Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race 2019: Fun in the Mud

Huntington, Vermont
Saturday, April 20, 2019

You know those races you've done where the weather before the race was terrible, but just before race start, the rain ended or the wind died down or perhaps even the sun came out?  Yeah, this race experience wasn't like that at all.  In fact, it was a little bit of the opposite.  To break up the car ride from southern RI, we spent the night in White River Junction, VT.  As we left the hotel Saturday morning it was overcast but not raining and 67 degrees.  OK, with only a 1.5 hour drive, let's plan for a warm, dry race.  Wrong!

Headed up I-89 North, the temperature dropped precipitously.  In fact, it was 42 degrees when we arrived.  That's right; a 25-degree drop!  After about four miles on dirt roads and watching and hearing the Subaru WRX in front of me bottom out in the mud multiple times, we arrived at the Sleepy Hollow Ski Lodge.  I had my singlet on to run in, plus a long sleeve tech shirt to warm up in.  Felt cold once I got out of the car, so I put on the windbreaker/rain coat that I had and headed up to registration.  I saw fellow Rhode Islander Rachel Flaksman as I headed into the barn to get ready and pin my bib to my singlet.

Parking on dirt road leading up to the ski lodge.
Most sections of the dirt road were in good shape as
seen here; but there were certainly some challenging sections.

Warm-up:    With only about 20 minutes to race start, I went out for a short warm-up.  If you can call it that.  I ran up just a short section of the first trail we would ascend out of the "gate", but it was flooded muddy mess, so I just tiptoed around awkwardly to avoid plunging in the mud.  Obviously this strategy would NOT work at race time.  And now it started to rain steadily.  Of course it did!  I pondered switching my bib to my long sleeve shirt, as I remembered running Hartford Marathon in 42 degrees and rain, and feeling very cold at the end.  On the other hand, having looked at last year's results and the two finishers I know rather well (Steve Brightman and Leslie O'Dell), I figured I'd be done in an hour and could tough it out.

My understanding is that the start is usually pretty much right
where the snow patch is behind me in pic, so this year the
organizers moved the starting line just higher to avoid this.

Here is the starting trail (to the left of green plastic fencing).
Doesn't look too wet, right?  Let's look a little closer ...

And now up closer.  Oh yeah, feet will NOT be staying dry for long today!

Pre race announcements were here.

Lining up for the start.  A few of us wore singlets, but not many.

Race start:  After a brief announcement from the RD with a warning on forecasted thunderstorms, we lined up and were off.  I opted to start in the second row, figuring I had a good chance of finishing top 20.  We took off, and no pussy-footing around this time.  Straight through the puddles and mud and up the slope we go.  It seemed every step I took was a post-hole into the mud.  Slow going.  EVERYONE was passing me and the race had only just begun.  Grandmothers pushing strollers uphill were passing me at this section.  Or so it seemed.  Time for this novice to look around and watch the veterans of this race and see what they were doing right and what I was doing wrong.  Oh, they are running on the sides of the trail; not totally mud-free, but the mud is less deep there as some vegetation is holding the dirt better.  Well, that helped a little, but it still seemed like a long slog up the initial ~300' climb and I was seriously doubting myself.

And we're off.  I'm front and center in green singlet, bib 239.

Starting the uphill climb.

Even when it was leaf-covered, you can see how soft the
ground was here and easy to post-hole.

Out of control:  There was no time to catch your breath at the "top of the mountain", as you went right into a 500' fairly steep decline over the next mile or so.  There was still the same deep mud, and it was a blast running/sliding down the slope.  Finally I'm feeling a little more comfortable, and although on the ragged edge of control, I'm passing quite a few people here.

I'm not in this picture, but I included it to
show typical race conditions today.  Mudfest!

2nd ascent:  In retrospect, I think of this race as three ascents, each followed by an immediate descent.  Yes, that's an oversimplification, but it works for me in my simple mind.  This next ascent was the longest and lasted roughly from Mile 1.5 to Mile 3.2.  Unlike the first mud/slop wide trail ascent, much of this next climb was on a fairly well drained single-track with lots of switchbacks on a trail named "Darth Vader"!  I could see fellow RI'er Brightman on the switchbacks and he wasn't as far ahead of me as I expected (five days earlier, he had run some little 26.2 mile run in Boston, so his legs may not have been fresh).  Fellow runners on the course were friendly and when I caught right up to one in particular, he moved aside for me in an area that would have been tough for me to pass otherwise.

