DONE!

Finished! Ran the rest of the roads this morning on my 16.2 mile excursion. Longest run of my life, and felt pretty good. I was 1 second per mile off my Thursday 13.2 mile pace, which I think is pretty solid. Felt like I hadn't run in weeks, so I guess 3 days rest was the right separation.

Today's run was the western part of South Rd, all of Shippee, and the neighborhoods hanging off both of them. took a long time to get there and get home, but covered a ton of new ground. And did I mention that I'm done??? :)

Here's what today's new coverage looked like - wasn't anticipating the private driveway there in the upper left; that shortened up the run quite a bit.

Here's the map showing total coverage to date (all of it, because I'm done) - new area today is in the extreme bottom left corner:

Here's the shaded map - hey, it's all white because I'M DONE!

Final statistics - 49 runs totaling 349 miles for an average of 7.12 miles per run. No more runs left, covering 0 miles because I'M DONE!!!

Best run in a loooong time

Contrary to my prior post, I went out this morning for my half marathon run to close out some roads dangling off Carr's Pond Rd, as well as the northern arm of Carr's Pond. While Tuesday was definitely a rough running day, my legs felt really strong yesterday so I decided to give it a whirl. Hit the road around 5:05 AM and could tell it was going to be a different experience - no aches or pains to speak of. While I'm not running for speed here, I felt much more consistent with my pace and that was revealed in the final results - I was half a minute faster per mile than my prior couple runs, and it was my fastest pace for any run over 12 miles during this odyssey. I also closed out really strong - 3 of my last 4 miles were the fastest of the entire run, and my final 1/4 mile was at a pace of just over an 8 minute mile.

The running belt continues to work well for hydration and snacking, and the bug spray was once again a success.

Today's coverage... The straggler in the top left is a little sliver of Carr's Pond north of Middle before it turns west into... West Greenwich? Coventry? Google confirms - West Greenwich! The bottom right are 2 neighborhoods off of Carr's Pond just north of the Frenchtown intersection:

Coverage map:

Shaded map (you'll see a couple gaps in the center left are now covered based on this morning's route):

Stats to date: 48 runs, 332.7 miles, 6.93 mile/run average. I have 1 run left, a 17 miler that could turn into 16.5 or so because I always start walking on Cindyann to begin cooling down.

Fun fact (for me anyway)... my travels have taken me into West Greenwich and Coventry while knocking off the western portion of Division, and North Kingstown while taking care of the eastern piece of Frenchtown and southern part of Post. I'm sure I wavered into Warwick while running Division, but that doesn't really count. Next post might be my last!

Too soon for another long one...

Off the high of my 15+ miler on Sunday, I figured "No problem, I'll do 13+ on Tuesday, 13+ on Thursday, and my 17 on Saturday and end this thing right now". I even said as much to a friend at work. My quads felt a bit tired last night, but I got up early and felt good so I headed out the door. Just wasn't in the cards for me today - my MP3 player died less than halfway into my run and my legs just didn't have it. I completed the run - 12.6 in total because one of the roads turned out to be mostly private - but I walked a good portion of it (most of Rt 2 on the return leg).

So, time for a new plan... maybe the long one Friday night and the final 13ish miler next Tuesday? The constraint is that the 17 miler has to be a weekend or it impacts the start of work - Friday night might work if I can duck out a little early.

You may be wondering... What makes a road "private"? There are a few things that I use when making that decision (many of which are no-brainers):

1. A sign that says "Private," "Residents Only," or the like
2. A sign that says "No pedestrians" (think of the signs you see on highway on-ramps)
3. Turnpikes or other barricades across the road - the maps all show "roads" existing around the Toray building on Rt 2 (old Bostitch building) as well as roads inside the Fogarty National Guard complex; guards at the gates of both of these places make them decidedly private
4. A slew of mailboxes at the entry - I've ignored this sometimes, but in general, if the mailman doesn't venture down the road, I consider it to be a private road
5. A glorified driveway - if it's a long, winding "road" that leads to a business (think St Elizabeth's assisted living facility, across from Hilltop on Post Rd), it's not a road; it's a driveway and shouldn't be called out on maps as a road

The shortened run today was a result of #4 - there was what looked to be a small cul-de-sac with 6 or so mailboxes at the entrance, but a long "road" disappeared into the woods at the end of the faux cul-de-sac. Given the location of the mailboxes, it seemed like an intrusion of the residents' privacy if I were to venture down the road, so I cut it short.

