Home » Archive by category 'Friends' (Page 11)

Archive of ‘Friends’ category

Outdoor Bound Surprise Lake Hiking Trip

I’m back this week from my vacation. It’s funny, I’ve been working in corporate America since February 2006, but last week was my first paid full week off work in that entire time. Needless to say, it was one of the best weeks I’ve ever had. I visited my brother in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb right outside Seattle. I ran a fantastic 9 mile training run there that I’m excited to tell you about and show you some gorgeous pictures from! I also got to spend a night in the Hamptons to help YogaVibes film Core Fusion Cardio and Core Fusion. I even got to be in the Core Fusion class that we filmed! More on that soon too.

I have so much to share, so let’s start with my very last day of vacation, this past Sunday. I went on a hike with Outdoor Bound.

A few weeks ago, I was at Angela’s rooftop party and met this cool guy Kirk. Turns out Kirk owns Outdoor Bound, “an education-based adventure company that offers unique international excursions, outdoor fitness programs, youth development programs, corporate team-building activities, and a variety of single and multi-day excursions.” Missy had actually gone on two of their hiking trips (one that included a wine tasting!) and loved it. She’d been trying to get me to come, and after meeting Kirk (and, let’s be honest, Kirk offering me a free trip) I said sure!

We chose the Surprise Lake Hike. This is the description of our hike, from the Outdoor Bound website:

A Stunning 6.5-Mile Day Hike!

This beautiful trail is notable for some steep and rocky sections that provide spectacular views. There is a wide variety of fascinating vegetation and terrain along our loop route, which includes a section of the Appalachian Trail. We hike around lovely, secluded Surprise Lake, where we will stop for lunch. In summer, bring or wear your swimsuit for a dip in the lake!

The Hike

We will cover 700 vertical feet of elevation during this adventure, and the majority of the climb is in the first two miles. After joining the Appalachian Trail for a short distance and learning about the world-famous journey that AT hikers undertake, we will follow an undulating mountain ridge for the next 2.5 miles. Our loop trail will take us through rhododendron groves and lush and mossy woodlands and we’ll scramble up craggy ridges to spectacular view.

Even with that description, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Luckily, Missy is a hiking trip expert now and sent a packing list to me, Angela and Kristine. I borrowed an awesome backpack from my roommate and filled it with water bottles, a beach towel, sunscreen, bug spray, wet wipes, flip flops, bandaids, lunch, snacks and my camera. We met with our tour guides, Arielle and Jon, and the rest of the group on 73rd and Broadway where we signed a release and boarded a van. We drove a little over an hour and arrived in a foreign land called New Jersey. In this strange place, we sprayed our bodies with sunblock and bug spray and used the facilities. By facilities, I mean the woods.

And we were off!

 

I had never been on a challenging hike before. I’ve hiked a couple times, but it was more like slightly hard walking. This trip was a HIKE. It was a level intensity 3, which means the following:

Level 3 > Moderate — for Novices & Above

ACTIVITY: 4 – 6 hours most days
DISTANCES: Hike up to 10 miles, cycle 20 – 40 miles most days
SURFACES: Rolling or mountainous terrain with some steeps
ELEVATION CHANGE: Up to 2,000 feet per day
ALTITUDE : Up to 10,000 feet

Even though I learned about the hikes from Missy, she never told me about the climbing involved — or the sitting, which is how I had to slide myself down some steep rocks and dips. I relied on my hands to help me navigate the trail at times, and other times I was able to jump and climb pretty well! The guides were knowledgeable and helpful and gave some great advice for tackling the more challenging sections.

(Missy climbing — this one was HARD. Someone on the trip took a picture of me tackling this but I forgot to have him send it and I don’t know his name!)

We learned how to follow a trail, which was very cool because I never knew about this at all. The trees and ground is painted with a certain color every few feet to indicate which trail you are on (a yellow trail, a blue trail, etc) and which direction you should go to continue on this trail. If you stop seeing paint, you know you might have navigated off the trail and can turn back. The stack of rocks also indicates you are on the trail.

 

Before we left Manhattan, our guides checked to make sure we all had at least two liters of water. I brought the luxury to the wilderness with my exhale mind body water. Kristine stayed hydrated with her sleek flask-looking water bottle.

 

On one of our breaks on the hike Missy and I decided stretching was necessary. My quads were already sore from filming YogaVibes.com Core Fusion the day before, and this hike was rough on the legs!

We reached the Appalachian Trail — which extends from Georgia to Maine — and the New York/New Jersey state line! I got to sign a guest ledger and stand in both states at once! And actually, it is on the Appalachian Trail that I did my downward dog. I wonder how many people can say that?

