Running away from my problems

I headed out yesterday for a wee little jog through Forest Park to scope out what everyone has been talking about. And, of course, to clear my head.

Dang, did I pick a good place to live. I am practically right across the street from the park, and although its a long-walkable-way from work, I’m really geeked to head through the park once I get a commuter bike.

Here are some (overexposed) shots during my run:

There were a lot of cool things I didn’t know were there, like a horse stable, a huge pond with lots of fountains by the art museum, and hills. Yes, hills. None of those Agate Street or Lahti Road hills, mind you, but the rolling terrain made me smile. I was supposed to keep my heart rate down, of course, so I think the smiling helped in that general area.

And the run was just what I needed. I have been on serious anxiety mode with the move and the new job, not because I am nervous or anxious, but because I am broke. Seriously, utterly, incredibly broke. The move cost a lot more than I expected, and with Missouri having nearly 10% sales tax, stocking up on things like garbage cans, brooms, and toilet paper really added up fast. Not to mention I had to fill my cupboards or risk starving to death, which I really probably could have lasted a week with all the post-season face-stuffing I’ve been doing, but let’s be honest, a girl’s gotta eat.

Luckily, I sold my mountain bike. Granted, I thought it was seriously unlucky at the time, and oooh how I did not want to part with that bike. I loved that bike. Steel, hardtail, race geometry. It was excellent in every measurable way. But I sold it and I am glad, because that money paid for the UHaul and gas. The sacrifices we make, yeah?

So anyway, back to the run; yesterday was a beautiful day- great temperatures, and instead of staying inside and moping about being broke and scrounging for money and throwing a pity party- I went for a run. Luckily, running is (for the purposes of this blog post) free. I don’t have to pay for a bus fare or drive my car anywhere- I can just put on my shoes and go. Plus, running is a great stress reliever, and by the time I got to an hour, my mind was more clear and I could prioritize my spending so I could use my money wisely.

I know the saying: It’s only money. But it’s only money when you have enough money to get you by. I was really, really worried that I wouldn’t have enough money to pay rent or to make a car payment. I’ve never really worried about these things before, mostly because I’ve lived in relatively cheap (ok, dirt cheap) places with incredibly low cost-of-living expenses. I mean, Montana didn’t even have sales tax!

I guess this is some more of that “growing up” stuff? I’m just glad that I get am starting to train more regularly this week.

What is in a title?

I did it.

Friday, at noon, I stood up in front of a room full of people. Students, professors, collaborators, mentors, big-wigs, and labmates. I told my story, I disseminated what I did and why I did it. And I did so in forty minutes. I pointed at plots and Ven diagrams, showed pretty pictures, and identified to my audience the importance of my work.

Afterward, I stood in front of my committee and discussed my data, the plots, and why I chose the approaches I did. I explained how I interpreted my statistics and why I thought what I did was correct. I argued defended the work I’ve done over the last three years, five months, three weeks, and four days- and was successful. Sure, there were struggles. My ego took a few blows, but my eyes didn’t well up with tears. I held strong and stood behind the data that I took, analyzed, and interpreted. I understood its shortcomings but also emphasized on how the design of the studies and my statistics were sound.

And in the end, I came out triumphant. I successfully defended my dissertation works. After years of struggles and triumphs, I am finally done**!

**Almost. I still have to submit my final version of my dissertation to the graduate school, and get two more signatures. But I am, for all intent and purpose, done with my PhD.

Final Countdown.

It’s the final countdown.

I have one whole work day before my defense.

Eeeek!

There have been good things about this week, including a happy advisor, a helpful boyfriend, and FTD’d flowers:

And there have been frustrating things, like doing TUNEL from 10am-8pm (why did I decide to do that this week?), having a terrible rehearsal with said happy advisor, and this:

I’ve had some nightmares (including the one where I leave to head to the bar after my defense, but I’m not actually supposed to ‘leave,’ I’m just supposed to sit in the hallway and wait for my committee to make a decision). I’ve had some stress-relieving runs. I’ve even had some ice cream (that isn’t entirely unbelievable, if you have ever met me):

So, the hay is in the barn, so to speak. At least, that’s how I’d approach this if it were an Ultraman.