Today's new coverage:

Overall map (today's area is in the bottom left):

Shaded map:

Totals to date: 47 runs, 319.4 miles, 6.80 average. 30.9 miles remaining, potentially over just 2 runs.

Broke the 15 (and 300) mile barrier!

Up early this morning for my longest run ever, 15+ to cover the stragglers off of Frenchtown, the remaining parts of Frenchtown itself, then returned home via Carrs Pond Rd to Middle. That pushed me past 300 total miles in this effort!

A couple breakthroughs today. I applied a ton of bug spray to my shirt, hat, neck, and shoulders as Carrs Pond Rd really had me worried. I also left 30 minutes later, which would hopefully help by having the mosquitoes quieter due to it being daytime when I got there. Worked like a charm - I nabbed one bug on my neck at one point, but I don't think anything stung or bit me through my shirt. I also picked up a few things at Dick's on Friday - I got a couple Under Armour shirts, primarily for increased visibility (bright red and orange), but I think they might also be less mesh-y. Also got a running belt with a couple 9 oz water bottles and some orange Gu - I've been feeling pretty drained on my 10-12 mile runs, so I figured I'd need some help with the longer ones this week. That also worked like a charm - west of Rt 2, there aren't any shops with water fountains / bubblers, so I have to bring my own (even the new ice cream joint at Rt 2 and Middle is without a fountain :(

Overall, a pretty good morning. I have 3 more mapped runs - 2 are just over half marathon length, and the final one will be a 17 mile odyssey.

Today's coverage - made a lot of progress and, yes, the little green thing in the lower right is correct; that was one of the little roads I missed in last week's unplanned route change.

Overall map:

Shaded map, which is a thing of beauty now! Huge progress in the middle west area today!

Stats to date: 46 runs totaling 306.8 miles (avg of 6.67 miles per outing. As noted above, two mid-13s (Carrs Pond stragglers, and the early part of South Rd) and a 17 miler remaining (western part of South Rd and Shippee in its entirety). Today's 15 miler gives me hope of completing the 17 - I only stopped to walk when I was drinking and eating the Gu, in addition to most of the Middle hill from Rt 2 up to the Rt 4 overpass (that's a brutal hill at most times, but definitely after 13+ miles).

High Hawk done

Got up this morning and ran more than 11.5 miles to knock off the outer loop (and offshoots) of the High Hawk neighborhood. The sun is coming up later much quicker than I expected - a couple weeks back I was able to leave the house at 4:40 with some daylight; I had to wait until almost 5:00 today for enough light to comfortably hit the road, and had to wait until I was well up the hill on Middle Rd before donning my sunglasses. Now that we're into July, that's obviously only going to keep pushing later and later, making long morning runs on weekdays difficult to complete without impacting the start of the work day.

I also realize that I need to be better about using bug spray - Tillinghast was a problem today, so I can only imagine what South Rd and Carrs Pond are going to be like. I don't know how well that will work - given the length of the runs and the humidity, I'm thinking that the bug spray will be sweated off my body and clothes fairly quickly. But I'm going to try it next time I go out.

Today's coverage map:

Overall map:

Shaded map (one teeny little triangle sliver there off of Frenchtown, otherwise it's all done save the far west and southwest):

Totals to date: 45 runs totaling 291.62 miles, averaging 6.48 miles per run. As currently mapped out, I have 4 runs left for a total of 60 miles. As noted in earlier posts, I might split those out even more to mix in some shorter runs, but we'll see... I can plan on the 2 15+ runs on weekends as I can't do those in under the 2.5 hours I'd need to recover and get to work, so perhaps one long one this weekend, 2 in the 13 mile range early morning next week, and the final run the following weekend? That would be fantastic!

