Quick Update

So yeah, I haven't kept of with this. I've been busy working, busy preparing for my trip and busy running and camping, among other things. I'll talk a bit about this past weekend though.

We leave for Michigan Thursday afternoon and get to the campsite well after dark. Don't even bother setting up tents and just sleep on tarps under the stars. We get registered around 6 in the morning with our first runner off at 6:30. After that we decorated our car and figured out how everything was working. My first run went well. It was 6 miles and I did it at around a 8:47 pace (more or less. My timer gave 8:49 but I got held up near the beginning by cars), which is possibly my best pace ever for that distance. I also passed 3 people during it, which felt great. My second leg was supposed to be 3.2 miles but I picked up the ghost runner's 3.1 mile leg to do a 6.3 mile run. My pace then was somewhere between 9:07-9:12 which is pretty normal for my 10k. Need to get that down a bit, I think 8:30 is my next goal. Passed one person and got passed by another. My final leg was 7.6 miles and started strong. I kept about a 9 minute pace on the flat section but after about 4 miles I was getting noticeably slower. And the hills were very tiring. My final pace ended up being about 9:44. I did get 5 kills thanks to that fast start and only 1 death. 

All along the way I got to see many cool sites and parks. Michigan (at least western/northern Michigan) is really pretty this time of year. Saw lots of sand dunes and beaches and the like. After the race, I went up to the UP with some of the other runners and we camped for a couple days. Actually had near perfect conditions to see the northern lights...except that it was rainy and cloudy when the solar storm hit. Oh well. It was a really fun trip; I hiked a lot and got to know these people better (though I already knew them well, we camp a lot). 

Anyway, I gotta get going. After packing my bags (almost 30 pounds, though a decent portion of that is snacks or things I'll send once I get to Jakarta. My actual clothing is like 7 or 8 pounds) I think I'm ready for this next adventure. And if I'm not, well oh well.