June Bug Running

[OakLeaf]

Wow, congratulations Yellow!

[Catrin]

Wow Yellow - that just sounds plain awesome!!!! Sounds like you were in beautiful surroundings!

[skhill]

Wow, Yellow! Sounds like a great event and a great adventure!

Today was an easy run, but my route took me past the track. So in honor of Tyson Gay, national champion in the 100 and 200 and local hero, I threw in a couple 200s (yards not meters). First one I really tried to run fast and did it in 41 seconds. Second one I relaxed and focused on good form and did it in 40 seconds. A good lesson to remember! Including the track exploits, a total of 5.9 miles and boy it was humid out there.

[OakLeaf]

I guess I'd heard a little bit about the One Run for Boston, but I didn't know until Friday that the route was going to pass a mile and a half from my house. I wasn't going to miss that. I only ran about 2-1/2 miles with the relay runners - with running out to meet them and running back from where I turned around, it gave me not quite 8 for the day, which was enough in this heat, over 90° and humid.

Generally I'm skeptical of charity events, especially since this one apparently hasn't even bothered to file for tax-exempt status (it isn't the deduction I'm worried about, it's the basic commitment to accounting that the application represents) - but it's a pretty amazing undertaking, there's a lot of healing going on among the runners, they claim to be the first non-stop cross-country running relay, and I wanted to be a little part of it.

The women officially running the stage came from the other end of Ohio, so I didn't know them - but it turns out that they were at the same place I was when the race was stopped, at Commonwealth & Mass. Ave. One was running, the other had gone as a spectator since she'd been injured. I was really glad I ran with them today, even for such a short distance.

[Crankin]

That is awesome, Oak. And in 90 degrees .

[OakLeaf]

The whole stage was 13.5 miles. The stage before ours the woman ran solo (with a support vehicle that's doing the whole relay) at a staggering pace - a couple of degrees cooler, but way hillier. At least one or two of the overnight stages last night went through severe thunderstorms - don't know how severe it was out on the course, but we had massive amounts of lightning here. And the baton kept moving. It's got a GPS tracker so you can follow it on the website (and join in or cheer if anyone is nearby). And such a feeling of community among the runners. What an incredible event. I wish I'd done more of it - if I'd known about it earlier I'd probably have signed up to do the whole stage - but I'm really glad I got a chance to participate.

[Veronica]

I picked up Marathon Woman after Oak wrote about it. What an awesome book! Thanks for telling me about it.

Sue, you always amaze me.

We ran 5.5 miles on Sunday in Maine, the last mile in pouring rain. My feet were so wet, I didn't even notice I was running in puddles until Thom told me to get out of them. It wasn't cold, so it was a fun adventure. We're in Boston now and thinking about where to run to tomorrow, maybe Bunker Hill, maybe towards the Tea Party ships. We've walked that way and the sidewalk is pretty smooth, unlike other places we've walked to.

Veronica