5 years ago: January 2020 – I started back running late in December it seemed that my sacrum was not fully healed. I decided that racing at Frosty’s Four in Salem MA wouldn’t be a great idea but figured I could use it as my run for the day. I’ve done this race a bunch of times and it is always fun. I decided to also bring along my bike for a warm-down.
I started at the very back and was the last person to cross the starting line. I figured that’d give me some incentive and also keep me from trying to go to fast. It was a lot of fun (It took me about 4:30 to get through the first half mile and 8:25 to the mile. At that point I figured I could run 8’s the whole way and that was now my goal. I reached 2 miles in 16:12 (7:47) and knew I’d be passing a lot more people as we turned into the wind and climbed the only hill on the course. I felt good and even felt like I was working it a bit with a 7:22 third mile. I did not “kick it in” but my final mile was the quickest at 7:14. It felt good to make it through. After a couple of quick pics with Jim Palicki and I switched into bike gear and headed off to check out the bike paths. The Salem path was short but there were also bike lanes on the road which was nice. The Marblehead trail was a packed dirt trail which was a lot of fun although the icy and muddy parts were a bit dangerous. It was great to see so many people out there hiking and running (I was the only one biking). All in all, not a bad way to start out the new year.
Salem Harbor from the bike path
On the final weekend of the month, I met up with Eric Morse (and his GF Chris and their dogs) for a visit to the highest point in Rhode Island and the MA/RI/CT tri-state point. It is basically a flat walk of about a tenth of a mile through some woods to a rock near a clearing that is the highest point in RI. I had visited twice before but the last time was 2008. Perhaps the easiest of the 46 state high points I’ve been to. We then drove to Thompson RI and parked at the Air Line rail trail. We put on traction devices for the run on the trail to the tri-state point. It was only .6 to the side trail then another .3 and we found ourselves at the point where MA/CT/RI meet. This was my second time to this tri-point and the first for Eric & Chris (and the dogs). We finished the run by adding on some miles in MA on the Southern New England Trunkline Trail (SNETT) which is a continuation of the rail trail we were on. I plan on coming back in the Spring to do a long bike ride on the trail.
The highest point in RI Me at the tri-point
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