MHM -28/Quabbin Tower -- Sun. Sept. 12

Semester took all my time till Sat., but then I was taking R and friends canoeing -- four hours in the boats, with three hours on the road to and from, so no time or energy for a run after. Sunday morning I was too tired to get to either the Summit run or the DnD run: went to 10:30 Mass, and then ran in early afternoon. Lovely fall day, and nice route: to VFW, 202 to Allen and along Old Enfield to Early, and along there towards the Quabbin, via Blue Meadow: then across the dam and up the hill up to the tower. Stop clock and run up the tower, but a bit full of visitors, so avoid a repeat; then down the hill again, and take a variant way back. Before crossing dam, down a trail to the river, along the river and out eventually via trails to route 9 at the bridge; then back up by road all the way. Second half about the same distance, and pace a bit faster (aided by the downhill start!), thus:

Time: 2:09:38
Distance: 16.96 miles
Pace: 7:39s

Comment: A bit tired at the end, but mainly this felt good. I added a bit on at the end (VFW) to try to get to over 17 miles, but didn't feel like working too hard for it. This was meant to be a 70 mile week, but school made that impossible. Now it's pretty much taper time. . .