Stick with the plan, dummy

Not the greatest running experience yesterday... Took a few more days off than normal due to a trip up to Maine over the weekend, so my 13+ mile plan when I left the house didn't pan out. Wasn't feeling all that great, so I diverted and took a shorter route. Not a great idea on a couple counts:

• The map on my watch shows only my planned route, so straying is rife with risk as far as missing roads along the way
• I always leave a picture of my route for my wife to reference - if I'm late returning, she can follow my path to see if I'm dead in a ditch; if I stray, she could be looking for me in the wrong place

Luckily, the latter didn't cause me problems, but the former did. As I would my way through the early parts of Frenchtown and the east side of High Hawk, I missed a couple roads that will require some future backtracking. Just a complete brain fart on one - it's a dead end off a dead end, so I have no idea how I missed it in both directions. The other street was called a "Lane" so I couldn't tell if it was a dead end (a la "Court", "Circle", or something more descriptive) or a cut-through. I actually started down the road, saw a new road splitting off, and decided I didn't want to get into a wild goose chase...

Anyway, enough complaining... I still ran over 10 miles and knocked off some new territory. Yesterday's progress, with the missed items circled in red:

Map to date:

I didn't cover any significant new area, so the shaded map isn't very different:

Totals to date: 279.97 miles over 44 runs for an average of 6.36 miles per run. Not even sure how many runs I have left - I might chunk things up a little more like yesterday to give me some shorter runs between the long ones. Officially, I'm looking at 5 more runs covering 71.9 miles - same number of runs as previously reported, but I was able to shorten some of them given the areas I knocked off yesterday. I'm still sticking to my guns about my approach in general - every run will touch new ground, and every run will leave from and return to my house.

Middle Road almost done

Early morning again today - kids are sleeping over for summer camp tonight so Melissa and I have a date night and I hadn't run since Monday so I had to squeeze it in this AM. Out the door before 5 AM to finish off a bunch of side roads off the far end of Middle Rd. I'll complete the last portion of Middle itself when I return from a Carrs Pond or Frenchtown run, so I only went as far as the last side street (Partridge Run). Just over 12.5 miles this AM, which is a couple mile jump from my previous long run on this adventure.

Today's coverage:

Map to date - today's coverage is to the far west, just a bit north of the center:

Shaded map - I like this view!

Totals to date: 43 runs totalling 269.91 miles, averaging 6.28 miles per outing. If I stick to my planned runs, I have 5 left covering 74.5 miles - they range from mid-13s up to 17, so it's tougher from here on out. I might chunk up the Frenchtown run - right now, it has me hitting all remaining side streets for the duration of Frenchtown, then heading up Carrs Pond and returning via Middle. I can take a bit of distance off and fit in a shorter run if I split out the 3 little roads off Frenchtown near Rt 2, and maybe a portion of High Hawk as well... I'll have to play with the maps and see if that makes sense.

Fourth of July traffic surprise

Woke up early this AM to try to miss traffic along the Division / Rt 95 / Rt 4 / Rt 2 corridor. I assumed that traffic at 5 AM on a Monday federal holiday would be pretty close to Saturday or Sunday AM traffic, but apparently not. There were many more cars out this morning, making the navigation of the on and off ramps a little more concerning but just mentally - there weren't any cars exiting or entering as I ran past the ramps, and it was simple crossing Rt 2 in both directions.

Worked my way out west on Division for a little under 10 miles and eliminated the Moosehorn and Westfield Dr areas. Beautiful homes back in the Westfield and Miss Fry areas.

Today's coverage:

Overall map - this morning's completed area is towards the upper left:

And the new "shaded" map:

Totals to date: 257.35 miles covered in 42 runs for an average of 6.13 miles per run. I've got 6 mapped runs left for a total of 87.2 miles.

As a follow-up to last post, I worked with a dwMap developer - very responsive guy named Marcus. He had another report of a bug with the new release and provided a patch yesterday - I tried to recreate the issue on this morning's run but it worked fine! Fingers crossed that we're fixed, as I love the app based on it's importance in literally guiding me on this journey.

East of Rt 2 / 4 DONE!

Got up early again this AM to beat traffic at the construction on the Rt 4 overpass on Rt 2 - no shoulder so I have to run down the median, which isn't too bad because most of it is a full lane wide. Knocked off the part of South Rd east of Rt 2 and the stretch of Rt 2 down to and past Aim High. That means I've now finished all of Rt 2 and everything east of it and Rt 4.

