A run, swim, thunderstorm, bushwack, Presidential Traverse

Last night, Rich Lavers, J. Massa and I went for our usual Wednesday night run. However, due to the heat, I decided to mix things up and take them on my run/swim. I run up to East Concord from the Y, jump in the river and swim down to NHTI where I get out and run back to the Y. It's about a 20-25 minute run to the river, 20 minute swim, then 15-20 minute run back. Pretty decent workout but also fun and particularly nice on hot days like yesterday.

That was the plan at least. We made it up to East Concord, realized that both Rich and J had kept their socks on(which drags you down when swimming) but decided to go for it anyway. We jumped in the river and started down. Rich was a little timid about swimming a mile since he "wasn't much of a swimmer" so we alternated between swimming and running on the sand bar mid-river. About half way down, the thunder came. Hard. And close. We opted to get out of the water and give the lightning a little bit less of an opportunity to strike us. Unfortunately this brought us right to the edge of a large swamp. J and Rich decided to skirt the edge while I trudged through. "Poison Ivy doesn't grow in swamps, right?" The logic was flawed behind that assumption: I have had poison ivy. I have never been in a swamp. Therefore poison ivy does not grow in swamps. Hmmmm. While the logic was tenuous at best, I was lucky in that I didn't run into any poison ivy. I did however go waist-deep in some pretty stinky, thick mud. And was cut up by some saw grass(I'm not sure it was actually saw grass just that it cut my skin similarly to what I would expect a saw to do).

Meanwhile, J and Rich managed to skirt the edge successfully, staying moderately more clean and less injured than me. We popped out on the NHTI soccer field, right next to a twenty foot high metal post. Yikes! Not the best place to be standing during a thunderstorm. Luckily for me, Rich is a little taller. We took off back home making it to the Y without further incident. After showering away about a pound's worth of dirt, I was done. Not a bad Wednesday run after all.

On the run, Rich and I discussed our aR teammate Ryan Welts' new Presidential Traverse fastest known time, and decided that we will try to better it later this summer. What we may lack in talent, we will certainly make up for in unpreparedness. A little friendly intra-team competition.

Up Next: Providence 70.3