Stage 5: 10/24/10

She Says:  It was cold and rainy.  I was cold and wet.  This run sucked.  I sucked.  Except we did see some moose turds.  That was cool.

Oh yeah – one more thing --   I ate a cider donut at the car when we were finished.  That was cool.

And oh yeah – one other really cool thing.  Steve let me whine the entire time. 

 P.S. See my smile in the picture?  It’s photoshopped.

He says:  It’s been 5 months and 20 days since our last post and unfortunately this one was not as fun as the 1^st four.  Way back in May after our great trail run we had planned the next leg to be another trail run around Stratton mountain on forest road (FR) 320 but somehow with golf, gardening, me having to re-qualify for Boston (E did easily at Boston but I didn’t so had to do a fall Mthon – Hartford 2 weeks ago in a BQ time!) we didn’t get around to our next run Vt leg.  Once Hartford was over we decided this would be the weekend.  The little issue of the weather was not about to hold us back.  Just because weather.com said 45 and chance of showers in Vt it was nice at our house at 1100 feet in Mass. so we decided to head out.

At the trailhead it was 41 and actually showering but we were there so headed out.  E was not feeling great plus the “trail” was not as pretty as we had hoped.  Forest Roads in Vt really mean snowmobile trails which are maintained by local snowmobile clubs.  I guess FR 320 is really a snowmobile highway in the winter as they had recently taken a bush hog and chopped all the shrubs/trees along the trail to make a 30 ft wide path.  However, the snow was not there yet so all the branches on the trail were quite hazardous plus the “showers” had created some streams on the trail.  Needless to say the run was cold, wet, and not all that pretty.  We did get some views of some beautiful beaver ponds and a few pretty streams.  However, the most “exciting” item was a pile of moose scat which precipated the discussion of:  E: “What’s that”, S: “That’s moose shit”, E: “I thought moose shit looked like cow shit”, S: “I don’t think so but we’ll have to google that.”  Perhaps this was so interesting because we were freezing and feeling like shit ourselves.  Anyway, as my credibility is occasionally doubted I am happy to report that you can view piles of moose shit on google and that is exactly what we saw!

 

Anyway, we did manage to cover 9.5 miles on the snowmobile highway, 2 miles on dirt roads and another 1+ miles on Vt Route 30 to reach Winhall Vt town hall where we had left our 2^nd car.  A warm heater and seat plus the excellent mocha Lizzy had packed almost completely warmed us up.  I hate to admit it but for me the most fun part of the run was blasting some tunes and thinking back on legs 1-4 as I drove home over a lot of the 65 plus miles we had traveled during those magical runs.

I think we as olde farts have decided we love our treck but from now on we will be fair weather runners.  The advantages of age!!!

Stage 4: May 8, 2010

She Says: This section had a little bit of everything – rain and sunshine, heat and cold, uphills and downhills, whiny parts and smiley parts.  But the best it had to offer was near the end… but I’ll get to that. 

We ended our last run at the FR71 trailhead, really a snowmobile traile, hoping to cross-country ski this next 9-mile section.  However, real life and weather issues got in the way of that plan, so instead of strapping on skis, we just laced up the trusty old running shoes since the snow is now long gone.  We were anticipating a classic spring slog through muddy trails most of the way, but lo and behold, the route turned out to be a beautifully dry, level and graded dirt road, just dandy for running. 

The woods were shimmering in that early spring green glow, with splashes of white flowering dogwood everywhere.  We noticed weird patches of white bubbling foam at the base of a lot of bronze birches – haven’t figured that out yet.

It was a run of many moveable layers of clothing as the weather did its thing.  We started out just as the rain cleared away; it was a brisk 50 degrees.  Two miles in, the clouds were parting and the sun was steaming things up. I was hot, running sleeveless, shirt and rain jacket flapping around my waist.  Six miles in, we were bundled up again, listening to loud bursts of menacing thunder.  Eight miles in, it was pouring and cold – that quick, cold blast of storm that is whispering, “there might be hail coming…” but luckily, just cold rain.  And then…a double dose of Tour Magic!  