 

After this we had some of the toughest hiking of the day. As challenging as climbing up can be, I was most scared going down (TWSS). I would choose to sit down and push myself down with my hands instead of jump or try and shuffle down quickly. I’m running a half marathon next month and really can’t afford to get an injury! I was erring on the side of caution partly out of fear of getting injured and partly because I just get scared. Either way, it was a challenge and scary but I felt so accomplished after completing each of the difficult sections of the hike.

I was rewarded with views like this:

 

 Finally we reached Surprise Lake and got to relax and eat lunch. Some people went swimming, my friends and I opted for some relaxing in the sun.

 

 

We saw a giant turtle.

 

What a cutie! Can we hug him?

Kristine went with some interesting clothing options.

After lunch and relaxing, everyone got very quiet for the remainder of the hike. The chattering from the first few hours was over and it left lots of time for self reflection. I’m always writing my memoir in my head, so I spent the last mile and a half or so we had left working on that. Maybe one day I will write some of this down.

Before I knew it, the 6.5 mile hike was over and we were back at the van, ready to head home. I always get sad coming back to New York City after being somewhere beautiful and relaxing. It was hard coming back from Seattle earlier in the week and it was even hard coming back from my short stay in the Hamptons. This was extra melancholy because it meant that not only was the hike over, but my perfect vacation was coming to an end as well.

It really is incredible that you can get in a car in Manhattan, drive for an hour and find yourself in an entirely different universe. The hiking trail was so close but felt like a million miles away. The good news is that going on trips with Outdoor Bound is easy and inexpensive. This specific trip only costs $59, which covered transportation and being guided along difficult and hard-to-navigate trails, and guaranteed incredible views and a lake to swim in — oh yeah, and real air to breathe. For less than $60 you can get an entire day outside of the city.

 

My friends and I loved the trip so much we already signed up for another in September! As I disclosed before, I did not pay for this trip, but I did pay for my next one. The cost is cheap for an entire day of hiking, exercising outside, being with friends (or meeting new ones) and enjoying the outdoors. The city can be so stressful, and a one day getaway is sometimes exactly what I need. The entire trip was organized and executed flawlessly. I am impressed.

If you decide to book an Outdoor Bound trip, you will save 10% off your trip with the code Dori’s Discount upon checkout! I really hope you decide to try an Outdoor Bound activity — in addition to hiking, they offer a variety of activities such as biking, mountain climbing, horseback riding, skydiving, kayaking , photography hikes and more.  There is even a yoga hike and a wine tasting hike! Kirk started something really fantastic here and I know you would love it.

Wall Street Run 3 Mile Race Recap

Every year, my company sponsored the Wall Street Run, a 3 mile race through the streets of the Financial District in Manhattan. There is a running portion and a walking portion, and the groups are split up with separate starts. I always had free entry to this race through my job and access to the after parties where the margaritas were a-flowing!

Then another company bought my company, and that new company doesn’t care about helping heart disease. Or something. My point is, my company no longer sponsors this race, so this year I had to pay for my entry — which is good, since part of my entry went to the American Heart Association. My grandpa had two heart attacks and double bypass surgery, so this is an important cause to me.

I have to admit, it was very strange not having lots of people in my office all getting ready and going down to the start together in our matching shirts. In fact, the two people left in the office when I was getting ready asked me how I knew about the race! Without our company to sponsor it and promote it on the intranet, no one there even knew the race was happening. How sad. How different things used to be.

I really like that this race starts and ends right outside my office building at 6:45 pm. Convenience is key. I changed at work and went downstairs to meet my friends Missy and Melissa before the race. It was Missy’s first race, so I was excited for her! So excited that I insisted on attaching her D-Tag timing chip on her shoe while she stood helpless.

The night before the race, at 10 pm (bedtime) I realized that I forgot to create a race playlist! I abandoned any hopes of getting to sleep early and worked on a fun, fast 3 mile playlist.

My playlist was so awesome and I love myself for selecting these songs. It was the official race of the mashup.

I am still not ready to give up on Say Hey (I Love You).

Even though it was 93 degrees out with 60% humidity and many people were concerned, I was excited. When people are comfortable, I am cold. When people are cold, I am shivering in pain. When people are hot and sweaty, I am comfortable.

I thrive in the heat.

This was the first year the race was held in June. It is usually in May and I have a feeling that after this year the NYRR might switch it back to May again. According to all the normal temperatured (I can make up words if they make sense) people, it was a very hot, sticky race. And I knew it was hot, I am able to recognize that. When I saw a girl in a cotton t-shirt and cotton full length leggings, my heart hurt a little for what she was about to experience.

