Tuesday, September 24, 2013

New York City - Urban Dare

We were looking for a Super Dare qualifier and any excuse to spend just one more weekend in New York City.  We got both last weekend, along with beautiful weather and some "hang-out time" with Ron and Jerome for the first time in quite a while.

All in all, lots of fun!

The Urban Dare race started on 14th Street a couple blocks east of Union Square.  From here, the race course could go in just about any direction for whose-knows-how-far.  At least there were plenty of subway options along 14th Street, we just needed to figure out whether to jump underground, where, heading in which direction, and which stop to get off at...

One of the checkpoints referenced a tavern and George Washington, so I suspected we might be going way south.  Dave on the phone confirmed this when he figured out another checkpoint that was near City Hall.  We had been walking toward the green line and that was all we needed to run down the stairs.  Amazingly, there was a subway train sitting there waiting for us, so we jumped right on with one other team.  Happily, it was a #4 train heading all the way south.

Things were starting out well.

While on the train we pulled out all the maps we had stashed in John's pack to try to figure out the running routes in the angular streets around Wall Street.  We were debating which subway stop to aim for, thinking initially we might try City Hall but then changing to Bowling Green.  Reading through the clue sheet, John recognized the "Roots" sculpture in the same area.  He thought it might be right at the end of Wall Street, so as the train pulled into the Wall Street station we impulsively decided to get off there.

That was about perfect, as far as that checkpoint location goes.  And the sculpture is awesome too:


We had a bit more difficulty getting over to Fraunces Tavern trying to rely on our memories, with help from Dave who was trying to catch up with where we were vs. where he thought we were going to be.  Also a guy on the street who enthusiastically pointed us in the wrong direction at first, and just as happily pointed us the right way as we came by him a second time...


It gave our crew time to locate and map the bonus clue of a "Dancing Figures" sculpture.  We initially picked the wrong sculpture by Keith Haring but quickly adjusted to find this around the corner - cool!


We ran back up Pearl and over to Water Street to find an inland lighthouse at the Titanic Memorial.  No race photo because this was a "dare" - specifically the Spellbound Dare where we had to find numbers corresponding to letters and add them up for the word on our passport.  We knocked it out and got a stamp on our passport.

A picture of the lighthouse, because it's pretty cool:


Then we ran on up to City Hall Park for another dare, this one a 3-legged shuffle around the fountain.  We spotted the team that had been on the subway with us, go ladies!

It was a short hop up to Foley Square, but we spent a few minutes there looking for a race volunteer.  Another couple teams were also wandering around, and we all decided the Dare must be missing (turns out the guy showed up late).  Here is our photo there instead:


We tried to convince a couple of tourists to help us with a picture of them posing like the famous WWII kissing photo by Eisenstaedt.  The first couple I asked was completely "no English", the 2nd one claimed to speak some English but we had a devil of a time trying to explain what we were asking them to do.

We really should have worked harder at that or tried again with someone else afterward... this is clearly borderline unacceptable as a race photo goes:


Dave directed us to turn north on West Broadway and look for Moore Street going off to the left.  It was supposed to be between White and Walker St, but when we got to that block we saw nothing but buildings.  Dave suggested it might be a small alley?  We weren't sure if we should try opening doors looking for a way through...

We were all confused until I told Dave we were at "393 Broadway" and Google pointed out that BROADWAY is 2 blocks east of WEST BROADWAY.  Ah ha!  We all will not soon forget this fun fact.

Soon we were in the right spot, in front of a firehouse that showed up in the movie Ghostbusters - too funny:


From there we ran several blocks up West Broadway and turned down Prince St. to find one of several galleries in this area:


Across Houston to the south end of NYU, we found a gigantic Picasso Head in a courtyard, along with a couple volunteers administering a trivia dare.  We got the easiest trivia questions ever, something to the effect of:

What emergency response technique did Henry Heimlich invent?
What was the only thing on the menu at the Billygoat Tavern in a Saturday Night Live skit?

Another excellent location that deserves a photo even though we weren't required to take one ourselves:


From there Dave directed us west into Greenwich Village.  I have not been looking forward to the day we would need to do race navigation in that area, with the crazy, confusing angular streets.

I was right to think this.  We made almost a full tour of the triangular block of 7th Ave, Bedford, and Commerce/Cherry Lane, frustrating all 3 of us before we figured out what we were doing and located the Cherry Lane Theatre.  At least it was a small block.


