Early Morning Dozen

Ronnie the cat woke me up a few minutes before 5am, and since the alarm was set to go off about 15 minutes later, I decided I would just get up and get going. At 5:35am, I was headed out of the Bowdoin field house parking lot down Rt. 123. I could not believe the amount of traffic on the road so early in the morning! Amazing. Where are all these people going?

I was relieved to turn off 123 a few miles later and head out into the quiet roads of Pennelville. Mist was rising from the fields along the road, and I scared up lots of sparrows, goldfinch, and what I think was a flock of approx. a dozen immature and/or female Bobolinks from one field. As always, running through this area is a joy. It is so peaceful out amongst the fields. I took the short out-and-back down to Simpson's Point, where I could smell that it was low tide before I could even see the ocean. The water was still, reflecting the sky above, and one lone Great Blue Heron was standing guard at the edge of the mud flats.

My route took me out onto Rossmore, another nice road with ocean and marshy views, and then left onto Maquoit down to Maquoit Bay, where several clammers (or wormers?) were out on the mud flats, up early and working away. I was not looking forward to the next few miles on Woodside, as when Snowman and I had done our 15-miler earlier this month, I felt my energy lapsing as the road rose sneakily to Pleasant Hill. I was a bit tired this time around, but this stretch went better than I had expected, and soon I was out at the edge of Crystal Spring Farm, turning down onto Pleasant Hill.

I cruised down the hill and along the flat, and hit Maine Street. From there, only a mile to go. My pace surely slowed a bit in this final stretch, but overall I felt pretty good during the run, with my legs having bounced back after feeling a bit sluggish yesterday. Finished in 1:50, which works out to approx. 9:16 per mile and is fine with me.

Overall, a good start to the day. And now it's off to work!