Sunday Run

Last week – A good sized crew wound their way through Swains Pond and over to Citizens Bank where Tom and Audrey were serving snacks and beverages. Courtney headed home for there, and off to Munich for this weekend’s marathon. Everyone else continued through the hills of the Fellsway East, with half trainers heading back Wyoming to Brueggers. Some half trainers decided to put in a few extra miles, probably for a chance to visit Lois at water stop 2, before heading back to Melrose Center. A group of us continued on to Farm Street, cutting across Nahant to meet up with Mike Quigley for a beverage as we looped back to Melrose along Main Street. Thanks to the water stop crew!

This week – We’ll wrap the whole thing up tomorrow. As the weather finally clears up after a week of wind and rain, we’ll head out to the Fellsway East, if you’re running long you’ll loop Spot Pond, and then run back. We’ll do this a little differently, for those looping Spot Pond this is the only week of the season the route loops the pond counter-clockwise.

Start – We’ll head up Main Street towards Ell Pond. As you pass the pond look for the monument to Clarence DeMar. Clarence lived in Melrose for some time before moving to Keene, New Hampshire. He ran the same paths we run but 100 years earlier. Clarence DeMar is the man that has won the most Boston Marathons to his name, winning 7 times over a 30 year span. The monument to him also mentions another Melrose resident that won the Boston Marathon multiple times, Bill Rodgers. As you finish up your training know we’ve been running the training routes of champions. Keep that in your head as you turn left on Melrose Street and left again onto the Lynn Fells Parkway heading towards our hills. Run past Grimsby’s, through the Fellsway East hills, and turn right on Highland Ave, making your way to the water stop.

Half Finish – The half runners will go through the Highland Ave rotary onto Woodland Rd, up to the right on to Pond Street. Run down to Grimsby’s and continue straight on to West Wyoming to finish up with a left on Main and a trip to Brueggers.

Full 2 – The full distance runners will also continue straight through the rotary onto Woodland Rd. Continue straight at Pond St, past the Stone Zoo, and veer left into the Straw Point parking lot. You should find Hank there for a little water before continuing left onto the Fellsway West, over I-93, past the Sheepfold, under I-93, and down to Elm Street. Elm will take you up, up, and up back to the Highland Ave rotary. Turn right on Highland for the next water stop.

Full Finish – From Highland, turn left on East Border, left at the lights on to the Fellsway East, and up to Grimsby’s. Turn right on West Wyoming and a left on Main to finish up at Brueggers.

Water Stops – If nobody shows up, I’ll handle it. If people do show up, I’ll run.

Roll Call – Who’s in?!

Last Week – Last week was kind of an adventure. I ever so slightly changed the routes up for several reasons. (1) The sidebar has always said week 12 was 9 miles, the maps have always been 12.5 miles, and nobody pointed that out to me until last season. (2) The long run was always less than 22. Mentally for someone preparing for a marathon not getting to 22 can make someone nervous. (3) I’m trying to minimize the number of water stops in the routes to make it easier to organize and volunteer. This lead to some complaining, some confusion, some wandering during the run, some stopping early, and rumor has it some Ubering. The good news is everyone lived! I, for one, had a very pleasant run. Thanks Dan, Lois, and Tom for helping us get through the run.

This Week – Unless Manchester, NYC or Philly are in your future, it’s Race Month. October brings marathons and halfs everywhere and each week we’ll have people heading somewhere. The New Hampshire Marathon, Maine Marathon, and Wineglass in NY are all this weekend, as is the Rockfest Half at Hampton Beach. Good luck if you’re running any of those. For the rest of us, keep up the training and taper if its time! As this training focuses on Baystate, we’ll be winding down the miles. Over the next week or two we give our bodies a little recovery time as we head into our October races. I call this period “Don’t Do Anything Stupid” time. Your training is done and your legs got you this far. Human nature will be that you’re nervous that you didn’t do enough, you’ll think about that one long run that didn’t go right or you cut a few miles off and you’ll feel the need to cram in one last hard training run. Don’t do that! Recover instead. Your taper runs should be at the same intensity as your training runs, but the miles will be less and the toll they take on your body should be minimal. With that in mind we’ll all head through Swains Pond and the long runners will continue out to Farm Street.

Route maps on Strava:
Full 14.8M
Middle 11.0M
Half 7.0M

Turn-by-Turn Directions (click box at start of section to navigate)

Start – We’ll cross Main Street and head up East Foster to the Melrose Common where we’ll turn right at the Common onto 6th Street. This will turn into Swains Pond Ave and bring you up into a wooded section of Melrose. When you reach Swains Pond and Turners Pond there will be a stop sign, turn right here to stay on Swain’s Pond Ave. This will eventually bring you to Lebanon Street where you’ll take a sharp right. Lebanon will bring you to a set of lights where you’ll turn left on Forest Street which will lead you across to Main Street in Malden. Citizens Bank will be across Main Street with a water stop.

Section 2 – Leave the Citizens Bank parking lot onto Winter Street. Follow this past the Oak Grove T station to a five way intersection. Cross straight through the intersection on to Glenwood Street. Wind your way up to Highland Ave where you turn right with a very quick right onto the Fellsway East. Make your way through the hills down to Grimsby’s. If you’re running the half route you can turn right at Grimsby’s and head back to Brueggers for 7 miles along West Wyoming and left on Main Street. If you want a little longer of a run continue with the full route runners on to the LynnFells Parkway and keep going to you get to the knoll across from Melrose High School for a water stop. Half runners can then head up to a right on Melrose Street and a right on Main Street for an 8 mile run.

Full 3 – From the knoll, continue on the LynnFells Parkway until you reach the intersection with Main Street in Saugus. Turn left and follow Main Street, which will become Farm Street in Wakefield, and turn left onto Nahant Street. This will bring you across to Main Street in Wakefield where a water stop will be waiting for you at Nick’s Pizza… or maybe Dunkin Donuts.

Full Finish – Its taper time so we’re already heading back to the finish. Head south on Main Street from Wakefield to Melrose and finish up at Brueggers. That’s it, you’re done already.

Water Stops – I would like the full 15 this week. I think Tom and Lois are helping, maybe Dan, if I get two helpers committed I’ll be able to run the whole thing.

Roll Call – Who’s in?