On one of my uphill climbs;
this one was not as muddy.

Downhill to the finish area:  At the top of this climb, there was a trail sign showing we were going onto a single-track trail named "Princess Leia", and lo and behold, in the rain and mud, there was Princess Leia!  In her white robe and with her classic cinnamon buns hairstyle on each side of her head!  You may be thinking, he's hallucinating.  And I thought that myself at the time, much as late in a hard race I have imagined things there that aren't, but this be the real thing.  As I went past her, she said to me, "May the force be with you!".  Now, if you've run this race before, or if you're not into Star Wars, you're probably thinking that I need to get a life (which I do, but that's a separate story); however, for me, this was so cool and brought a huge smile to my face!

Star Wars themed trail names!  Very cool!

The Princess Leia single-track ended quickly at another wide ski trail, and we were back on our way bombing down a 400' descent back to the start/finish area.  I noted that I was passing some of the same people now that had passed me going up.  Downhill is my sweet revenge.

Watch out for the snow patches coming down to the start/finish area.  They're slick!

Final climb:  In a cruel twist of fate, you empty out onto the main field and go right past the finish line and clock but yet still have about two miles to go.  Leaving the start/finish area again, you're now on a two-way wide trail with a slight downhill.  Then it's a sharp right turn and start of a twisty climb up Han Solo.  Han may have been killed in the movie, but his spirit is alive here.  Right at the start, I move over and motion for the guy on my heels to pass me.  We've been trading spots for a while now.  He asks me, "How do you guys run so fast on the downhills?".  I responded I'm borderline out of control on the downhills, and he retorts that the only way to beat me then is on the uphills.  Sure enough, he's soon far ahead of me on the twisty switchbacks and also overtaking the next person, who is not only the woman in the WRX that was bottoming out getting here, but more importantly, soon to be the women's overall winner.

Final downhill push:  Just over a mile to go.  I can see my competition a ways ahead of me now, and it's time to go for it.  Worst case scenario, I go down in the mud and lose more time, but I've got to at least try.  I push it hard down the final long slope.  I hit some really soft spot and struggled to stay upright, but kept going.  Somewhere near the bottom of the hill I go past him, not letting up at all, as I know the finish is on a slight uphill.  Done!

Done!  The top female finisher is just ahead of me in red.

Not surprisingly, the finish area as well was quite muddy. 

I held off my competitor by 8 seconds.  Not that he was in my age group, but it's good to have someone to push you.  We chatted for a bit, and it turns out that he used to run in Mystic, CT (one town over from me), then lived in Newport, RI, before moving to MA.

Final results:  51:43, 11th overall of 195 finishers, 3rd in age group.  Full results here.

Post-race:  changed out of the wet clothes, with a jacket on inside,
trying to get warm (it would take me a while)

Post race I caught up with Rachel, Steve, and Leslie, while waiting for awards and trying to get warm.  As with much of the rest of this race, the food was fairly unique too, and I really enjoyed the build-your-own burrito bar, cups of trail mix, and the HOT coffee until it ran out.  (OK, I probably didn't help keep the coffee going for others by drinking three cups, but it sure hit the spot on a cold and rainy day.)

The next day over Easter dinner, I was talking about the race (of course) and
explaining how I did much better on the downhills than uphills, and I was then
asked, "How did you do on the FLAT sections?"
Um ... where exactly are the flat sections?

I was technically 4th in my age group and not sure if I would get anything as the 1st place overall was also in my 50s age group.  Fortunately, this race followed the practice of most, and did not double-dip, which meant I got the 3rd place award.  Yay!  By the way, I was the 10th male overall but yet 4 out of the 10 top males were in their 50s?!  Kudos to us old guys, I guess.

Really unique and fun age group awards and giveaways!
--------------
Left:  Age-group award:  Darth Berry Jam!  (who needs another medal?)
Right:  Race entrant give-away:  Vermont maple syrup made on the premises!  (who needs another shirt?)

I'm quite sure this was the muddiest race I've done in my life.  And I've run some pretty muddy races in my humble opinion, from running through a swamp at Old Mountain Field Trail Race (RI) to slip-sliding on steep muddy single-track in Pioneer Ridge Vertical Mile (AK).  Today's event was a very well organized, unique and challenging race, and I had such a BLAST out there!  The first race in the USATF-NE Mountain Series is done; I look forward to the rest!

