Iron Girl Run

I’m back from our hockey-cation! And no, you didn’t miss me mentioning it. I chose not to announce to the world at large that my family would be on vacation for the weekend. 😉

Jamie’s team had a tournament this past weekend in the Upper Pennisula (known as “the U.P.” for those of us from Michigan…although we never refer to the Lower Penninsula as the “the L.P.”…go figure).  Our first game was in St. Ignace, so our family of four made the long trek north, with lots of beautiful fall colors to look at.  Our first game turned out to be a good one—not only did our boys win 3-1, but the first goal of the tournament was scored by none other than defenseman Jamie. 🙂

 

 

 

 

The lighting in that arena was terrible, but you can’t mistake that smile.  He rarely smiles on the ice (he’s a pretty serious kid, and a very serious hockey player), so seeing his big ear-to-ear grin made me almost teary. His teammates were as happy as he was, as you can see. And of course, I was ecstatic. 😀

After that, we ended up in Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced “Sue” Saint Marie), also known as “the Soo” to us native Michiganians.  It’s pretty far north, and it’s across the St. Mary’s River from Canada.  I knew I wanted to run Saturday morning (and luckily our first game wasn’t until noon!), so I plotted out a route the night before that would take me 10 miles around Sault Ste. Marie.  I made sure to not drink Friday night at all (with a promise to all my hockey friends that I would make up for it Saturday night 😉 ), and I went to bed fairly early so that I could get up a little before 7am to get ready for my run.

Because it was a strange area, I waited until it was almost light to start.  It was cold and drizzling, unfortunately, but after a slight detour necessitated by a road on the map that wasn’t actually there in real life, I was pleased to find that the clouds began to clear.  I had on a warm hat, gloves, and a jacket over my long-sleeved shirt, and by time I hit 2.5 miles, I was so warm, I took off the hat, gloves and jacket.

And then…I got to the water. 😉

Dude.  The winds coming off the St. Mary’s River were brutal…sustained at about 20mph, and gusting to over 30! It was in the low 40s, but it sure felt colder with that wind.  The sunrise was beautiful, though.

 

 

Once I took that picture, I put all my warm weather gear back on and then trekked through town.  I took it nice and slow, and stopped whenever I felt taking a picture.

Sault Ste. Marie is known for the “Soo Locks,” which is the set of locks that allow ships to pass from the waters of Lake Superior to Lake Huron.  There are rapids at that juncture of the St. Mary’s River that, according to my research, fall 21 feet. That’s a pretty good drop!

I ran through town, past plenty of interesting sites (and some very old architecture—Sault Ste. Marie is Michigan’s oldest town, founded in 1668).  At the western edge of downtown, I ran past the locks, and I was surprised how much higher the water was at the beginning of the locks!  There were no ships going through when I passed, but there was a cute little tug boat, manned by a humorous “captain.”

 

 

Look close—he’s throwing me a peace sign, lol!  I didn’t even notice it until I looked at the photos later.

The sun came and went for the two hours I ran.

 

 

 

That’s the International Bridge, which is I-75 over the St. Mary’s River, connecting the two Sault Ste. Maries.

When I plotted out my route, I commented to my husband that there was a big increase in elevation at one point—it went about 85 feet up very quickly.  On our way into town Friday night, we drove down a steep hill, and my husband joked, “Hey, maybe this is your big incline.”  Well guess what…it was!  😛  It was steep enough that it had stairs.

 

 

By the time I got to it, I was on mile 7, after having braved the winds off the river, and I was tired.  So, yeah, I walked up the stairs. 😉  Here’s the view from above.

 

 

After that, I hit more wind at Lake Superior State University (dude, I cannot imagine going to school up there!) and then it really started to rain on me. 😛 As I finished the last mile of my tough run, I kept thinking, “This is a total ‘Iron Girl’ run…no one can mess with me after I’ve survived this!”  Which is kind of a funny pun, because the Sault Ste. Marie area is known for its iron ore. 😉

After I was done, I immediately jumped in the truck and headed to the nearest coffee place for my reward.

 

 

Only, there was one problem: I bought the scone for my husband (he loves them) with the intent to have a small piece and give him the rest. When I brought it back to the hotel, he somehow missed me asking him to save me a bite…and he ate the whole thing.  :/  The rotten jerk. 😉

Unfortunately, the rest of our games did not go so well, but I will say that the arena we played in had exceptional lighting!  This means there will be a hockey picture post from me soon. 🙂  Before we left, I made sure to get some pictures around town, and I even made the kids be all touristy in the freezing cold weather. 😉

 

 

 

 

 

As for the rest of my weekend, I ate a lot of salads, which I got sick of after a while and eventually ordered myself a steak from the hotel restaurant Saturday night while everyone else ate pizza (yuck!).  I ended up drinking very little because I was pretty tired, but on Sunday, my eating was less than stellar.  I tried to keep to my plan of only using half of my weekly activity points, but it just wasn’t to be. It’s hard to travel and diet! (Travel and maintaining I can do, but travel in weight loss mode…not so much, it seems.)

Unfortunately, I used nearly all my APs this week, which I’m discovering is not a good plan for me.  I got home and even though I waited an extra day to weigh myself, I ended up with this.

 

 

Argh.  Up 2 pounds, negating the 2 pound loss I had last week when I was following the tips I learned from the registered dietician. 🙁  Ah well…back to the drawing board.  I will say I had a fantastic run last night after work.  Three miles at a 9:53 average…it felt great, and it gave me some hope that while I may not be able to maintain that pace for 13.1 miles a week from Sunday, I know I can maintain for a while if the conditions are right. 🙂

So, do you have any vacations coming up?  How do you plan to handle them?  Do you have a solution for staying on track with something besides salad for every meal?! Please let me know…I’m all ears!

Thanks for reading!