TMR SMR @ Pineland

This morning was my first saturday morning run with TMR since December, and it was TMR's first run at Pineland Farms for 2009. Conditions were typical Maine early spring running - lots of ice, a little soft snow, and some ankle-deep muck. It was nice to see many of the TM running buddies (blog links at right), especially Ryan, who just announced that he's pregnant (at least vicariously). Woohoo!

Don Medd also showed up. Don ran with us once in the fall, at Bradbury, and has done the Pineland Farm's trail challenge at least once. Don was having fun skiing on the ice. I tried it a few times but I couldn't slide as well. I'd like to think it was because he was wearing road shoes and I trail shoes, but I suspect it was because he's a bad-ass Bates skiing alum. Hopefully Don will keep running with us.

I also met Carter somebody for the first time. We ran most of the first 9 miles together (where I stopped) and we had a nice chat. I'm glad he's running with the group.

Ian, Ryan and I stopped at 9 miles (I ran a little more on the first leg because I did the cloverleaf on Valley Farm 2x), changed into some dry clothes and went to the Visitor's center and talked all things trail running on the comfy leather couch with some coffee and high-calorie baked stuff. Later we were joined by Emma, Jim, and Carter. Super relaxing - indeed I was on the couch for longer than I ran.