Sunday Run

This Sunday we awoke to about 3 inches of snow on the ground and heavy snow falling with much more to follow. Even in a snowstorm 13 runners made there way to Brueggers for the Sunday Long Run. We reviewed the routes and the many options that could be taken along the way to tailor the distance to your willingness to endure the elements. Demi took the first option, and I’m sure there were many more that made the same decision in absentia, her run was across Main St to the Melrose YMCA for a jaunt on the treadmill. The rest of us headed out in the storm up Main St to West Wyoming.

In an attempt to keep track of people the best I could I started out at the front of the pack running with a new visitor to the Sunday Long Run, John. John is a strong runner with years of experience, a self-professed “thick Irishman” who would not give up his space along the side of the road while I kept moving from roadside to sidewalk trying to figure out where I felt safest. There was enough snow on the sidewalk to cover our shoetops, with unsure footing underneath from choppy ice from last week’s storm hidden underneath. The roadside was slushy snow, much more manageable for a runner but not so much for a car as the plows were just making there way out into the storm.

At Grimsby’s we picked up Lois who had braved the storm, driving all the way from New Hampshire, but arrived a little late. She hopped in to the pack and followed us to the Fellsway East hills. Here’s where things got interesting. John pulled ahead having the advantage of his superior speed and his Yak Trax. Brian Gilroy caught up to me as we ascended the second long hill of this stretch. Coming down the hill was an old man in a big car who thought it necessary to let out a succession of beeps to let us know that an icy road in the middle of the snow storm was no place for a runner, but apparently is the right place for an old man with an attitude. All of us were aware of him now as he passed the frint pack and stopped beeping. A second later he passed the middle pack and beeped beeped beeped a little more furiously. Then again as he passed the back of the back. The Mad Beeper had introduced himself to the Sunday Long Run group, I sure hope our new friend made his way to his very important destination.

We turned at the rotary at Highland Ave, greated the guy under his tent selling newspapers who seemed completely unphased by the weather, and headed up to water stop 1 where Rick would be waiting for us. The effects of trying to accompany John began to take its toll, and with snow accumulating on my glasses, John and Brian faded into the snowy distance even quicker. Ed pulled up next to me and as we dodged the parade of plows intent on clearing out the complete width of Highland Ave we hoped in out of snowbanks all the way to the water stop.

I stayed at the water stop to make sure all runners arrived safely and headed out to their next destination correctly. Brian and Ed left as another John and Ginny pulled in. And another John, BarryC, Christina, and Jose followed in behind them. A plow stopped in the middle of the street and asked “Can I ask you guys a question? How many of you are out here? What race is this?”, about a dozen, not a race. “Then what are you people doing out here!!!”. He laughed at us as he pulled away, which was much more pleasant than the plow driver coming the other way who made it obvious he resented us being in the streets, slowing down his progress, delaying his late morning of sitting under a bridge somewhere in his plow.

The rule of the day seemed to be that if your name was John you headed down Woodland Ave to run 7 miles for the day, otherwise you turned left on Elm to loop the backside of Spot Pond. As they headed out Suzanne, Lois and Pam pulled in. Liz pulled up to let us know she would not be running today, being on the saner side of the crazy runner line. With everyone accounted for we Suzanne, Lois, Pam and I headed down Elm St while Rick moved the water stop over to the Stone Zoo parking lot. Somewhere on Elm St a muscular guy in a cutoff t-shirt shoveled his driveway. I didn’t see him, but according to Ginny he was quite a sight. To keep warm I set off ahead of this pack up Slacker’s Hill towards the Sheepfold. I could see the footprints from the pack ahead of us and could tell I was getting closer to them as the prints became more defined. Heading over Rte 93 and through the South St parking lot of Spot Pond I could see Barry, Jose, and Christina, plus the argyle pattern of Ginny’s Yak Tracks were well defined in the snow so I knew she wasn’t much further ahead. I caught the three as we headed toward the zoo, where Ginny was already sipping Gatordade with Rick.

I let them head out ahead of me while I waited to see that the rest of the runners were coming, again with the intention of catching up to them at some point. The stretch from the zoo to the hockey rink, runners were forced out into the street. About 7 inches of snow had accumulated on the sidewalks, and although they were runnable, our wet sneakers were starting to make our feet too cold. Lois and Pam headed back down Pond St by Grimsbys for about an 8 mile run, the rest pushed forward to the hockey rink. A pack of plows cleared the opposite side of the road so I headed up there to run, where I could see the expressions on people’s faces when they spotted the crazy snow covered runner coming at them. Turning up North Border Rd Rick pulled over to offer more water. I was more concerned that he might be stuck in the snow bank than my own hydration, but all was ok. Back onto the hills of the Fellsway East where an elderly woman panicked at the sight of runners in the road and slammed on her brakes on the downhill, sending her skidding into the path ahead of the runners. Luckily she was well ahead of us and nobody was hurt. She drove about 1 MPH after that until all runners had passed her. Back past Grimsbys some chose to turn down Wyoming to bring the adventure to a slighty quicker end. Ginny, Jose, Christina, and I formed a pack of four making our way to the Melrose Middle School knoll for our last water stop. Rick was quite a trooper dealing with the snow storm to keep us hydrated. With Gatorade fueling our last mile we headed up to Main St.

