emotions yesterday. Moving DS1 into his dorm was quick and easy. His roommates seem nice, based on a brief first-impression. We got lunch, picked up a few additional things, and then headed back home. (In case you weren't keeping track, that was 7 hours in the car on Thursday, 2 hours in the car Friday, 7 hours in the car Saturday, and 8 hours in the car on Sunday.)
School starts tomorrow, and we have a few things going on with sports and DH refereeing football. DD starts pre-school next week and I'll be working pie shifts on Mondays and Wednesdays while she is in school until they close down for the season....usually late October. I'm planning on taking my running stuff with me in the car in case I get done with pies before DD needs picked up and have time to fit a run in. Otherwise, I'm going to have to figure out how to motivate to get on the treadmill in the morning before taking her to school/going to work because we have a soccer game or XC meet most weeknights.
I can't remember how fast the 50K sells out, but I want to say it's nowhere near as fast as the half. I'd like to see how the NYC marathon goes for me before I commit, so hoping I've got some time to decide.
