Sunday Run

We had an easy winter, until we got close to spring. With freezing temperatures, frozen packed snow, and cold winds, the past few weeks have been a test of your fortitude, toughening you up for the challenges coming on race day. Keep you chin up and keep marching forward. Thanks to Lois, Hank and Kenny for getting you through last week.

This week, while the St Patrick’s Day Parade marches through Southie, we’ll be parading around Swains Pond and then the long run will take you to Wakefield. Due to snow and ice I’ve altered the long route slightly to avoid Breakheart. Here is an updated map.

The Route: We’ll start out together running up East Foster to Melrose Common, turning right on 6th Street. This will turn into Swain’s Pond Ave, bringing you to a quiet wooded section of Melrose. When you reach the ponds you’ll come to a stop sign, turn right here to continue on Swain’s Pond Ave. Swain’s Pond Ave will bring you to Lebanon Street where you’ll turn right. Head to a set of lights and turn left on Forest Street, bringing you past Oak Grove Cemetery and over to Main Street in Malden. Water Stop 1 will be in the parking lot of the Citizens Bank when you get to Main Street.

Leaving this water stop through the other end of this parking lot will put you on (the aptly named) Winter Street. Take Winter past the Oak Grove T Stop to a 5 way intersection. Go straight through the intersection on to Glenwood St. Follow this windy hilly road to Highland Ave where you’ll take a right into the traffic circle at the Fellsway East. Take a quick right here to get on to the Fellsway East and follow it past Grimsby’s to the LynnFells Parkway. Look for a water stop at the knoll across from Melrose High School.

After this stop, continue on the LynnFells Parkway to Saugus. Turn left at Main Street in Saugus. If you’re running short you’ll take the familiar left turn on Howard, run down to a left on Green Street which will merge with Main Street in Melrose to finish you’re 11 mile run. The long runners will not turn on Howard, they’ll continue on Main Street as it turns into Farm Street in Wakefield. There will be a water stop waiting for you at Wakefield Middle School.

After the Middle School water stop you’ll continue on Farm to Water Street where you’ll turn left. This will bring you to Main Street in Wakefield at Wakefield Center. Turn left on Main and follow it back to Melrose. You’ll take a turn onto LynnFells Parkway to pass back past Melrose High School where you’ll again find the water stop at the knoll.

After this water stop scoot along the LynnFells Parkway to Grimsby’s where you’ll turn left on West Wyoming. Make your way to Main Street and turn left to get back to Brueggers.

Water Stops: A combo of me, Tom and Hank will take care of you this week.

Roll Call: Who’s in?!

Next Week: I need volunteers to drive to Hopkinton and support water stops next week. If you or someone you know is willing to spend their morning driving and supporting, is good at following directions (both map wise and command wise) I need their help. Usually we need 6-8 cars. This year I’m expecting a huge turnout as the SLR has been quite popular this season. Please let me know if you can support next week and how many passengers your car can fit. If you want to run the short route next week, consider volunteering to drive half the route. I’ll pair you up with another short route runner and one will run the first half of the run while the other supports water stops and in the middle you’ll switch. It’s a fun day. I’ll be posting info about daily over the next week, so keep your eye on the blog!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 18th, 2017 at 10:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.