North Shore Wedding (and Long Run)

Last weekend, we spent 3 nights along the shores of Lake Superior with family. I'll maybe have more photos later, but here are a few from the weekend:

At Black Beach.


Charlie and rocks.


Behind our motel (Gooseberry Park Cottages and Motel) along the lake.


The morning of day 2: my folks at the 300' cliff at Palaside Head!
My Dad had never been that far north along the North Shore before!


Cousins at Tettegouche State Park.


At Tettegouche with Palaside Head a few miles in the distance.


My cousin and his bridge getting married at Gooseberry State Park!


On the shore in our wedding attire.


My family post-wedding.


Niece, sister, nephew, and my cute wife.


My better half and me.


Charlie changed into his suit even though the water was 45 degrees.


Congrats Michael and Clare!


Day 3: Temperance River State Park with the whole family!


Ending the day jumping into the freezing lake!
(Me in the middle of the kids, and my bro-in-law did it too left-of-frame.)


Drying/warming by a hot fire on the shore.


S'mores with the family for an hour as we drip-dried. The fire kept us all plenty warm!

The final morning (of day 4), I woke up and headed out for a long run around 5:30 a.m. We were right along the lake, and about 2.5 miles from Gooseberry State Park. So I ran along the large shoulder for those 2.5 miles to the park, then hopped on a trail next to the road that kept heading north. I did a boring-looking 12 miles as 6 miles out and 6 miles back:

24 half-mile splits.

I did 3 miles easy, 6 miles "at pace," and then 3 miles of an easier cool down. My first "pace" split was FAST: 2:59!! But it was a bit downhill, so I didn't get too excited. My pace miles had some rollers through them: over those 6 miles, I ran through 3 or 4 of those "steep downhill so cyclists beware" signs! (Which mean I had to come back UP those in the other direction!) The last half mile was brutal because it was more uphill (to make up for that faster downhill opening mile). Here's what my elevation generally looks like for a "normal" 12 mile run:

Biggest hill in my easier "cool down" miles, and 279 feet of elevation change overall.

But my north shore run looked like this:

More up-and-down within the harder miles, with 537 feet of elevation change (nearly twice as much!).

(Also, the range of the "normal" runs is 150 feet from top-to-bottom on the chart, but it's 200 feet on my north shore run.)

My pace mile half-mile splits looked like this:

2:59, 3:06, 3:02, 3:15, 3:02, 3:11, 3:02, 3:11, 2:58, 3:13, 3:07, 3:15

= 37:28, or 6:14.67/mile pace

Not a fast run, but some good hills for my quads and butt.

Then we packed up, ate at the Rustic Inn Cafe across the street, got a slice of pie for the road, and headed home. Fun weekend with family!