Steamy 12

We spent yesterday afternoon up at the pool. The air is so warm that the water felt like bathwater. The kids, of course, had a blast! I think they could both stay in the water all day :)

Pool fun

Sam keeping her mouth closed so the water doesn't get in :-) Very serious!

All smiles

Kick kick kicking

Floating on the noodles

Beautiful day to be at the pool

We headed up to the pool again this morning, but not before I got out for my run. Headed out around 7:00 into the heat and humidity. At least there was a lovely breeze so it didn't feel quite as bad! I ran a figure-8 around the River Landing complex, with a little lollypop out to the Bluffs to get in a few extra miles. Mostly roads, with few short stretches of trail mixed in. Actually, although the terrain here is mostly flat, there is always something to keep my interest. Lots of little ponds with great blue heron and turtles, flowering trees and tons of flowers to attract butterflies, mockingbirds and others aplenty. Saw what I'm pretty sure was an eagle soaring over one of the ponds this morning, as well as a great blue heron. Scared up two little brown rabbits along the berm. Went down to the river at the River Lodge to check out the high river levels and then ran through the woods on the rustic trail around there, where I saw three little fox dart into the woods near the edge of one of the ponds. Stopped to listen to their rustling in the undergrowth and caught a few more glimpses of two of them. So cute and so little! Got in 12 miles in 1:46, and then it was time for yet another visit to the pool!

NC Fun

It was a long day of travel yesterday. We were up at 4:30 am, and caught a beautiful sunrise on the way to the airport. Ryan dropped us off, and Sam and I took off to NY. Sam has always been a good traveler,but I'll admit I was still nervous :-) Things were going well until we had to sit on the runway waiting for a gate, and Sam had to pee. Lovely. We finally got in to the chaos that is LaGuardia, got to a potty, had some breakfast, and then had an even longer than expected layover as our flight was delayed. When we finally boarded, it was hot as blazes on the plane. There was some sort of mechanical issue and then some sort of runway delay, so we ended up sitting on an un-air conditioned plane for about an hour. There was practically a mutiny aboard the little airplane. Brutal. The plane didn't cool off until about halfway through the flight down to Wilmington. Aie. Sam, however, did great, the whole time! I am so proud of her. She is a trooper!

Airplane amusements

Mom, Dad and Morgan picked us up at the airport and we went to get lunch before heading to Wrightsville Beach for the afternoon. It was just plain hot out, but down by the water, it was cooler, and of course, the kids had a great time in the waves :-) We saw a group of 15 pelicans soaring overhead and little, sand-colored fish swimming in the surf. Sam didn't want to leave - she kept getting water in her face and running out to wipe it off, only to run right back into the fray again. A water girl, for sure!

Into the surf

Whee!

Big wave fun

Can you tell she loves the water?

This is fun!

Splash!

Loving in the water

A post-beach ice cream stop hit the spot, and kept Sam from falling asleep on the way back to Mom and Dad's :-)

Two thumbs up for Boombalati's!

It was an easy bedtime, and we both slept in, meaning my plans for an early run didn't quite happen :-) I got out around 8:30 for 5 miles along the berm and through the neighborhood. It was hot but perhaps not quite as muggy as it has been a home, and luckily there was a nice breeze. I came home plenty sweaty however! Legs felt good though. Tons of mockingbirds, a few brown thrashers, one bluebird, one great blue heron, one red-headed woodpecker and a lot of dragonflies and butterflies flitting about. When I came home, the girls were playing dress-up. So cute :-)

All dressed up and no place to go :-)

Beautiful Sky

OK, so I admit it. Running this summer in the heat and humidity has been making me a bit grouchy. All the sweat, the mugginess, the heat reminds me of hiking on the AT in July through Pennsylvania. Let's just say there was a lot of grumbling. In any event, just because it hasn't been super enjoyable doesn't mean I'm not out running anyway. Which meant that this morning I was out at 5:30 am to get in my run before work. Despite the early hour, the air still felt warm and heavy, but the sky was beautiful. Fluffy clouds backlit with pink and yellow light, set against a blue-bird sky. Definitely made me smile. Along the Heath, the bunchberries were sporting their bright red berries, and I saw a set of wood lilies along the edge of the path down to the river and then another out in the field along the powerlines. Beautiful. I could have done without the hordes of deer flies, but otherwise, it was a peaceful, if sweaty, morning run.