The zigzag back east went better, even with all the pedestrians to dodge.  Dave did a fine job of getting us to the Blue Note Jazz Club:


Another excellent bit of navigation to the east, including a perfect angle through Washington Square Park, and then we were at the Cooper Union Library.  We weren't quite sure that we were at the right building at first, as it didn't have any "library" signs, but the lady inside immediately confirmed we were at the right place.  Apparently we were not the first team to inquire.


Just a few more blocks of running and we were done!  Our photos were good, for first place.  A fine way to finish up with our Northeast Racing Series.  Huge props to Dave and our crew for helping us get there.

Side note - the race director didn't have to accept our WWII scavenger hunt photo, but if he hadn't we would have had the option to try again or take a 15-minute penalty.  We had enough time before the next team arrived that we could have accomplished this, so we don't feel quite as bad about that.  But it's a good reminder to not be sloppy next time.

Post-race wanderings...



A fun High Line Trail window box where people can sit and watch traffic below their feet:


The next day we ran over to see Grant's Tomb, then spent the afternoon wandering around museums.  Ron and I spent some time at the Met.  It was so great to see you, Ron!




A hawk hanging out on top of the Met, attracting a lot of attention:


Another fun one in NYC!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Let's Xplore Boston!

We had so much fun with the Xplore race in New York that we kinda couldn't help ourselves in trying another one.  There is also an "I love Boston" factor about it all.  And it meshed well with a race we were going to on Sunday in New Hampshire.  Let's do it!

John and I raced solo again, hanging together at the beginning until we found a reason to forge ahead separately.  We initially fumbled just slightly, as we were hoping to catch a northbound bus, but the race started a few minutes late and there was no bus to be found around the corner.  We decided to head for the North End on foot.

Back the other way, over to the Greenway... there was team Zack Attack.  They were taking their picture at a road tunnel for CP12, and we thought this was a great idea so we followed suit:



My phone contact Dave directed us over to the Quincy Market to take a video of ourselves galloping around the plaza shouting "the British are coming...the British are coming!" for 15 seconds.  Slightly embarrassing, but at least it was quick and easy.  I got a few looks as I ran around and made a spectacle of myself.  John declined to do this checkpoint.  Are you sure, John?  He was sure.

Time to run to the north end of the North End.  John ran ahead and we soon found the plaque for the Boston Molasses Flood next to a park:



We noticed Zack Attack leaving the park, which was again helpful as it highlighted the swingset in the back for our CP9 photos of us jumping off a swing:




Then a quick jog down a couple streets to find a couple green doors at the front of the place where Rose Kennedy lived - we always learn a little more history at the Xplore races:



Now we needed to split up, as I was skipping the Science Museum checkpoint but John needed to go meet with T-Rex since he skipped the Quincy Market video.

Dave guided me back down to the Greenway and the Rings fountain for a video.  As I was putting down my water bottle, I noticed an armband on the ground that looked familiar.  Hey, I think that belongs to one of the Zack Attack guys.  I picked it up, and it had a phone in it!

I scanned all around, no sign of the team.  Hmm... well, I couldn't leave it there sitting on the ground, so I put it in my waistbelt to bring to the finish line.  Not sure what else to do.

So the checkpoint - I had to take a video of myself touching 25 different light fixtures.  The trick was that the lights were embedded in bricks in the ground, and they were alternated with water jets that started and stopped in various patterns.  I managed to touch 25 of them without getting wet, but it was close!

Now up to the Granary Burying Ground for photos with the graves of 2 signers of the Declaration of Independence (out of 3 who are buried there).  On the way, Dave and I had this conversation:

Me: "Are John Hancock and John Adams - I mean, Sam Adams - Declaration signers?"
Dave: "Yes they are!"
Me: "Who is the 3rd one?"
Dave: (pause) "I - don't know"  (i.e. why does it matter?)
Me: "Just for my information, like, for trivia knowledge"

A couple minutes later...
Dave: "Robert Treat Paine!"
Me: "Great!  Good to know!"

I didn't find Paine's gravestone but did get photos with the other two.  Thanks anyway, Dave!



Dave did a super job guiding me across the large Boston Common park, at angles past a bandstand, near a Reggae festival, through the crowds, across the pond, and over to a large statue of George Washington.  I coaxed a group of tourists into taking a picture of me with two of them posing in front of it.  Thanks y'all!


