Sunday Run

Your heart’s beating loud
And goes on getting louder
And goes on even more til the
Sound is ringing in your head
With every step you tread
And every breath you take
Determination
  — Iron Maiden
You know we’ve been growing as a group when 15 runners show up and it feels like a small group. Whether they were out running races this weekend or just confusing “tapering” with “sleeping in”, most of our marathoner trainees that ran 22 miles last week were absent this morning. Our BAA half runners all showed up for their taper run before next week though making for a short but lively run for them.

The weather was great for a long run, with clouds keeping the sun from heating things up we started with an early morning chill in the air as temperatures hovered in the low 40s and a breeze blowing occasionally which had us swaying between sweaty to chilly. Heading up East Foster to the Melrose Common we started right off with a hill. The group seemed in good spirits going over stories of kids’ soccer games from the day before, Jen and I both had stories of soccer players scoring goals into their own nets. Heading up to Swains Pond and Turners Pond there was no mistake that fall had settled in with blowing leaves and a chill hovering in the air around the ponds. Twisting through streets we made our way past Oak Grove Cemetery to water stop 1 at Forest St and Main St. Carol’s car played host to the stop this week (Thanks Carol).

The next leg of the run was also hilly, heading over the train tracks at Oak Grove we followed Greenwood St through Malden. As Brian, Demi, Lois and I made our way through the hills we sidestepped the road kill of the week, a squirrel. While commenting on the squirrel an association in Lois’ head caused her to utter “So OJ’s guilty”. She was commenting on OJ Simpson’s recent kidnapping/burglary trial but for a second it seemed like she was accusing OJ of killing the squirrel… which I’m sure he would do at the slightest provocation. After discussing that and other news of the day our pack split in two, Brian and I picked up our pace along the hilly Fellsway East eventually catching Carol while Demi and Lois kept a strong pace not far behind us. Where Washington St meets the Fellsway there was a police radar alerting the cars barrelling down the hill of their excessive speed. These radars are a challenge to me, when two runners run side by side they can trigger the radar and to this day my PR is 8MPH while running with Mike York. With the aid of the downhill Brian and I made a mad dash towards the machine and triggered 11MPH. The momentary rush was followed by some quick math… 11MPH means in 2 hours we could cover 22 miles, add another 4 miles for a marathon… even with a hill and a momentary burst of speed we weren’t as fast as a Kenyan running a full marathon! In figuring that out we kept up a brisk pace to the next water stop, Sue’s car at the knoll by the middle school (Thanks Sue).

Brian and I headed out along the LynnFells towards Saugus. Brian, not training for anything, turned right at Lincoln St to finish up about 10 miles. Our half marathoners were all done with their 7 by now. Sue, Joanne, and Nancy were adding on miles along the summer route. This left me, Carol, Lois and Demi to finish out the long route for the day. I ran out to Farm St in Wakefield alone. The only sight that broke up the run was at the estate near the Saugus/Wakefield line with the statues along the long driveway. There is a column at the end of the driveway with a ball on top of it, today I learned that its a fountain and with the water running the ball rolls along the top of the column. I can’t see putting something like that in my yard but the sight of the ball rolling put the thought of keeping the run rolling as I pushed on, Farm St to Nahant St to water stop 3, Lois’ car at the corner of Nahant and Main St in Wakefield (Thanks Lois).

Carol came into the water stop as I was readying myself for some extra miles. She was running strong on her taper for Baystate and looks prepared. As she headed south on Main St I headed North for a loop of Lake Quannapowitt. As I looped the lake I picked off a couple of runners ahead of me as a way to instigate some speed as well as make it feel like I wasn’t running alone. Another quick stop at Lois’ car followed by a quick finish down Main St, carrying on conversations I would be having had I had anyone running with me. I finished up back to Brueggers with something in the 18 to 19 mile range under my belt. Lois also ran this loop for some extra miles and Liz joined her for the final stretch down Main St.

Back at Brueggers our small group gathered with discussions of the great running weather, our strong runs, and the recent success of the Red Sox in California… hopefully not jinxing any of the those things.

Congratulations to those that took their well trained legs out for a test drive at races this weekend. And Good luck to all who have trained with us for the BAA Half next week. You’re all running strong and are ready for the 13.1 mile challenge you have ahead.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm 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.