The special edition Saturday Morning Long Run left Brueggers shortly after 8AM. Jennifer and Linda led the charge down Main St to West Wyoming. In tow were Brian, Ed, two Sues (Worrall and Clough), Lois, Molly, Ginny, Steve, Matt, Peter, Kaj, and me. The pace started out somewhat easy, each runner trying to figure out what they had in them today, what the weather had in store for them to day, and how to meter out the right amount of energy to last to the end of the run. Heading down Wyoming Beth joined in along the way, and as we turned onto The Fellsway East Jocelyn and her boyfriend mixed into the pack. Along the shaded hills of the Fells a gentle breeze blew which instigated thoughts that maybe this run wasn’t gonna be so hot. The long slight incline of Highland Ave was drenched in sun and absent of wind, giving us our first taste of the heat that would accompany us along the way. Pulling in to the first water stop, also drenched and abscent of wind, our pack of 17 runners went through almost all the water and Gatorade planned for two stops, keeping hydrated was in the forefront of each runners mind.
Leaving the waterstop eleven runners went left around Spot Pond, six runners right. Sue and Sue, Kaj, Beth, Jocelyn an her boyfriend headed right over to Pond St and back Wyoming finishing runs from 4 to 7+ miles… plus a few early bird miles for Kaj. The rest of us circled the pond, the sun beating down, the temperature shooting up, and if that wasn’t bad enough we got to run past an unusually large, extra disgusting, pile of vomit on the side of the road. YUCK! Cutting through the parking lot no the Friendly’s side of the pond we took a brief break at the extra stop we set up to help combat the heat.
Jen, Linda, and Brian had already set out to finish the loop back to Water Stop 1, with Ed along until he turned down Pond St for a 9 mile run. Molly, Ginny, and I were well behind them, Peter and Lois kept pace right behind us, while Matt and Steve trailed right behind them. The pockets of runners made there way past the Zoo where even the wolves were smart enough to just sit in the shade instead of running laps around their cage. Further along our route a group of walkers with their dogs settled under a tree to get out of the sun. It started to dawn on me, if this is too hot for dogs, what the heck are we doing out here! The only other creature more persistent than our group of runners were the Spot Pond gaggle of geese that wouldn’t budge of the sidewalk as we passed by with a momentary hop into the street.
Sue Clough greeted us back at the water stop, having replenished the water and gatorade for us, providing us the nutrients we needed to complete our run… i we chose to. Along the last leg some took a ride back to Brueggers while others either walked or took a shortcut back via West Wyoming, or both. Those unwilling to give in to the heat (or not wanting to be referred to as a cheater in front of fellow runners) followed the prescribed route along the shaded Fellsway and out into the sun by the Melrose Middle School. The final stretch included temperatures in the 90s and a scorching sun as we turned up to Main St and back to Brueggers. The only highlight of that stretch was a short conversation with Mike York as he road along on his bike. I’ll just say Mike seemed a lot more comfortable biking than we did running.
As Kool and the Gang says:
“Oh it’s too hot, too hot, lady
Gotta run for shelter
Gotta run for shade
It’s too hot, too hot, lady”
And that’s what we did, heading into Brueggers all red faced, sweat soaked, and surely stinky. It was even too hot to lounge out at “Bruegger’s Beach” so we headed into the A/C proud of the dedication and fortitude it took to complete the runs we all did today.