Dave told me it was a bit of distance to the next CP - at Fenway Park!  Sweet!  I ran to the nearby T station, waited a few minutes (longer than normal for the Green line), and eventually got on for a few stops to Kenmore.  I had time to figure out the details for the 3 checkpoints in this area, and you would have thought that would not be too much to remember.

My phone didn't regain "reception consciousness" for several minutes after getting back above ground, but luckily we had been in this area in a previous race and I was a little bit familiar with Fenway.  I started running around it on the north side, looking for a banner with digits that add up to 23.  Or any banner, I wasn't seeing anything.  But it was great fun listening to the announcer over the loudspeaker, as the Red Sox were playing the Yankees in Fenway at that very moment - someday I'll actually get back inside this historic venue!

Finally I got back in touch with Dave and soon after that I spotted a couple banners from 1903 and 1904.  Dave told me I needed 1967...  there was an entrance at the corner but I would need a ticket to get in.  I peaked inside and saw more banners.  The one for 1967 was just visible, sweet!

Another team was there, and we took each other's photo.  It's the blue banner on the left.


Apparently there is another set of banners on another outside wall of the park, which is where John took his picture.  I lucked into the one that was closer to the next CP, the victory garden and memorial stone in the Back Bay Fens:


Dave did another nice job of remote navigation through a park, and I popped out at the back of the Museum of Fine Arts.  He said I was looking for "baby heads" although he wasn't sure what that meant.  When I saw these giant heads, it was so strange and obvious that I had to laugh:


More giggling, as we were discussing the need for a tea bag, and apparently Dave's wife cracked up every time he said something like "you still need to get a tea bag", making him laugh, which also made me laugh.  CP4 was a tea bag-related video, no, a real tea bag, and we had thought about buying them at Starbucks early in the race but there was a long line and we didn't want to wait.

Also confusing was that Dave told me to find "the T" and we were trying to differentiate that from "the tea bags"...

I saw a T car waiting at the Northeastern University stop, so I made a run for it and made it.  Yay!  It sat there a few minutes before starting up, but at least I didn't have to wait nearly as long as John had for his rides on the subway.

On the way back toward the finish line, I discovered that the Quincy Market video was nowhere to be found on my camera.  What the heck?  Not sure how that happened.  At least it was close to the finish line, it would just take a couple extra minutes to redo.

Then I doublechecked the rest of the pictures and suddenly realized I didn't have an "X" pose with the banner at Fenway Park.  D'oh!!  It was clearly a photo requirement, and I clearly did not want to reverse steps at this point.

What to do?  I had previously skipped the T-Rex checkpoint, but I was actually on the subway that was headed right for it.  I started listening to the train announcer, "This train terminates at Lechmere", OK good, it doesn't stop before the Science Park station.  At least, I hoped T-Rex was at the Science Museum, I was only making an educated guess based on looking at the clue sheet.  Would my prior knowledge of this city help me or throw me completely off?  It could go either way.

I jumped off the subway, rounded the corner, and found this - yay!!


I called Dave with the bad news that I was on a detour that cost perhaps 15-20 minutes.  I initially tried the Green Line to get back up the hill, but there was no train in sight so I got back out of the station and ran for it.  Dave helped me get back to Quincy Market after I missed the turn onto Merrimac Street.

So here is my even-more embarrassing video - really, I do love the British, I do!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6bz2gjCVQ

Almost back to the finish, I ran inside Mr. Dooley's bar where Dave had prearranged for a couple tea bags to be available for me.  And they didn't even charge me for them.  Wow, thank you all!

I took a quick video of me emptying the contents of the tea bag onto my tongue and holding it there for 10 seconds.  It was slightly comical trying to talk to Dave while finishing the video with tea leaves in my mouth, but not really worth posting on YouTube.

One block over, and I was done!  Zack Attach was already there, having run a very clean race and easily coming in first.  Even without my detours I would not have beat them.  I was most happy to be able to return Mike's phone to him, glad that worked out!

In the meantime, John was still out on the course dealing with long delays on the Green line.  Here are some of his photos:


The right way to get the Fenway Park checkpoint photo!


John had put down his pen, clue sheet, and map on a table while someone took this picture.  He then ran a block away before remembering to pick them up, so he went back to get them.  But the table was gone!  He asked around and managed to come up with the items from a nearby trash barrel.

