Monday: 21!
Would you consider it ironic, or perhaps fitting, on this historical holiday honoring presidents from centuries ago, that I had a minor encounter with Indians? It was a brief discourse that was both polite and respectful on both sides, but nonetheless just a bit odd. I was running on the east side of Pound Road for the first time ever, enjoying the rural nature of the dirt road, when a vehicle approaching me stopped in the middle of the road. I attempted to run around it but the driver put the window down and it was clear he wanted to talk to me. Based upon the fact that I was approaching Narragansett Indian property, I surmised that he was a tribal member. He asked me if I intended to run through (to the other side of Pound Road, which has been closed off in the middle since ~1991 due to a tax dispute between the town and previous land owner). I asked if I could go across, as it would make my run easier and more direct. He explained that it is Narragansett Indian tribal property that you would have to go over to get to the other side, which I indicated I understood. He took my name and number, and mentioned he would have to talk to his Medicine Man to check on future possibilities, but for today he was going to have to ask me to re-route my run and not go over tribal property. OK, no problem. I said if it was OK with him I would like to continue regardless on the road down to the Indian property as I had never been down there, and assured him that I would turn around when I reached the tribal property gate and then re-route. He was fine with that, and I told him I had a lot of respect (truthfully) for what the tribe is doing with the old dilapidated farm and turning it into a food initiative.
When I reached the gate blocking the road, there was a part of me that wanted to just go around and explore and continue my run on the trail they recently opened up. But this is private property after all and I gave him my word, and my word is worth something, so I absolutely honored his request and turned around.
The rest of the run was uneventful until 20 miles in. I avoided fresh snow and ice patches where possible, and treaded lightly where I could not. I often get twitches and weird pains north of 15 miles, but today I had none of that! 20 miles in I was running on Rabbit Run in Misquamicut, when all of a sudden three gnarling rat dogs came at me. Their presumed owner was calling them in some cutesy voice with some cutesy names (Milly or Molly or Muffy or something) but they totally ignored her. So now meanwhile these miserable malicious animals have caught up to me and are on both sides of my ankles snapping at me and despite having 20 miles on my legs now, I have to make these repeated darting elusive maneuvers to try and avoid their bite. So frustrating! NOW my legs are hurting; thank you very much. Finally, several properties away, they gave up and turned around, at which point at I turned back and yelled, "There is a leash law for a reason!". No response, no apology. She never even came after them; she just stayed in her yard. Maybe if she can't control her dogs, she shouldn't have them? Total opposite from the well behaved dogs Matthew and I encountered yesterday in Barn Island. Man, was I angry, and even had thoughts of calling the dog officer when I got home, but I figured I just have to let it go. Ugh.
POST-SCRIPT: Fast forward to late in the day, when I was very pleasantly surprised to get a voicemail from the same tribal member, apologizing for the inconvenience to me this morning, and after discussing with others in the tribe, I was notified that I was free in the future to run the trail over their property at any time. I had to listen to the voicemail twice to make sure I wasn't mishearing and misconstruing it, and then I called the gentleman back to thank him and to say he didn't owe me an apology. We had a really good chat about my running, the tribe, the newly learned fact that we're both Chariho grads from the 80s, my conversation with Tarzan Brown's widow, and in the end we left it that we hope to catch up again in person some day.
Tuesday: 4
Late afternoon easy recovery run on the Weekapaug Sand Trail, and back on the barrier beach. Legs pretty sore from yesterday's run. Took it slow and easy.
Wednesday: 8
Run 1: 7am, 2.5 miles, Adams Farm, Walpole, MA. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the temps on the ride up from RI, and as I was getting out of the car, I noticed it was 10 degrees! And 4-5" of snow on the ground up here. Ran on packed down crunchy snow for a while, and was under-dressed and cold. Branched off to try a single-track with virgin snow, and a little ways in broke through the ice underneath into a standing stream about 6" deep. COLD. High-tailed it back to the car, stripped off the socks and shoes and blasted the heat on my feet as I drove off.
Run 2: 8am, 5 miles, Noanet Woodlands, Dover, MA. Driving towards work, my feet were warming up, and so I decided to go for a second try. Put on a spare pair of dry socks (always good to have!) and off I went. I stuck to the marked trails that people had walked/run on already this time (I didn't have a 3rd pair of dry socks!).