Brutal bugs out this morning - I expected the early morning runs, without the heat and humidity, to be less buggy. I guess their always out in force in the wooded areas. South Rd was particularly bad - pretty sure I'll have a couple itchy spots on the backs of my arms and neck. While heading up Middle near Sweet Peas Village, a reached back to my neck and squeezed a huge bug - didn't even realize I had it, but was very surprised at the amount of blood I had on my hand when I looked at it. Must have been a juicy guy! If I end up with any of those mosquito-borne illnesses, I'll point to this morning's run as the cause.

Here's what I covered this AM:

And the overall map - this morning's run was down to the lower right corner of the map:

Here's another map view I've been working on, where I've shaded the completed "blocks" in a semi-transparent white - there are no roads remaining in any of those white areas. Probably reveals progress a bit better than the above map:

Totals to date: 41 runs covering 247.44 miles for an average of 6.04 miles per outing. And the big news is that I'm under 100 miles remaining to finish - down to 99.4 planned miles to go!

Some unfortunate news... dwMap had an updated version available earlier this week, so I downloaded it. It worked fine Thursday, but it crashed today. I had just reached my turnaround point at the southern end of Rt 2 and was trying to switch views away from the map and over to my stats. BAM, got a nice error screen. It still saved all of the details, but I had to start a brand new running session on the watch. I'll have to report the crash or check to see if it's already been reported and fixed. Not what I wanted to see as I head into my long runs and lots of goofy side streets way out west...

Morning is the best time to run

Ah, the humidity and high temps make for sticky evenings this time of year... not conducive to running distances. So I set the alarm for 4:45 this morning and took advantage of some low temperatures and low humidity, not to mention low traffic as I headed down Rt 2 south to South Rd. The construction on the Rt 4 overpass makes navigating that area of Rt 2 very precarious - there's literally no shoulder on either side of the bridge, so I had to run down the median. Not something I'd recommend during normal waking hours, but not an issue at about 5:30.

Knocked off a portion of South Rd west of Rt 2 - holy hill! It's brutal from Rt 2 up to Tillinghast... I might need to plan on doing that in reverse if I ever head that way again. Finished up the southern leg of Tillinghast too.

Today's route:

Overall progress map (covered area is in the bottom middle of this view):

I have almost completed everything east of the imaginary Shippeetown / Tillinghast line - just a couple stragglers off of Frenchtown, the extreme southern piece of Rt 2, and the South Rd extension (and offshoots) to the east of Rt 2. That's a big accomplishment, but it shines a bright light on that tough western part of town - some really long ventures out there in the next couple months.

Runs to date: 40 (!) runs covering 237.3 miles for an average of 5.93 miles per run. As currently mapped, I have about 111 miles spread across 8 runs remaining until I reach my goal.

Rt 2 north is finished

Decided to follow the advice in my last post and went for a short one tonight - just under 5.5 miles, to knock off the northern part of Rt 2 and the little road behind CVS and by NE Tech. Humid night, so I'm glad I didn't venture out for a longer run. Also, we did a bunch of work Sunday at my Mother-in-law's lake house, so I was still recovering a bit from putting in docks, A/Cs, etc.

Tonight's run:

Overall map:

Totals to date: 39 runs totaling 226.65 miles, averaging 5.81 miles per run. If I follow the courses laid out, I'm down to 122.3 miles.

Uh-oh

Last night was the first sign that I'm going to have to abandon my approach of long run followed by long run. I did a 10+ mile run after two 8.5 mile runs earlier this week and I just didn't have it. My pace wasn't bad, but I was feeling some aches and pains during the run that weren't normal - knee and hip pain on the right side. I might have to abandon my approach and go with the more traditional approach of shorter runs surrounding longer runs to both strengthen and recover. Not what I wanted, as that will lead to this effort stretching longer than I had hoped, and will also lead to unproductive runs. I only have one sub-10 mile run on my list of planned routes, but I'm not doing myself or my goal any good if I hurt myself and have to reset my mileage / endurance - in order to complete this, I'll have to work my way up to a 17 miler so being careful now is key. Anyway...

I ran the Shippeetown stretch between Middle and Division, including some REALLY nice neighborhoods - the Blueberry Hill area had the nicest houses I've seen thus far, and there are a handful of lots for sale in there for anyone who's looking ;)

Yesterday's coverage map:

Full EG map (the area completed yesterday is in the upper left corner):

Totals to date: 38 runs totaling 221.16 miles for an average of 5.82 per run. That leaves 127.94 productive miles left (more if I change my approach and mix in short runs for the good of my body). On a personal note, 4.5 more miles and this will be the farthest I've ever run in a single month - my prior max is 86.11 and I'm sitting at 81.69 right now.