But at least he had flashed the "X-pose" in his picture.

Baby head taking a look at John's compass and clue sheet:


Oh my!


And Sam Adams:


I met John at the Rings fountain to take his video there, and it's worth a giggle to watch it again (especially for the reaction sounds from the spectators):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKQ3iRF2IN8

He got back to the finish line, complete with tea leaves in his mouth, just in time to snag 3rd place before Mighty Motrin came running in a couple minutes later.  Not our finest hour(s) but we'll take it!

A photo compilation from Xplore's Facebook page - we were attempting a new version of the "X-pose" on the lower left:


Thank you guys for another fun day in the city!

We capped off the weekend with an excellent evening with Elaine and her family and their new dog Sadie on Saturday night.  Then Sunday we drove up to New Hampshire to run the Pisgah 50K trail race.  Beautiful weather, lovely woods, and we now have done a race together in state #25!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Laurentian Rogaine = fun!

Last weekend we were signed up for a 24-hour orienteering event called the Laurentian Rogaine, just a bit to the north of Montreal.  We almost didn't make it to the start, for various reasons including:

- A question about John's ankle (the answer turned out to be - it was fine by race weekend, yay!)
- Almost forgetting our passport cards (I remembered just as we got on the highway, phew!)
- Getting "dangerously low on gas" (John's words) in the middle of the Adirondacks in the middle of a dark Saturday morning (thank you to the Stewarts in Elizabethtown!)

Luckily I had budgeted just enough extra time into our trip to account for the detours along the way, so we made it in time for the pre-race briefing and map handout.  Not my finest hour of pre-race planning but good for a little excitement.

Summary of the event:

We had a fabulous time!  It was a super fun course, tons of variety, through towns and woods and ski areas, on and off road, navigating an immense network of cross-country ski trails, around lakes, up and down small mountains, to a diverse set of control locations.

We felt simply "lucky to be there" and we were doing the event strictly for practice, so we took our time and enjoyed ourselves.  This turned out to be excellent training and way more fun that trying to push hard for many hours.

As a result of driving up early Saturday morning, we agreed that it would be best to sleep in the car for a couple hours in the middle of the night (something we never do if we're trying to be competitive).  This turned out to be a wonderful way to refresh our brains and bodies and feet, and the second half went very well for us.  We were even able to push the pace in the last several hours, somewhat out of necessity, and we were able to do it without killing ourselves.

Oh, and the weather was spectacular.  Not too hot during the day, mostly dry except a bit of spitting rain for brief moments, a cooling wind, almost no bugs, not too cold at night, overall the most pleasant race weather we have had in quite a while.

More of a race report:

I won't go into all the details of each control this time.  Just a few highlights along the way.

The first downhill through the woods went well, not too much vegetation in the way, and definitely nothing too sharp or scratchy.  There were denser places on the course but for the most part we could move pretty well cross-country and we liked these woods.

We did a couple controls through town, which is always fun for us.  One was located behind the fire station.  We went around someone's beautiful backyard.  Tons of trails around town for people to run and bike and ski and snowshoe.  Looks like a lot of people here get outdoors in all seasons!

Into the maze of XC (cross-country) ski trails - lots of signs at intersections and an occasional map posted to a tree (gotta love those!).  Our first 70-pointer (the controls were worth between 30 and 70 points each).

We really enjoyed the trail running through the woods.  Took it easy, tried to imagine some of these on XC skis (hmm... some places would be rather difficult... glad we're on foot.  And that there's no snow).

The traverse from control #41 to 61 was the most challenging of the race for us.  We took a bearing and went 500 meters west through swamp, over downed trees, up and down steep little hills, and moved the best we could in a "straight" line.  John did great finding ways through, and we caught up to several other teams in the area.  Amazingly, John found a gentle drainage right before a steep uphill, and #61 was on top on the other side, exactly at 500 meters from where we started.  We were pretty excited not to spend any extra time tromping around through that part of the woods!

A long climb up to #52 and then we spent some time around the top of a small ski area, including one control at the top of a lift.  Nice views and interesting nav.  Down the other side, over to an abandoned subdivision where there were streets all laid out but no houses built.  I got stung by something near a marsh, that was the only annoying part.  It got me through my O-pants and the back of my gaiter!  Nasty bugger, maybe a yellow-jacket.