Headed to NC tomorrow, and hoping it isn't much hotter down there! I'll likely be running all roads while we're down here visiting, so I'm thinking at least I won't have to deal with any deer flies, which will be a plus! :-)

Golf Course Spin

Took an early morning spin around the golf course cart paths this morning. It was 72 degrees when I went out at 5:30 and the air was already heavy. Ugh. Legs don't feel sore from Sunday but I can't say I felt very zippy. Was followed by a small horde of deer flies and one of them attached itself to my calf and bit me. Ow! Not pleasant. Did enjoy a few blueberries along the powerlines on the return however, and saw one snowshoe hare and two turkeys too. From the looks of things, I think it's going to be a bumper crop of blackberries this year - there are tons of green berries along the edge of Highland Green road and out in the sun on the powerlines. Yum!

2013 Bradbury Scuffle Race Report

It was a bit of an off day for me today. I knew right from the start, as I was running down the hill with people whizzing by me, that I didn't quite have it. The mental focus I would need to really run well simply was nowhere to be found. I'm not saying I wasn't running fairly hard, but I felt lackluster out there. I did at least manage to find a bit of competitive nature in myself at the end, when I passed a guy back on hill on the Knight Woods trail after he passed me going down the Snowmobile trail, and then absolutely did not want him to pass me right at the finish, but otherwise, I sort of felt like I was just out for a run where I was working but didn't want to go 100%. And despite ending up winning my age group (thank you to Wicked Joe for the yummy smelling coffee), which I know I should never knock, I don't actually feel like I did a good job racing today. I was well off my Scuffle PR, and like I said, I just didn't have that competitive fire burning today. Perhaps I should be racing more? Or less? Or maybe doing some speed or hill training? Or perhaps move somewhere where there is no humidity? Or any or all of the above :-) Ah well, some days you just don't have it. But d*#n, I hope I can get my act together next month and do a better job pushing myself out there on the mountain side!

Many thanks, as always, to the Trail Monsters and volunteers, and Ryan and Ian in particular, for organizing and putting on a wonderful race. I hope the poor guy who had heat exhaustion out on the trail today during the race is OK, but I know that he was in good hands throughout the whole incident, and it was awesome to hear the stories of runners staying with him and helping him out. Runners are good people for sure.

RESULTS
45/145; 5th woman

Saturday Fun

Got up before Ryan headed to Bradbury to mark the Scuffle course and ran a very creaky 3 miles around the short Highland Green loop. Not much to say about the run, and hopefully I'll feel less stiff tomorrow!!

Spent the rest of the day having fun. Sam and I hit Frosty's for donuts then went to the playground at the new elementary school in Brunswick. We were there early but it got hot out there in the sun pretty quickly. Sam had a good time on the swings and running around on the playground, climbing the stairs, etc and going down the slides. We all got home around the same time, and we spent the next few hours hanging around, painting, coloring and eating lunch.

We really wanted to get outside in the afternoon but couldn't agree on a place to go. I finally suggested Giant Stairs, down in Harpswell, and so that's where we headed. There was a lovely walk along the cliffs, and we climbed out and around on the high rock ledges, looking down at the surf below. Sam was our leader on the return trip and she took off running. We had to stop for a few "aid station" breaks for water, but other than that, she ran the whole way back. It's only about a 1/4 mile but still :-) It was gorgeous out there, much cooler than inland and with a nice breeze. Very nice.

On the way home we stopped at a beach for Sam to get in the water and look for shells for a while. A perfect Maine Saturday afternoon!

Shore walk

Watching the surf

Giant Stairs

Running back along the path

A stop at the beach to look for shells and get in the water

So pretty!

Now That's More Like It!

I was really thinking today's run was going to suck. The weather has been so unfriendly when it comes to running that I was dreading today's mid-day 12 miles, thinking I'd be lathered in sweat and suffering the whole time. But, dreams so come true, and I woke up this morning to relatively cool temps, a nice breeze and air that felt light and dry. It had warmed up a fair bit by the time I got out on the trails at 12:30 after my short day at work, but the breeze still felt wonderful, I wasn't sweating buckets, and oh my, running feels so much better in weather like this. This is how the summer should be all the time!

Ran from Bowdoin out through the Commons, enjoying the lack of deerflies and stopping for a few blueberries along the way. Out on the roads through Pennelville, the male bobolinks twittered and flew overhead, settling down into the grasses in the fields as the purple thistle, queen anne's lace, black-eyed susans and long grasses swayed in the breeze. I ran down to Simpson's Point, stopping for a minute to eat my snack and look at the water before heading back the way I came.