Here are my race shoes ONE DAY later, AFTER I banged a lot of mud off!
(As part of a post-race e-mail sent out by the RD, it appropriately said,
"Good luck getting your shoes dried out."!)

Weekly Log 15-Apr to 21-Apr: A Return to Racing

After a 7-week hiatus from racing, since the Myrtle Beach Marathon in early March, it's time to toe the line again.  Saturday I'll be racing the Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race.  It's the first race in the USATF-NE Mountain Series that I'm trying complete this year, and my first time running this race.  Steve Brightman told me it's my kind of race; we'll know very shortly.

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• Fun watching the Boston Marathon on Monday.  Congrats to all, but especially Brightman and Principe for turning in really impressive performances at 2:42 and 2:39, respectively.  Kind of piques my interest to return.
• Clamdigger races in one week, to kick off the WTAC season.  Registrations running 30% lower, but don't know if that's just temporary or part of the overall trend of local race participation in general less over past few years.
• Best one-liner I heard this week:  I'm waiting in line at D'angelos to pay for my sandwich, and the man in front of me is conversing with the checkout clerk (I actually think he's the manager, but I digress).  The customer is complaining about some recurring shoulder pain, but says he hopes it will feel better tomorrow because he's going to a place to get a massage.  To which the clerk/manager retorts:  Your massage isn't in Florida, is it?!  (I'm not even sure the customer got or appreciated the Robert Kraft reference, but I literally laughed out loud.)

Monday:  600 yards swim
I don't love swimming laps, so why do I do it?  1) I believe the reason I got the sustained injury last year was because I wasn't doing any type of stretching or cross-training and my muscles were extremely tight, and 2) I still want to race in triathlons from time to time.

Tuesday:  7
Lunch time run from Bradford Preserve, looping through Woody Hill around the pond and back.  Sunny, windy, upper 50s.

Wednesday:  5
Ridge Hill Reservation, Needham, MA.  Had been here but once before.  Decided to run some trails I had not been on the first time.  I wasn't 1/2 mile in, when I found myself horizontal on the ground, chest striking the ground and knocking the wind out of me, and one knee smashed into a root.  Ugh.  I lay dazed on the forest floor for a good minute until I started to get cold (it was 35 degrees).  Got up and saw the root protrusion that I tripped over.  Cracked part of my phone at camera lens; I think that explains the lighting issue in my pics below.  Hobbled a bit, but got my cadence back.  Finished the run, but with many stops to check a map on my phone for where I was.

Typical of many of the pine covered trails I ran on today.

Generally well marked.  Part of Town of Needham trail system.

The Swamp Trail boardwalk was long and pretty neat.

At one point the markers changed to "Wellesley Trails".  It seems
it connects to a trail system in that town.  For another day ...

The rest of the day working the knee hurt and I tried my best not to limp.

Thursday:  0
Between the knee still sore (but no longer any pain) and a busy work day and retirement party, just conservatively took the day off.  I'll run an easy day tomorrow (Friday) before race day Saturday.

Friday:  4
Easy shake-out in Portsmouth, NH, before having dinner with Matthew in Dover and continuing on to Vermont.  Pretty much on the way, went to YMCA of the Seacoast to change, run, and provide a place to shower post-run.  I brought my phone with me and figured I'd make a road loop, but very early on I saw a sign for "Urban Forestry Center, Division of NH Lands and Forests".  Hmm, let me run down here and see if this gets me off the roads for a few minutes...

Neat view of Sagamore Creek

Some technical stuff ...

but mostly just a lot of easy, relaxing, fun stuff like this ...

and this ...

and this.

Fun place.  Ended up spending pretty much my whole run here.

Saturday:  7
Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race, Huntington, VT.  Separate race write-up coming very soon.

Sunday:  7
Easter Sunday.  Local roads around Avondale and Misquamicut.  Mis-timed catching up with the Run While You Can group run from Avondale by about one minute, and ended up just ahead of them.  Felt surprisingly good.

Weekly mileage:  30

Weekly synopsis:  This week wasn't about mileage at all.  It was about taking it easy and racing Sleepy Hollow, and when I banged up my knee, I conservatively took another day off.  Certainly a good week overall.  I get bored running the same old, same old, and I mixed it pretty good this week (4 trail runs [including 1 race], 1 road run, 1 swim) and some diverse runs in RI, MA, NH, and VT.

