High Point Fun

We left last night after dinner and it was slightly under 5 hours to our hotel in Fishkill. I managed to get a few hours of sleep in the later portion of the drive, apparently sleeping through some crazy construction zones! Of course, then I had a hard time sleeping at the hotel, but oh well.

We woke up, had some mediocre complimentary breakfast at the hotel and drove about 45 minutes up the highway to High Point State Park, NJ. I wanted to get a few miles in to shake out the legs today and Ryan suggested High Point for nostalgia reasons, as the AT goes right through the park. Of course, when we were hiking we never actually took the side trail up to the High Point Monument, because, why add on any additional mileage if we didn't have to?! ;), so this would be our chance!

Pretty sure we were the only ones in the park when we arrived around 8:30 am. We parked down by a little pond and headed out on the Monument Trail along the trail's edge. Very pretty.

Monument Trail

Iris along the water's edge

Turtle working on laying her eggs

Monument Trail running

After a short flat stretch, the trail got rocky and technical and climbed up to the junction with the AT. It really made me smile to be back passing those white blazes again. I could have gone on for miles and miles... We headed up the AT onto the ridge, enjoyed the view from an observation tower and ran/hiked along the trail back to the Visitor's Center then turned around and ran/hiked back the way we came. A nice 2.5 mile stretch with lots of chipmunks scurrying along the trail's edge, including some adorable little baby chippies, four deer seen, some nice sheep laurel and some good old roots and rocks :) 

Yay white blazes!

Monument view

Sweet section of trail

Sheep Laurel

When we got back to the Monument Trail, we continued on up to, you guessed it, the monument :) It was a pretty steep walk up the hill to the literal high point of NJ with cool 360 degree views out into the countryside. The monument was open, so we went inside and decided to walk up to the top. It was quite a trek! 291 steps each way, and slightly nerve-wracking, even for Ryan who is not afraid of heights! 

Eeekkk! At the top. Totally sweating as it was very muggy in there.

Headed down

Couldn't even fit the whole monument in the photo!

Looking up

Vista

High Point

After all those steps, we decided the wisest choice would be to head straight back to the car. I would have loved to have spent more time exploring the park, but there's a race to run tomorrow, after all!! :) Still, a great way to get in a few miles pre-race and to break up the drive. (3.4 miles)

Arrived in Johnstown around 4:00 pm, checked into the hotel, met up with mom and dad and did a little organizing before heading over to pick up my bib number. Then it was off to a surprisingly delicious meal at a rather random Italian/Pizza place. And we even got to try Gob Cake! Apparently a PA tradition, and quite delish. Pretty much a whoopie pie in cake form so how could you go wrong?!

Now there is nothing left to do except try to sleep a bit tonight and be ready to roll tomorrow :) Excited for the adventure!

Set and ready to run!

Silly Taper!

Tapering is such an odd act. I understand the concept of course, but for someone like me, who gets increasingly anxious as race day, and race travel, approaches, running less is like a form of torture! 😂😂 What I really want to do is run more! 😏

So, a fairly uneventful week in terms of running with the busy factor and the anxious factor racheted up a notch...

Monday morning, I got out for a short run around the neighborhood. It was a rather cool morning and the air smelled like honeysuckle. Saw the mama fox but none of the kits. Running less then 30 minutes just seemed ridiculous so I added on a few more 1/10ths to round it up to 30 😆 (3.3 miles)

This morning was cool and damp, and the bog bridges were slick with moisture as I ran around the Heath. Lots of summer green out in the woods now. Once again, not nearly enough miles to quiet my racing mind but lovely to get out. (4.5 miles)

Tomorrow will be spent doing all my typical household chores, and getting all the necessary race stuff packed up and ready to go. Irene and Dana are arriving tomorrow afternoon to spend the next few days with Sam, and we will be leaving after dinner and driving to NY, about halfway to Laurel. It will be nice to split up the drive out to PA, as the return trip on Sunday is going to be one long and likely painful day spent in the car!

I am really thankful for Irene and Dana'a assistance this weekend and so appreciate their willingness to hang out with Sam while we are away. It is going to be such a short trip with so much driving that it really wouldn't have been much fun for her, so this is a much better option and I know they will have a great time together!! 💗 Meanwhile, my crazy parents have just decided that they are going to drive up to PA and join Ryan is crewing me during the race, and take the opportunity to tour Fallingwater while they are in the area too because why not! I'm not sure they know what they are in for in terms of crewing at this race with Ryan 😂😂 but I will never turn down a cheering section!!

