PT #13 before work.

Bike 5.1-miles at the end of the workday.

And From the Archives...

McLean Game Refuge & Holcomb Farm Marathon

May 30th, 2009 - Granby & Simsbury, Connecticut

Wuzzam and I completed a McClean Reservation Marathon in roughly five hours.   

This was my 41st marathon completed.  I recall it being a fairly easy day for us.

2-Miles of walking with Lily today, with a 13.25-mile bike ride between. 

Flew Home from Chicago...

And on this day...

Vermont City Marathon

May 28, 1995 - Burlington, Vermont

I achieved my Boston Qualifier today at Vermont City in Burlington, Vermont.  I was able to dip under the age group setpoint of 3:10 with a 3:08:00.

At two-miles I was at 16:40, which was pretty far off my necessary 7:15 per mile to achieve the sub 3:10 finish time.  This means I ran 7:05 pace for the final 24.2-miles.

JC & ACD's Wedding today.

Fly to Chicago for JC's wedding. 

What Played in Ed's Head -- 

Music listened to for the time-period April 1st through April 30th, 2023:

Tina Turner passed.

PT #12 after work.

PT #11 after work.

Walk Lily Two-Times Total, 1-mile each time.

And, on this day...

Tunxis Trail Marathon I - May 23rd, 2006
Hartland, Barkhamsted , Connecticut
.

I completed a Tunxis Marathon in 5:41:50.  

I had Johnny Bandit along for company, as well as Tippi.  

It would be my 34th marathon completed, and Tippi's 8th.

John Bandit rambling through the meadow.

We rambled from Route 20 to Route 219 in East Hartland, Conn, and back for the first 19.5 miles.

  

We finished up with the Route 20 to Pell Road near the Mass border for the final 6.5-miles.

Small Waterfall on the northern section of Tunxis Trail.

Old Notes:  Another great day;  started out 45 degrees at the 9:15 A.M. start time.  It reached a high of maybe 60 degrees during the day, with majority in the mid 50’s.  Sunny and blue sky entire time, occasional strong breeze every once and a while.  Started the run at 9:15 A.M.

Tippi taking a look down from the climb a mile from Pell Road.

John and I both felt that it was the easiest marathon either of us had ever done.  We finished strong, running all but the very start of Trillium Hill from mile 24.5 onward.  I believe we could have easily gotten thru another hour on this day.  Plenty of water for Tippi, no problems with her other than the porcupine around mile 18.  We escaped from that ok. 

 The Pell Road TurnAround.

Visit at Healing Ways Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine.

Brief emergency work day with a bike with the Old Goat in between from Vernon to Andover, Coventry and Bolton I think.  19.3-miles in just under 90 minutes. 

Also, from the archives....

  Mount Greylock Centennial Marathon

May 21st, 2005 - Adams, Massachusetts

Fairly large group (about a dozen or so) completed a "do-it-yourself" Greylock Marathon, aka Old Goat 50th Birthday Bash & Annual Celibacy Run.

Our time was 6:47:02.  This is a very difficult course, with 5 lengthy climbs.  Five out of the twelve starters completed the full 26.2-miles.

This was my 28th marathon completed, and Tippi's second.

Weekly visit with the folks, lunched on "Shepherd's Pie". 

I rode the bike at the end of the work day out and back along the Windsor Locks Canal State Park Trail (Bike-Path) for about 11-miles.

This was the end of Bike to Work Week, and I rode four of the five days.

Black Lizard / Vintage Crime #09 for 2023...

"Aftershock" written by Andrew Vachss and published in 2013.

Cover Image

Bike to work early, 5.5-miles.

PT #10 after work.

Bike to work in the morning, 5.5-miles.

Bike home from work late, 5.5-miles.

It is Bike to work Week May 15 thru 21, 2023.  Bike to Work day is Friday, May 19th.

Bike home from work late, 5.5-miles.

Drove out to visit the folks and have a lunch of rotisserie chicken with rice pilaf.

And, from the Marathon Archives...