Weekly highlight:  No question here at all:  Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race!

Weekly lowlight:  Banging up my knee at Ridge Hill and letting myself worry about it and the impacts to my race.

Weekly Log 8-Apr to 14-Apr-2019

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• Can someone please solve the robocall issue?  I'm now getting 2-4 calls on my cell phone everyday, and it's really annoying.  I never answer anymore unless I recognize the number, but some still leave voicemails warning of my impending doom (criminal proceedings against me are about to start, my computer is virus infected, my gonorrhea tests came back positive, yadda yadda ...).
• Felt just a tad odd going to watch a Westerly High School track meet, where for the first time in six years, none of my two sons were running.  In fact, early in the meet, I received a call from my brother, and after I told him where I was, he asked, "Um, didn't your kids graduate?!"  Funny.  However, I still know most of the runners, and a number of parents and coaches for both Westerly and Chariho, and thus it was enjoyable to watch the meet and catch up with parents and coaches.  Hope I didn't creep anyone out (that is, anymore than I usually do).
• I'm so glad I write my blog every day now.  It now only doesn't take long (often just a few minutes), but as I reread it now on Sunday night, I had forgotten already what I ran on Monday and Tuesday.
• Best one-liner I heard this week:  Stormy Daniels has just filed her income taxes, and she reported her monies received from Trump as "gross income".

Monday:  4 run, 600 yard swim
AM:  Today was our first Back Road Ramble committee meeting.  With the meeting at Arcadia Y at 8:15am, I had planned to get up there about 6:30am and go for back country run on dirt roads.  Woke up at 5:30am to heavy rain.  Nope, a 10+ mile run is just not happening.  I'm actually surprised I got out for any run, but I did get up about an hour later than planned, and ran 4 miles on local roads.  Mid-40s and steady rain; just felt miserable.

Noon:  The whole day ended up dreary and raining or at least drizzling.  Went to the Westerly Y at lunch for a swim instead.  600 yards.  Felt OK.

Tuesday:  5
Late afternoon run at Wahaneeta and into Woody Hill.  Similar to my last run here, the only person I ran into was ex-marathoner Tom Beattie and his three dogs.

Wednesday:  13
AM:  8 miles.  Local neighborhood roads.  I made up the run as I went along (sometimes the best kind), trying to pick as many hills as I could here in relatively flat Westerly (although Matthew reminds me Westerly is actually hillier than Durham, NH).  I got a grand total of 419 feet of elevation, so this is great mountain training for something like Loon Mountain race, with pretty much the same elevation gain and grade, right?  Oh, wait a minute ...

PM:  5 miles.  Lunchtime run at Grills, Westerly side of preserve.  Zero humans encountered.

Thursday:  15
AM:  9 miles.  Blue Heron loop in Dedham and Boston, MA.  This loop has so much terrain variation that it keeps it quite interesting for me:  single-track, a little bit of road (normally a turn-off on a trail run, but cool to me crossing the "Entering Boston" sign, and there are zero road-crossings), marsh boardwalks, and trails along the Charles River.

PM:  6 miles.  Arcadia's JB Hudson trail to Breakheart Pond, around the pond, and then Shelter Trail and single-track on both sides of Breakheart Brook.  Even nabbed a CR!

Unfortunately, today was Mean Dog Day.  Right near the pond, four unleashed dogs surrounded me in a circle and growled and gnashed at me.  Really quite frightening, and I had to wait for their owner to arrive and diffuse the situation.  What did the owner say to me?  Not a thing!  No apology!  I didn't utter a word myself, as I was kind of shocked at how quickly it transpired while simultaneously honestly a bit afraid.  There really is little upshot in verbal confrontations anyway.  I ran the rest of the run in fear that I would encounter them again, but fortunately I did not.  I find it so unfair and disheartening that a few irresponsible dog owners can ruin it for others.

Friday:  6
7am run with WTAC board member Justin Pearce at Grills.  He had the week off from work, and asked if I'd show him some more local trails.  Sure!  Easy run from Hopkinton side into Westerly, and then short loop on blue trail.  Good way to start the day.  I hope he felt the same.

