I tried something new for this past Thanksgiving break. I had a whole week off, and decided that a week off was better spent being active outside than it would be at home. So, I took a little bit of a leap and planned a 5 day backpacking trip for myself down in the Great Smokey Mountains. The trip did not go as planned, instead it ended up being a 2 day adventure and a lesson in decision making. Above is my original itinerary. This would be my first time in the Smokeys, so I did not want to be overly ambitious with the mileage each day. Additionally, I was excited to hike up to the Appalachian Trail and camp along it for two nights. The beginning of the trip went as planned. I found the campground that I would park my car at just fine, and the trail head was right in the back of the park. It was a quick 1.2 to my first campsite, and it was a pleasant evening. I was up naturally early on Tuesday, ready to start crushing my bigger mile days. The morning was a bit chilly but once I started uphill with weight on my back I was soon dripping sweat. While hiking up I realized that I had really misjudged how difficult the terrain would be. In my expectations, these trails would be rocky and straight up the mountain, as they are in the Whites. Fortunately, the trails in the Smokeys were basically paths, with nothing technical on them. There were switchbacks up the steep stuff (imagine that!) and a nice soft bed of leaves for me to walk up. Unfortunately, however, I also misjudged how much colder it would get as I climbed in elevation. Past a certain point the area I was in became socked in a cloud, and even while hiking I found myself getting colder and colder. Packs-off breaks became very rushed as I would get cold immediately after stopping. As I got closer to camp I made a list of priorities in my head. It was clear to me based on how cold and sweaty I was that this was a situation when the environment needed to be the priority. I needed to get into dry and warm clothes. I hoped that once I got into dry clothes and all of my layers I would be warm enough to go about my night in camp. I did just that, then began to make mac n cheese, hoping that warm food would also help me out. At this point it was only 1pm. I estimated that the temperatures were in the low 30s, because the threads of my nalgene were developing some ice. I knew that if it was this cold, and only 1pm, I was in for a long night. The easy terrain put me at my second campsite way ahead of schedule, and I suddenly realized that, ya know, I *may* survive the night, but honestly I could book it back down right now and be at my car by sun down. So that is exactly what I did. I forced down as much of that mac n cheese as I could, but really had no appetite, then I packed up as quick as I could and started to motor down. I made it up to this campsite (9.1mi) in 5 hours, and back down (10.3mi) in 3 hours. The gradual downhill switchbacked paths made it easy for me to get back to my car well before sun down. It all worked out nicely, I got to go home for Thanksgiving after all. I drove back to Penn State on Friday to be back in time for my last home football game on Saturday. This put my total driving hours for the week at 36. Definitely felt a real sense of freedom being able to drive all over the east coast, but it was tiring for sure.
Back at school, someone said to me "wouldn't it have been bad ass if you just stuck it out in the freezing cold?". I was fully prepared to answer this question. The answer to that is, no, it would not have been bad ass of me to stick it out. When leading trips I often teach Expedition Behavior to my participants. Expedition Behavior refers mainly to doing more than your fair share, carrying more than your weight, and generally just paying it forward to your group. One of the finer points of EB according to Howard Tombs is "do not get killed". Putting or keeping yourself in higher risk situations is foolish, even if you are alone. If I were to have needed search and rescue to extract my popsicle of a body (dead or alive) then I am putting others into the same high risk situation that I was dumb enough to get myself into in the first place. In conclusion, it was bad ass of me to make the smart decision, and bail on a hike that I had been planning for well over a month. There were no feelings of disappointment or embarrassment. I saw the Smokeys, got my backpacking fix, and even got to be with my dog on Thanksgiving after all. Amazing trip. On Saturday the 17th I ran my fifth half marathon. This one was different, though. This half was a fundraiser for Penn State's THON through a program called Cents of Hope. The way the fundraiser worked was that I started the run in the very back of the pack, at the end of a crowd of almost 13,000 runners, and for every runner I passed my sponsors would donate a cent (or more than a cent if they decided to do a higher sponsorship level). This opened up a pretty huge fundraising opportunity for my crew team, and it was definitely motivation throughout the run. The crew team had 2 current members and 6 alumni running. The money raised goes towards our crew club's THON org fundraising totals, which we are trying to beat from last year. THON is a yearlong fundraising effort that culminates in a 46 hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon in February. The money raised through this fundraising goes towards the Four Diamonds at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital, This foundation works to support families fighting pediatric cancer as well as provide funding for research and treatments. THON is super cool to be involved in at school- it's entirely student run, making it the largest student run philanthropy in the world, and last year the fundraising total at the end of the dance marathon was over $10,000,000. Going into the half marathon I was a little bit nervous about my shins. I have suffered pretty severe stress fractures in the past, so staying healthy was a big concern. About 3 weeks out from the half I was on a trail run and after finishing was feeling pretty sore in my shins. I decided to take the rest of the time until the half off from running. I purely cross trained for this half marathon, 70% rowing and erging, 20% lifting, and 10% climbing. This past week I ran 3.5 miles on Monday and felt no shin pain. I knew that my cardio was where it needed to be and that my legs were incredibly strong, so I felt ready for the run. This was definitely a risk, running 13.1 miles without running more than 1 other time in the last 3 weeks could definitely hurt my legs, but this was preferable to me as opposed to training through sore shins and definitely wrecking them on race day. My risk paid off, I ran the half with no shin issues at all. Race day was perfect, weather wise. It was between 34-40 degrees and sunny the whole time, with no wind until after I finished. This was my first time seeing Philly, and I have to be honest it is a really beautiful city. Plus I think that running through a city is the coolest way to see it for the first time. All the roads shut down, fans lining the course... I guess the only bad thing was how many Eagles signs/ shirts/ hats I saw. Go Pats. But I digress. When I run more than 4 miles I typically like to keep an 8:30/ mile pace, and if it's less than 4 miles I like to push it to under 8/ mile pace. So I figured that for this half 8:30-9 minute miles would be a good goal. After all, I could just jog this, pass thousands of people, and bring in lots of money, I didn't need to set any kind of record. My previous personal best was 9:55/ mile pace in 2015, so I knew I would set a PR regardless. But as the race started in perfect 35 degrees & sunny weather, I started off super fast. It is so easy to get caught up in the spirit of the day and go out too hot. I was crushing under 8/ mile for the first 8 miles or so. Once I got to the part of the course that had a little bit of a gradual climb that pace jumped to 8:30s. Miles 10-13 were a super grind, I really had to push and felt my legs getting tired. As expected, my limiting factor was not my cardio or my mind, it was my legs. That was fine, though, as long as I have no shin pain I can do anything! So I pushed and I finished the half with an average of 8:13/ mile pace. I was thrilled with this, it was a massive PR, and more importantly it had me finishing in about 2,000th place out of almost 13,000 runners.
With all of my sponsors in total promising 10 cents per runner passed, I am expecting club crew benefitting THON to get around $1,000 being added to their total just from my run, not even anyone else's. I am still waiting to hear the final numbers, but it is looking promising. That is what I am most proud of, that with pretty minimal fundraising effort and pretty maximum personal physical effort I was able to make a big difference in our fundraising and eventually in the lives of families fighting pediatric cancer. |
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