Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Birth of a Cambridge Creature from the Deep

Thursday was moderate/long(ish) run for me, long run for Jared day, as we continue our path to the Hyannis Half on Feb 22, and I continue mine to the 2009 Boston Marathon. 

Per usual, Jared mapped a route, showing it to me in the evening. The plan? 9-10 miles around Cambridge, traveling over our route from last week, along the MinuteMan Trail, and back home.

Tighted up and loaded with fuel belt and Gu, we headed out. Upon reaching the trail, we discussed whether modifying our route might be a good idea...as Wednesday's snow turned "wintry mix" had left portions of the trail with a thin, crunchy layer of ice and snow. Still, many spots seemed perfectly clear, so we decided to carry on. 

Bad idea. By 3 or 4 miles, we were skating along a sheet of glaze ice, flat 
and dark, melting perfectly into the sidewalk below it--barely visible and glaringly hazardous. In the dark of the trail, we were at last forced to admit we'd made the wrong call. Unwilling to backtrack along the path we'd slid along, grasping at each other here and there to avoid a fall, we popped out of the trail at our first opportunity, near a startlingly large Greek Orthodox Church. 

We shambled left, then arched back toward hom
e at what we hoped would be an appropriate turning point. Eventually, back near our home ground, it was into the supermarket for fresh fish, before jogging home with our booty.  

Upon arriving home, Jared immediately calculated our milage. Looking at our strange, 9.3-mile loop, he uttered the name, one that would be talked about for the rest of the weekend: 

The Loch Ness Loop. 

 
See the neck of the beast, arching away from our perilous path. See the ancient, sinewy shape of the monster's torso, the point of its tail near our home. 

Sounds like a good road race to me...and were we to plan it appropriately, might be a nice taper run for many a marathoner. We could round to 15K or 10 mile, start and end at the Burren in Dizzle Squizzle...though so far the best idea is a keychain/tshirt or tiny monster with the words "I defeated the Loch Ness Loop" marked on it. 

Thoughts? 

1 comment:

JROD said...

Wow... no comments on this one. The Loch Ness Loop- Come on people thats good stuff!