Day 122: Applefest

Last weekend was the Applefest half-marathon, in which I did not run, because although a 12-miler was part of the training plan, I was advised that the Bar Harbor half was enough for me in terms of races.

Today featured an early-morning short run with Rachel... I recorded it as 3.15 miles. I was a little leery of running at all today because of what I expected would be horrifying knee and leg pains, but I wasn't as stiff as I feared when I woke up (I wore the shin and knee covers last night), and the run was actually OK. My benchmark for leg pain remains how I felt after a long flight to Boise and a long drive to Sun Valley after a long run... I could barely walk up and down the staircase at the hotel. Today, I stiffened up at various times during the day, but after loosening up, I was able to walk, and even to negotiate stairs. Fantastic.

The foliage on the Minuteman Bikeway is starting to look lovely. We stopped at Spy Pond for a few minutes to take in the morning view. Again, fantastic fall weather. (I wore my New York City Marathon shirt, which arrived via the mails.)

The morning short run was followed by a gorge-ous brunch at S&S, followed by a short mission to the Back Bay, and then apple-picking in Stow. After enduring a long, long traffic jam on the way into the Disneyland-like orchard, we made our way in and asked where we should go. "You show up late in the afternoon, late in the season, and expect apples?" the guy in the booth asked, incredulously. But he lowered his voice and told us to walk up the hill, which we did, and were rewarded with enough apples to fill two bags. Unfortunately, the cider-donut line was WAY too long even to contemplate, but fortunately, I had earlier procured two chocolate donuts from Verna's, my neighborhood fixture, and we feasted on those as we returned to Cambridge. CBC was out of pumpkin-beer growlers (ALL growlers, actually)... but we'll return.

Tomorrow: Game Three!

Note: according to my computations, I burned 2,500 calories during yesterday's 20.25-miler. Frightening. Carson burned something like 5,000 calories during most days of the bike trip... but he was covering 80 or 90 or 100 miles!

Also: THREE WEEKS until the marathon. For those interested in watching along the course... stay tuned for some notes on how best to position yourselves!