Dec 24th, 2010 - Training - Lowell, MA - 14.25

Day 358 - One for the record books today. I count 34 runners in the photo below, and that doesn't include Glenn (taking the photo), Emily (went back to her car), 1.5 Linda's, and the .5 Steve. Guinness (both) wasn't at the finish, but there were plenty of yummy treats courtesy of Alicia & Friends. Thanks gang for making a great day even Greater!

(*No Cheating Here)

Let's see how well I know these folks:

1. James Sullivan

2. Steve Kanaracus

3. Kim Nutter

4. Eric Mottram (dressed as Tron in the photo)

5. Karen Grondine

6. Jim Stronach

7. Dave Penn

8. Keith O'Brien

9. Frank Georges

10. Scott Graham

11. Jessica Costa

12. Paul Kelly

13. Jason Bui

14. Ken Skier

15. Jeff Thomas

16. Linda McCarthy

17. EJ

18. Fil Faria

19. Marli Piccolo

20. Jeff Clark

21. Alicia Leeman

22. Dave Tyler

23. Cullen Madden

24. Cheri Monahan

25. Mark Blaisdell

26. Richie Blake

27. Dale Schofield

28. Paul Hadley

29. Bill Adamson

30. Kim Adamson

30b. Adamson, Jr.

31. Moe Garvey

32. Jill Trotter

33. Ann Kingsland

34. Dawn Mickee

35. Glenn Stewart

36. Emily Searles

Started my run with Frank, EJ, Eric, Jill, Scotty, Bill, Dave, James, and Jeff. My plan was to run 14 with Eric at about his marathon pace (low 7's).

Everything went as planned as we ran towards Vinyl Square on the Baystate course, but Eric's knee started to act up about 4.5 miles into the run. We decided to turn back around at 4.7, with EJ and Frank following suit.

I continued the rest of the run with Frank at about mid 7's, with EJ and Eric taking it easy about half-a-mile back. Frank and I got back to the GLRR office with 9 miles in the bank, so we tacked on the Tuesday night course through Belvidere to get 14+ at about 7:25 pace.

Overall a great run with some nice hills over the final 2 miles.

Hopefully Santa brings Eric a better feeling knee for Christmas, so that he can complete the Goofy Challenge in January. Rest up my future ultra running buddy.

I ran with the new Newton Momentum trainers, which are a little heavier than the racers, but much more sturdy (and cheaper). The "lug nuts" underneath have been pushed a little further back (mid foot) in this model, so that took a little bit to figure out what was feeling different.

All-in-all no complaints or issues with this pair, although I just got these in the mail last night, so I'll need a few more miles in them before I can arrive at a final verdict, but it looks like another fine model from the folks at Newton.

(they're a lot more obnoxious in person)