Mill Cities Relay. The lesson today=Warm Up Properly, James, [you dummy].

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Mill Cities Relay. The cities are Nashua, New Hampshire, Hudson, NH, Lowell, Massachusetts, Dracut, MA, and Lawrence, MA. The route is along the Merrimack River on roads and bike/multi-use paths.There is a nice little bit of history here about the run and the area. The history is stamped along the sides of the river, which is a pretty decent little brook of at least 200 hundred yards wide at its widest. It has some really interesting dams and other controls for the river still clearly evident, though I think the milling industry is no more and has ceased to be. I cannot find a photo to describe it; this one gives the broad idea.

So, 27.1 miles broken up into five legs: 5.6, 4.75, 2.5, 9.5, and 4.75. I had the fourth leg. Mostly flat, the only steep parts were going down and coming up from the bike path section. It was a snowy and slippery morning; cold but not freezing. Roads were a bit icy. I traveled up with the guy doing leg five, Steven. I am keeping this posting short, btw. I didn't warm up enough, and from the start for about three miles my shins, especially the right, were bugging me. I slowed up and walked a little bit, and stopped at one point and gave the right one a bit of a pounding. I didn't really have a top day. I think I did about 6 minute 55 second miles, which is around just fine as this was primarily a hard training run and I didn't need to try any heroics despite being passed it seemed by everyone but forty-something fertility aided mothers with their triplet-holding strollers. They must have been at Baby Gap today, thankfully. My first relay race and it was a good experience. It is well organized and seems to have tons of people who have done it often before and who seem to all know lots of other folks doing it too. Much welcomed soup and pasta at the end and two very good and sweet m&m cookies. Nice nap followed when I got home.

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