Off on a long road walk/run up a long hill.  This was a busy road so not so enjoyable.  After climbing up a hill in the woods (and dreaming of cookies for some reason?) to #72, we went down the other side to a long dirt road.  It was a quiet road, much better.

Another long walk/run, through a park where a group of folks were having a party and roasting... something.  Maybe pigs?  A guy who might have been drunk invited us to come join them.  Thanks but we should be going!

Back to the XC ski trails, we climbed up to an incredible view of the valley and lake to the north.  We sat for a moment on a rock slab to take it in.  Thank you Francis (the race director) for this beautiful view!!

Trails, little ponds, fun trail and off-trail nav combination for several points.  We crossed a bridge over a marsh, and just as I was thinking how much I enjoyed having a bridge instead of getting our legs wet, I got stung again.  This time once on my neck and once on the other calf.  I heard buzzing around me, yelled and took off running, and John was able to follow without getting hit.  Geez!

We got our focus back in time to work on #64.  It was on the strangest hillside.  The hill sloped steeply down, but there were reentrants going across it (not down it like normal).  It was like the ground had folds in it.  We started along one reentrant but didn't find the control (it was supposed to be on a knoll).  Studying the contours on the map, I suggested we might be too low?

So we climbed up through a small cliff, with John finding an excellent break through the rocks.  Over the other side, after a short flat section, was another horizontal reentrant.  Wow, too strange.  We noticed something white on the rise across the way and found #64 there.  Sweet!  That could have gone much worse.

A couple small hilltop controls later, and we were back on a road and heading toward the start/finish.  One more control along the way, and I guess I got complacent.  First we missed our turn (sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between a road and a driveway on the map and in real life unless we were paying attention).  Then I misread a creek as the trail and we jumped off in the wrong direction.  Pretty embarrassing.  More so that we somehow missed the trail when we came back across it and found the creek.

Back to my original strategy, now from the actual creek (which is definitely not a trail).  That worked, we finally bagged #32 and we could continue on.  It was getting dark, that's my excuse...

We were having a grand time running down the trail when it reached a marsh crossing.  This time without a bridge.  Urg, we were so enjoying having dry feet.  Neither one of us was keen on changing that now.  Yep, we went way around to keep our feet dry.  Yes, I am admitting it at the risk of having our adventure racing cards revoked, per my previous post...

Back at the TA we went to the hash house and for once decided to stay for supper.  The soup and penne and bread and cookies were delicious!  Merci Celine!  Then we got in the car and took a long nap.  Very nice.

The course layout was interesting in that over half the controls were in the western third of the map, which we cleared (except one outlier) in our first loop.  The eastern controls were much more spread out but with overall higher point values.  We set out around 1:30 am with a plan to cover the northeast portion and then reassess.

The first 2 controls were easy (road and trails), then we had a long cross-country trek to find a small hilltop.  John produced another solid "follow the bearing" lead through the woods and we nailed it dead-on.  Nighttime nav celebration  :)

Fun trails down the hill, and we started seeing hoof prints.  At the bottom of the trail we were therefore not surprised to find a couple horses in a corral.  They, however, were surprised to see us.  Sorry, didn't mean to scare you!

More hoof-printy trails over to a large stone pyramid monument next to a road, another interesting checkpoint.

There were a couple options for getting to #56, none very direct (without crossing a swamp or a creek).  We opted to test a swamp crossing where there was a trail going down to it on either side.  We got to the "swamp" part and debated but decided to try.  It was mostly just a bunch of tall grass with some wet spots here and there, and John kept both of his feet dry.  I had a stick break under my left foot, resulting in a mud-covered shoe.  But only one, at least.

In retrospect, if we had been in a hurry it would have been faster to go around on trails.  But now I have something slightly interesting to write about instead.

Basic trails from there over to the next control under a lovely footbridge over a loud, rushing creek.  I enjoyed following the creek down to the next town, then we moseyed through the dark streets up and back to a control on the next hill.  We had brought money but nothing was open.

Next up - another downhill ski area, this time in the dark.  We went up trails and ski slopes, which are not always the easiest things to understand on the map.  At an intersection of ski runs we stopped to debate.  We were looking for a "giant sign board" so we checked all the signs around but didn't see anything.  I said we should check the area around the corner just below us.

