Race #18 took me to Douglas, MA just outside the birthplace of my mother in nearby Webster. My father grew up in neighboring Dudley, MA, so I sort of knew the region when The Last Mile Racing Company told me where I was racing tonight. It was a hot and humid day in New England, but the course was covered by a canopy of trees in the Douglas State Forest.

I might have been excited to run The Beach to Beacon or The D.A.R.E. Classic on the Loudon Speedway, but Charlie Olbrias, the President of The Last Mile Racing, was pumped up about this course. He found this route that had me starting in Douglas, MA going through Thompson, CT and then finishing in Douglas, MA again. Cool course on a humid evening. I ran my quickest time of the event at 4:40.39.

Here is a couple of photos of Charlie and I showing how this granite stone marks the change of the state line. On one side it is Connecticut and on the other side, it is Massachusetts.





After watching the video of me struggling in the wind at The Loudon Speedway, I realized that I was shortening my stride length. I felt good on Saturday in Race #17 in Providence, RI running 4:49 and then even better tonight  at 4:40. The stride length now is my natural length and the extra extension makes me quicker.

On Wednesday, we run the Sprint For Judy in Woodstock, CT and then on Saturday I run one of the miles at the Bobby Doyle Summer Classic www.bobbydoylesummerclassic.org in Narragansett, RI. Should be a lot of fun!