The Boys

Craig and Brad that is.  I know Thorncrag is crag and not Craig, but, I heard it pronounced Craig for so many years before I saw it written, I think I'm stuck pronouncing it ThornCRAIG.  The Squirrel's navigator even thought Craig.  Well, it thought more but that's another matter.

Saturdays, equals deer hunting in ME in Nov, the TMR group runs are at Pineland.  When I showed up for the first one, Ian was shocked that I was there.  I make no bones about my feelings for Pineland.  I figured 10 miles, no big deal.  Well, it wasn't long into the run I was feeling pains I don't normally have.  I was left with a pretty sore left backside and backside of that leg.  Damn you, Pineland!  The Squirrel had similar issues.  So this Saturday, I suggested we skip the group run and head to Thorncrag instead.  I wanted to see what she thought of the loop I'd picked out for TWMiH3 and to come up with the final mileage and elevation to post on the event page.  She did not need convincing.  Unstrung was going to be able to meet up, but not till later.  We'd just make sure we'd be back in the parking lot at a certain time, easy enough at Thorncrag since most of the running is in loops of under 2 miles.

It was the clearest day I'd seen there in ages.  I pointed out the view of Mt. Washington to the Squirrel.  I know I always stop to check, but don't think we'd ever seen it when we'd run together there.  She was certainly surprised by the view.  I snapped a picture with my phone, but, it was not capable of capturing the distance. 

We ran with non-stop conversation (almost called it chatter, but, we had an entire week of stuff to analyze; it was more serious than chatter.  And not serious at all!)  We came across an interesting statue (it's on the TWMiH loop).

We ran into the parking lot almost to the second we were supposed to meet the Unstrung Hero.  She arrived seconds later.  Back up the long hills, more interesting conversation and stories, and two more statues!

It was a good day with Craig.  Mindy and I were more than done before Xar was.  I think we had 10.9 miles (we were aiming for 10).  That's the longest I've ever run there.  I was tired. 

Sunday, we went to visit Brad.  Mindy and I had 15ish in mind.  Rick wanted to try for 10 of those miles.  He'd only done one 3 miles road run since Stone Cat.  Xar was going to make it an hour after our start, so we wanted to figure a route to get us back.  George (Four's cousin, not the Jedi), Tom, and someone I know I've seen before because I recognized his dog, were there as was the Squirrel, when Rick and I pulled in.  Four showed up, surprise, just when we were about to head out.  I'm not sure how we arrived at the decision, but we all went out the connector.  About 1 mile in, George, Tom and Tucker's Dad pulled out ahead.  Rick, Four, Mindy, and I didn't try to stay with them.  We'd be turning back for Xar anyway. 

I think we walked more hills than usual.  Both S&S had tired legs.  I was just overall tired, too.  We picked Xar up after 4.1 miles.  No, we weren't that slow!  We arrived in the park at 9 and didn't start right away.  I'd have to check the garmin to see just how many minutes we'd run by our 10 o'clock Xar rendezvous.  We were gonna head back out the connector cause S&S had planned a power line experiment, but took an ever so slightly different route over the mountain to get there. 

It may have been the doggiest day ever at the Brad.  I think we petted upwards of 90% of them.  :)
It added to our time out there, but was well worth it.  Four left us when we got to the power lines.  Xar, Mindy, Rick and I tried to find a good path to the opposite "bank" of the power line path.  We ended up bushwhacking.  The opposite bank was beautiful!  It had close-mowed grass, soft, flat footing, and a good view.  I'm not sure how long that lasted till we basically were bushwhacking again to get back to the other side.  Rick peeled off here.  The trio kept going to the bench.  We were looking for Double T's pinwheel.  Sadly, it was gone.  Yikes!  I didn't realize how late it'd gotten with all our dog visits, bushwhacking, hill walking...time to hurry back. 

Just like yesterday, Unstrung had more miles to get in when S&S called it a day.  No time even for E&L's :(