Now, let’s just hope that Friday doesn’t end with me doing any of these activities:

This however, is totally acceptable:

Toeing the line again…

I’m doing it. I’m pulling the trigger.

It’s time for another race. I feel recovered from the FullRev at Cedar Point, and I want back in the game. Dare I say, that I had such great success on that day, I don’t want to fall off my (almost) winning streak.

So I’m getting back into the race mentality. I’ve got to plan out my nutrition, get a good night’s sleep, dial it in.

It’s not the typical race, though.  No, there will be no ribbon at the finish line. Putting in the time in training now will hopefully mean an easier, less effort day come race time. There are no bike pumps or wetsuits or aero helmets or disc wheels allowed here. If I flat, I’m on my own. My transitions need to be quick and well executed, that’s just free time. I’m not worried about what shoes to wear on the long run; I’m more concerned with how I’ll get to the home stretch. It’s no longer about the gear, it’s about what’s in my head.  I won’t be greeted by enthusiastic aid station volunteers at the 11th hour, when the pain cave  is closing in around me. But I know there’s going to be that light at the end of the tunnel…

One foot in front of the other, or in this case- one word after the next. The race is on, and my dissertation won’t write itself. I’m looking forward to this taper in particular…

Special shout-out to these fab folks for helping me get through this challenge: Baberaham (for cooking me real food among other incredibly helpful things), Mom’n’Dad (obviously), Peace Coffee (how else can I function?), Saucony and Lucy Activewear (because wearing athletic clothes to work is AOK in my book when it looks this good), Sharpie and my Trakkers gang (for not calling me crazy[to my face]), and the oh-so-convenient Halloween candy from ShopKo (nuff said).

My life is like whoa

It’s gonna be a busy week. I will get you some really juicy reads soon, but first, here’s my excuse(s)  for being the opposite of a good blogger.

On my agenda:

• Get a manuscript to my advisor
• Cryofreeze and slice tissue for the eight millionth time
• Histo the shiz out of some more slides
• Decalcify some bones
• Drive 11 hours for a wedding
  
• Be in my awesome friend’s wedding
• Make sure that the shirts get here in time for the race I don’t need to worry about this at all, because Core Concepts is supa-awesome!
• Race packet stuffing
• Set up a race course that is 70 miles long
• Make sure athletes get their race packets
• Attend another wedding
• Direct a half-iron distance triathlon on Sunday

Good thing its only a medium week for my training… although I’m not sure when I’ll have time for a 120 mile ride between hauling tables, food, and race gear 45miles north of here in about seven separate trips and putting on the inaugural Koop. I’m thinking that packet stuffing might include some sort of assembly trainer ride.

Things I've learned in grad school

Ohh, the places you’ll go. Or in my case, come back to. I got my bachelor’s degree from Michigan Tech in 2005, left for a few years to get my master’s in Montana, and then came back. Why? Because I love the UP. I am stoked about my advisor’s research. and I want to pursue a career in academia.

Getting your doctorate isn’t always just lab work and classes, at least not in engineering. It is a lot more than that. I’d like to think, at least for some, its really a coming of age tale. “When I was getting my PhD, I did all sorts of things that really made me grow as a person…”

Of course, I haven’t received my doctorate yet. But while all this is still fresh in my brain (somedays my brain is more fresh than others), I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned over the last X-number of years.

Unemployment vs. Graduate Stipends; 8/21/2009

Graduate school is a time in life where your earnings far outweigh the incredible things you do. Wait, scratch that! It’s the complete opposite. Unless you have some awesome fellowship like NSF GRFP or go to a university sponsored with IGERT funding (or have an endowed advisor that can give you lots-o-money), you can make enough … to scrape by. And even with a fellowship like that, $30,000 a year in some places isn’t a whole lot of money to get by (San Francisco has a cost of living 53% greater than Minneapolis [1]).

