Crossinator

It is hard to believe that I am 27 years old now! Kinda crazy I know. We had a great weekend celebrating my birth and other - more beautiful - aspects of God's creation. I haven't had a lot of time to unpack the thoughts and organize the pictures so I'll start with a glimpse of what I wrote about the trip on my running site:

After the run Friday morning we packed the car and headed to the Minnesota North Shore and went camping at the Finland State Forest Campground. I almost didn’t run but decided I really couldn’t miss the opportunity to run on some very scenic trails. I decided to run on the Superior Hiking Trail, north from Lake County Rd 1. I had to power walk within the first mile as I hit some steep inclines! The trail was quite rugged, as to be expected, with a lot of rocks and tree roots, so even the downhills where quite hard and dangerous. It was worth every second of the 1:20:25 run and every inch 1,500 elevation gain over 4 major “summits”. Talk about some amazing vistas! They made it worth the effort for the ~7 mile run. It was cool up there as well - not sure an actual temp, but I started in long sleeves and got cold even while sweating. The air off Lake Superior has a nice cold tinge to it. After the run I waded into the Baptism River at Lake Superior for a nice ice bath!

Sunday:Cross training. Lots of hiking and exploring waterfalls for my birthday!!

This completes week 8 of my marathon training. It also marks the halfway point on my quest for the marathon! Check back for more updates from our trip!