Saturday:  6

Used the rainy morning to go through and clean out boxes
of old financial records in my basement, and bring them to a free shredding
event my employer was having.
---------
This box contained records I had accumulated and created from the
estate of my great-aunt (I was the executor).  The process was
not made any easier by the fact that she had accounts at nine
different institutions and had at least eight beneficiaries at varying
percentages.  At any rate, she passed away in 2003 and I was
overdue in getting rid of these and other records.

Burlingame Campground trails.  Waited until the afternoon when the rain stopped.  With some heavy overnight rains, some trails were wet, especially the bog bridge trail on NST.  I quickly stopped trying to find tiny rocks and logs to awkwardly jump on and just ran through full bore.  Mudfest!

My trail shoes were gunked up with mud and soaking wet;
might as well take advantage of a big puddle near the end to
get them cleaned up before getting back in the car.

Saturday night we went to Cranston to have dinner at a dim sum place
that we like, only to find it closed for remodeling.  Now what?
Just "around the corner" was a hole in the wall joint with a dubious name
of "Uncle Sushi".  I was a little leery, but Jana walked right in and it was
quite good!  Very reasonable prices (maybe due to the atmosphere) and
I was very surprised to find my sushi dinner come with eel!  Saved the best (the eel!) for last.

Sunday:  11
Tillinghast Pond and Nicholas Farm Management Areas, West Greenwich and Coventry, RI.  Tillinghast has got to be one of my favorite trail systems around.  Very well marked, multiple "you are here" maps, and a really good mix of terrain, from pine-needle covered trails to deep in dense young white pines to open meadows, to steep climbs along a river, and even a few rock gardens, the variety is awesome here!

Broke up the run in between the trail systems using very rural roads, the kind that I could (and did) just run down the middle of.  It was all fun until about two miles to go, when I got chafing in my thighs and it started to hurt.  Got back to the car a little sore there and a sweaty mess overall (the temp was near 70 by now), leaving me with no desire to convert 10.86 miles into 11 flat.  Sorry if TMI, but with warmer weather here, it reminded me it's time for me to:

• Start using Body Glide on medium and long runs.
• Put a towel in the car to wipe up sweat.
• Bring more water for post-run.

Post-run, I continued my cleaning at home.
What to do with bibs all over the place?  Matthew and Mike B
have each done a great job with displaying theirs on walls, whereas I've done a
disservice by keeping them in piles next to my bureau.
Cleaned and got rid of half of them; kept the more colorful and meaningful bibs,
and put them in a shoe box.

Now what to do with the panoply of medals?  I had two
overflowing shoe boxes of them.  Ugh.
I came up with a rule of only keeping the ones earned in
marathons, half-marathons, half-Ironmans, or overseas races
(UK, Iceland, and Singapore).

Hmmm... that would mean I have to get rid
of our own club medals that I've earned.
I paused at that sacrilege, and then thought of the
"Swedish Death Cleaning" (someone, perhaps Beth,
enlightened me of that) and I already have way too much
crap that I don't want to burden myself down with anymore,
never mind my heirs when I die,
 and realistically what will anyone ever do with these things?
I have never even taken them out of their packaging.  Gone.

But it's not that easy.  This is one is too cute, so I kept it.

And how could I throw away this wooden
award from a race in Alaska, that came with a hand-written
note mailed from the RD?  I ended up keeping both the award and letter.
  (Isn't this the attachment mindset that leads me to keep too much stuff in the first place?)

What do others do in terms on keeping or discarding bibs or medals or race paraphernalia?  I'm curious.

Throwing away some running stuff this afternoon was a little bit hard, but the other stuff I threw away or shredded (paper income tax returns from 2009, airline tickets from 2005, an old sentimental Garmin watch that hasn't worked in years) was relatively easy (and a tad embarrassing).  Some of my colleagues at work marvel (or so they say) at what a minimalist footprint I have at work (I take meeting notes on my tablet instead of a paper notebook, I refuse to print out/hand out materials for meetings I host [I project them on screen, video conferencing, WebEx, shared folders instead] and have almost no paper in my office), so they may be surprised to see my clutter at home.  I've made slow progress (e.g., substituting electronic statement receipts for mailed paper versions, storing income tax returns on PDF with a backup to the cloud, etc.), but have a long ways to go.

Weekly mileage:  59

Weekly synopsis:  Fun week with good mileage!  3 road runs, 6 trail runs, 1 swim.  Feeling good.

