My trip to New England went pretty well last weekend. I left early Friday and got back Sunday evening, so it was a pretty quick trip. There was a whole mess about how I was going to get up there since Keith and Anthony were also going from Northern Virginia but might not have access to a car, so that would leave me to drive up there and then drive with them the rest of the way. As it turned out, they took the train, so I was able to fly. Driving would have been a mess since it was a holiday weekend. It would have taken forever had we driven.
The trip up was pretty uneventful, except that I got to see a lot of familiar places from the air. The plane flew right over Williamsburg on the way up to New York, so I was able to see just about everywhere I run and bike from the air. Everything that seemed so far when running looked pretty short from 15,000 feet. We flew right over the campus and then to the north over Croaker and York River State Park. What was impressive was that it seemed that the routes where I biked were nearly an order of magnitude farther away from campus than where I run. We eventually passed over West Point before heading north, going right past center city Philadelphia. The plane made a cool approach into La Guardia and flew right by Manhattan and we got a good look at pretty much everything.
Once I got to New York I had a few hours to kill before the next flight left to Providence, so I just sat around and read the last few pages of Cryptonomicron. While I was sitting there, I noticed the next flight had been delayed. The gate agents made several announcements about it and wound up changing the gate for the flight several times. By the time I actually boarded the plane, I felt like I had been to nearly every gate in the concourse. I noticed that it was the same flight crew that had flown the plane to La Guardia that was now going to Providence. They must have flown somewhere else in between and got delayed there. On the way to Providence we passed over Yale, where I ran almost exactly a year ago, and this big rocky mountain/cliff thing that Tenerowicz and I ran/climbed up the day after the race.
When we landed in Providence I called Murphy when I got off the plane and he pulled up in a minivan almost as soon as I walked out. He only lives five minutes away from the airport, which must be nice. We then proceeded to drive from the airport to Downtown Providence where we picked up Keith and Anthony from the train station, and then went back to Murphy’s house to drop off our stuff. Fitz and Groff had flown into Boston earlier in the day and were taking a bus to Providence, but they were stuck in traffic, so we went ahead and ran around the campus of Brown University and picked them up afterwards. It was definitely a good thing we didn’t drive, because it took them two or three times as long to get from Boston to Providence than it normally does.
Murphy lives in a quintessential New England town: lots of large, older houses set back from the streets, which are covered by large trees. The Narragansett Bay is also only a block from his house. The lines on the streets were painted red, white, and blue for a Memorial Day parade and there was some kind of festival going on at a nearby park.
We didn’t do much Friday night except eat dinner (his mom made pasta), talk about what we had done the past couple weeks, and watch Episode 2, since pretty much everyone had seen the new Star Wars. The whole trip had a feel that was part way between everyday life at school and the feeling that we were at a meet somewhere. It was kind of weird since we were going to a meet, but we weren’t really much of a team.
The next day we pretty much just hung out at Murphy’s house. We walked over to the bay and some of the guys went out on a jetty that stuck way out into the water.
Later that afternoon we piled into the minivan and headed off to the meet. It wasn’t that far, only about 45 minutes to the track. We could see the Boston skyline from the interstate, so we weren’t that far away from the city itself. When we were almost there, the clouds began to build into these big, looming thunderstorms and we ran into some ridiculous rain. We all wondered if the meet would be cancelled or delayed until Sunday, which would be a complete waste of a trip.
When we got there, the rain had passed and they had just started the meet. Fortunately, it didn’t rain at all until after the race, which was really surprising considering all the thunderstorms around us. We had to warm up almost right away since we got there kind of late.
The race went pretty well overall and I ran the time I had wanted. The pacing was kind of weird since it seemed nobody wanted to run evenly or take charge and make things happen. Eventually I worked my way to the front of the main pack and tried to make something happen myself about 1000 meters to go, which broke everything open.
When I finished the same blister I got on the ball of my foot at Penn was back. After this race I was sure that my shoes were too big. That’s definitely the case since I worked out yesterday in smaller spikes, which didn’t give me any problems.
Murphy’s parents picked up some pizzas after watching us run and we ate, showered, and went to bed. Not much really happens on race days, especially when the race is in the afternoon or evening. You basically just sit around waiting and resting until the time comes to go.
The next day I had to run before my flight back, which left in the afternoon. We got up pretty early and I ran some of the way with Anthony and Keith, but they turned back after about 13 minutes since they didn’t have to go but four or five miles. Murphy said he rarely runs from his house, and I can see why — there are basically no trails or good roads to run on, which actually isn’t that much different from where I live. I managed to find a small collection of trails that he talked about, but they didn’t go very far, so I eventually wound up running out towards the airport and just turned around and came back.
Both flights back were on time, but I had a lot of time to kill in Philadelphia, so I walked down to check out the new international terminal. I sat down in a rocking chair and watched the ground crew unload and then load a Lufthansa 747 and also talked to Sarah on the phone.
In another week, I’ll be back at the same track running the same race. I’m not sure exactly where I’ll stay since I don’t really want to be a burden on Murphy or his parents. There are a couple other guys on the team who live in the area though, but none of them are racing so I don’t know what they are up to.
Yesterday I went back up to Williamsburg for a workout in the rain and wind. They said on the weather that it was the 11th coldest day during the month of June, ever, and I think the high only reached 62 or something. Still, it wasn’t bad to leave work early and go workout with someone other than myself, since Ed and Landry both made the 5000 at Nationals.
Yesterday was a long one too, I had to get up at 5:30 to take my dad to the airport, and then I slept in the car for a while at work until someone arrived who could let me in. And then I didn’t get home from Williamsburg until after 9, when I pretty much went straight to bed. Fortunately there isn’t anything pressing that I have to do this weekend, so I’ll be able to relax before another week of work and a race.
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