On the flip side, some schools have fairly high graduate student stipends (graduate students at Harvard make an average of $31,700/year and Princeton sits at $29,300 [2]). At Michigan Tech (my school), the minimum graduate student stipend for someone with their master’s degree (and after passing all qualifying exams and their proposal defense) is a little under $19,000 [3]. By any stretch of the imagination, <$20K a year is not really living in the comfort zone, which is why it always amazes me that some graduate students can juggle having a family, and having kids, and getting their PhD. My friend Matt, a fellow grad student with me, just had his first child this year. Kudos to him, and those of you out there that are so gifted to be able to balance life, work, and family. That being said, I supplement my income with student loans that help me have more breathing room (and help me enjoy some things away from school as well, including sports and healthy food).

Anyway, I digress: having no money– that is a definite downside to grad school. Why downgrade to making less than 20K a year when you know (at least as an engineer) you could get a job that pays $50,000 right out of the gate? I know as an undergrad, at least when I was a freshman/sophomore, I was looking forward to getting my degree and getting an engineering job. That’s what I was told: engineering degree = lots of money. Seems logical to choose such a profession. But I changed my mind. All of a sudden, it wasn’t all about the money anymore. When I told my dad (as a senior undergrad) that I wanted to go to grad school, he couldn’t figure out why. Spend more money on school, and for why exactly? Logical questions that needed answers.

OK, so you don’t make any money. In a similar train of thought: It’s interesting to analyze the type of people that come to grad school. Some are very ambitious, hoping to seek an advanced degree in order to advance their field of study, to teach others what they know, or to do better for their family. Some come to grad school because there just isn’t anything else to do. Take the following comic for example:

Piled Higher and Deeper: Enrollment vs Unemployment Rate, 10/1/08

Yes, I know. It’s a comic. But its based on actual data from the National Science Foundation and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The comic strip- Piled Higher and Deeper, is written by Jorge Cham, a mechanical engineer turned instructor who now travels and writes comics and helps others with low self esteem (ahem) grad students come to terms with the triumphs and tribulations of grad school. Interestingly enough, I am seeing more folks changing gears and going from industry back into academia, especially around the time of the economic fall out. It’s more difficult, because the graduate student pool is expanding, to secure graduate funding and support such as research and teaching assistantships. I suppose it comes down to ‘what else are we going to do’ but go back to school, when the job market is tough and employers are looking more and more for higher-ed employees. Anyway, it’s interesting. I’ll leave it at that.

Piled Higher and Deeper: Core Principles in Research 10/12/09

Graduate student life is not all that bad. Seriously. It’s one of only a few times in life where you can make-your-own-schedule, kind of. Some advisors require their students to stick to a 9-5 schedule, but for the most part it is generally accepted that, so long as you can get the work done, you can come and go when you please. Depending on culture, teaching responsibilities, and social life, I have seen other grad students come and go from my building at all hours of the day. Yes, there have been times when I have been there at practically all hours of the day (including the 8am-3am shift, or the 4am run to check on an experiment). As an undergrad, I had never pulled an ‘all nighter.’ But as a graduate student, things are different.  I mean, my life depends on these experiments. I literally have gone to bed at 9pm, set my alarm for 1am, and went back into work.

As a grad student, I’ve received tests back without grades on them. I’ve learned how to say “I don’t know” as eloquently as possible (I’m sure you’ve heard: “That’s an excellent question and its something we should consider for future investigations“- right?). I’ve learned how to bull..logna my way through a difficult question or two.

I am also learning new stuff every day, whether it pertains directly to my research or not. I’ve learned the ins and outs of all sorts of things, from optimizing quantitative PCR to getting a facility up and running. I’m learning that some situations are less fair than others, and that it’s not really worth arguing or getting upset over (and to just get the job done). Sometimes, all I want to say is: “That is not my job.” Sometimes, I do say that. Quietly and to myself (or my cat). Because even if it isn’t your job, it’s probably something that needs to get done in order to do your job, so it really could be your job, so just do it and shut up. I usually end up stepping back and saying; “That is my job. Being a grad student means anything could be your job.” Need something machined? Learn how to use a mill. Need to figure out your statistical power? Find a stats book. No one is going to hold your hand, at least- no one should have to. Because in reality, being a graduate student means being a sponge, soaking in all that you can for the limited amount of time you have. Being independent. Learning how to be a primary investigator, with the guidance and advising of your P.I., of course.

