President's Day Half

We signed Sam up for vacation camp at Riverview this week, and then realized that both Ryan and I had today off. Well, what the heck? Might as well send her to camp and do something just the two of us, a chance which doesn't happen very often! Of course, what else to do but go for a long run and out to lunch? Sounds perfect to me!

I dropped Sam off around 8:45 and then the two of us eventually got ourselves out the door. Neither of us was rushing, as the thermometer was still reading below zero ;) We drove over to Brad and headed out onto the snowmobile trail in our microspikes. Temps were in the low single digits and it was a cold first mile, but I warmed up quickly. And man, between the fat bikes, the snowmobile groomer, skiers and the snowshoe race, things were packed pretty nicely for the first few miles. Once we reached the park boundary, things were a bit looser, but still in fine shape.

Out on the powerlines

Once out on the powerlines, with the wider trail, things were a bit more uneven and softer, and we were exposed to the wind. Conditions were decent though, although I thought the snow felt a bit funny underfoot, very styrofoamy if you will, with some soft spots and icy spots and bare spots too. The river was definitely frozen, but man, I really do not like crossing it.

I had been feeling good for the first 6 miles or so, but dragged a bit through the middle miles, and was especially unenthused out by the electrical transfer station, where the wind had done a number on things. I just let Ryan lead and kept on chugging. As neither of us was really up for a full Beautiful Loop, we kept to the left and turned off on the Connector to get back to the park. I really do love that stretch of trail, so beautiful. Fairly nicely packed too although a bit slower being singletrack.

Pretty trees, with snow frosting tucked along the branches

Happy to have been able to run all of the hills, with the one exception of the first section of Boundary Trail we hit once we reached the park. That stretch was a bit sketchy with icy rocks and definitely had to be hiked. Out along the back stretch of the Boundary we found a lifesize snowman. Very impressive! Although we can't take credit for his creation, we had to stop and take a photo :)

Snowman with a snowman

We ran up to the summit and then took the Switchback down, for a total of 13.2 miles. A good 2 1/2 hours out on the trails with Ryan!

Edna & Lucy's was closed, so we headed back to Brunswick and tried the new burrito place that went in when Flipside closed. Yum! Perfect post-lunch food. Then home to clean up and relax a bit before picking up the kiddo at camp. A pretty good vacation day if you ask me :)