East of Rt 2 and 4 almost done

Yesterday, I ran through the mobile home neighborhood across from Flood Ford on Rt 2. I also knocked off the Davisville road snippet. Nearly 8.5 miles, leaving only the southern portion of Rt 2 and the South Rd portion to the east of Rt 2 until the entire eastern half of the map is done.

Yesterday's run:

Complete map:

You can see way down in the very bottom right corner the area that is outstanding to the east of Rt 4... There's construction on the Rt 2 bridge crossing Rt 4, bringing it to 1 lane on each side, so I'm a bit hesitant to run that area outside of early weekend mornings - I have 2 or 3 runs planned down that way, so I'll probably have to slot them in for the next several weekends.

Totals to date: 37 runs and 210.9 total miles for an average of 5.7 miles per run. I also combined multiple runs into last nights route and eliminate "to go" mileage - if I don't combine or redesign future runs, I've got 138.2 miles remaining.

Surpassed 200 total miles!

I ran a few of the small neighborhoods east of Rt 2 and south of Frenchtown - the roads behind Pizza Heaven (our favorite local pizza joint) as well as the neighborhood behind Di Mare / Harrington and Rhodes / etc. Overall, an 8.81 mile run on a warm, humid evening (I'm getting to be able to judge the humidity based on how wet my shirt is when I return from a run). That put me over the 200 mile mark for runs dedicated to this goal. I'm pretty sure I'll have to hit 300 before I finish this exercise; if not, it'll be pretty close.

Last night's coverage:

And the map in full:

Progress to date: 36 runs, 202.51 miles, 5.63 miles per run on average.

Update... I mapped out some routes to cover the remaining roads and it looks like I have over 150 miles to go. Nice that I'm over halfway there, and much of that 150 will be retracing my steps, but there's still quite a ways to go. At 25 miles a week, I'm looking at more than 6 weeks to complete; if I jump up to 30-40 miles per week which is certainly in the cards soon, I can bring that down slightly (4-5 weeks). Injuries and weather permitting, I'll be done with this thing before the kids go back to school. Then what will I do? October marathon, anyone?

Inner High Hawk roads

This AM, I broke the 10 mile barrier for the first time this year. I trekked out Middle and made a left onto Tillinghast. On the right is Arrowhead Trail which connects in with the High Hawk neighborhood, so I did the "inside" roads in that neighborhood - I'll return at a future date to complete the outer roads, which leads to a longer run and the reason that it didn't occur first. The return trip was just a reversal - Arrowhead Trail to Tillinghast to Middle. This exposes the frustration of this folly - of today's 10.32 miles, 6.86 miles was retracing previously completed paths.Ten plus miles to knock not even 3.5 miles off the goal! Argh!

One cool thing to note - there's a really cool water wheel on the west side of Tillinghast just north of the Arrowhead Trail intersection. It wasn't working when I went past, but it looked like it could be engaged manually.

Tillinghast is a difficult little road - lots of rolling hills, vs. Middle which has giant hills on either side of the Rt 2 valley. High Hawk was hillier than I expected - nothing major, but I found myself struggling at times. Which leads me to...

I must be either the worst runner ever or the most predictable runner ever. If I'm on a downhill, my mental state is all "Yeah, no sweat, I won't have to walk at all on this run"; if I'm headed the slightest bit uphill, I'm all about "Wow, I'm gonna need to walk to recover a bit." I'm waiting for the runner's high to kick in - I've only experienced it a couple times, but I found it to be incredibly invigorating and made me feel almost invincible.

Here's the new ground that today's route covered. I also covered a teeny little cul-de-sac off Middle but it's not worth calling out with its own picture.

Totals to date: 35 runs totaling 193.7 miles, for an average of 5.53 miles per run. And here's the new consolidated map - you can see the High Hawk progress in the left center below:

Next run should push me over 200 miles!

Tillinghast North

Took on the northern part of Tillinghast yesterday - between Middle and Frenchtown - along with a couple neighborhoods hanging off the sides. That completely closes out the Middle / Tillinghast / Frenchtown / Rt 2 square. The new area covered yesterday is below:

That run added 9.36 miles to the total, giving me 183.38 total miles in this bizarre exercise, averaging 5.39 miles per run across the 34 total runs.