John spotted the control and as I made my way across the tall grass I heard him say something like "well, then."  Rounding the corner and looking up, I was astonished to see the LARGEST sign I have ever seen on the side of ski hill.  It was the name of the ski area in letters so large you could probably read it a few kilometers away (like from the nearby highway).  Another team reported that they could see it from the town down below when they were there during the day.

This made us laugh for a few minutes and was definitely one of the highlights of this adventure!  It would have been embarrassing not to find that one.

It was windy and a little chilly going over the top of the mountain and up and back to the next point.  Daylight broke as we ran down to the end of our planned "northeast section" at control #78.  Soon we were warming up again.

We thought we had time for a couple more points to the east.  John lobbied for #77 across the highway also, but I nixed it based on the remaining time on the clock (we had to be back by 10 a.m.).

We took an alternate (unplanned) route to #69 but at least it was a parallel path and didn't cost us too much time.  A bigger issue is that we forgot to get water at the previous control so we weren't sure how that would work out for us.

On the plus side, John found a tennis ball on the way, in the middle of nowhere.  Even better, we ran up on two raccoons who were even more surprised to see us than the horses had been.  One disappeared immediately but the other tried running up a tree... that leaned over the trail.  He decided that was a bad idea and tried another tree, then finally gave up on the trees and left in the underbrush.  Awesome.

The powerline trails to #57 were fun and mostly downhill.  Which is good because I was starting to fret about how far away we were from the finish, with time going by fairly quickly now.

I started pushing the pace.  John had just enough water to make one more Spiz, which was good because I needed to get in a few calories before I started to get "snippy".  Our legs responded as we climbed steadily up to a tower (or actually, the remaining legs of a previous tower) at #67.

Then some fun nav around a golf course to another tower.  John found a golf ball along the way.  I asked him if he would mind trying to find a way down some possible cliffs for the most direct route to #58 and he was enthusiastically in favor.  Then he found an unmapped trail down, and I think that might have been slightly disappointing.  For him, at least.

Another beautiful run on trails to #58 where we remembered to get water from the hose there.  No water issues, yay!  Now we just have to get back... at least we were moving well and the route was all on roads and trails from here.

We debated between 2 40-pointers vs. 1 50-pointer (or maybe all 3) but I decided I didn't want to stress with a big climb up to #49.  So we veered right to #50 instead.  Then we were making such good time that I suggested we could do an out-and-back to #40, so we did.  Based on the timing it was probably a really good decision not to try for the big hill.

Just a few roads and one climb back to the finish.  John found an orange along the way - ??  It was pretty tasty... and somewhere surreal.

We briefly walked with Tom and Pavel, and Tom told us a couple stories about their adventures in the southeast corner.  It would have been fun to try that section, but at least we missed only 7 controls overall so we didn't feel too badly about all that.

And we got 4th overall and top co-ed team, so we actually felt pretty good about it!  We finished off the weekend with more naps, a nice stay at a hotel in Saint-Saveur, a delicious supper of raclette and crepes, and an easy drive back on Monday morning.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Labor Pain 12-hour race

On Sunday I did some Big Dog training at a 12-hour timed race in Reading, PA.  It was called the "Labor Pain" and even featured one pregnant lady who ran at least two 5-mile laps.  The race was billed as mostly flat, but it turned out to be basically one large switchback-y climb followed by a long descent (with various other stuff intermixed).  This was a great workout for my legs, and the trail was slightly rocky in a fashion not too different from the Tennessee event, so I was happy with the decision to go do this one.

Sporting the Big T-shirt for the occasion:


The lap start/finish had a nice pavilion and plenty of space.


Lots of people at this one!  Ready to start:


John captured a photo of me on the last steep climb up to the lap finish - the hardest part of the 5 miles, but at least it was short:


One lap done, feeling fine:


I worked on consistent pacing, heat management (it was a bit humid), and not getting carried away in a race with anyone else (not hard since there were plenty of speedy folks I couldn't compete with).

Half done my goal of getting in 50 miles:


Happily it was pretty uneventful and I finished with plenty of time to spare (11:45) - also happily, not even close to enough time to consider another lap:


Yay!


Look what we found in Allentown:


On the way home we stopped by the FDR library/museum to see the new exhibit.  It is really well done and we were glad we had returned to see it.

Also, the flower garden looks a lot better than it had in the winter:




FDR and Churchill:


Overall a satisfying weekend.