First, we both looked up the road to see a low, narrow band of a rainbow crossing the road in front of us like a belt.  Not an arched, way-up-ahead somewhere-over-the-rainbow, but a flat, straight one right there in front of us, sort of like a finish line banner stretched across the road ahead.  It hovered for a bit, we marveled at it, then poof – it was gone. 

And then, during the last mile, just 50 yards or so to our right, just off the road, we spotted a big, lumbering, classically clumsy looking moose, stomping through the wet soggy woods.  Startled by our footsteps, it did a surprisingly lithe, moose getaway maneuver into the deeper piney woods.  It was soaking wet, more dark grey than moose brown, and yes, as big as a horse! 

Finished the run as hungry as a horse, slugged down some chocolate milk, tasty snacks, and drove home, waiting for my fingers to warm back up. Brrr….but oh yeah, another good, fun run that felt just a little bit like an adventure.

He says: Another great day on our journey. Now that Boston is over and we almost have our legs back we were able to do leg 4 together. We had ended the last leg on Forest Road 71 with the plan for leg 4 to be on XC skis (as FR 71 is a snowmobile route during the winter). As it turned out we did not get to this leg before the snow ran out. We planned only an 11 mile leg thinking FR 71 would be a rutted muddy jeep path through the woods and weather was iffy. As it turned out with Federal Recovery $ the road was an excellent dirt road! Weather was odd – rain and wind to start, then sun with us stripping off layers in the warmth, then thunderstorms followed by more sun. The route was beautiful with lots of spring runoff, beaver ponds, spring flowers etc. We ran the whole thing together with frequent stops to check out/photo fun sites.


Unusual sightings marked this run. First I (running as usual without glasses) commented “there’s some snow at the base of that birch!” Lizzy, the skeptic, said “no way” and investigated to discover it was a pile of foam that was forming on the tree trunk and running down to the base. Must have been something on the birch bark that reacted with the rain to form foam. We saw lots more of as we went on.

After finishing the 8.5 miles of FR71 we passed the Daniel Webster Memorial site on Arlington Stratton Road and had to stop. Daniel Webster addressed 15,000 Whig party members in a field here in the 1840’s – Vermont has preserved the open field and marked it with a plaque on a rock. As we were leaving we were hit by one of those rain showers through bright sunshine. As the sun was lowering in the west at our backs it formed a low local rainbow that crossed the road about 100 yards in front of us. As we ran towards it, it opened up for us to pass. Trail magic!

Then, about ½ mile later we heard some noises to our right in the woods along a little stream. This was a moose that probably had been grazing there not noticed by the sparse traffic on this dirt road but a little troubled by our proximity on foot. It trotted off through the woods…

Our legs were a bit tired when we reached the car but our spirits were reinvigorated to continue our trek!

But First, A Little Bo-Bo

It's been a while since we've been able to add a leg to our journey.  The Tour has been temporarily sidetracked while we were busy preparing to run the Boston marathon, aka our bo-bo.  Bo-bo, you might ask?  Then  perhaps you're not familiar with this delightfully indelicate joke:

Two shipwreck survivors, a sailor and the ship's captain, wash up on a tropical island and are captured by savages. The king offers them two choices: Sudden, instant and immediate death, or bo-bo. The terrified sailor immediately replies, “bo-bo.”  "Very well," the chief says. "We shall respect your wish." So the guy is stripped, tied to a tree, and, well, 'enjoyed' by six dozen tribesmen, in succession, for five hours.

The ship captain witnesses this, and is then is given the same choice. "I have pride and dignity! I choose sudden, instant death!" he says. 

"Very well," says the chief. "Death it is.  But first, a little bo-bo!" 

Okay, so first a little Bo-Boston!

One of the motivating ideas behind our Tour de Vermont plan was the "what if we strung all those marathon training miles together and actually went somewhere?" concept.

