With several MRC club members basking in the glory of completing their 20 mile run on Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday & many club members headed north to run the Hampton Half or south to run the Old Fashion 10 miler in Foxboro, the Sunday Long Run corps were slightly smaller than our usual Sunday contingent.
Twelve somewhat sleepy MRCers joined by two guest runners from the Mystic Runners (Dan & Gail) headed out for our first trip to Winchester this season to brave a moderate wind coming in from the Northwest & the hills of Winchester. Today was one of those days when no matter which way you were running it seemed that the wind was always in your face and although it was in the 20s the TV weather folk stated that the wind chill factor would drop the temperature by about 8 to 10 degrees.
This didn’t bother most as Joe T. took the lead followed by Brian Gilroy, Carol, Ed, Ginny, Christina, Jose, Shelly, Mike York, Sue F., Matt & me. Barry & Lauren (Thank you very much for manning the water stop today) planned to jump in at water stop #1 with Liz, Joanne Piper, Sue Clough & Teresa. John Mulroy planned to jump in around mile 7.
The nice (or not so nice) thing about today’s route is the number of hills that Jim has fashioned into the course & I am sure that his ears were ringing this AM. Although, both Ginny & I found that Highland Ave, & Reservoir Ave. were not as bad as we remember.
Since I hung back at the start of the run to check for latecomers I had a chance to run with Matt S. for a better part of the first leg. Matt was hoping to get a number for Boston this year in order to once again run Boston with his dad who has been running Boston for the past several years. Naturally, Matt has been keeping his eyes & ears open looking for a Boston number but he didn’t expect to find it at Long’s Jewelers this past Friday when he was shopping with Kim for an engagement ring. Before he could say I’ll take the ring with the most diamonds, the clerk pulled out a BAA Invitational application & handed it to Matt! I’m sure that sealed the deal & Matt left happy knowing that he found the perfect ring & was now running Boston. Congratulations Matt (& Kim!).
As an experiment & at the suggestion of a seasoned Boston marathoner, today I was running with a bottle of Cytomax performance sports drink instead of Gatorade. Cytomax’s claim to fame is that it reduces lactic acid build up by 40%, & improves VO2 MAVX all without surcose. Only problem is you have to drink it before you drop your bottle on Franklin Street spilling the entire contents. Great job Nick!
After hitting the first water stop & heading off to hills of Highland & Reservoir Ave, with Mike York, we came upon the MRC gang of four: Liz, Joanne, Sue & Teresa. (Barry & Lauren were also nice enough to stop). Apparently Teresa experienced a severe calf cramp which would cut her run short. (Note to Teresa: skip the step class the day before a long run!) Bummer for the Iron Lady who had to walk back to the first water stop where her car was park.
Thanks to Ginny’s sister who was nice enough to host the second water stop today at her house at 384 Main Street in Winchester. Unfortunately, for Mike, Barry, Lauren & I, we missed it as we went left at the fork in the road instead of right & ended up on the Mystic Valley Parkway heading to Winchester Center. (Note to the Town of Winchester: invest in some street signs!) Eventually we picked up Washington St. & saw Ginny, Molly, Christina & Jose in front of us.
Since Mike is running better than he claims these days & I am not, he led Barry & Lauren down Washington St & up Forest St. while I tried to keep everyone in sight! However, what I didn’t see was Jose take a tumble going up Forest St. & when we arrived at Water Stop #3 he was bleeding pretty well from his right hand & right knee. (Note to Jim: We better put a First Aid kit in with the water supplies!) Although Jose claims Christina pushed him from behind there was no video tape to support his claim!
At this point the the front runners (Joe, Brian, Carol, Ed, John, Gail & Dan) were no where to be found, we headed off to the backside of Spot Pond. I only hope that their final leg was uneventful & that they found the fourth water stop at Grimsby’s. Our happy travelers were missed this week, hopefully the midweek storm that is predicted will not set back the road conditions. See you all next Sunday!
Oh, sounds like quite an eventful run… spilled drinks, tumbles, cramping calves… sounds like a party. We (meaning me, jim, judi, nancy, katie and barry) had the best time in Martha’s Vineyard. Best 20 mile race i’ve ever run. Well, so far it’s the first 20 mile race i’ve ever run. But absolutley amazing. Everyone – put this on your calendar for next year! It’s beautiful.
Nick – awesome recap! Felt like i was right there with you all. great story about Matt!
Nick, Ginny, and the Cossettes, thanks for helping keep everything rolling this week. Great recap. We had Cytomax at our race I think… and I had more cramps in my legs than I’ve ever had before. I’ll give the sports drink the benefit of the doubt though and blame it on the fact that I wasn’t prepared for 20 miles. Heading in with a bad achilles I managed to ignore the discomfort through the first 10 miles which I did in 1:24. The second 10 was a completely different story. Heading into the wind and gradually uphill for about 10 of those last 10 miles was really a challenge. With no push off from my right leg due to the achilles the rest of the muscles in both my legs tired out quickly and partway through mile 16 I started the long cycle of walk/run to just get to the finish. Running into the finish, with Katie and Judi cheering me on, I passed them with a big smile (just happy to see the end) and one word: “Ouch”. The second ten miles took about 1:48, as I finished up in 3:12 I think.
The rest the MRC crew had a great day of racing. Judi was 3rd woman overall, Barry got 3rd in his age group. Katie, Lois and Nancy all had solid runs to be proud of. For this early in the year this race is quite a challenge and they all came through with awesome performances.
I hope all of you that raced elsewhere today raced well, and those that trained feel one week closer to being ready for whichever race is next on the list.
Thanks to Lauren/Barry and Ginny for the water stops. Jo and I started right past the 3 mile mark on Summer Street and ran to Spot Pond and back to our cars for 9 miles. Thanks to Suzanne, Matt, Liz for keeping us company for a good part of our run. No road kill to report but big chunks of vomit…YUCK!! We missed our Martha’s Vineyard runners!
Great job everyone getting through their runs this weekend. They are definitely getting longer! You can tell by the strained looks on our faces from the tightness of lower backs and legs when we finished up. Nice recap, Nick. It was great to have Molly join in from WS 1-3, too. Not having to hurdle or avoid snow and ice was a treat today. Good luck to all running Hyannis next week! It is a pretty course.
Solid effort by everyone in Melrose and down on the Vineyard. A big thanks to all who coordinated the run and water stops this week. J
Great run everyone and thanks to all but especially Lauren & Barry and Ginny/Ginny’s sister for the water stops. Thanks also to Nick for filling in for Jim – nice recap.
Great recap Nick! when the wind wasnt blowing it was a very pleasant run. Sun, 30’s, great company (JoJO and Sue) and a “fun” 6.5 mi course-what more could I ask for! Missed the Martha’s Vinyard crew! I was jealous of the trip (not the 20 miles).
hi every one great Winchester run last Sunday beutifull course. Thanks Barry/Lauren for volenteering on the water stop perfectly located near my fall (btw, good luck next weekend on the 1/2 marathon). Thanks to the woman who happened to have first aid unti-bacterial in her car at the water stop. btw, Christina did not push me to my fall i was only joking the only pushing she does is to make her running partners go faster and farther. Great job to the 20 miller racers wish I had been there it sounds like a great course and location.
Looking forwards to next weekend run though I hear morning snow and rain…