In the end, I am grateful for being given the opportunity to learn and follow and interact. I’ve taken some really cool courses. I have sat in on some really interesting talks. I have attended conferences where faculty from all over the world would stop and chat with me about my research. In a world so big, you learn in grad school just how tightly-knit any one area of science really is. I get excited when I find a journal paper that touches on my research hypotheses, and I am critical about the research I review. And I don’t care that I will have over $30K in loans to repay when I am done with school (the longer you’re in school, the longer the time period before you have to pay them back! OK, maybe don’t follow my lead on that one…)

Piled Higher and Deeper: Brain on a Stick, 1/26/09

Thanks to Piled Higher and Deeper for letting me share their comics in this post! For more hilarity (and some learning experiences), check out PhD Comics here.

1. Payscale.com Cost of Living calculator: http://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator
2. Glassdoor.com, See what employees are saying. Online search database for company salaries, reviews, and interviews.
3. Michigan Technological University, Minimum Stipend Levels

What you can learn from a graduate student blogger

Last semester, Dr Michelle Oyen came to visit Michigan Tech to host a seminar and have some collabo-time with our laboratory. I follow her on Twitter (@MichelleOyen), and although I follow a LOT of people on Twitter, I often find her tweet-feed to catch up on what she has to say.

You see, Michelle is pretty dang smart. She knows her stuff, and she’s the expert when it comes to what she does (nanoindentation). She’s also a young scientist, ex-Pat, and currently living (the dream?) teaching and doing research at Cambridge. Along with her comparative insight on British education versus American education, and her active contributions to iMechanica, she often shares some information (academia-related) with which I strongly relate.

Last month, she shared a blog post written by Drew Conway at Zero Intelligence Agents, entitled Ten Reasons Why Grad Students Should Blog. This post really hit home with me, and even though the majority of my blog entries have marginally anything to do with my actual graduate school work, it puts the blogosphere of a graduate student into a brighter light.

This post really got me thinking: what are we (you. me.) doing out here in blogger-land? I struggle with the concept of a blog’s role in self-promotion, but at the same time I feel a strong need to share what I am going through (as an athlete and a graduate student) in order to help others that might be experiencing similar things. Suffice to say, there are few people out there that run marathons and get their PhD in engineering (or are there?), but there are small stories of learning, struggling, and triumphs along the way. But who really cares? Who am I to tell you what I think is important, or what is cool, or what is totally necessary in order to be a successful person in life?

Well, sorry to burst your bubble, readers, but I am not that person. I am not going to tell you exactly what you need to know about life, its struggles and its heartbreaks, and give you play-by-play ways of getting through it. But I’ve learned from other bloggers, readers, friends, and family what I can share that might be helpful if only the tiniest bit.

Maybe you readers out there aren’t grad students. That’s ok. Maybe you could give a hoot about what I did at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference or where I published my last peer-reviewed paper. That’s ok, too. And, really- maybe you don’t want to hear about how my experiment with human recombinant collagen type I immunofluorescence went. I get it!

But maybe, just maybe, one of the readers out there stumbles onto this blog, a reader that is a graduate student, and is going through the same demoralizing, throne-throwing, bucked-off-the-high-horse-every-day tribulations that I am. Perhaps you could provide insight to help me get through my frustrations with circular referencing in Excel, or motivate to set the alarm clock for 1am just one-last-time.

Or maybe you are an undergraduate considering going to graduate school, and you want the MTV True Life story of “I Want to be a Graduate Student.” Hopefully by reading my blog, you’ll come to realize that grad-school life isn’t always work, work, work. That the life of a graduate student ebbs and flows; there are busy times and there are calm times. There are times when you want to scream F.M.L. from the top of the MEEM, and there are times when you are so bored because you have nothing to do that you (mistakingly) ask your advisor if he/she needs any help with anything. [Learn from my mistakes, kids; don’t pull that last one.]

