I kicked off the start of the long weekend (and vacation!) with an early morning run at the Brad on Friday. I started out just as the woods were lightening up, around 5:53 am, and caught the start of the sunrise atop the summit. Really pretty.
Sunrise atop the Brad
From there I headed out toward Lawrence Road, taking the Wiggles as a change of pace. Fun!
Sun rising over the Wiggles
Golden light, field view
When I planned out my runs for the week, it somehow seemed reasonable to get in a 4+ hour run then get home and get us all organized for our camping weekend. As I was sweating my a** off around mile 3 of my run, I started to panic thinking about all that I needed to get done and came to the conclusion that it was probably not meant to be a long run day. The fact that it was 90+% humidity helped me realize that too ;) Soooo sticky! Well, I had told Tami that I would meet her at 7:30, so after 7 miles, I was back at the car to run a few more with her. I told her my decision but said I was still hoping for 10-12 miles, so we decided to run the east side of the BBU course. It was nice to catch up with Tami, and since we kept the pace pretty mellow, I did feel better. But I was still sweating ;) And I still decided to call it a day at 12.2 miles.
Then it was home to go grocery shopping, clean the house and get the car organized for camping. Let vacation begin!
We had a great weekend with our friends, laughing, relaxing, talking, hiking, running, playing, drinking and enjoying being together. Such fun!
View from our campsite
Quiet cove
Sandpipers
Wolfes Neck vista
Blue sky, blue waters
Sam being goofy
Cutie Charlotte
Out to Periwinkle Rock
Beach selfie
Meg called this the "diva pose" ;)
Shannon and I
The girls having fun in the water (and mud)
At the shoreline
Mud war paint ;)
The kids LOVED Maya!
(Part of) the crew. Such a great group! We are so lucky!
Hanging with Maya
As Ryan had claimed Saturday morning for a long run with the guys, I was up and out early on Sunday so that I could get in my long run and still be able to see everyone before they headed out. I woke up and snuck out of the tent around 5:30. While I was eating breakfast and getting myself ready to go, I was lucky enough to enjoy the sunrise across the water.
Beautiful sunrise from our campsite
Sun rising
I wanted to be able to come back to the campsite mid-run to get extra water, etc, but I wasn't quite sure how I would pull it off. To get things going, I headed up the dirt road to to run the trails in the State Park. They are a mix of rooty and technical hiking trails and nicely graded graveled wide paths.
A fine start to the morning.
From there, I ran out to the end of the road and then back. As my watch was only just hitting 7 miles, I knew I couldn't head back to the campsite yet, so decided to continue out to Flying Point Road and come in on Lower Flying Point and through the campground. There was a lot of traffic heading out to Flying Point as there was a big bike tour/race going on at the farm over the weekend but everyone was courteous. Flying Point is very rolling but with all the pavement in the middle of the run, I was able to keep a pretty good pace. I finished up by running through the other side of the campground and along the connector trail back to our site. In the end, the loop got me back at 11.1 miles. Perfect!
Being silly like I am, I paused my watch when I stopped in at the bathroom and then instead of turning it back on, stopped the run instead. So, my run turned into two 11 mile loops on Strava instead of one big 22 mile run, but hey ;) I refilled my water, dropped my trash and said hi to everyone, most of whom had just woken up not long before, and headed back out.
To keep things simple, I decided to just run the same loop again, and while the humidity dropped on the second loop, the sun also rose higher in the sky and it got pretty warm out there on the roads. Still, I managed to keep the 2nd loop at pretty much exactly the same pace as the first, 9:44 average, with the trails being 11:00/12:00 pace and some of the road miles down in the 8:30s. Nothing like a good spread for pacing ;) HA! In the end, I felt good and happy to have gotten the miles in. Roads are harder and easier all at the same time for me, so it was nice to have a mix of trail, dirt road and pavement to keep things interesting.
And I got back in time to see everyone who was taking off early and so that Sam, Ryan and I could join Doug, Adam, Shannon, Nate and kids for lunch (and ice cream, of course!) at the snack shack.
After Doug and Adam took off, we went for a hike with Shannon, Nate and the kids on the trails behind the farm. It was a nice, easy less than a mile walk in the woods. A good way to keep the legs from getting stiff ;)
White mushroom
Cool orange fungus
Little yellows!
Indian pipe
Tidal river
Out hiking
Sam and Annelise
Happy hikers!
When we finally got back to the campground, it seemed very quiet. We had decided to stay another night, as it was the start of our vacation week and we weren't headed up to MDI until Wednesday. To keep Sam busy (she was already missing the other kids), she and I took a walk along the shore while Ryan got in his run. It truly is a beautiful place!
Thumbs up on another night of camping!
Playing in the mud
Little kid, big view
My cutie
After dinner, we built a fire and roasted marshmallows. Oh, and Sam got a blue raspberry ring pop at the store (can you see her blue mouth?!) :)
Camping!
Blue tongue!
Sparkler fun
This morning, I went for a nice easy 10k run up on the Wolfes Neck trails and back to the campground while Sam and Ryan explored the shoreline at high tide.
Beautiful view
Recompense panorama
Our Sam
Down by the ocean
It was a wonderful long weekend spent at a place we love with dear friends. Such fun!
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