Granville - Kingdom Marathon - May 14th, 2020
Granville State Forest & Tunxis State Forest

With very little thought I decided to tackle the Granville State Forest to Satan's Kingdom Marathon today.  DL was willing to shuttle my car to the finish at Satan's Kingdom, and then drive me to the start at Granville State Forest along the Hubbard River.

I felt really good for the first twenty-miles, and pretty good from that point to the finish.  I power-hiked the ups from the Route 219 crossing at 19-miles, and jogged all the flats and  downhill.

Beautiful day, temperatures ranged from the fifties to start (about 9:10 a.m.) and just about seventy toward the end at 3:00 p.m.

The run measured out on the gps at 25.78-miles, and I completed the effort in 5:54 moving time, and 6:04 total time (a few stops to refuel water drops and photos).  This was my 59th completed marathon all-time.

The total climb according to Google Earth was 4702', with a net descent of 5389'.  The majority of the elevation loss was in the first 2 and last 2 miles.

Elevation Profile

Hubbard River

Black Bear Crossing - Valley Brook

Tunxis State Forest

Roberts Brook

Indian Council Caves Summit

Lake McDonough

Lake McDonough

Sign in Log at the 1st Ratlum Peak

Old Camp Pond, a favorite of Sam & Tippi

Hiking up Sodom Mountain in Southwick for 4.3-miles. 

Trail Run from Crow Hill Road in Stafford with the Old Goat - 4.1-miles.

"High Points" along trails during April 2023... 

Running fairly regularly, climbs improving...

• Talcott Mountain Ridge, Simsbury/Bloomfield, CT
• Kilkenny Rocks, Avon, CT
• Laurel Hill, Bloomfield, CT
• Horse Mountain, Williamsburg, MA
• White Rock, Hatfield, MA

Bike to work early, 5.5-miles.

PT #9 after work. 

Bike to work early, 5.5-miles.

Bike home from work late, 5.5-miles. 

Mid-Day PT #8.

Bike home from work, 5.5-miles. 

Visit with Folks, our lunch consisted of pasta with farm raised ground beef. 

2.9-miles in Granville State Forest.

Early morning PT #7.

Short run of 3.6-miles in Stafford off Crow Hill Road.

Return to playing music with the Dark Heart Duo, first session since November of 2019.

Updated from Town's run in 2023 (which I will update at some point), I have expanded to "All-Time" Town's run through.

There are still a few I can't figure out, old marathons and triathlons.  I'll work through it.

The vast majority of these have been trail runs - and sometime snowshoe runs.

For now, here is where I am...

Connecticut Town's Run

Massachusetts Town's Run

DL had our first 2023 sighting of a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the Patio Garden today.

PT in afternoon, #6.

DL had our first 2023 sighting of a male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird in the Patio Garden today.

Gordon Lightfoot passed away today, one of our real treasures as a song-writer.

My earliest memories of his songs were Sundown, and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Sundown is one of my favorite songs, ever.  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald might be the greatest song ever written in my opinion.  Wonderful simple guitar melody, strong story telling with very memorable lines that describe not only the tale of the doomed ship but also philosophical situations.  And then, there is the mournful lead guitar that enters the song now and then.

    Does anyone know where the love of God goes

    When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

    

    And all that remains is the faces and the names

    Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Or, the entire finale of verse's six and seven...

    Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings

    In the rooms of her ice-water mansion

    Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams

    The islands and bays are for sportsmen

    And farther below Lake Ontario

    Takes in what Lake Erie can send her

    And the iron boats go as the mariners all know

    With the gales of November remembered

    In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed

    In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral

    The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times

    For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

    The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

    Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee

    Superior, they said, never gives up her dead

    When the gales of November come early

A quick read from Wikipedia informs us that Gordon Lightfoot has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and his songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned musical artists. Lightfoot's biographer Nicholas Jennings said, "His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness."

Although I have listened often to Gordon Lightfoot, it may not have been enough and that is something I can remedy going forward.  I plan on it.

At the Mariners Church in Detroit the day after the songwriter died, on May 2nd 2023, at 3:00pm, the bell rang 30 times, 29 times for the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald plus one more for Gordon Lightfoot.