We each logged a little over 600 miles of running since January to train to run Boston.  However, we only managed to incorporate about 38 training miles into our Vermont journey. Logistics, schedules and snowy weather made it tricky.  But now that Boston's done and Vermont is still there, we'll get back on track.

Stage 3: March 10, 2010

Photo Map


She Says: What a beautiful day!  It was a harmonic blend of all the right ingredients.  Beautiful, sunny pre-spring day, blazing blue sky, a challenging but scenic route with a lot of variety, and two enthusiastic chauffeurs, Isa and Rodrigo, who volunteered for pickup duty at the end of the run.

Lots of uphill at the start, rollers through Searsburg to Rt.9, a sweet but pounding 1.5 downhill - where we were tempted to try out the Runaway Truck Ramp, but passed -- then a scenic (but slightly soggy and sloggy) 6 miles down Somerset Rd to where it turns to snowmobile trail in the winter.

We have driven all these roads and know them pretty well, but I feel I've experienced them in a completely different way after running them.  I kinda feel like I OWN them. Oh yeah.

The sweet finale to the road run was heading a couple miles west from our pickup point to Prospect, for an XC outing with our intrepid chauffeurs. The best ski of the year!  Thanks Isa and Rodrigo.

He Says:  What a perfect day!  So good I'm not sure where to start so as usual I will default to chronologic.

This was one of those blue sky, high pressure, beautiful late winter days.  45 degrees with a gentle breeze.  I really felt like this was the first day of the adventure as it was our first full day in Vermont.  We also started with 4 miles of climbing over Searsburg Pass to make us realize we had made it.  The Searsburg windmill installation greeted us at the top with blue sky behind and snow on the ground - incredible.  Then a couple miles of rolling followed by 1.5 miles of bomb downhill (E was hauling; reminded me of when I took her on her first camping trip in Wyo how she really moved on the way OUT when we had hardly eaten for 3 days). We then followed the Deerfield River north for 6 miles toward Somerset with more gorgeous snowy views.

Even though this ended the run it just started the fun.  Our daughter, Isa , was home from Swarthmore on Spring break.  She volunteered to do the pick up (no 2 car deal for us this time) with her friend Rodrigo from Brazil via Swarthmore.  We all went over to our favorite XC ski area and skiied about for about an hour.  Isa is a downhill fan and Rodrigo had never had skiis on of any type.  They both did great,picked it up fast, and I even think had fun.  Then home for comfort food and vino.  Like I said, what a perfect day!!!!!

Stage 2 - 2/20/10 - Vermont!

 
She Says:  It's official.  We made it to across the state line into Vermont today!  And then some.

Steve and I both had long slow-pace training runs scheduled, so decided to use the miles as our ticket to Vermont.   We left a car at the snowmobile highway trailhead in Heartwellville, VT, then drove back down to the reservoir in North Adams where we had left off last weekend.  We wove our way through North Adams, past MassMoCA, through the middle of town, then up the gauntlet of old mill buildings heading east up Rt. 2.

North Adams is kind of a pit – but with a lot of gritty character, and leaving it behind me was harder than I thought.  Yeah, I do have a bit of a soft spot for this sad, grungy, funky town, but haha, leaving it was hard only because it requires running up an endless friggin' hill.  Long, long, long.  But once we were at the high point (we passed “Cliff Street,” which is a good indication of over-the-top topo) it was a nice rolling slog.  Steve peeled off and ran up ahead at his real pace at about the 5 mile mark.   I could see him far, far up ahead until about the 8.5 mile mark, where we each stopped to take our self-portraits in front of the “Welcome to Vermont” sign, but after that, he was gone, baby, gone.

The next 8 miles up Rt. 8 just kept “rising to meet me,” but unfortunately, with no Irish proverbial “wind at my back.”  The last two miles of the run were nonstop, serious uphill. The kind that would feel really good when it's over except that you're too used up to feel anything. Hot chocolate and homemade chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of Jennifer, in the car at the end.  Oh yeah.

Happy to have the first Vermont leg done!



