Life After Windbird, Day 8: Gearing Up for the Falmouth Road Race
Date: Saturday, August 20, 2016
Weather: A Break from the Heat and Humidity; High Temp 80 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
We’ve had a long string of days with high heat and high humidity, but today the humidity disappeared and it was delightful. Everyone in this town is gearing up for tomorrow’s Falmouth Road Race and I know all of the runners, including our daughter, will be very happy if the humidity stays away until after the race. Heather is running the seven mile race for the first time and she will be one of over 13,000 participants. Go, Heather!!!
We had Heather and family over for a pre-race dinner and then we all walked over to the beach where the race ends tomorrow morning. This is the 44th year of this race. Many elite runners participate, but it is also a hometown race. As Heather said tonight, if you live in Falmouth, you have to run the race at least once. The soccer field and beach that we go to all the time has been transformed into a mass of tents, TV cameras, and fencing. The beach road from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights (which goes right by The Studio) will be closed by 6 am and will remain that way until the last of the runners come in. The race begins in Woods Hole at The Captain Kidd, a restaurant and bar, and ends about a half mile from here at the British Beer Company, another restaurant and bar. We will put our chairs out on the sidewalk early in the morning and hope to have front row seats to watch Heather run by. Then we will head over to the soccer field where the runners gather at the end of the race. At least that’s the plan. We are not sure we will be allowed to cross the road to get there via the short-cut. If not we’ll have to walk on the sidewalk for the mile from here to the finish line. Earlier today Mark and I went for a walk and had hoped to make it the beach, but he just didn’t have the strength. Tonight he was able to walk with us and made it all the way. We’ll have to see if he is able to do a repeat in the morning.
When the Goldpebbles arrived for dinner, they were all sporting race numbers and wearing gold medals. They had just run in a Road Race related Family Fun Run and all were very proud of their performances. After our walk to the end of the race course tonight, we came home to watch more Olympic running on TV. So the focus of everything today and tomorrow is race-related here. Jed and the boys are spending the night with us, but Heather went home to hopefully get a good night’s sleep before the race. When I was forty, I could barely jog three miles. Where did this daughter of mine get the physical stamina and passion for running? Wherever she got it, we are so proud of her and wish her luck in her first Falmouth Road Race.
And while on a positive note, I’ll mention that we found out today that my sister and brother-in-law, Patsy and Joe, that live in Nashville, Tennessee, are flying here to visit with us the first full week of September. And they are going to be followed by our son and daughter-in-law, Justin and Jo, and our grandchildren, Ziggy and Coco, who will be flying in from Puerto Rico. We are so excited that the first two weeks of September will be filled with family fun. And if all goes well, our good friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin from Nyack, New York, will be coming for a visit this week. So as Labor Day nears and summer is winding down, we are gearing up to visit with wonderful friends and family. Let the good times roll.
