Sunday Run

This Monday we honor our Presidents on the day where George Washington’s birthday is observed. Today we also observed Julie D’Andrea’s birthday (a milestone one), celebrating in our own way, with a long run.

 Fourteen runners milled about Brueggers on a morning where it seemed we would rather stay inside but eventually the crowd started moving out the door and down the sidewalk. Before I could say go, we went, into the cool winter morning. Temperatures were in the 20s with wind chills expected to be in the teens. As we headed down Main St and out Franklin St to Stoneham the air was relatively still making the morning seem warm. The lead pack was Linda Ford, Brian, Walt, Ed, and Paul, forging ahead like a comet with the other 9 runners forming a tail behind it. We cut down Summer St to Marble and over I-93 into Winchester and the first water stop at Lois’ car.

A quick drink and the lead pack was off again. The more social water stoppers lingered for a while, but in short time we too followed Forest St to Highland Ave, up to Winchester Hospital where we took a left on Reservoir Rd. This tiny street along the north end of the Fells is the prettiest of all the streets we run on during training. As the sun shined bright on the frozen reservoir Ana commented on how beautiful and peaceful the scenery was and marveled at the beautiful homes that lined the street. Then she noticed the hilly road rise up in front of us. This street is pretty and steep, but in my opinion worth the effort. The route looped back to Highland where we each attacked the uphills and downhills into the next water stop where Rick attentively took care of our hydration needs.

Off we went for the next section of the long run. Following Rt-38 to Washington Street, the flatness of this section contrasted the hills that got us here. Unfortunately that changed in the last mile as a climb up Forest St provides and endless series of uphills back to Lois’ car for water stop 3. As we climed to the water stop we spotted Sue Clough and her daughter stopping to pick up supplies to shuttle over for a bonus water stop further into the route.

As we broke from water stop 3 there was a lot of negotiating on who was doing what this morning. This isn’t an easy 16 mile run which challenged the resolve of each runner. As we came out to Spot Pond by Friendly’s runners had a choice, go straight and cut 3 miles off the run or go right to loop the pond for the full 16. Most stuck to their plan for the full run, some cut their runs short to save themselves for the Hyannis Half next week. Shortly after the turn I found myself running alone, the quiet interrupted only by a toot from Lois and Pam as they zoomed by on their way to help Sue with the final water stop. This section of the run was the coldest, with some big winds whipping up off the Pond and the highway as we run parallel to I-93. A few hills later I was pulling into the Flynn Rink parking lot and reaping the benefits of the bonus water stop. Mike MacNeil and Ana followed in right behind. While Mike and I sipped our last gatorade of the day, and wolfed down a mini-Snickers, Ana went off to find a place to stretch and came back with a frozen little Dora the Explorer doll she found in an icy snow bank. Dora was not dressed for the weather, sporting a little tennis outfit and clutching a little pink tennis racket in her frozen hands. Ana ran the last bit of the run with Dora and hand, bringing her home to nurse her back to health.

Those last few miles took us around the Pond and down West Wyoming. Along the way I got tooted at again, this time a grin and wave from Francis Blesso as he drove by. And then one more toot as Lois and Pam raced by to beat me to Brueggers.

Overall it was a pleasant day to run, the water stop support was excellent (Thanks Lois, Rick, and Sue!), and we can put a checkmark next to 16.2 miles now!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Recap, Week 6. 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.