Sunday Afternoon Horseshoe Crab Adventure

When I wrote my last post, I really thought we'd spend the rest of Sunday afternoon inside on the couch. I had mentioned earlier in the day that our friend Tami had said the horseshoe crabs were spawning at Wolfe's Neck, and since we are avoiding the browntail moth invasion there, I suggested we might take a short walk down to the shoreline at Skofield Shores Preserve in Harpswell. Although Ryan was exhausted from his hot and humid 50 miles at Chesterfield Gorge on Saturday not to mention four hours of driving to get back home, he was in agreement that it was too nice out to stay inside all afternoon so we finally got Sam up and off the couch and out the door.

We arrived down at the water's edge just after high tide, and found the shoreline literally crawling with horseshoe crabs. It was quite a sight to see and we spent a good 30 minutes or more simply watching them and marveling at these fascinating creatures. There must have been at least 50 of them in and amongst the grasses and up along the edges of the natural rock outcropping that curved out into Middle Bay Cove. Such an awesome thing to witness. The Maine coast, and the natural world, never cease to amaze me.

When we walked back up from the shoreline, we continued out on the trails along the point that wind through the woods and along the edge of the fields brimming with buttercups and wild geraniums. The osprey were calling overhead and we even saw a porcupine sunning himself up in a tree! Sam had so much energy she was running ahead of us on the trail 💗 A lovely oceanside trail and nature adventure! (1.6 miles walked)

Finishing Up the Week

Got in a nice little run on Thursday morning, complete with a misty sunrise seen over the Heath, swamp iris blooming, one deer and a resident Towhee sighting. (4.0 miles)

Such a lovely start to the day, and I was looking forward to another short run in the afternoon with Sam's XC team for the traditional end of the season Dairy Queen run. Always a fun time. But instead of ice cream, I ended up helping to clean up Sam's puke, which she kindly threw up all over Amber's front entrance just after my arrival at 5:00 pm. Ah, parenting... Such a joy. Ugh. Sam still wasn't feeling great on Friday morning, so I kept her home from school. Poor kid. It always sucks to not feel good 😔 And as for me, well, so much for my plans of a nice Cathance run, massage and getting things crossed off my to-do list. Sigh. But such is life, and obviously staying home with the kiddo was the only choice and I am happy to be able to do so, despite the fact that it meant the day did not go as originally planned.

I was able to get some house cleaning, laundry and organizing for Laurel done while she rested on the couch for the morning, and then thankfully she was feeling a bit better and more herself after lunch so we were able to get out and get the grocery shopping done.

Ryan was headed over to MA after work on Friday for the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra on Saturday, which he was using as a long training race in preparation for VT100, so Sam and I were on our own for the evening. I was thankful that she seemed to be feeling much better and that whatever had bothered her stomach Thursday night/Friday morning had passed. Phew!

With the hopeful thought that that trend would continue, I decided I'd check in with our neighbor and see if her daughter was up for a few hours of babysitting time Saturday morning so that I could get out for a run. Totally worth the money!! I got in a nice, sweaty, humid run and Sam had fun taking Petey the dog for a walk with Sula and playing some games with her while I was gone :)

I headed out into the Cathance at 9:00 am and was soaked pretty much right away due to temps already being in the 70s and the high humidity. Still, there was a nice breeze blowing, no bugs and the river, while low, was still quite lovely. Saw one deer, one garter snake, one Hairy Woodpecker, lots of wildflowers and enjoyed the quiet trails. (10.0 miles)

Sam was feeling good enough, although certainly not 100%, for us to stick with the plan and head down to Twin Brook for the XC championship meet in the afternoon. It was pretty toasty out! She and the two other 3/4 milers girls had fun hanging out and cheering on the other runners before it was their turn to race. The two other girls had strong races, but it was admittedly a bit of a struggle out there for Sam today. I know she wasn't feeling the best and I am proud of her for pushing on through and getting it done. 💗 She's a trooper. 

While Sam was struggling through her race, out in western MA, Ryan was having struggles of his own with hot temps and high humidity at Chesterfield. Proud of him, and our other friends too, for pushing on through and getting it done themselves. Rough days like these are good teachers and toughing it out will no doubt pay dividends later.

Needless to say, Sunday has been a quiet day so far at our house, at least on Ryan and Sam's ends :) I got up early for a nice meander out on the powerlines on a beautiful morning. It was (of course, because yesterday was race day!) cool and crisp with a nice breeze blowing, and I enjoyed the bright sunshine, the bird song and the wildflowers. Lots of pretty blooms out there today. (5.4 miles)

And with that, I wrapped up taper week with 30 miles and only have a few very short runs in the upcoming week before Laurel! The rest of the day was spent playing games, doing some reading as well as me getting some house work and laundry done, along with washing the windows and cleaning the car, the last two being things that desperately needed to get done!!