Rain

Well, I never got to test out whether a dinner of california rolls and veggie tempura rolls, followed by a big bowl of gelato made for good night-before-a-long-run fuel. We were planning to take Meg and Chris to Wolfe's Neck this morning, to give them a chance to enjoy a place we love. And what is more Maine than a walk through the woods to a rocky beach? Sadly, Mother Nature had other plans, and we woke up to rain. Part of the fun of the plan was that I was going to run to Wolfe's Neck from home and then meander the trails for a few extra miles to get in my long run this morning before meeting up with everyone at the beach. Well, since we weren't going to hit the beach in the rain, I put off those plans and decided just to hang out with everyone this morning instead.

Since Meg and Chris are allergic to cats and therefore can only take so much time at our house, we headed to LLBean mid-morning to look at the fishies and burn off some energy before heading to Sam's favorite lunch spot, Fresh Batch. Lots of other people with kids had the same idea as us - both LLBean and Fresh Batch were full of kiddos! Of course, the sun came out right after Meg and Chris headed south - thanks for the visit, guys! It was great to see you! - isn't that always the way?

I ended up finally heading out for my run around 3:00, after Sam had woken up for her nap. Ryan, who had run while she was sleeping, noted that there was a pair playing paintball over by the quarry, so I decided I would access the river another way. I passed by the quarry, and continued on the back dirt road, thinking I would be bypassing the potential for getting hit with a paintball while innocently running through the woods. Well, as it turns out, the paintball crew had moved onto that side of the quarry, and so I ran into two of them on the road, and had a paintball whiz behind me as I was running along. The pair on the road were apologetic, saying that their buddy was shooting for the other buddy across the way and wasn't aiming for me, but the pop sure sounded close! In any event, since I didn't get hit and I ended up at the stairs down to the ecology center with about the same mileage as if I had taken the quarry and the Heath, it all worked out :)

I decided to really steer clear of the quarry on the way back, so I popped off the Heath trail onto the cart path and then came back on the main road. I ended up with 5 surprisingly sweaty miles given the cool temps.

Sounds like it is supposed to be better weather tomorrow, so my plan of running to Wolfe's Neck is back on. It will mean most of my miles are road miles, but I think it will be a nice run nonetheless. Plus it gives me a chance to run on the park trails, which I'm looking forward to!