Sunday Run

I forgot to mention…

After the run Sunday several us lingered at our table at Brueggers discussing the events of the run. I was sitting there minding my own business, sipping my coffee, when I was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a young female patron. She singled me out, snuck up behind me and walloped me on the backside of my head with a book. I never saw it coming. That was the most aggresive 3 year old ever!

The events of this past Sunday underscore the fact that running can be a dangerous undertaking. Be careful out there.

Despite being up late last night watching the Patriots roll onto their 17th victory of the season a big crowd of Sunday runners were ready to take to the roads. Herding the crowd out of Brueggers I counted 26 heads plus 2 water stop volunteers. Hmmm 26 and 2 any significance to those digits as we start our marathon training?

The weather was once again more than we could hope for in January. Slightly above freezing and warming up as the run progressed, no wind, bright sunshine. Perfect conditions considering the significant snowstorm in our near future.

The crowd spread out along Main St and out the Lynn Fells Parkway with conversations about the football game and celebrations that happened the night before. Runners took their typical places in their usual packs as muscles eased in to their morning routines. 

Pulling into Breakheart the first third of the run came to a close without anything notable happening. Mike Quigley and Rick Collette had water and gatorade poured and waiting for us. Super job guys. Packs reassembled and headed out for more. Some turned and headed back to Brueggers for a nice flat 6.3 mile run while the rest headed into Breakheart to take on some hills. This is where things started getting strange.

Through Breakheart I thought I knew where everyone was. Some people chose to do a 2 mile loop, others did the planned 3 mile loop. It seems that after I pulled ahead plans changed though and people I thought were ahead of me were behind me, and people I thought were behind me ended up ahead. A little confusing when you’re trying to keep track of everyone.

Heading through the hills I was happy to see that what had been ice covered a week ago had melted with the rain and unseasonably warm temperatures in the last week. There was one spot though, if you ran with us you know the spot, where ice melt was flowing across the path like a little stream. All around it sheer ice glazed the path. I opted to deal with wet shoes instead of slippery ice but others went the ice route. Nick Lamberti is proud to report that he is the first Sunday runner to hit the pavement in 2008. Unfortunately he wouldn’t be the last. I hear that Jean slipped on the same icy patch… with a little help from Lois who tried to catch her but “may have pushed her”.

With a quick visit back to the water stop guys and the most treachurous part of the run behind us, we headed out the way we came for the third 3 mile stretch of the day. Along the Lynn Fells in Saugus we passed a toilet on the side of the road. I mentioned to Ana that I’ve arranged for bathroom stops too now, and was trying to thing of how I could work that into the recap. While my mind was at work I saw Liz stumble on something on the side of the road up ahead and fall (who here hasn’t done that once or twice in their running career). Luckily she was running with Joanne who is a nurse. Luckily a car pulled over to help and supplied water and napkins to clean some scrapes. Luckily Sue Clough drove by in Liz’s car, stopped, and headed into her sister-in-law’s house which happened to be right there and got ice and drove Liz back so she didn’t have to run back. For an unfortunate tumble, there were some fortunate things that kept things from getting worse. I hope those bumps and bruises heal up quickly.

From there we headed back to Brueggers and exchanged stories of the day, a few more stories than we usually have.