Muck Run / Safe House

Saturday morning was the annual MTU Cross Country fundraiser. They put on the "Muck Run" up at the Tech Trails. As it is close to halloween, many people dress up in costumes to race. They have awards for the best costume and the muddiest runner. I decided that this would be a fun race to do. I didn't wear a costume, though. I also found a group of people who were running and we formed a team. The weather was on the cold side, but once the race started it was alright. I have seen many creative ways of starting a race, but this is the first race I have ran where they lit a firecracker and threw it on the ground in place of the starting pistol. The course was deceptively easy for the first two miles. The third mile, however, consisted of some pretty brutal hills (at least for a person who is used to flat terrain like I am). At the two mile mark, I was on pace for a time in the 18 minute range, but after the last mile I had racked up a time of 20:22. Everyone had relatively slow times because of the challenging course. Our team ended up running well enough to win the team race. Below are some pictures of the run.

Later that day was another annual event called Safe House. This is when the residence halls are converted into haunted houses and the public is allowed to tour. I helped with the setup and operation of my hall's "gamer's nightmare" theme. It's amazing how much difference can be done to the hall in about two hours. I hear Ashby's hall was very well done. I wish I could have gone through it, but I was busy working on my own hall. All in all it was a very busy and very fun day.

Our winning team.

Everyone getting ready to start.

Me coming to the top of the final hill.

Weekend Trip / Snow?!

This morning I heard someone in the hall say that it was snowing. I didn't know what they were talking about, so I looked out the window. Sure enough, it was snowing. None of it stuck, but it was still quite surprising. There is always a survey at the front desk, and today's was to predict when the snow will stick this year.

This past weekend, Ashby and I took a trip to a "covered drive" just outside of Houghton that my Calculus II professor mentioned. Unfortunately, we were too late to see most of the leaves on the trees. It was still a very nice drive, though.

We also returned to the Hungarian Falls a bit farther up the Keweenaw. We had hiked to the falls earlier, but due to the drought over the summer, the falls were just a trickle. This time, with more rain, the falls were closer to their full force. Below are some pictures of the weekend's events.

Covered drive.

Blue sky?!

Lower falls.

View from the lower falls.

Upper falls.

Stream coming from the upper falls.