Ginny and I pulled ahead on Main St, running on the side of the road. Suddenly we heard a big bang behind us. Peaking back I saw a plow heading down the street. A few seconds later I heard the big bang again, this time right over my shoulder. This is when I realized these were on purpose, a signal to us runners that we were about to get scooped up by a massive plow blade. Hopping over a large snow bank into the foot of fluffy snow on the side walk we found safety as the big plow scraped the side of the street.

Pulling into Brueggers, a snowy mess, our 12.5 miles were done. Brian came in having added extra miles on for about 16, wearing a bushy mustache seemingly made completely of ice. With frosen hair, sweaty icicles, soaked clothed and soggy sneakers, 13 of us made it through what hopefully was the messiest long run of this winter… but it is still early in the season. I told everyone they could add 10% to the distance they had run today, the degree of difficulty warranted it.

This past Saturday we had over 20 people join in on the Sunday Long Run… Saturday style. With the MRC Year-End Party planned for Saturday Evening and a winter storm warning declared for Saturday night into Sunday morning, our band of runners were eager to get their run in.

Barry started the run off early, trading a box of video equipment for the party with me for a box of gatorade and water. He parked at Breakheart, took a quick peak at the conditions of the paved pathway there, and headed back to Breuggers to meet up with us. Back at Brueggers I provided the maps and explained optional routes for all that weren’t interested in the adventure that is steep ice-covered hill running.

The first few miles were unadventurous, following the same start of last week’s run up Main St and out the LynnFells Parkway. It was good to see that new Sunday Long Runners Suzanne and Jose had come back for more miles and hills. In addition we had Rebecca and Christine joining in for the first time as the group continues to grow. Up in the front Judi and Barry led the way to Breakheart’s Saugus entrance, Judi prepared for anything toting her Yak Trax in her hands. The air was chilly, low 20s, and the wind was light, feeling as though it was slightly in our face on the way to Breakheart. I made my way along with Audrey for the first part of the stretch and Evan for the second part. At Breakheart we stopped for a few minutes to hydrate as we eyeballed the impending icy run. The sight of the mess in there was not welcoming, Evan was so intimidated by it that he spun around so fast to leave that it looked like his pants were on backwards… wait, his pants were on backwards! Yes Evan ran his whole tun with his pants on backwards.

Barry, Judi, and Brian were already in there and it seemed as though people were milling about to see if they were gonna turn around and come back out. Many discussed their plan to run the flat side of Breakheart and go out the Wakefield side to Farm St, where they would run back to the LynnFells Parkway to join up with the rest of the crew. Not me, I’ll never ask someone to do something on the Sunday Run I wouldn’t be willing to do myself, I was going all the way around Breakheart! Slowly groups headed into Breakheart Reservation with reservations. Careful steps on choppy white ice were taken as people made there way along the sides of the path where their running shoes could sink in to the white crusty snow a bit. I left the water stop with just Nancy, Sue, and Joanne left and made my way along the middle of the path from the back of the pack forward. I felt confident that the hard ice was runnable and tried to convince each runner I passed that this wasn’t really too bad. Past Nick, and Jose, and Suzanne, and Peter, and Erin, and Barry, and Lauren… none of them were buying it. Then I caught Mike, the one guy willing to give the hilly side a try with me. Passing the Wakefield entrance we turned up the first major hill and tried to figure out the plan to get through. Luckily we weren’t the first idiots to go through there, as evident by deep frozen footprints marking the pathway. By landing the front of our shoes into the footprints we could get the traction needed to scale the steep hills. Easy. Easier than the downhills anyway. Downhills took some figuring out. They were much too slippery to let gravity take you down, on your feet anyway. They were also too slippery to try to keep a slow pace by braking, unless you wanted to break something. So somewhere in between we went, carefully planning where each step would land, not picking up too much speed and never trying to slow down. Before we knew it we were out the other side, sore quads and all, and safely back at the water stop.

Brian Gilroy was already at the stop, another brave soul that made it through. Nancy and Joanne came walking out of the Breakheart building talking up how wonderful and warm it is in there. I question if they ever left the water stop the first time but they claim they did and ran the shorter route around Breakheart. Barry came running in from somewhere, having run through Breakheart and around Saugus and Wakefield to get in 12 miles or so. Nobody else returned to the water stop. All the others headed out the Wakefield side to avoid the icy hills.

Mike and I went back out to the LynnFells and caught up to the back of the pack that had short-cutted it. The wind worked against us in this direction, cold and biting in our face. Barry drove by and rolled down his window to taunt us with how well his heater was working. We finished up at Brueggers as the short-cutters made there way in from all directions, each adding on a bit of distance to make there run no shorter than ours. If running on a Saturday weren’t enough to make things different, improvised routes made each run unique.