Because I like the heat, I decided to push myself a little — but not too much. I am not stupid, and I do know to slow down or stop if I am not feeling well. I hydrated well all day, having a cold pressed green juice with a dash of sea salt right before the race. Having come straight from my office to the start, it was my first non-portapotty race and I have to say, it was nice.

I turned on my new Garmin and then someone sang the National Anthem. I was chatting to my friends and this guy turned around and yelled at me! Oops.

And then we were off! I took off and . . . could not move. There were so many people, no corrals, many non-runners. Lots of the people there were part of teams through their company. But I wanted to try and run! So I weaved. I followed other runners up on sidewalks to get around people and dashed between friends. I did make sure to take in my surroundings because I love running races on actual streets of NYC! I think it is so cool when they close the streets for runners, and I am impressed by NYRR’s ability to close off so much of the financial district during rush hour.

I’ve worked in this area for three years now, so it was also fun running through familiar territory. Now, when I walk along these sidewalks, I can think “I ran on this street!” As I ran down Church street, some kids who were around 14 were holding their hands out for high fives. I took one, of course.

So as I said I wore my new Garmin and here is the map of where I ran for this race:

You can see a lot of my weaving here! The race was straight down streets and around corners. All the little squigglies are my dogding people an trying to maintain a decent pace. Although I have to admit the Garmin was a little off. I assure you I did not run directly over Ground Zero.

There was only one water station, on Water Street (ha), which was not nearly enough on such a hot, humid day. I didn’t even get to see it because so many people were crowded around, although there was a person with a hose again. I didn’t run directly under the water, but a couple drops got on me and it was nice.

Sometimes the crowd would clear a little and I’d have room to run, other times it would be completely packed and I would have to slow down and figure out how to get around everyone. A lot of people would just start walking right in the middle, which I completely understand and think is a great thing to do in these temps — but I wish they would have moved over to the side. Oh, well.

At the last mile, the road really cleared up. I finally had space to run! Except I was tired and didn’t have much left in me, so I was just going through the motions at that point. My big push at the beginning took a lot out of me. When we turned onto the West Side Highway, I did get some new energy back because I knew we were getting near the end, and I love this running path! I’ve walked this path many times during breaks from work.

The sun was beating down on us and the river was gorgeous. There were so many people cheering us on! I was surprised by how quickly I saw the finish line ahead — this race went by so fast! I was on my last song of the playlist, so I timed it well, but I was still shocked. I’m usually wishing for the finish line and wondering if it will ever come, but for this race (yes, it was just three miles, but still a tough race) it hit me out of nowhere. I wanted to speed up and sprint for a strong finish, but the path is pretty narrow here and there was no way to get around the masses of people. So I just kept going and then I was done!

I didn’t immediately stop in my tracks or feel like I need to collapse like I do after many other races. I felt great! I could have run more. I walked over to the water bottles, got one for myself and then secured a table outside at Southwest for me, Missy and Melissa.

Shortly after I finished, they joined me at our table overlooking the water for margaritas and quesadillas!

Our view from dinner:

I need to take advantage of this more often. My new BlackBerry takes very nice photos!

Amazing Grilled Vegetable and Goat Cheese Quesadilla (Grilled marinated vegetables, caramelized onions, roasted poblano peppers, Goat cheese and Mexican cheeses).

Quesadilla

Oh! How did I do? According to the New York Road Runners, here are my stats for this 3 mile race:

Time: 27:15

Pace: 9:05
Age: 35

Okay, so I am not 35, I am 27.  But I am so happy with my time! Even though it felt like I was running so slowly because of all the people, I managed to run pretty fast anyway! I wonder how I could do in this distance in better racing conditions? I felt like such a real runner too, trying to get around so many people who weren’t taking the race as seriously as I am. Probably because they are not insane like I am.

My Garmin actually says I ran 3.4 miles, which makes sense with ALL my weaving. I definitely ran more than 3 miles in this 27:15.  Seriously, I went so far out of my way to get around all the people! Although the Garmin also thinks I ran over a construction site, so, you know.  I think I can compare this to my 5K races and officially call this a PR.

So happy with this race! Most other people I spoke to found the weather too hot and humid and had a less than ideal race. And although the race conditions were far from perfect, I still managed to have a great time and be happy with my time.

Have you ever ran well in a race that other people found difficult? Or found a race challenging or annoying when no one else seemed to?

Good news for you: next week’s post will NOT be a race recap. Rejoice!

1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 37