Saturday, March 14, 2009

A trail run and a parade

Today's events:

4:30 AM - Alarm went off and I dragged my butt out of bed.

5:10 AM - Met up with Mark, Bruce and Clint at Case Mtn. for a long trail run.

5:15 AM - As we set off for the trail, one of Manchester's Finest pulled up and lowered his window. The ensuing conversation went like this:
Me: "Good morning officer."
Officer: "Hi ya doing fellas?"
Me: "We're headed out for a run. Would you like to join us?"
Officer: "No thanks. I just chased some guys and I'm tired. I'm looking to get some rest. Hey, be careful out there, we had to shoot some.."
Me: "Runners?" I interjected.
Officer: "Ha ha.. last week. No. Some Fisher cats. They were going after some hikers."
Us: "Thanks for the tip. Mark, keep your knife handy."

9:45 AM - Finished up with a 24 mile/4:15 run. Clint guided us through a whole new area for us. Good stuff.

10:15 AM - Arrived back at the house, showered up, changed, grabbed the family and headed out shortly after 10:30 AM for the St. Patrick's parade.

11:00 Am - Got into Hartford just in time for the start of the parade. We went down a one way street that had nowhere to park and the only way out was to drive on the parade route under police guidance. Shannon freaked out. It was pretty funny. We parked, found a great spot and enjoyed the sights and sounds. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. Here are some pics and video clips of the festivities:







Cool Alex and his crazy sister...

3 comments:

TonyP said...

Great run. Way to get up at the crack of dawn for it !

What's your next big race ?

Anonymous said...

Glad you guys enjoyed the tour of Gay City. It was a fine day for running indeed... Sorry I fell off the back toward the end, since I didn't eat my frozen powerbars and was only drinking water, I bonked pretty hard just past 3.5 hours, but finished up in 4:31 - so I got more time on my feet than you guys - and at this point, thats the name of the game...

AnthonyP - check the times again - that's well over an hour BEFORE the crack of dawn. Gotta love trail running in the dark... :-)

Anonymous said...

Ciara, Auntie Lauren went to a parade today and I danced around just like you, Princess. Parades are fun!