Sunday Run

While some of our Sunday Long Run friends were preparing for their trip north to Derry, NH to run the notoriously hilly Boston Prep 16 Miler, about 17 of us partook in a run out to Lake Quannapowitt. This weeks mileage was 6.2 for the shorter version and 10.7 for the longer… with many opting for a few extra miles to prepare for upcoming races. Lois, Nancy, and SueC pulled in with a few miles under their belt and off we all went. The pack headed north on Main St, noting the observed temperatures (<20 degrees) at 8AM were well off the predicted low for the day (> 30). The wind was favorable however, light and to our backs, nudging us towards Wakefield. Nothing to complain about, but not as warm as promised.

The pack broke into two groups quite quickly. A group of 8 pulled ahead: Judi and Linda Ford leading most of the way, Nick, SueW and I trailing the pack just steps behind, Audie, John, and a new face Kerry (I believe) sandwiched in the middle. Linda and Judi chit chatted the whole way to the water stop, Kerry worked on getting her iPod to stop playing the same song over and over again, while us three and the back kept remarking that it probably isn’t the right pace for us if we’re that close to the front of the pack. Pulling into the water stop Nick pulled into the lead, an attempt to be the first to the water stop… us slower people have to take our chances at beating Judi to somewhere whenever the opportunity presents itself. Seemingly to keep Nick and check Audie pulled ahead to be the first to the Gatorade.

Brian Gilroy manned the station, setting up the goodies inside the tailgate of his SUV to promote prompt rehydrating (thanks Brian, although I like to have excuses for longer water stops). While the front of our pack wisked right back out onto the road I did prolong my stop by wrestling with a mini Snickers wrapper for a while. That gave me a chance to watch the second pack rush in. Dave, Ginny and Carol pulled in running strong. Right behind them were foggy eye-glassed Lois and recovering from illness Rachelle. And coming down Main St were Nancy, SueW, Catherine, and I believe Rose who I haven’t officially met yet. Somewhere out on the course was Michele as well, running from home and hoping to meet up with us we never did see her, but she was out there.

The second leg of the run was up Main St, all the way around Lake Quannapowitt, and back to Brian via Main St again. I headed out alone, Dave on the opposite side of the street behind me, Sue and Kerry up ahead. I like to set myself little goals when I’m caught in between like this and today would be (a) keep Dave behind me and (b) catch SueW and Kerry. Since I was alone I to listen to the radio on my iPod… which started out with about a mile of me fiddling with the earbuds to get them not to pop out of my ears (any suggestions on good running headphones appreciated). Up at the lake a few miles of alternating from icy road to sandy streets kept the running interesting, the whole while keeping goal number 2 in my sights. Around the head of the lake I went across the pathway that cuts by Converse and my music saved me from hearing Nick and Ginny shouting up to me about taking short cuts, which a quick reference back at the map will show was part of the plan today if the path was clear, which it was. The music turned against me down North Ave though as “Running on Empty” and “(running) Against the Wind” tried to convince me I was losing steam. Continuing on Church St the gap to SueW was shrinking and I felt confident I could catch her by the water stop. On Main St however she spoiled my plan! I didn’t realize SueW had parked her car outside Wakefield Center and had pre-run the end of the route. She ended her run without me catching her, but the goal was still there as Kerry continued on unknowingly keeping me from letting up. Pulling into the water stop next to each other goal 2 was achieved, and goal 1 of keeping Dave from catching was also met despite Dave taking the North Ave shortcut back to the water stop.

With John rushing me out for our extra lap around the lake, I ingested Gatorade and Gu at a Walt-like pace and headed back up Main St. A benefit of the extra miles was the chance to see some other runners making their way to the water stop. A hello from Catherine, Liz (who joined at the lake), Sue, Nancy, and Lois on our way back made the third time through Wakefield Center a treat. Heading up to the lake John and I decided to go clockwise around the lake to make it feel a bit different. Gloria (who joined in at the water stop) and Carol came around the other way, our two pairs meeting at the pathway by Converse. Main St took us back to Brian for our final water stop of the day. John remarked that we had slowed on the second loop, which I argued that he slowed since I had to speed up to keep up with him. Right behind us came Gloria and Carol bringing an end to the water stop duties of the day. Gloria finished her 4 miles there while Carol, John and I carried on with our runs back Main St to Brueggers. An uneventful end leg of our 15 mile run.

Congregating back at Brueggers, a liesurely cup of coffee with running friends going over the variations many made to their routes, and celebrating SueC’s achievement of completing her farthest run ever (15 miles)… which will be eclipsed by her next run. 19 runners seemed to have 19 good runs today, I hope the same happened for our friends up north tackling THE HILL at Derry.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.