Could it be that you used to be a graduate student? That you remember what its like to go to graduate school but you want to live vicariously throw me one more time? You wonder if things have changed much since you’ve been living the dream. You are curious if professors still require students to call them Doctor So-and-So and if coffee is still the beverage of choice. Are grad students still working ridiculously large hours with ridiculous small pay? [The answer is yes, at least for most of these questions most of the time].

Chances are good that some of you never were graduate students. And you’ve never wanted to be graduate students. You went to college (or maybe you didn’t), but you got a job instead of spending more time, money, and heartbreak on the turbulent sea of advanced education. Maybe you read my blog because I am a runner, not because I am a student. Maybe you wish I would just s.t.f.u. about grad school sometimes, because really, how hard can it be? Someone pays you (usually) to go to school? Seriously? Um, you’ve gotta be kidding. Why don’t you just get a real job and start contributing to society?

OK, hopefully you don’t think that. But if you do, who am I to change your mind? Well, here’s where the self-promotion and self-worth part of being a blogger come in (and collide, if indeed you are a graduate student like me). I want everyone to believe that I make all the right decisions all the time: that I am training perfectly for my upcoming FullRev in Cedar Point, that I am writing flawless manuscripts with excellent data and impeccable statistics, and that I am mentoring the incoming graduate students with the utmost patience and virtue that any advisor would be proud of. Truth is, I am not awesome all the time. I know this. You should know this. One of the biggest and most worthwhile attributes of a graduate student is their own self-loathing.

Hmm… maybe not that extreme. Maybe its more like: One of the most valuable assets of a good graduate student is their ability to admit they are wrong. To tackle the task at hand independently. To not be afraid to make a mistake. As any good graduate student (or any rational person?) will tell you, mistakes are where you learn what you need to know. If you try to do everything perfect every time, you end up failing in a big way. At least that is what I tell myself when I get a paper rejected or an experiment fails.

So what can you learn from this graduate student blogger?

I hope you can take away that I use my blog to reflect, to learn from what I’ve done, and to embrace what goes well. There are a lot of bloggers than only blog about things that go well. That’s awesome. I wish I wasn’t a Negative Nancy as much as I am. But I am what I like to call a “pessimistic optimist”. I sometimes think that things are going to go poorly but in the back of my head (of course) hope that they go well; that way, if it fails, then I don’t look like an idiot, but if it goes well, then I am extra excited. Most of the time, though, I like to shoot for goals that are tangible, rational, doable. But on the edge of what is possible. I like to set the bar higher than I can reach at that time, but make steps in the right direction in order to reach it.

Just like training for a marathon, graduate school requires a lot of diligence, perseverance, and self-realization. You aren’t going to get anywhere with the wrong attitude. Most likely, you’re going to have some pretty awesome highs and some really frustrating lows. But you got to just keep picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and strolling onward.

What we do for our professions

I really don’t like feet. I think they are ugly (at least mine are), and I have foot envy of some ladies who wear cute sandals with their long, slender toes, moisturized heels, and bony ankles.

My feet are not pretty. They haven’t been pretty since … I don’t know if they ever were. Take post-Quassy:

I’ve got a hole in my toe, my three of the five nails are going to pop off, and I have this weird bruise under my big toenail that doesn’t hurt but doesn’t look pretty.

But I can’t just accept this. I mean, I could… but only if I stay hidden in my office/lab with socks and wornout running shoes to cover them.

