Lexington run.

This has become an annual thing, stopping into Lexington to visit old friends from the Heights, eat pizza drink beer, enjoy a cool summer's evening and hit a cineplex to watch a truly horrible superhero movie. Last year it was Fantastic Four. Last night it was Suicide Squad. Next year it will be the reboot of Howard the Duck.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Avg Pace: 10:18
Duration: 34:01
Route: Lexington Loop

Beth took me for a beautiful run through the town, along narrow, winding streets, a short trail run, across Park Meadow and some historic old buildings, including the Hancock-Clarke House. Sytze and Toni took a one mile run on the bike path I ran last year when I was here.

Temperature: 81°
Climate: warm & sunny
Mood: good

Who knows when we shall meet again.

August 5, 2015

One final day in the cove. People are moving onto Martin Point for the weekend, many people, too many cars, they can't be staying for the week. But a breezy, perfect day to run out the end of the point and back. And I felt good, too. Running fast, feeling strong, like I could keep doing this running thing for a while longer now.

So happy I did not actually have a stress fracture. So happy to be with my family, to take my time to run and also sit and think and read. So glad to be alive.

Distance: 3.5 miles
Route: Martin Point Run
Temperature: 73°
Climate: Cloudless, breezy & beautiful
Mood: wistful

Why Me? Playlist
Time - The Alan Parsons Project
Turning Japanese - The Vapors
Just Another Night - Mick Jagger
Black Coffee In Bed - Squeeze
Talking In Your Sleep - The Romantics
The Stroke - Billy Squier

Wrote a blog post about this place and the deep, entwined relationship with pop culture it holds within me. These "Why Me?" playlists would make the perfect soundtrack.

Where do we go from here?

Been out on Martin Point Road three times today already.

Wife Walk
Distance: 3.5 miles

Easy morning. Quiet house. Finished a book, started writing my book report. The wife and I took a walk. It has been cool the past two days, today it is a bit warm again. Another summer I may have gone for a run first, but this year I am allowing the days to be a bit more shapeless. So? A hot afternoon run.

Solo Run
Distance: 3.5 miles

Why Me? Playlist
The Voice - Moody Blues
Games People Play - The Alan Parsons Project
Destroyer - The Kinks
If I Didn't Love You - Squeeze
New World Man - Rush
Swallowed By The Cracks - David & David
Abacab - Genesis

You might notice the playlist this week, a computer generated list based on the song Why Me? by Planet P. You know, there are songs which only I remember (or so I'd like to believe) which have fallen off the Gen X oldies station radar.

On our drive here, we were in a gas station when they were playing My Brave Face by Paul McCartney. Released in 1989, it was co-written by Elvis Costello for one of McCartney's albums. The same year Veronica was a single for Elvis, also co-written by McCartney. They each had airplay, only you might hear Veronica on the radio from time to time. but never My Brave Face.

Honestly I can't remember hearing it since the very early 90s. I had entirely forgotten it had existed. And it's a good song, fun to listen to, well-performed and produced, not irritating in any way. The question is not why did this song disappear, it's why did this one when so many other minor hits have not?

Why Me? is a song I will never forget, but also one I never hear played anywhere but on my iPod. Possibly the song that was on MTV the first turn I switched it on in my own home in early 1983. It's not exactly new wave, more just this synth-heavy, rock-pop song with a video that featured a lot of NASA b-roll.

But this mix is crazy, it's so entirely my teenage years. Exactly what I needed for this trip, just randomly early 80s.

Girl Run
Distance: 1.5 miles

The girl came home from a shopping trip at Remy's with her friend. I'd promised her a run before the trip was announced, that just kind of happened. But when she came back she asked if I would run with her. I could say no, but I didn't have a reason why. How could I say no?

Hatchet Cove Run

Mount Megunticook

Our second week. Again, it has been much more relaxing not to push myself to run every day, as I did last year. Besides, the days have not been without activity. Yesterday we scaled Mount Megunticook, that took a solid two hours of hiking, some if it a bit steep. My thighs were quite fatigued once we had descended.

Still. Amazing view.

The air has cooled, the nights much less troubled by bugs. Our family from St. Paul and London have departed. Their absence is felt. We read, we swim and fish. We social media. We vacation.

Distance: 0.7 miles
Avg Pace:11:06
Duration: 7:46
Route: Martin Point
Temperature: 72°
Climate: cool and overcast
Mood: all right

The wife and girl went to Portland for a rock concert at the State Theatre. The boy and I took a walk to Crystal Pond before running out to the beach on Hatchet Cove and back.

He complains about his feet hurting, which makes sense. After the race on Saturday he was very excited about running, he was so proud to have run a mile in less than ten minutes. I remember feeling the same way after my first race; this is great! But then having no guidance as how to continue.

2016 Friendship Day 5K

Last time we were in town for the annual Friendship Day, only Bob and I headed out for the 5K. This year, almost the entire clan did. Not to cheer me on, but to participate.

The wife and kids ran the one mile. The girl came in first, running 7:47.8 with the boy following at 9:27.

This was my wife's first race, and I am very proud of her. She had to walk a bit during the middle, but came in not very far behind the kid, completing with a sprint.

My brother also ran, with my niece (he was the only one in a seersucker shirt) and my sister-in-law walked it with our mom.

My cousin JT, whom I wrote about in And Then You Die came in third overall, breaking twenty minutes. I have only done that once, it has been some time.

I did place third in my division, though I neglected to find out what I placed over all.

And I got a trophy!

They got my number.

23rd Annual Friendship Day 5K
Start: 7:45 am
Official time: 22:22
Place Men 41 & Over: 3rd

Three years ago I had no idea where the race headed before I ran it. The course heads down to the harbor and back, which is to say down to sea level then back up. The second half of the race is almost entirely a steady incline.

