Sunday Run

Last week we had a handful of runners go out for a 16 miler run. I missed the run thus there was no traditional “Does everyone know where they’re going?” bellowed out. Dan and Pate got most of it right, however they turned the 16 miler into a 17.5 miler by taking one wrong turn.

This week we have MikeU running Providence (Go Mike!) and Dan doing an 18 miler four weeks before Vermont City. So what should we run this week? Options are :

The Melrose Half with one water stop at Highland Ave for 13 miles.
Horn Pond again on a sunny warm morning with 2 water stops.
The Week6 16 miler shortcut to 13 miles with 2 waterstops.

Any of these will require some water stop coordination and extra miles by Dan.

Also to throw a monkey wrench into this, I may not be there again this week. Let me know what you want to do while I go and figure out what I’m gonna do.

Who’s in? And for what?

This week’s route will be a re-do of the rain soaked run from week 10, a long run we can handle with one water stop. Here’s the catch though… I don’t think I can make it, my son has a 9:00 baseball game. So post here if you’re in, so I know we have at least 2 people running, and post here if you can support the water stop.

I’m sure you’ve seen it in e-mails and on Facebook, and heard it from coworkers, friends and family, but one last blog post of the season for all you Sunday Long Runners: Good luck!

Each of you have shown pieces of what it takes to be a marathoner. From Judi’s mix of carefree yet competitive attitude, to the rock steadiness of Michelle, Dave’s cerebral take on long distance running, AJ’s developing confidence in his running ability, Barry’s determination to reach his goal, and Kerry’s big smile no matter what. These are just a few of the things I’ve noticed this season, things I hope to emulate in my training. So take these to the starting line on Monday and put them to work for you… and kick some butt!

The Sunday Long Run season ends this week with the Boston Marathon. If you can’t run that, you can still meet up with us at Brueggers at 8AM for a run just for the fun of it. This week we’ll be running to Horn Pond. This is a great 14+ mile run!

Waterstops: From here on out there are no official organized waterstops. I’ll take the one green bucket of stuff left over from the training and bring it and each week we’ll pass it along to someone who will bring it out on the course. This week Sue Clough has volunteered to start 3 miles into the route to give us a waterstop. If anyone else is interested in running parts of the course let us know.

See you at 8AM!

This Sunday’s run is the final run for the Boston Marathon trainees. Over the years this has been dubbed “Don’t do Anything Stupid Week” as it is your last chance to hurt yourself before the marathon. Over the following week there will be many opportunities to do something stupid, before you do stop and think to yourself  “is this stupid”, and the fact that you thought to ask means it is so put down the hammer, get off the ladder, don’t jump off that high spot, don’t climb that cool rock, don’t sprint that last mile, don’t do anything stupid!

The route this week will seem familiar, one we did plenty of times at the start of this whole thing. It’s based on the old Melrose Half Marathon Route and is the same route as Week 2. Most of you thought this route was tough back then and couldn’t imagine trying to run more than twice that. Well this week it’ll seem simple and  should be run as a fun taper run. To mix things up a little bit, be aware that this time we’ll run around Spot Pond counter clockwise (for you digital clock people that means run to the right onto Woodland at the Highland Ave rotary).

Many of our runners will be heading up to Great Bay to run a Half Marathon on Sunday. If this is what you’ve been training for, have a great race, I hope the Sunday Long Run has helped prepared you for it. If you’re doing this as a training run for Boston, don’t do anything stupid!  Good luck to all of you.

Water Stops: With the crowd being lighter and the distance relatively short, we’ll do this run with one water stop on Highland Ave. I’ll have a few Gus on hand and some Gatorade. We can use my car, I think the smell has gone away from my wet trunk, or a volunteers car. Either way someone will meet me at Highland Ave. Who will it be? This is your last chance of the season.

So who’s in for tomorrow, and for how much? Roll Call!