Since I am at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Summer Bioengineering conference this week in Naples, I can’t wear wornout running shoes all the time (although, according to some of the gentlemen, I could still wear socks, even with sandals). I am also in the process of looking for a post-doc position, prepping for my first podium talk, and of course (more importantly?)- spending time by the pool. So, I bought my first bottle of nail polish since high school, and dolled up my toes:

Sure, I still have a long way to go before my feet are pretty. But, this simple red nail polish covers up a good majority of the bad and the ugly. Now for working on that tan…

Naples skyline at night

Michigan's Graduate Education Day 2010

This week, I traveled to Michigan’s capitol to talk with legislators about my graduate education and research. Three other graduate students from Michigan Tech joined me on the long trek to Lansing (Michael Brodeur-Campbell of Lake Linden, Mich. – PhD in chemical engineering; Melanie Kueber, Munising, Mich.-  PhD in civil engineering; and Christopher Morgan of Jenison, Mich., PhD in mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics). We met up with the dean of Michigan Tech’s Graduate School, Dr Jacqueline Huntoon. Luckily, we had Jacque Smith with us to lead the charge and take care of all the very important details of the event for us.

Graduate Education Day, as proclaimed by Governor Jennifer Granholm, is an event which is part of Graduate Education Week. More than 70 graduate students from around the state join together and presented their research and graduate experiences to legislators, the public, and other graduate students.

“To attract and grow quality jobs, we must have the best trained, best educated work force,” Gov. Jennifer Granholm said during her Feb. 3 State of the State address. The event was presented by the Michigan Council of Graduate Deans, and was an incredible opportunity for us as graduate students to connect with other students from different fields of study from many other universities around the state. It was also a great chance for me to get to know other graduate students from my own school from other departments (by spending over 18hours in the van with them!), and hear about their graduate experiences and research.

I was given the opportunity to meet with my hometown representative, Kate Ebli, of 56th District (Monroe County), who received her MBA from Oakland University after working in industry for several years. She is an incredibly nice woman with great insight into the importance of graduate education. It was fun chatting with her about Monroe, and the future developments that they hope to see in Southeastern Michigan related to energy and sustainability.

What do we get out of Graduate Education Day? I think the biggest thing was the awareness that it creates regarding the importance of pursuing a graduate education and the necessity for maintaining and encouraging students to follow that path. Kate Ebli mentioned that it’s practically necessity to pursue a graduate degree nowadays. Opportunities in graduate education from other Michigan schools were presented, and discourses into how different fields can collaborate and advance both science and rhetoric were engaged.

For Michael Brodeur-Campbell, it was the first time he had visited the capitol. “I think that’s valuable,” he told me. ” I think being politically engaged is important.  I got to see some different research going on in Michigan, learned about a few colleges and programs that I didn’t know about.  (Graduate Education Day) did some good for increasing the visibility and value of graduate studies in the state.”

Why is graduate school important? For me, it offers the opportunity to learn, grow, and build on the ever-expanding knowledge base of the field I am so passionate about. I have realized that I am capable of contributing to science and research, and I continually desire to do so. All Miss-America quotes aside, I want to make the world a better place, and I have fortunately found a way of doing so through my research and studies. No matter how miniscule I feel that my contributions are at times (and it’s more times than not), I find confidence when my research is successful, when someone pats me on the back and tells me ‘good job’, or someone offers constructive criticism that makes my research stronger.

Brodeur-Campbell agrees. “Graduate research is important to me primarily because I want to make a career in research. Frankly I’m a chemistry geek and I love playing with solutions and beakers, and getting a Ph.D. is how I turn that into a job.  But more importantly, I do it because I enjoy it, I’m good at it, and I think that it’s how I can make my greatest contribution to society with my work.  And then I found out that I get all these unexpected opportunities to learn and experience things I never would have considered on my own, and that’s like the icing on the cake.”

Graduate education is a key to a prosperous future for Michigan. Many of our students are working on solutions to real-world problems. These solutions will have an immediate benefit to society and have the potential to positively impact our state’s economy as well.

–Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of the Graduate School at Michigan Tech

Is graduate education important to you?

Below are some of the posters that the Michigan Tech students, including myself, presented at Graduate Education Day.

Oofta.

Nothing beats a good, long Sunday run.