Got in a nice 12 miles in 1:51, not counting stops for blueberries, a much-needed potty break and the few minutes I spent staring out at the ocean. Not fast, but not slow. I'll take it.

Having Fun

Xar recently posted running with reluctance. I've always said that I run because I truly love to run. But honestly, sometimes, such as this summer when it has been so heavy and humid that I feel I can hardly move forward, it's tough to say I'm doing it only because I love it. I'm also doing it because I feel like I have to, especially now that I've signed up for Stonecat. Of course, part of the "have to" is that I don't truly feel myself (or feel sane :-) )when I don't get out and run 3 or 4 or 5 times a week, so even if it is a soggy plod, it is better than nothing at all. This morning was a bit like that. Despite the (sort of low) temperature, it must have been 99% humidity out. A low, heavy, foggy mist hung in the air. I ran down to the river, enjoying the roar of the water even as I inwardly groaned about the sweat, the deer flies, this d*#m humidity. I do realize that I am lucky to have this chance, this opportunity, enough freedom from the heaviness of life, to run, so even if I complain, I'm not truly taking all this for granted. Promise.

Speaking of fun, it is hard not to appreciate life when living with a little bundle of energy, joy, chaos, and imagination. Sam is at the awesome age where she is truly her own person. She can reason. She can speak and voice her thoughts, her dreams, her wishes, her concerns - using better English, in fact, than many adults. She is lovable and kind, although alternately a bit dramatic and exasperating. She can play, and make up silly games, think up funny, but still attached to reality, little roles for us to play. Tonight she pulled out her silly plastic beads and bracelets, her Hello Kitty purse and watch, her headbands and her sunglasses, and told me that we had better "get beautiful" because we were going to "the fair." And where was that fair? Well, where else but in our kitchen?! "Better hurry, Mama, or the fair is going to close!" Of course, when we got there, it wasn't open yet, but there was a birthday party to go to instead :-) When I suggested we perhaps go to Ronnie & Gigi's cafe, she said OK and started pulling off all her jewelry. Why? Well, because, you don't have to look beautiful to go to a cafe! Silly Mama.

All gussied up and ready to go :-)

Let's go! Let's go!

Looking "beautiful" and ready for "the fair"

And in case you think this is all just too picture perfect, well, we do sometimes yell, her hair is often tangled, the floor hasn't been vacuumed for days and there are many smooshed Cheerios on the floor, we eat a fair number of sweets and processed foods, and yes, she does watch TV, perhaps a bit too much some days. Dora is her current favorite. Here she is dancing in a bit of a trance to one of the Dora tunes that is currently stuck in my head. Perfect torture for runs when the mind goes blank :-)

Dancing to Dora

Good

Ah, sleep. Nothing like it. Finally got a good night's sleep last night after multiple nights of tossing and turning and interrupted sleeping. And I woke up to find it was *only* 65 degrees and raining. OK, so still high humidity given the rain, but so much better than last week! Woohoo! Headed out about 5:40 and got in a nice 5.25 miles on the cart paths. My legs still don't have much pep at that time of morning, but at least the running felt good. What a revelation! Hoping the extreme heat and humidity back off for a while. That would be a welcome change.

Penciled a training plan into my planner last night. So far, I'm ahead of where the "plan" says I should be (who actually just goes out and runs 2 miles as part of a training plan for a 50 miler anyway?!), but I am doubtful I'll actually hold to all the numbers over the next 17 weeks. That's just not my style :-) In any event, I'll chug away at the back-to-backs and build up as best I can. Hopefully the body will hold up. Visited Dr. Jamie this afternoon since my back was tight last week, and told him my plans. He said, well, given the uncharted territory, why don't you come back in a month, just to keep things on track. You don't have to feel fragile or anything, but be cognizant of things. Makes sense, but also makes me a bit nervous about it all. Still, looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. I've been thinking about 50 for a while now. Glad the lottery made the decision for me :-) 

Run and Beach Fun

Ryan was meeting up with John and a few others to give them a tour of the Cathance trails this morning, and I wanted to get in a run too. Running after they ran for 15 miles on the trails didn't sound like such a great idea - I knew it was going to be hot and humid again - so I decided to run before they left. That meant an early start. When I told Amy I was going early, she said, what time? I'm in! Only a true friend (and a fellow crazy runner :) ) would get up and come over to your house for a 6:30 am run, for sure! Thanks, Amy :-)

