Vacation: Hiking at Rock House

After naps on Friday, we decided to go to Rock House for a little light hiking. I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves (after writing, what, three blog entries this evening, I'm pretty much all out of words).

We've got a couple of little boys who love to hike!

Vacation: More Around the Camp

For some reason, blogger will only allow me to post 5 pictures per post, so here are some more pictures from around the camp, including our new tent! It's roomy enough to fit all of us plus our gear with space to spare.

We dragged the tent over into the shade for naps, which worked wonders. I got back to camp from the adventurous drive to fill the gas tank (no, I wasn't rushing in a panic because I thought the gas station would run out; I was rushing out in a panic because I thought I might run out) only to find both boys sound asleep and Tara stretched across both air mattresses in the one place where there was a draft of fresh air. Not wanting to disturb them, I found the shade behind the tent... and promptly fell asleep myself!

Eating while camping out is always fun. We discovered that we really badly broke campground etiquette, however, by not bringing a tablecloth. Every other (occupied) campsite had a tablecloth. Even the RV campers next to us, who were outside a grand total of about 3.2 seconds (just enough to get out of the car and go into the RV) had a tablecloth. We did not. Didn't bother us any. Camp food always tastes better anyway.

(After the week at the beach, one of our kids told me that he likes pretzels with sand on them. Just wait until he gets to go canoeing with Grandpa, who knows how to make sand-pancakes!)

This picture really should go after the whole vacation is done, but it's an "around camp" picture, so it will go here. Don't worry; we never closed the trunk or drove like this.

Vacation: Around the Camp!

We had tried camping in a tent with the boys once - this summer at Camp Sychar. It worked out well, so we decided it would be fun to do for more than one night. Here are some pics from around the camp.

The boys loved sleeping in the tent. It was perfect sleeping weather (though a little cool for some members of the family). Jonathan kept sliding out of his sleeping bag and, try as I might, I couldn't keep him in it.

Actually, sleeping was difficult the first night. Partly because we traveled on Thursday and then pretty much went straight to bed, but mostly because it was the first night sleeping in the tent.

One of the fun parts of camping is having a campfire. It's one of the reasons that car camping has any charm over backpacking (was it Jeff Foxworthy who said that camping is a way for people who don't live in a trailor park to vacation in one?) - having a roaring campfire.

Of course, due to our expertise with the Coleman stove (we got more practice during the power outage), the only "over-the-fire" cooking we did was marshmallows. I must admit that I am an expert when it comes to the perfect fire-toasted marshmallow.

We ended up having too much wood for our fire, so I made a nice, big roaring fire.

One family member let us know that the only part of camping that he didn't like was "just sitting there" around the fire. It was "a million boring" according to him.

Vacation: Hiking!

Last week we took a vacation to the Hocking Hills (as you probably already knew if you read my last post about the Indian Run). We arrived rather late in the evening on Thursday, so there isn't much to report about that. But on Friday we went hiking. It was a lot of fun. Enjoy some pictures of our adventures!

There's nothing like going out hiking on a cool (yeah, low 50s still seems cool - let's revisit that in January) morning (reminder here: I love mornings) to remind one of God's majesty in creation.



Though I usually like people photos, I thought the beam of sunlight streaming through the canopy of trees was photo-worthy and a great way to test out the new camera.

We found walking sticks (no, not the insect kind, one of which I found on the screen of the cottage in Michigan this morning, but the dead branch kind). This is also the Ohio State vs. Michigan ("this wouldn't be wrong without sports" photo).

Of course, Andrew needed a walking stick, too, and I managed to get a picture in which he is not swinging the stick wildly. Yeah, I mostly made sure his sticks were pretty small for a reason.

Andrew in a hollow log.

Jonathan on the other end of the hollow log.

We all love hiking together. I hope you like the photos.

Hocking Hills Indian Run

Second time's a charm, right? Two years ago, I ran in the Hocking Hills Indian Run 40K race with my friends Rob, Mike, and Matt. I found that I really like trail running. This year, as the run approached, Rob asked me if I was going to run it again. Since my family had experienced a successful night of sleeping in a tent, we decided to camp out together before the race. I will include a synopsis of that event in another blog entry, but this is about the run.

I had already decided on running the 20K instead of the 40, as I am not in shape to run 25+ miles at one time. My original plan was to meet the guys as they finished lap 1 so we could run the second lap together.

As it was, Rob was sick for the whole week before the race, and Matt wasn't running with us, but Mike's fiancee was. So we all opted for the 20K. Rob and Megan would run together and Mike and I would run together. We planned on about a 9-9:30 mile pace for the 12.4 miles. I thought I could handle that, because that's about what Blaine and I ran a month or so ago.

At the starting line, Mike and I decided to sprint out. heheheheh. I heard some really "cute" comments about it (some were profanity-laced, and others commented on how hardcore we were).

The run was mostly as I remembered it. I felt really good for a long time, including a jog up a little part of Steel Hill. We walked the rest of that monstrosity - no reason to kill our legs in the first half of the race! We did the first 10K in around 48 minutes... equal to the best 10K I've ever run (I've never run one in competition).

The last 3 miles were the hardest ones. The trails were more rooty than I had remembered, and the uphills took more energy as well. I walked 3-4 times (or was it 5-6?). It seemed like forever until we got to the campground, where it was wonderfully nice to see Tara and the boys there to cheer me on. Then it was on through the Old Man's Cave area and finally up the 1 mile long hill to the finish. Oh, did I mention that Mike left me in the dust at about the 9 mile mark? He came back after he'd finished to cheer me on up the hill.

I was excited to finish: my final time was 1:49:45, which was an average mile time of 8:51! And I was 3rd in my age group. Mike only beat me by some 8 minutes, averaging 8:11/mile. I was 45th out of 204 runners.

What a run! In training for the marathon, I thought it would be good to run a trial run. This "trial" came in the form of the Hocking Hills Indian Run. I chose the 40K, which equates to 24.8 miles. You might know that last week's 20 miler was the longest run I've ever done, so this was almost 5 miles beyond that.

This particular course is, as one might expect from its location, hilly. I went down the night before and camped with my friend Rob and his two training partners, Mike and Matt. Then in the morning we headed for the lodge, where we prepared for the race (and watched the 60K run begin).

The 40K consisted of two loops around the 20K course. A bit of the race was on the road, some was on gravel park-access road, and still some more was on trails. If you'd like to see a trail map, here is a topographical map, and here is the race map. Note "Steel Hill" (uphill) on the race map. That was where I walked. Well, it was the only place I walked on the first lap. I walked a couple of other times on the second lap. But Mike and I did pass a runner while we were walking up Steel Hill.

My first 20K was right at 2 hours. My final time was 4:05.55, which was good enough for eighth overall and second in age group. I was so happy to get to the finish line that I almost cried. It was a beautiful sight (we finished on a long, gradual hill that seemed much longer the second time around). I found out that there are awards for the top three finishers in each age group, but that they will be mailed. So that's pretty cool.

In the meantime, I have a blister on my toe and I am wiped out. But if I can run this, the marathon shouldn't be all that big of a deal.