Weekly highlight:  Today's Tillinghast/Nicholas Farm run.  Just a fun, quiet place to get away from it all and enjoy nature.

Weekly lowlight:  Mean dog day at Arcadia.  That marred an otherwise enjoyable run and got the best of me for a while, before I let it go.

Weekly Log 1-Apr to 7-Apr-2019: A Good Week on the Trails!

Miscellaneous rambling:

• I hurt my back this afternoon (Sunday) trying to get a heavy slab of concrete waste out of my woods.  I ended up leaving it there for another day, when I may try to break it up with a sledgehammer.  Even more annoying is that there was still more cement left after I already complained to my neighbor about his masonry contractor dumping cement (on MY property!) after recent work at his house last fall.  I don't know why my neighbor's contractors feel it's acceptable to use my property as a dumping ground and toilet.  If you ever consider hiring Sposato Masonry, don't; they're not ethical.
• At the suggestion of a colleague, we went to Matunuck Oyster Bar for dinner Saturday.  Very, very busy, but it did NOT disappoint.

  

  Sunset view from Matunuck Oyster Bar.

I'm probably just behind the times, but this was
really neat!  You provide your cell phone number
when you check in and ask to be added to the waitlist,
and then you get a personalized link that gives you
updates on how many parties are ahead of you.
(It started at 19 for me, and gave me comfort seeing it go down
quicker than I expected.)

This seared blackened tuna with a sweet pepper relish may not look it,
but it was just delicious.

• While at one point I wanted to become vegetarian, I don't think I could or would want to do that, and I could certainly not go vegan.  I occasionally dabble with the thought of becoming pescatarian (I don't miss eating four-legged animals, but still have the occasional two-legged.)
• I felt horrible to read about the SC college girl who got into the wrong car thinking it was her Uber ride, and ended up stabbed to death.  FWIW, I always check the license plate of the car against the Uber app before getting in.  Don't others?  Today I asked my Uber driver if he thinks that people don't check license plate/car make/driver photo etc before getting in.  He said it happens all the time, and sometimes he awkwardly has to coach people (esp teen girls) making bad decisions (e.g., drunk getting in his car, no shoes, hanging around with bad crowd).  Ugh.  Hopefully something good comes of this, even if just more awareness.
• As I've written before, I was pretty happy overall with my Myrtle Beach Marathon performance last month.  After a 2-year hiatus, I'd like to get back to regular marathon road races, perhaps 2x/annum.  I'm roughly thinking either Steamtown or Mohawk-Hudson in October, Boston next spring, and then maybe a destination race next fall.  I do know that having races planned helps with my personal running motivation, but I'm way ahead of myself ...

Monday:  0
Planned rest day.

Tuesday:  5
Easy run at lunch from Bradford Preserve.  Ran in to the dirt bike trails in NE Woody, and was disgusted by all the trash near the entrance and along those trails.  Broken up wooden shelves, tires, a camper top, etc.  [Some] people are gross; sometimes I just have this fantasy of moving to a cabin in the woods near a stream and going off the grid. 

Wednesday:  10
AM:  5 miles at Hale Reservation, Westwood, MA.  A little cold in the 37-degree rain.  Their website bills themselves as having 1,137 acres and over 20 miles.  If I stick to the blazed trails and make one of my usual loops, I have no problem, but I think every single time I have ever ventured onto unmarked single-track at Hale, I have gotten lost.  Today was no different!  They have really neat single-track, so I won't stop trying.  This morning I found the elusive (at least to me) connector trail over to Noanet Woodlands trail system, but then got completely turned around and somehow looped back on myself.  Still a good run, but not what I was envisioning.

PM:  5 miles at Arcadia Management Area.  65 degrees.  ~30 degree warm-up from this morning's run!  Since I only had a long-sleeve running shirt with me, just opted to run shirtless.  Ran JB Hudson from 165 up to and then around Breakheart Pond.  On the way back, for the first time ever I took a single-track trail running south from Breakheart Pond along the river (Breakheart Brook).  Fun!

Thursday:  6
Late afternoon run at Ninigret.  Felt sloth-like, and slowed the pace and reduced planned distance.

When I was a child (oh boy, here he goes again ...), from my grandparents' home in Charlestown I would watch fighter planes take off from and land here, as back then this was the Charlestown Naval Air Field.  I have long known (as have many others) that this is where President George HW Bush trained to become a Navy pilot.

