The Beauty and The Beast

Monday, I met up with Dora, Mindy, and Danielle for a nice recovery run through the Fore River Sanctuary Trails.  Dora and I had run there before, but it was all new terrain for Mindy and Danielle.  It'd been a while since we all ran together; it was fun catching up.  We kept the pace relaxed.  I ran in the lead and, as usual on these trails, took a path I hadn't before.  We ended popping out on a road a bit away from where we meant.  Now, if we hadn't all been looking to keep the mileage low (not only was it a recovery run, we were going out to lunch), we could have popped back onto the trail to return, but we ran the roads back to the start.  It was almost exactly 4 miles.  If the Green Elephant had been open, there would have been no discussion on where to go, but, since it wasn't, it took us a lot of time to finally pick a Vietnamese restaurant that Mindy knew.  It was an excellent choice.   This was new terrain for all, but Mindy.  Fortunately the waitress let Dora know that her choice for four stars would probably be too spicy.  Two stars was more than fine for both Dora and Danielle!  My pho didn't have a star rating for spiciness since I could adjust that myself with the amount of chili paste I added.  It was a treat there.  I wish we could make that type of run a weekly event.

Tuesday was a totally different type of group run.  Jim and Shauna hosted The Beast Run.  They had a good turnout.  Running were: Jim, Brock, Zak, Jeff, Ian, Ryan, Christine, Kate, Linda, Randy, Nate A., Blaine, Erin M., Erin, Four, Sara, Mary, Erik, Brenda, and a couple of others I can't remember now.  Assisting were: Shauna, Mindy, Jamie (Mindy and Jamie had done 10 miles earlier at their newly discovered Kennebunk trails) and maybe more.  The idea is to run this mile lap of fairly flat single track with a few gnarly roots and slippery planks/bridges to nagotiate, at whatever pace for however many times.  Between laps, there is beer available for hydration.  Since the running didn't start till 6:20 pm, it got progressively darker with each lap (clouds made it dark anyway).  The first lap was pretty pedestrian.  From there, it felt like I was runnning with the big boys every lap!  I haven't just let it rip in a long time.  I had a blast.  It felt good to have Jeff, Ian, and Zak comment on my speed : )  The funny part is that I figured I'd be able to do that a lap or two, but, except for slowing slightly towards the end of the final (8th) lap, I pretty much kept the pace up (even more surprising since I didn't have any day off since the weekend's long miles).  Of course, went I looked at the Garmin data, the pace wasn't as fast as it felt, but...I'll take it. I think a few people did more laps, but I was good with 8.

Besides, there was way yummy food waiting!  Shauna had seen to a wonderful feast for the runners to refuel.  The food was plentiful and delicious (I need to get the brocolli salad recipe; the not so secret ingredient was bacon!).  The kidding around and visiting was great TM fun at its best.  Thanks Jim and Shauna!!!