But, first a little catch-up...
Friday my parents were supposed to fly into town for a family friend's funeral on Saturday and to join us at Sam's swim meet on Sunday, but in the end, their flight ended up getting cancelled due to the crazy nor'easter :( The storm brought rain and a whole lot of wind to Maine, with the worst being bad coastal flooding, but further south it was much worse and the weather really messed up travel plans for the east coast all weekend long.
I didn't realize this when I woke up on Friday morning with plans to get in my miles before the weather hit. I only knew that Ryan had been snoring all night and Ronnie decided 1am would be a lovely time to yowl all night long and that I was tired and feeling cranky and did not want to be up and out early running. So I didn't. Unfortunately, the cranky feeling hung around all day and while I did accomplish all my errands and cleaning, and got up to Auburn to pick up prizes for Ryan for Sunday's snowshoe race, I also never ended up running. I could have gone when I got back home around 3:30 from picking up prizes, but it was raw and damp and overcast and wicked windy and I frankly was in no mood. The long view on this is that we are all have bad mood days and that is OK as long as we recognize it and can snap out of it, and that not running my 10 miles on Friday ended up being no big deal, but sometimes in the midst of it all, it weighs on you, and this meant that by evening, I was in a funk.
I knew my chances for get in my 10 miles had narrowed significantly since I didn't accomplish them on Friday, as Saturday morning Ryan needed to head to Brad to mark the course and by the time he got home, Sam and I would be headed up to Bangor. So when my alarm went off, I got myself out of bed and headed out into the dark and wind, because when push comes to shove, I can usually get things done even if I don't do them as originally intended. Due to the crazy winds, I decided to head out into the Cathance and take my chances with conditions. I ended up finding a bit of everything, from bare ground to ice to surprisingly decent packed trails, and the woods nicely protected me from the wind. It was too overcast for a good sunrise but the river was roaring.
I got in a nice loop on the trails and then tacked on some additional road and sweet sweet packed back dirt road and powerlines running at the end. I got back at 7:27, just in time for Ryan to head to Bradbury. (10.0 miles)
While Ryan was out, Sam and I got packed up, did some house stuff and picked up the soup from Frontier for Sunday's race (yum!). Then later in the afternoon after Ryan got home, we headed north. We got settled into the hotel and then went off in search of an early dinner. We ended up at Unami, a noodle bar in downtown Bangor, with a slightly funky interior but delicious food! Perfect!
Then we ended up at the Bangor Mall for Dairy Queen, did a bit of meandering around Claire's (a little girl's dream shop!) and headed back to the hotel for a quick shower, some bedtime reading and sleep!
We were up early on Sunday as warm-ups started at 8:00 and I honestly had no idea exactly where we were headed and how crazy it would be once we got there. Thankfully, after a stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, it was smooth sailing up to the Memorial Gym and there was enough parking, that we were able to get fairly close. We followed the crowd through the gym to the locker rooms, where Sam thankfully found a few of her little swim friends, and with that, I was set free and wandered off to find the stands and a program. Of course, the stands were full already (apparently there was a line at 6:00 am?! WHAT!?) and the programs ended up being in the wrong order, but you know... After sitting out in the entrance for a while and looking at a revised program to find out when Sam would be swimming, one of the nice marshalls told me I could go up to the very top of the stands and sit on the top concrete rising step. OK then. I found a clear spot and sat on my jacket next to a parent who also happened to have a kid swimming for LRSC. The facility was pretty nice, despite the lack of seats and they did a really good job of announcing and keeping things moving along.
Sam's first event was the 50 free, and she did awesome, swimming a PR for 1:00:25 and looking strong! Her other two events, the 25 back and the 25 free, were not quite as speedy as her seed times, but what can you do? There are some seriously fast 8 year olds in the state of Maine, I must say, and some of the races were pretty exciting! All in all, a great experience, and I know that even though Sam was nervous before the meet, that she had a great time. Most of all, we are so proud of her for her effort and dedication this swim season. She has improved greatly and made some good little friends, and is already excited to head back to swim team in the fall :)
We were able to get out of there around 11:30 and stopped back in Bangor at Elevation Burger for a quick lunch before heading home. Thankfully, as it was a quick trip, there wasn't much unpacking to do, so after that and some laundry (it's never-ending, I tell you...), we relaxed for a bit until Ryan got home from the race.
Then it was my turn to head out and get some exercise for the day! I felt unsurprisingly sluggish, which I expected after fast food for breakfast and lunch and 5 hours of sitting, but I was thankful to be able to get out and get in a few miles to shake off all the travel and restore a bit of balance to the day. It was still quite windy and I found all manner of conditions along the cart paths. Ice, deep snow, mud, slush, water, some packed bare ground and everything in between. Also saw 10 turkeys and many deer tracks. (6.0 miles)
We capped off the day with a sushi dinner and gelato dessert in celebration of a successful, if tiring, weekend and were happy to all be together again :)
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