He says:  Today was a great day primarily because we actually got to Vermont and really starting “running Vermont”.  The route was 16 miles from the reservoir in North Adams up through Stamford Vermont ending in Heartwellville.  We wanted to do back roads as much as possible in North Adams which worked out well.  However, the main roads in North Adams have a monopoly on the bottom of the valley so we did a little extra  altitude to stay on back roads (2755 feet total up, 1933 total down).


Coordinating our marathon training did add a little complexity. I was supposed to do 16 miles and Lizzy 18 (I had an Achilles problem 2 months ago and had a later start on our training program). But, my pace is supposed to be faster than hers. We ran the 1st 5 together then I sped up to my pace. When I got to the end I looped back to join her and ended doing 17.3 (the last 1.5 cool down pace). She didn’t want to cover future Vermont miles so she then turned around and did 2 miles back the way we came and I picked her up in the car. This worked out fine but I do look forward to post marathon when pace won’t matter and we can run together.

Roadkill/Strange Items Report (RSIR):  1 dead rat in the gutter next to Burger King in North Adams.

Stage 1 - 2/13/10

She Says: And we're off!

Check out our Stage 1 map.

9 miles down, 402 or so to go! And the good news is that even though we're still in Massachusetts, only about 7 1/2 miles to go and we'll officially be in Vermont. Woo hoo!

We ran this first leg, fittingly, as what I'm calling a Sweetheart Run. First, today is our 32nd anniversary of our first hot date (I'll refrain from details; suffice it to say, it was memorable for both of us. ) So how cool to be running together, starting this adventure, on this particular day. Second, the planets aligned just right pace-wise. I needed to do a 9 mile marathon pace run, while Steve wanted to do about 13 at long, slow distance pace. A match made in heaven, pace-wise! Since both of us are used to running alone, it's nice every now and then to have company.

It did make me wonder how we will find a mutually agreeable pace for the Tour, because my slow pace is pretty slow for Steve. I'm thinking he can scamper on up ahead, then loop back every now and then to check on me and chat me up. He'll end up logging some extra miles, but he's tough - he can take it.

He Says: What a great day! The best is that we actually started and even though we haven't yet even reached Vermont we are on our way. It's also cool that the first is on the 32nd anniversary of our first date!

It's a little logistically hard to coordinate our respective Boston training with running together but we'll have fun working that out. Lizzy is running really strong with still 9 weeks to go to Boston.

I like the concept of photos from our routes and Lizzy even worked out how to imbed them on the blog site.

I suspect runs will be a bit spaced out over the next couple months what with training, XC skiing and weather issues but we have as long as we want. I'm looking forward to a 2 or 3 day long trek sometime this summer.

ONWARD!

First Steps

She Says: As they say, the journey of 411 miles begins with a first step, so here it is. A map! A plan! Well, sort of. The route is a rough outline of our proposed loop, but we'll adapt it as we go once we figure out how far we can run, what sort of parking and accommodations we can find, how trafficky the roads are, that sort of thing. We'll definitely default to side (and hopefully scenic) roads whenever we can, and update our route map as we go.

So, just a first step, but this idea is atually beginning to take form -- and possibly even action! With dry roads and very little snow here, we're hoping to pound some of our Boston marathon training miles as the beginning stages of our loop. Should make for some nice day trip running.

And if actually drawing a map isn't enough to convince me that we might actually start this harebrained idea in the near future, I've been shopping online for running day-packs. So far, this is the one I'm leaning towards

Pretty sweet with the flames, eh?

He Says: Good thing Lizzy is here to do all the web, map stuff etc! I love the route we talked about and she laid out in rough form. I really look forward to planned flexibility re backroads, etc as we move in to the adventure especially when the weather will allow even trails. I'm definitely willing to actually carry that cool pack she picked out (think all our stuff will fit in just one?) except I may want a little brighter color scheme. As you will see the tone for this adventure will likely be Lizzy will love doing the forework and I will love coming along for the ride. Can't wait to get started!!!!