In spite of this knowledge, it was arduous. I used headphones this time out, they aren't forbidden and it's not a crowded pack. I regret nothing. The beats kept my feet moving and I was pretty successful at lengthening my strides with minimal effort heading downhill, and keeping it steady all the way back.

It would have been wise to get my heart rate up before the race began, as I was pretty winded at the start before steadying my breath. The last mile was a bit stressful. Today I ran as fast as I could. Honestly, that was pretty much all I got.

But I also got a trophy!

Friendship 5K 165-169 bpm Playlist
All You Pretty Girls - XTC
In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry
Hounds of Love - The Futureheads
Throwing It All Away - Genesis
About You Now - Sugababes
Too Dramatic - Ra Ra Riot
A New England - Billy Bragg

You would always come running to me.

Pemaquid Lighthouse
2010/2016

As much as I enjoy running, and as exciting as it can be to have a race to look forward to, I cannot adequately express how relieved I m not to be in training for a marathon this year.

When we drive the length of Rt. 220 between Friendship and Woldoboro I am reminded of the many runs I took last year in preparation for St. Paul. They are memorable, they were beautiful, but they were also exhausting, with all the many rises and falls, and also dangerous, with the cars suddenly appearing from around blind bends in the road.

Then there was that fateful sixteen mile run down Hell Road which haunts me to this day. Really, it was harrowing, and I will never forget it.

Yesterday was a very full day, Denny's family and ours and cousin Lydia all went for a two hour-plus kayaking expedition where we were fortunate enough to see many seals, and also eagles and herons and loons.

We also visited Pemaquid Point, got ice cream at Round Top, and other side excursions. My brother and his family headed off to Boothbay today, but our team decided we were a little exhausted (we also stayed up late to watch Hillary's speech) and have chosen to stay close to the cabin today.

The boy and I were in a tandem kayak yesterday morning, which was a great experience. We are both bullheaded and I have shaped him into an irritating smart-ass in almost entirely the same mold as myself. Negotiating the kayak together was an exercise in "bonding." That's the way he put it.

Distance: 2.5 miles
Avg Pace: 8:00
Duration: 20:00
Route: Martin Point

Why Me? Playlist
Silver Rainbow - Genesis
Catch Me Now I'm Falling - The Kinks
Get It On (Bang A Gong) - The Power Station
Freeze Frame - J. Geils Band

Temperature: 79°
Climate: overcast & hot
Mood: good

Tomorrow is Friendship Day. Last time I was present for that 5K was three years ago. Would have preferred to get a run in yesterday, but the past two days have not been without activity; the kayaking, and Wednesday's line dancing.

Yes, there was line dancing at nine in the morning on Wednesday at the community house on Martin Point. You can keep your yoga, I'll take my Cupid Shuffle.

All this energy calling me back where it comes from.

Photo: Chuck Thompson

This is how my brain works. We're packed, we're driving. I'm driving. It's hot, and I am wearing shorts, new shorts which I had just purchased, nice new shorts for the vacation. Generally, I avoid shorts when I want people to take me seriously as an adult. I'd just as soon wear jeans than khaki shorts. But it's vacation, and I have learned to calm down, I am an American on the highway and I can wear shorts.

Only the air conditioning is on full blast and I am cool. My arms are cool and my legs are cool. I am thinking these things, as I am driving. We're talk about brain time, these thoughts, from the beginning of the post and through the next paragraphs were thought in the time it took to type "This is how."

My arms are cool, did I pack enough my hoodies, for evenings? Yes, I have, but I know it's going to be hot and I only have two pair of pants, and will that be enough but I also remember I have long pajamas as well as short, and if it does happen to be cool in the morning, I can wear those.

But what about my feet? I have flip flops but not my cold weather slippers, will I regret that? But no, because when I get up in the morning I can come downstairs and keep my feet warm in front of the fire because Dad will have already --

And my eyes well up because I have surprised myself again.

We hadn't even left Cleveland Heights.

Father passed in February. Upon learning of his death, the proprietors of Flood's Cove made the trip to Friendship to pull the chair he would sit in out of storage and place it on the porch in his honor. That was beautiful. It meant a great deal to know it was sitting there for him.

We're all here, Mom, my bother and his family, and even my niece from England, on her own. It's very hot. I have all I need. I am glad we are all here.

Distance: 3 miles
Avg Pace: 8:31
Duration: 25:33
Route: Martin Point
Temperature: 79°
Climate: hot
Mood: good

Yes, It is my birthday. Today I am forty-eight years old. Big first day, much reading and resting but also an excursion to mackerel fish from the motorboat. I manned the boat, the boy did the fishing. In the old days he was content to fish from the dock at high tide, but now we must trawl. He is eleven, he can manage is own line, entirely, and any fish he catches.

I manage the boat. I can manage the boat, but I find it stressful, so much so that I pulled a muscle in my shoulder. Before my birthday dinner we had our first wine hour of the season (our last wine hour was Dad's birthday) and by the time the meal was over I was headachy and very sore.

What to do? Take a run. It was either that or go to bed, right? After two days of driving and all the time not running lately, it was arduous and invigorating. Very glad I went out.

Did not go all the way the end of Martin Point, just far enough to log three miles. It's too darn hot.

My co-workers have made a tradition of going out for ice cream on my birthday ...
... when I'm usually on vacation. Thanks for the photo, guys!

Why Me? Playlist
Save It For Later - The English Beat
The Boys Are Back In Town - Bus Boys
No Way Out - Jefferson Starship
Eyes Of A Stranger - Payola$
Rock of Ages - Def Leppard
Destroyer - The Kinks
Cleveland Rocks - Ian Hunter