My Latest Crazy Idea

What's on the menu today?  Running

Last fall, one afternoon as I was heading home from my knitting group, I decided to get off the highway for awhile.  There was a back-up and I was in no hurry to get home, so I took an exit with a Route number that looked familiar and kept heading roughly south.  How lost could I get, really?  On this gorgeous autumn day I passed many runners out on the backroads of the North Shore.  And that's when I wondered if that town had an annual 5K race.  If it did, I'd sure like to run in it.  You know what might be fun - running a 5K race in every town in Massachusetts.

Yes, that right there, is my latest crazy idea.  I'm planning to run at least a 5K in every city and town in Massachusetts.  There are 351.  It's going to take awhile.

I have set up some rules.

1) I get credit for any town I've already run in.*
2) If a race starts in one town and ends in another or even just passes through another, I get credit for both.
3) Races must be official races - I can't just take a jog through and count it.
4) If I cannot find an official race in a town, I get credit if I run in a town that borders it.

* Undecided on what to do about towns on the Marathon route.  If I run another one, which I plan to do in 2014, I will count Hopkinton since the start is there.  I already have Wellesley, Newton, and Boston through other races.  We shall see.  If I'm still working on it 20 years from now and I haven't done Ashland?  I'll count it.

Since I had the idea I have run in Boston - Tufts Health Plan 10K, Cambridge - also the Tufts Health Plan 10K, Newton - Paddy's Road Race (on my birthday!)

Wellesley

The Turkey 5 on Thanksgiving Day

Somverville

The Jingle Bell Jaunt - the finisher's medal is a bottle opener.

and Salisbury

The 32nd Annual Hangover Classic

One thing I'm sure of, by the end of all this I will have a lot of t-shirts.  Quick review, Wellesley - hilly, Somerville - hilly, Salisbury - nice and flat.  No, I did not jump in the water in Salisbury.  I had an hour drive home, I wasn't doing that wet.  But I did finish every race with a cartwheel.  Someday I'll get a picture to prove it.