We headed out into the early morning air, and hit the powerlines for the dump loop. There were no deerflies, and honestly, after yesterday, the humidity didn't feel bad at all! We chatted away the whole time, and the miles flew by. Before we knew it, we were back at the house after 7.5 miles, and it was perfect timing. The guys were arriving and getting ready to leave. Even better was that Sam was still asleep! I think we've been tiring her out :-)

Once Sam was awake, we headed to - where else? - Frosty's for donuts and then back home to play and hang out a bit. After Amy left, I caught up with the guys for a bit, which was fun too.

Ryan wasn't up for heading out into the heat again, so he stayed in this afternoon while Sam and I went over to Wolfe's Neck to collect shells and look for hermit crabs on our favorite beach. When we got there, we were in for a surprise! The baby osprey in the island osprey nest, which had been blown off the island on Friday during a bad thunderstorm, had been found, healthy and safe, and were being moved back up to a new nest platform in the tree. We watched from the shore as the whole operation went on, and even got to see the one osprey they had rescued on Friday and kept at the park headquarters overnight up close as it was being brought out to the canoe to go across to the island - very cool!

A great end to four wonderfully busy, hot, and beach-filled stay-at-home days!

Collecting shells in the shallow waters

Happy girlie :-)

Dragging and Planning

Got out of the car at Bradbury to hear Ian say, "Welcome to Saturday running!" Yeah :-)

Doug pulled up and got out of the car saying, "As I was pulling into the lot, there was an advisory on the radio cautioning against exercising outdoors." Boo :(

Well, because we're crazy, and hey, we were there, what did we go but ignore said advisory and go for a run. It has to be good training for something, right?! I must say, however, that although I was happy to be able to join in on a Saturday run, I can't say this was one of my better runs. I was dragging. The humidity was nasty, and it just sucked the life right out of me.

I kept up with the guys - Ian and Nathan plus Doug and Michael, neither of whom I'd met before - for about 3 miles of the Scuffle course, at which point I had to pee and I was beginning to feel that I was probably not going to be able to hold said pace for much longer. After my brief stop in the woods, I ran the rest of the course at a much more leisurely pace, and pulled back into the parking lot to find the guys sitting on a picnic table, dripping in sweat. Well, I was dripping too. It wasn't pretty.

I had told Ian I was planning on 12, so he cheerily said, "6 more?" To which I think I replied, "I feel terrible!" But after a brief stop to compose myself, I agreed to a few more miles. Ian had a plan to run out onto the connector to the bridge, and cut through the woods to a pool in the river. We'd still have to run back, but a dunk in the water sounded good! We wove through a few different trails, avoiding the Boundary Trail, and out onto the Connector, coming up to the river fairly quickly. There, we stopped for a while and chatted as we stood in the water. Then, it was back to the park.

I was lagging behind and pulled up to them to hear Ian say, "Thought we'd tag the summit." Well, OK. Might as well continue the suffering :-) Ha. There was a nice breeze up top and we stopped to take in the hazy vista. Down the Terrace and back to the parking lot, this time with the Garmin reading 9.77. Well, can't stop there! As I ran by the guys sitting on the picnic table, Ian called out, "Getting in a round 10, Danielle?" Yup! :-) A few more minutes, and I was done. I thanked the guys for dragging me around the park, and Ian said, "Well, thanks for embarrassing us by continuing to run after we'd all stopped." My pleasure. If I can't keep up, might as well be able to muscle through a few more 1/10ths to out-distance them for the day! :-) But 10 was more than enough for the day, so I was happy to be done!

We all sat around, not saying much, willing ourselves to stop sweating. Amazing how a rather slow 10 miles can zap one of so much energy when done in what feels like a sauna!

Got home to find that I had gotten into the Stonecat 50!! YIKES! Can't believe I got in! Looks like I've got some planning and training to do :-)

Soaking

Soaking: 1) To make thorough wet or saturated; 2) To absorb

OK, so I'm paraphrasing a bit above, but both definitions apply today.

I got thoroughly soaked on my mediocre 5 mile run this morning. Lagged the whole time and felt as if I was being melted by the heat and humidity from the inside out. The one high point of the run was stopping to pick a few warm and sweet blueberries along the powerlines. Yum.

