Day 294, Year 6 Falmouth Road Race Day
Date: Sunday, August 14, 2011
Weather: Totally Overcast, Temps in the mid-70’s
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
It wasn’t a beautiful day, but it was probably the perfect day for a running road race. There was no sunshine so the temperature stayed in the mid-70’s. There was a brisk breeze and since the race runs along the water, I’m sure the runners stayed as cool as runners can be in the middle of summer. Mark and I got up with Sam at 6:30 am and watched as the first runners arrived in Woods Hole by school bus. Within the next hour Jonah got up and joined us and the number of runners multiplied quickly. Once both boys had breakfast and were dressed, we headed to shore to check out things first hand. We walked from the start line all the way to the end of the six groups of runners. There were just so many people and the hundreds of porta-potties brought in were all full. Amazing!
Heather and Jed called for a pick up around 9:15 am and then we watched the start of the wheel chair race and finally the start of the road race. The runners were grouped into six start groups and there must have been a thousand to fifteen hundred runners in each group. I think the numbers of people looked even larger than they were since Woods Hole is such a tiny town. As the runners streamed down Water Street headed to Falmouth, we were just amazed at the mass of humanity. By the time the last group of runners left and we walked back down to the bridge, we watched the first runners cross the finish line seven miles away in Falmouth. At this point, Woods Hole was empty except for the clean-up crews. We walked to the aquarium for the 11 am seal show, walked through the small aquarium, and had a lovely lunch waterside compliments of Heather and Jed. We had one bit of excitement when Jonah’s shoe fell into the water from the outside seating at the restaurant, Phusion. Mark and Sam ran out of the restaurant to get the dinghy and rescue the shoe. I went out to be a spotter as did Jed, and the rescuers arrived just in time before the shoe floated under the boardwalks along Eel Pond. Heather, Jed, and boys headed home after naps and now Windbird seems very, very quiet and lonely at the end of a great weekend.
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| 110814 Day 294a Cape Cod, USA–Falmouth Road Race |
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| 110814 Day 294b Cape Cod, USA–After the Falmouth Road Race |
