This morning we started training for fall marathons and half marathons galore. Be it through the vineyards of Brodeaux, France, or the shores of the Cape or Maine, or the mills of Lowell or Manchester today was the first step towards reaching the goal of running a marathon or half marathon.
Eleven of us met up to begin our training. Walt, sweaty from his pre-run 6 miles took the lead with Barry, who didn’t plan on sweating due to a lack of fluid in his body caused by tipping back a few the night before. These two pulled away from the rest of us as we headed up Main St to the LynnFells. With a wind at our back so we couldn’t feel it, a hot morning sun beating down on us, and humidity in the air we made our way to Main St in Saugus. Work related talk filled the air as everyone caught up with the current events of what we all do when we aren’t running. Ginny, Molly, Evan chatted ahead of Lois and I, while Kaj and Beth Ford talked behind us, and Matt and Steve Hamilton behind them. Evan and Beth took Howard St back to Melrose for a 4.2 mile run while the rest followed through the hills to Farm St… all except Barry who went straight on to Breakheart and looped around to get a few extra miles in and still catch back up with the group. As we approached the water stop Liz beeped and waived on her way to meet us for the final 4 miles.
Walt was the first one to hit the water stop at Wakefield HS. In his fervor to get at the much needed Gatorade and water in my trunk, Walt opened the front door and feverishly pulled every lever he could find: hood, gas tank, maybe even reclined a seat or two and pulled on the emergency brake before finally finding the trunk release…  this is when he discovered that the latch for my hood is rusty and the hood, once open, doesn’t close completely without the help of a screwdriver. With many apologies Walt headed out as the rest of us replenished our fluids. While I drank I stuck my head under the hood to try to fix it and by the time I was done the rest of the crew had snuck away with a head start to Water St.
The second half of the run felt much different than the first with a strong headwind cooling us down. As we made our way over to Main St in Wakefield and back towards Melrose there were some MRC sightings along the way. Brian Gilroy was spotted in a car near the Omlette place in Wakefield, Rick Collette was seen at an ATM taking out his entry fee money for the Khoury’s Summer Steamer held this morning, and Dan Slattery was found getting in a run of his own along Main St.
The cool breeze kept the pace strong past Greenwood and Franklin, by the LynnFells and Ell Pond, and back to Brueggers. All the runners streamed into the finish one by one in good form, each looking ready for the voyage to our autumn goals.
(Note: Next week we’ll be running on Saturday morning to allow MRC long runners to participate in the MRC Summer Party Saturday night without worrying about getting up to run in the morning. Plan accordingly)
Summer wind-Cape style….With Nancy staying in Dennis and I in Yarmouth, we decided to meet and do our Sunday long run in the Cape. No road kill spotted, unless the occasional clam shell counts. We ran along the Yarmouth Coast, by Bass River, a wind mill, a couple of Marinas and into Dennis. We did see a 5′ tall old stye motorcycle cop statue standing guard when we entered Wrinkle Point in Dennis…not sure what that meant except maybe we were too young to run in that section of town. The last mile was hot and sunny but thankfully the sea breeze cooled us off and pushed us to finish our 9.2 miles. Looking forward to Sunday long runs North.