Lynn Woods

went to Lynn Woods last night for the first time with a couple of my former Ipswich runners, Alex and Kieran.

we accidentally parked at the wrong entrance to the woods, which was about 2 miles on trails we didn't know from the start. Got there at about 5:50 for the race which started at 6:30. We decided to take the opportunity to warm up and arrived at the start by 6:15. Passed CMS 'mate Shairs doing his warmup when we got close.

Alex and Kieran opted for the shorter (2.3 mi.) and I joined the longer (4.3 - undercliff). We were issued our complimentary lifetime numbers and we were off.

Joe was still admittedly a little beat up from the hard effort at Bobby Doyle on Sunday, so he let the leaders go. 'Mate Matt Veiga and a couple young guys were at the front as we tried to follow the orange streamers and white arrows the right way in the early going. Did some climbing in the first mile, which passed in 7:10 according to the Garmin watch. It felt relaxed and I was anticipating staying in contact with the guys around me if they were all willing to go faster. The second mile we did (I had 6:06 on the watch) and I was working hard to stay with the third place runner. I occasionally caught a glimpse of Matt and the number two runner.

We ran right by the parking lot where I had left my car (Pennybrook) at 2.2 and took a sharp right for the return. There were several significant stretches of fairly technical trail, lot of rocks, mostly single track and I was hard-pressed to maintain any type of contact with the leaders and eventually lost touch. My third mile was a 7:20, fourth was a 7:08 and the last .3 was basically 6-flat back on the main road.

I wasn't sure what to expect heading into this. I anticipated being a lot faster, but I had no idea how challenging the terrain was. So now I'm realizing I'm not in great "Lynn Woods" shape but want to continue to run every day and see what that translates to at the relay next week and at some more races this summer and fall.