With rain in the forecast most runners rearranged their schedules and got their miles in at a dryer time. Nine still showed up for the SLR and braved the elements for what became a challenging run. The first three miles headed straight into the wind driven rain. Michele, Tim, Doug, Mary and Kerry led the way (Sasha being smarter than the rest of us sat this week out). AJ continued his strong running right behind them and Dave and Jose, having started a bit late, trailed behind. When this soaked group came in to water stop 1 I joined in for the loop around Lake Quannapowitt.
For those that ran the Boston course 22 miler last year, it was a very similar run. Heading up Main St to the east side of the lake Kerry and I hopped puddles like little girls playing hopscotch, not an efficient way to get the miles. You could watch the pattern of the wind in the rain and along the surface of the lake, swirling gusts lifting the water off the lake. The nasty weather inspired us to run faster, with the hope that the faster we ran the sooner we would be out of the wind driven rain. Keeping the front back close we trudged through ankle deep puddles that spread the width of the streets. At this point there was no reason to avoid them, our shoes were full of water. You know when you’re walking in the sand right at the edge of the shore, and when you lift your foot up the sand tries to suck on to it as long as it can… each step felt like that. Turning up North Ave the cross winds kept pushing and we kept fighting. Kerry had fallen behind me, the front pack was beginning to pull away when a loud sigh was heard next to me. Mary had caught up and sounded happy to slow back down to my pace. The two of us fought through the wind back to the water stop.
There the front pack had decided they would skip the Breakheart part of the run and head back to Brueggers, happy to get 10+ miles in and live to run another day. I decided I would just stop at my car (I’m not training for anything). Mary and Kerry gladly followed their lead. AJ came in and with a little coaxing decided to run back to Melrose with the option of running more when he got there. Dave and Jose were a little harder to convince. Not wanting the elements to beat them they had a hard time letting go of the Breakheart loop, but the fact that I wasn’t going to sit around the water stop in wet clothes for another hour waiting for them seemed to be the deal breaker.
Back at Brueggers, the sideways rain brought the runners in one by one. Each deciding it would be best to make up the long run miles during the week sometime, they got their bagels and headed straight home. AJ, Dave, and Jose lingered a bit, I know in their heads they were trying to talk themselves into a little more, but as they dripped massive puddles on the floor of Brueggers we all called it a day and headed home. Hopefully we won’t have to run in that again for a while!
Thanks go out to the Cossettes who came and got a water stop container and headed over to Breakheart. None of us made it there, but thanks for being there for us.
Thank you Jim, Barry and Lauren for the support out there. It was a good sopping attempt, to say the least. I had put Body Glide on my toes and when I finally got my socks off, the dirt from the puddles seemed to attract directly to the toes. I drove home and before I could say no, I got on the stationary bike and put on two more mountain hours while watching a movie. Later that day, I took some trash outside (in bare feet and a light shirt) and someone passing said “how can you step outside like that?”
I ran Breakheart with the hopes of catching up with the group. While it was protected from the driving rain, you could not avoid the rivers and ponds flowing through. My sneakers won’t be dry ’til mid summer.
My hats off to all who ran in the tough conditions yesterday! My goodness-that must have taken a lot of physical and mental toughness!