Sunday Run

Just in time for the big 20 miler, one of the 2 major runs of your marathon training, or the big 10 miler for the half marathon trainers, the weather looks to be on our side! After 8 weeks of snow, rain, ice, wind, and temperatures well below freezing,… tomorrow  there will be blue skies, there will be perfect running temperatures, there will be a little breeze. A nice day to go outside and run for hours.

The run will start from Brueggers as usual, and head out W. Wyoming to Spot Pond, continuing over past Friendly’s, along I93 and cross over I93 to water stop 1. From there you’ll head down Forest St to Highland Ave. Those running the shorter route will turn off Highland onto Eaton St at a small park and return via Washington St. Those running the longer route will continue to the end of Highland Ave and hit water stop 2. For the new Sunday Long Runners here’s where things will get interesting, a part you’ve never seen before (bring a map or find someone who’s done this before). Hed left on Rt38 into Medford. You’ll come up to a cemetery on your right where you’ll turn right onto Playstead Rd, a big wide road. This will bring you past Oak Grove Cemetery, past a ball field, along the commuter rail tracks to Rt 60 (High St). There’s a Dunkin Donuts there if you need a potty break, otherwise turn right onto Rt 60. Run along there, past a church and a steeple and a bunch of people. There’s a point where you  come to a slight fork in the road, stay left on Rt 60, don’t go right onto Grove St! Its pretty obvious which way the main road continues but 7+ miles in if you aren’t paying attention you might follow the sidewalk down the wrong street. After that you’ll come to Mystic Valley Parkway. There’s a little rotary type island there, turn right onto Mystic Valley Parkway. Do not cross the bridge over the Mystic River. Do not run into Arlington! Once on the Mystic Valley Parkway you’ll run along the Mystic Lakes. If the footing is nice, cross the street and run along the path and take a look at the lakes. You’ve run a far way, take in some sights. Once past the lakes you’ll run up along the commuter rail again. At the end of the road turn right (Bacon St), under the tracks and then take your next left (Mystic Valley Parkway again). There is a path there too to run along the left side of the road to water stop 3. (With all that detail, no excuses if you get lost!) From there you continue on to Washington  St where you turn left. You’ll come to a 5 way intersection. If you imagine a clock, you’re coming in from 6 O’clock, 12 O’clock is straight across. Washington St is at about 2 O’clock. There is a road at 3 O’clock and 11 O’clock, don’t run on those! If you went the right way you’ll be running by churches (one has a bathroom in the basement in case you need it). If you ran the wrong way you might be running past Winchester High School. From here things get easy again, directions-wise. Run Washington St to Forest St and up to water stop 4 (same as water stop 1). After that make your way back to Friendly’s the way you came, turn right along the back side of the pond, follow around to Highland Ave to water stop 5. Now the 6th short run of the day, Highland Ave all the way to the rotary, through the Fellsway East, and back W. Wyoming.

The shorter loop runners would return along Washington St to Forest St to the water stop, then back to Brueggers the way they came. You also have the option of helping with a water stop! If you want to start at water stop 1 and run the more interesting part of the route (the lakes) with everyone, you’ll wind up back at water stop 1 with 9+ miles done.

I’ll put my car out on the route again. BarryP will be helping. Two more cars will make everything work, but we could get by with one more. Who’s interested?

And who’s running and how far? How many 20 milers do we have? Roll call!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 10:04 am and is filed under Roll Call, Winter 2010. 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.