And, more importantly, I am soaking up every minute of what feels like a new-found freedom. I have worked over the 4th of July weekend every weekend since we returned to Maine almost 8 years ago. The past few years we have had openings at the gallery on the Saturday of the 4th of July weekend, meaning a long day before hanging the show and a long Saturday at work, getting home late, hoping to catch Sam before she fell asleep. I honestly am loving having weekends free, and we've been packing the days full of activity, with today being no exception.

I couldn't help but smile this morning when after my run, I realized today was a stay-at-home day (Sam's term :-) )! I didn't have to work. I could have the long weekend with my family. Hurray! We headed into town to pick up some goodies at the farmer's market and then out to Harpswell where we spent this warm, sunny July day with friends down by the water. Phil's parents have a house out by the ocean with a little cabin that Phil, Kristen, Anne and Thistle use in the summertime. It's perched up at the edge of the woods overlooking the rocky ledges and the stretch of ocean that separates their land from Orr's Island. It was beautiful!

We took a boat ride...

Being goofy

Sam's first time in a boat!

Silly faces from the girls

The island we motored out to at the edge of the peninsula - those black dots on the rocks are cormorants! They were nesting there - a whole colony - their nests in the little grooves and ledges on the edge of the island. Lots of babies! Very cool

We did some fishing... I haven't been fishing since I was probably Sam's age, and somehow I was the one to catch all the fish (three mackerels!). I let out a big yelp when the first one came out of the water. Ha. They were very pretty. We let them all go. Bye bye fishies.

Reeling in the first fish

The girls had a great time together... they are so cute!

Friends

And we went down to the end of the point to Phil's grandmother's house and enjoyed their saltwater pool. There were water fights and lots and lots of swimming by Sammy. She did a great job!

Sammy swimming

By the late afternoon we were all exhausted from the sun, the heat, the water and all the fun. Soaking it all up! :-)

Afternoon Fun

Well, we didn't quite make it into the water this afternoon, but we did make it to the edge of the ocean. It was almost low tide after our short walk down to the shore at the Skofield Preserve, a quiet piece of preserved land right on the Brunswick/Harpswell border, and the water was inaccessible. Too many mud flats. Still, there was a lovely breeze, bright blue skies and there was plenty of rocky shoreline to walk along, the ledges and packed clay covered in many sections with thousands upon thousands of broken clam and mussel shells.

"Look, Mama, a pretty shell!"

Along the shores

Exploring (Look at all those shells!)

Taking a break on the rocks

There were a few tidal pools to explore, one with a school of teeny tiny fish flitting about, another filled with mud-covered periwinkles and not much else, and one with periwinkles and two baby horseshoe crabs - probably 1 1/2 inches wide! Very cool. Ryan and I were enthralled, while Sam, well, she was more interested in picking up "pretty" shells, meaning fragment upon fragment of clam shells :-)

Baby horseshoe crab, and many periwinkles too!

We watched the seagulls fly up and drop clam shells on the rocks, saw a Great Blue Heron fly low along the water and settle in with the seagulls to look for a meal, and even an eagle, a juvenile, I'd think, by its coloring, at the water's edge, finally chased away by noisy, raucous seagulls who didn't want the eagle vying for the same meal :-)

We spent quite a while enjoying this little slice of paradise, marveling at the fact that we had it all to ourselves. Pretty much perfect. Well, perfect, at least, after we stopped to cool down with gelato on the way home :-)

Picture perfect view

Grass, Deer Flies and Sweat, Oh My!

This morning's 8 mile run through the Cathance featured mud, long itchy grasses, annoying deer flies, a deer bounding away through the ferns, the roaring river, hot sun, lots of sweating, a little swearing, multiple stops along the river to dunk my hat in, and the first blueberries of the season, found along the powerlines, sweet and warm in the summer sun. Came home dripping wet, so wet in fact, that puddles formed in my Crocs as I was attempting to cool down in the kitchen. Lovely, eh? 

We've been hiding inside so far, but I think we're going to have to venture out at some point soon, hopefully to someplace that features water to dunk ourselves in! :-)

Wet July Run

Overcast morning.
5:30 am.
Quiet.
A light mist falls.
The ferns and milkweed smell sweet in the thick air.
The towhee calls, and the goldfinch and sparrows twitter.
Squish through the mud and puddles.
Mist turns to rain.
Soaked.