It has been an incredibly busy past-few-weeks for me, but I have enjoyed it immensely. No, I am not throwing down any big training weeks or traveling for races. I’m a grad student, and the ebbing and flowing that is my dissertation work definitely opened the flood gates in mid-March. For the last two weeks, I have been in the lab, running experiments, incubating, harvesting, and in general not being able to think about anything else but what was on my plate at the time, all while not having any clue when I would be able to get in my next run or bike. I have been spending at least 12 hours a day on campus, including the weekends*, but I’m not complaining. Really. I love what I do.

Poor planning on my part lent itself to having Swim Week at the beginning of these experiments, and I unfortunately had to bail after just three swims (I was planning on doing at least 8 swim workouts, and about 28k yds of swimming). I did get into a good rhythm last week, and was able to squeeze in a Wednesday Drop Ride with some guys at The Bike Shop and some hill repeats with Marg. Since she is training for the Lutsen 50K in the Superior Trail Festival in May, she’s been shooting for more time on her feet. Her plan for the weekend included a 2hr run on Sat and a 4hr jaunt on Sunday. Although I couldn’t join her for the Saturday run, I planned my experiments to coincide with her longer Sunday run. I tried to map out a route on mapmyrun.com, but the website kept failing. I guestimated, filled up my Nathan Handheld with EFS, and took some advice from her significant other regarding distances/durations. Then, we were on our way at 8am.

The sun was trying to shine, I thought. I stripped off my top layer rather quickly and we headed out to the snowmobile trail on the north side of the Portage Lift Bridge. Karl was with us for about an hour, of which the time just flew by. When we got through Hubbell and Lake Linden, it was time to head onto the road and up-up-up the Florida Hill (4 miles, practically all climbing). After Florida, though, it was all downhill… literally. We found our way back to the ATV trail and headed home. At first, in Swedetown, the trail was mush and the consistency of wet cement. It stuck to our shoes and fell off right before our feet hit the ground again. Luckily, though, this only lasted for a few blocks, and we were able to get back into the comfortable pace we help on the road… only a slight bit faster.

Then the rain started, and our hands got cold. I started getting the grumpy-bug, because my Swix pants were falling down from all the weight of the rain and my shirt was riding up because it clung to my skin. I ran out of fluid at about mile 20, but the rain didn’t make me feel too thirsty. We picked up the pace a little to expedite our return home. Warm showers. Hot coffee. Biscuits. Chocolate candy. All these things were lighting a fire under our butts. But even though we were a long way out from home, we both agreed that we felt good and noted our lack of pain and soreness. I felt great, actually, and I felt tall and strong. My legs didn’t hurt (just my bum) and I felt quick with my turnover. Even after we hit 20 miles.

We hit mile 23, and we swore we crossed Lake Annie Road, so now it would be smooth sailing getting back around 4hrs. We might go over 4hrs, but only a little- maybe five or ten minutes. Then a few miles later, we actually crossed Lake Annie Road. I may have had a mini breakdown and a please-let-us-walk-for-a-few-dozen-yards, but that cleared up quick.  We snuck back into our fast cadence and the soft trail felt nice and refreshing on our legs. We passed the Tomasi subdivisions and snuck into Maasto Hihto. Soon we were smooth sailing into Hancock. We crossed our fingers someone would be moving something into my new apartment on the edge of town, but alas, we were forced to run the extra two miles back to Houghton. It wasn’t so bad though…

At the end, my Garmin read 29.29miles, and with the 0.8miles at the beginning (from home to Chutes and Ladders), makes a nice 30mile run. That’s officially the farthest I’ve ever ran in one go, Marg too. It didn’t feel too bad, either. Seriously. The time flew by. True, I was not about to go for another mile around the block to hit 50K, but I wouldn’t be opposed to trying it in a race. I am really looking forward to more long runs like this during the summer. We averaged 9:14s, which isn’t bad considering we averaged 8:40s after the Florida Hill. There may not be much that is quite as rewarding as negative splits on a 30mile run.

Pictures to come, as soon as I find the cord to my camera.

The route

The elevation

*except this weekend. I spent about six hours at work on Saturday, then moved some stuff from old apartment to new apartment, and with today’s run I decided to take today off completely from work. I helped Baberaham move stuff, and I didn’t even take a nap! busy busy.