Bradbury success, way to go TC, and lunch

Another good weather weekend. We truly are blessed to live in Maine...even though every one of us will be complaining in March! The weather this weekend was perfect. Saturday morning I met a nice size group out at Bradbury to run the course. Ian Parlin was there, as were Tiki Humphries and Jill (no idea of the last name), both seasoned runners but neither of whom I have run with, and my buddies Tom Tero and Brian Manson. While I don't know Jill, when I worked with Brian we would always check in each morning during the winter to see if either of us saw Jill running through Cumberland, as it seems we would only see her out running on the coldest mornings. I had the opportunity Saturday morning to ask her if she had been part of some cruel science experiment that forced her to test frost bite on runners but I didn't take it.

The run got started just after 6 AM to Ian's frustration (sorry Ian!!!) and we started out at a nice, easy pace, one that Ian hoped would carry him over four hours that morning. That is no easy feat on the trails out at Bradbury. After a couple miles the group separated, with me, Brian, and Tom speeding up a little in order to meet our domestic guidelines (set by our wives). After a few miles we were surprised by wunderkind Phil DiRusso. How the heck he found us in the middle of the woods is beyond me. The guy must have the eyes of a hawk, the speed of a cheetah, and the ears of a dolphin (the San Diego zoo website claims dolphins have the best ears in the animal kingdom). But Phil found us and he and Brian ran with us to about the 8.5 mile mark. Tom and I continued on through the "O" Trail to finish the course and again the GPS measured the course distance to be pretty much right on 12-miles. I trust the GPS but I can say that it sure felt like our effort should have netted us a quicker pace than 10:00/miles. That course takes a crazy amount of effort. Race day comments will be interesting...in the way of "that course is long..."

I want to give a shout out to my friend TC Hazzard on successfully completing the Vermont 50 on Sunday. Chuck ran 50 miles in 10:05:44. Way to go Chuck. Also, if I understand correctly, he did all those miles in Vibram's Five Fingers. Awesome.

Today at lunch I got out with Jim and Tom from work for a nice, somewhat quick, 6.1 mile run around South Freeport. Our average pace was somewhere around 7:15 and the last half mile or so we turned it up to around a 6:15 mile and it felt great. While Tom is around my height, Jim is a monster measuring in at basketball player height and see him move at this pace is awe inspiring. Tomorrow I hope to make it out to Twin Brook to meet Ian and the group for a tame trail run. No lunch run as I have my 6-month dentist check up in the morning which will put me in work late. So it will have to be Twin Brook. Ciao.