However, what I did not know until today was that in British colonial days, this was part of a 2,000 acre farm owned by Jeffrey Champlin.  Champlin was one of the originals settlers of the "Misquamicut Purchase" from the Indian Sosoa in 1660, and back then this land was part of Westerly, as Charlestown was not split off as a separate town until 1738.

My grandmother often encouraged me to try to learn something new every day.  For today, success.

Friday:  9
Late afternoon run in Mystic, before meeting up with a high school friend for our annual dinner and conversation.  Ran from/to the beautiful newly renovated Mystic Y.  About 2 1/2 miles on trails and the rest roads.  Ran in the "Bishop's Cove" housing development for the first time, a long snaking road through a marsh before ending up at pretty upscale homes.  There was a guard shack with a foreboding sign that only residents and guests allowed beyond it, but since no one inside, I just went passed it and got ready to plead ignorance if needed.

Saturday:  8
Trail run at DuVal.  I hadn't been in here in a while, and I often forget the extent to which this is hilly.  As in constantly rolling hills.  That's a good thing, especially for one getting ready for some trail races that might be just a little hillier than the terrain I usually run on.  I think I got every trail in there.  When I finished up, it was 57 degrees and clear that I had overdressed (again) by wearing a long sleeve shirt.  This was definitely singlet or at least short-sleeve weather.

Early on in my run, a big chocolate lab saw me and ran up to me.  I gave him a quick pet, and then he turned and ran with me back to his owner.  With my circling around to get all the trails, this happened not once but twice more this morning.  He was much more friendly than his owner.  Or maybe his owner was a nice guy, but rightly sensed that I coveted his dog and was plotting how to kidnap him?

Sunday:  12
Groton Cross-Town Trail.  I've run the section from Haley Farm to Town's End before in both directions, often with Matthew, but never the whole enchilada.  It was time.  The map (below) shows about 6 miles, so I tacked on Poquonnock River Boardwalk and some extra-single track to bring it up to about 10.  I got 12!  No problem.  Parked at the end of my run and then took an Uber to the start.  Uber driver said he lived in this area since '85 and never heard of the Groton Cross-Town Trail.  When he dropped me off, and I showed him the start of the boardwalk right there, he said he learned something new today as he had been there many times before and had never seen it!  Here is my pictorial write-up of today's run:

Map of Groton Crosstown Trail (red)

Starting off on the Poquonnock River Boardwalk, through the reeds.

Easy single-track entering Bluff Point State Park.

Bluff Point definitely has best trailside views out of any
of the properties I'd run on today.

The "Amtrak Sprint" section connecting Bluff Point and
Haley is the worst section of the trail.

Crossing over the tracks into Haley.

Haley Farm State Park.  Mostly double-track here.

Mortimer Wright Preserve:
The first couple of times I ran here, I got twisted around and
had a lot of trouble to find the actual trail.  But with much
better signage these days, as long as you pay attention to the markers,
you should be good.

I really appreciate it when signs indicate
when you're entering a new property (and which one it is!)

In the Merritt Family Forest.

Beebe Pond is really fun!

And well marked!  I wish all the preserves used this blue
mark with the "X" to denote the X-Town Trail.

Beebe Pond is definitely the most technical of
the preserves.

Only wildlife I saw today.

Beebe Pond!

Final techy section of trail before leaving Beebe Pond.

Town's End.  Final property on the Cross-Town Trail.

Easternmost point and end of trail.  This was really fun!
Now to Vault Coffee Roasters (Mystic) for an iced coffee reward.

Weekly mileage:  51

Weekly synopsis:  One road run (with some trails mixed in), six trail runs.  Nothing against the road runs, but with seven out of eight of my next planned races on trails, that's where I'll spend most of my time for the next few months.  Slow (due to laziness) start to the week, but I still met my loose target of 50.  Really a good week of running.  I think the only missing element was a workout.

Weekly highlight:  So many to pick from, but I'm going with today's Cross-Town run, because it was something new that I had never put together before.  Easy effort, but really fun and comfortable with the weather being sunny and warm in the low 50s.  A number of hikers, runners, bikers, and friendly dogs on sections of the trail today.

Weekly lowlight:  Only on my Ninigret run did I feel heavy and unmotivated this week.