Monday was Mean Dog Day, but fortunately today was Nice Dog Day. I only ran into two dogs, both unleashed:
Slushy mess. Crazy busy day at work with non-stop back-to-back meetings. If I declined my 1pm, I had just enough time to go the Y, change, get a road run in, shower, grab a sandwich and get back to the office for my 1:30. Didn't dilly-dally on the run with a sub-7 average; got a sandwich and back at my desk at 1:28 with two minutes to spare. A little close, but it worked.
Friday: 0
Saturday: 13
32 degrees at start, 38 at finish. Loop through Pound Road (using my new tribal permissions) up to 91 and back Apache. Never saw anyone while going across tribal property, but did see a lot of neat buildings, including a mix of old barns from the old Crandall farm and newer edifices being built, including perhaps a re-creation of an historic Indian long house(?).
Fortunately, today was another Nice Dog Day. Two labs out for a walk with their owner on Pound Road, followed by a Brady-looking-dog just sitting on the edge of his lawn. None of them looked like they wanted to come running with me today, but rather just a look towards me like "Who's that weirdo and why does he smell so badly?".
Sunday: 5
Late afternoon run in a heavy mist. Local neighborhood roads.
Weekly mileage: 56
Weekly synopsis: Truly a good week of running. The 21-miler was a confident builder, especially after losing time and training and possibly even some fitness with this really bad cold and bronchitis I've had. It went on for the better part of three weeks, but finally as of this weekend I'm feeling that the symptoms are gone.
Weekly highlight: My 21-mile Presidents' Day run, for sure, but not solely for running reasons. Yes, of course, I was thrilled to get in a long run, without pain or issues, and in fact that was my longest run since I ran Bimblers Bluff 50K a year and a half ago. Besides the running that day, I was happy to have a new running route possibility to shave off parts of Dunns' Corners-Bradford Road and Route 91 (realistically I probably won't run it that often), but more importantly, it was a pleasant surprise to get permission from the Narragansett Indian Tribe to run over their new trail on this section of property that has been closed and since grown over for 28 years.
Nota bene: To be clear, I am not in any way advocating for anyone to go over tribal land without permission. In fact, emboldened by my positive outcome, my understanding is that a request went out to the tribe for this past week's Land Trust public hike to extend onto tribal land and to see some of their property and building exteriors, and purportedly that request was denied. I don't know the particulars, and it's really not my business, but my point is that tribal land should be respected.
Weekly lowlight: The friggin' dogs yapping and snapping at my heels when I'm running on a public Town of Westerly owned road in Misquamicut.
Town of Westerly legislation, Chapter 76, section 8, subsection C: "No person owning, keeping or harboring a dog of whatever age shall allow such dog to go out on any highway or public place and growl, snap or bite, or otherwise annoy any person; or bark at, run in front of, run beside, run after or pursue any motor vehicle."
Since you can't follow common sense and civility towards others, follow the law! Grrr!
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| Thank you George and Abe for the day off. |
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| Unfortunately I did not make it this far. (Photo from Narragansett Food Sovereignty Initiative website.) |
The rest of the run was uneventful until 20 miles in. I avoided fresh snow and ice patches where possible, and treaded lightly where I could not. I often get twitches and weird pains north of 15 miles, but today I had none of that! 20 miles in I was running on Rabbit Run in Misquamicut, when all of a sudden three gnarling rat dogs came at me. Their presumed owner was calling them in some cutesy voice with some cutesy names (Milly or Molly or Muffy or something) but they totally ignored her. So now meanwhile these miserable malicious animals have caught up to me and are on both sides of my ankles snapping at me and despite having 20 miles on my legs now, I have to make these repeated darting elusive maneuvers to try and avoid their bite. So frustrating! NOW my legs are hurting; thank you very much. Finally, several properties away, they gave up and turned around, at which point at I turned back and yelled, "There is a leash law for a reason!". No response, no apology. She never even came after them; she just stayed in her yard. Maybe if she can't control her dogs, she shouldn't have them? Total opposite from the well behaved dogs Matthew and I encountered yesterday in Barn Island. Man, was I angry, and even had thoughts of calling the dog officer when I got home, but I figured I just have to let it go. Ugh.
Tuesday: 4
Late afternoon easy recovery run on the Weekapaug Sand Trail, and back on the barrier beach. Legs pretty sore from yesterday's run. Took it slow and easy.
