DRB and sculptures

When we decided to return to the Boston Marathon this year (I just couldn't stay away), I also decided it would be a good year to attempt a "double" of running both the "Don't Run Boston" trail race and the Boston Marathon.  This year DRB was on Saturday due to Easter Sunday, so it actually sounded manageable (?).  So I went for the 50-mile version of DRB instead of the 50k.  I just really enjoy the DRB trails at Blue Hills, and I've been trying for several years to return to the last 19 miles.

So I figured I would take it ultra-slow, appreciate the day, and stop if I needed to keep from hurting myself.  I also made sure to be extra careful on the rocks and try very hard not to fall on anything.  The coming days are more important.

John dropped me off and took a couple photos at the start.  Ready to go with my water bottle, backpack, and trail map!

Letting the group go on ahead (6 a.m. starters going for 50 miles):

What an absolutely lovely day for a run!  The trails were beautiful, the sky was blue, it wasn't cold, it wasn't hot, my legs felt great, and I enjoyed relearning the trail nav of the park.

The tower near the end of the Skyline Trail section:

I managed to fix a couple errors I had made in previous DRB's, made different mistakes, and had a blast figuring things out as I went.  John met me at the parking lot a couple times so I could refill water and refuel, and then we both had a nice run around the southern pond.

A beautiful view of Boston (and deer!) as the sun was going down, around mile 42:

An old CCC camp in the far reaches of the course:

And a pretty daffodil:

The rest of the way went great except for a couple of bobbles in the dark with a headlamp on.  I did better navigation at the Barkley... but no matter, I finished it feeling fine and that's what matters.

The next morning we went to the deCordova sculpture garden with Elaine - nice!

Elaine helping us with a "Life Imitates Art" pose:

A familiar colorful rope - I saw one like this during an XPlore urban race in NYC, very cool:

"Love" these:

Thank you Elaine and family for hosting us last weekend!