Last night I went to watch the Portland Pirates beat up on the Worcester Sharks (local AHL hockey teams), which was a lot of fun. The only problem was that during the 3^rd period my right hamstring started to twinge a little. I stretched it out but it was still hurting when I woke up.

Rolling out with the foam roller a few times before we left for Bradbury Mountain seemed to help, and once I started running it felt great. This afternoon it’s back to feeling a little twinged, so I really hope it doesn’t amount to any real trouble because I don’t want to stop.

The run today was great, we had a big crowd of Trail Monsters. We started at Bradbury Mountain and went up the snowmobile trail to the powerlines outside the park. We made a big loop of it, heading towards Pineland Farms with a 15 mile loop.

There was only 1 real obstacle, a frozen river that was solid enough but which didn’t really look that safe so we crossed one at a time.

I spent the last 5 miles before getting back running with Erik and his dog Django as everybody else had pulled a way ahead of us. When we returned to the parking lot, I needed another 0.8 miles so I went up the boundary trail 4 tenths and turned back.

I’ve included some photos from the run at the end of today’s update (above), and Jamie Anderson put together a video along the run, if you’d like to see what it’s like:

After the run, Erin and I went over to LL Bean and exchanged my broken headlamp for a brand new one. I love LL Bean’s warranties! Following an afternoon nap (long overdue) we went to the Maine Track Club annual banquet, where Erin won a gift certificate to LL Bean. Figures, but we can just run over from Bradbury after another run later this season.

Update: Ian Parlin wrote about the run on his website, and included a lot of great photos taken on the trail: http://trailmonsterrunning.blogspot.com/2010/01/beautiful-loop.html

There were 2 donations today, from Don Hardon and Joe Dobos. Thanks for the support!

Here are today’s numbers:

Miles Projected: 16 Miles (136 Miles Total)
Miles Run: 16 Miles Today (143.7 Miles Total)
Duration: 2:45:25 (24:49:28 Total)
Net Weight Change: +½ Pound (+2½ Pounds Total)
Money Raised: $50 ($400 Total)