Wednesday: 8
Run 1: 7am, 2.5 miles, Adams Farm, Walpole, MA. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the temps on the ride up from RI, and as I was getting out of the car, I noticed it was 10 degrees! And 4-5" of snow on the ground up here. Ran on packed down crunchy snow for a while, and was under-dressed and cold. Branched off to try a single-track with virgin snow, and a little ways in broke through the ice underneath into a standing stream about 6" deep. COLD. High-tailed it back to the car, stripped off the socks and shoes and blasted the heat on my feet as I drove off.
Run 2: 8am, 5 miles, Noanet Woodlands, Dover, MA. Driving towards work, my feet were warming up, and so I decided to go for a second try. Put on a spare pair of dry socks (always good to have!) and off I went. I stuck to the marked trails that people had walked/run on already this time (I didn't have a 3rd pair of dry socks!).
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| The beauty of winter, which I haven't been able to see much with the paucity of snow in RI. |
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| I just love being out in the woods in the snow. |
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| Icicles at the remains of the old Dover Mill Iron Works (circa 1815) deep in the woods. |
Monday was Mean Dog Day, but fortunately today was Nice Dog Day. I only ran into two dogs, both unleashed:
- Dog #1 was called by its owner as soon as I was seen, and it came over to its owner and sat down nicely and quietly in the snow, as she told her dog not to go running with me (as I was thinking I hope the dog comes running with me!).
- Dog #2 was a playful Lab/Boxer mix (??) that was just having fun in the snow and came right up to see me. The owner said she (the dog) hadn't had her run yet today, so she wanted to go running with me. Hmmm ... can I quit my day job and get paid to take dogs out for a trail run instead? Only nice dogs need apply.
Slushy mess. Crazy busy day at work with non-stop back-to-back meetings. If I declined my 1pm, I had just enough time to go the Y, change, get a road run in, shower, grab a sandwich and get back to the office for my 1:30. Didn't dilly-dally on the run with a sub-7 average; got a sandwich and back at my desk at 1:28 with two minutes to spare. A little close, but it worked.
Friday: 0
Saturday: 13
32 degrees at start, 38 at finish. Loop through Pound Road (using my new tribal permissions) up to 91 and back Apache. Never saw anyone while going across tribal property, but did see a lot of neat buildings, including a mix of old barns from the old Crandall farm and newer edifices being built, including perhaps a re-creation of an historic Indian long house(?).
Fortunately, today was another Nice Dog Day. Two labs out for a walk with their owner on Pound Road, followed by a Brady-looking-dog just sitting on the edge of his lawn. None of them looked like they wanted to come running with me today, but rather just a look towards me like "Who's that weirdo and why does he smell so badly?".
Sunday: 5
Late afternoon run in a heavy mist. Local neighborhood roads.
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| Finished up the day by watching "Arctic" at the Showcase Warwick, then a first-time visit to Condesa Restaurante Mexicano nearby. Muy bueno! |
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| A survival film in the Arctic, filmed in Iceland. |
Weekly mileage: 56
Weekly synopsis: Truly a good week of running. The 21-miler was a confident builder, especially after losing time and training and possibly even some fitness with this really bad cold and bronchitis I've had. It went on for the better part of three weeks, but finally as of this weekend I'm feeling that the symptoms are gone.
Weekly highlight: My 21-mile Presidents' Day run, for sure, but not solely for running reasons. Yes, of course, I was thrilled to get in a long run, without pain or issues, and in fact that was my longest run since I ran Bimblers Bluff 50K a year and a half ago. Besides the running that day, I was happy to have a new running route possibility to shave off parts of Dunns' Corners-Bradford Road and Route 91 (realistically I probably won't run it that often), but more importantly, it was a pleasant surprise to get permission from the Narragansett Indian Tribe to run over their new trail on this section of property that has been closed and since grown over for 28 years.
Nota bene: To be clear, I am not in any way advocating for anyone to go over tribal land without permission. In fact, emboldened by my positive outcome, my understanding is that a request went out to the tribe for this past week's Land Trust public hike to extend onto tribal land and to see some of their property and building exteriors, and purportedly that request was denied. I don't know the particulars, and it's really not my business, but my point is that tribal land should be respected.
Weekly lowlight: The friggin' dogs yapping and snapping at my heels when I'm running on a public Town of Westerly owned road in Misquamicut.
Town of Westerly legislation, Chapter 76, section 8, subsection C: "No person owning, keeping or harboring a dog of whatever age shall allow such dog to go out on any highway or public place and growl, snap or bite, or otherwise annoy any person; or bark at, run in front of, run beside, run after or pursue any motor vehicle."
Since you can't follow common sense and civility towards others, follow the law! Grrr!