Progress to date:

Division = DONE!

I executed my plan today, though it was in doubt at several times. I set the alarm for 4:30 AM to get up and out before the traffic on Division picked up, especially around the highway on / off ramps. Forces were aligned against me last night, though, as my wife was out at a wedding with her mother and returned around 11, followed shortly by my daughter coming in to report that she was having scary thoughts that prevented her from falling asleep. So, instead of falling asleep at 10:30 or so, I was up until about midnight. The alarm went off at 4:30, I shut it off and reset it for 7:30, but the birds - the damn birds! - were already up and happily making noise, so I hauled myself out of bed and left the house by 5 for the run. We'll see what that does in the long run - I'm working this morning and possibly into the afternoon and on-call all afternoon / overnight, the girls have skating tests this afternoon / evening, Game of Thrones is on tonight at 9, and - oh, yeah - the Penguins are playing a slightly important game tonight at 8. If I don't squeeze in a nap somewhere, I'll either be asleep by the second period or will be a complete waste at work tomorrow.

Traffic was perfect - no issues in either direction at the highway ramps or while crossing Rt 2. The run itself wasn't bad - a bit slower than the Adirondack run, but I'm not doing this for speed. I only walked for a small distance on the return trip, right after the 4-way stop signs on Division at Shippeetown. Had something bothering my ear, got in a good brow wipe with my shirt, then off and running again. Really humid this morning, so I was drenched - very different from the Adirondack run which was a similar temperature but the air was so dry that my shirt was only wet in spots. I was drenched from head to toe today.

Here's the new ground covered today:

Can't believe I was over at Centre of New England - I never knew EG went that far, but I was warned by some friends who commented on EG being involved in approving the McDonalds that was built over there. You'll also noticed I ran outside of EG and off map at one point - it just made sense to continue on vs. back track - nothing in my "rules" prevents me from doing that, and I'm all about minimizing the distance these days :)

And the full map (new area covered is in the very upper left):

To date, that's 33 runs totaling 174.02 miles - that's an average of 5.27 miles per outing. I'm still hamstrung by the Division time limitations - I really only feel comfortable heading that way early in the morning on weekends for obvious traffic reasons, so I'll have to pick my spots carefully. In the meantime, I'm torn between finishing the Rt 2 neighborhoods (both the mobile home area near Flood Ford and the Canonicus Trail neighborhood further south, across from the National Guard location) and finishing the areas between Middle and Frenchtown. I think those decisions will be based on the distance of each run, how I feel, and how much time I have.

Adirondack and PI

Ran down to Frenchtown and through the Adirondack development on Thursday - 9+ miles. I'm shocked at the amount of poison ivy that I see on the roadside - I had no idea how common it was. I had a rough time with PI as a kid - my house backed up to the woods and I was in there constantly. My parents thought I might be so allergic that I'd get it somehow from the air - maybe someone nearby burning brush? My biggest paranoia as I'm running is that a car will lose control, head towards me on the shoulder, and I'll have to ditch into the PI alongside the road to save myself. I'd almost rather risk the leap onto the hood of the oncoming car!

Anyway, slow week due to some work stuff and uncooperative weather. Aside from the Adirondack run, I only snuck in a short one to knock off the little road behind ON Semiconductor. Not even worth calling out separately, so here's the view of the Adirondack coverage:

And the complete picture to date:

I'm up to 32 runs covering 165.33 miles, for an average of 5.17 miles per run. My goal for tomorrow is to get up bright and early and run the length of Division and cover the northern end of Shippeetown and Crompton as well, making my way very close to BJs and the Centre of New England plaza.

Solid week to knock out northeast

I finished up the area north of Frenchtown and East of Rt 4. Early in the week, I concentrated on a bunch of roads near Post, between Cedar and Sweet Twist. Then I took on a long run yesterday and covered the Middle / Rt 2 / Frenchtown / Post loop, finishing off the road behind Hilltop and a small dead end up behind Sweet Twist.

Here's this week's coverage area:

And the overall master view of coverage to date:

I'm now left with the scariest chunk, which is the long run down Rt 2 and the large areas across Rt 2. This thing is getting real now - no short runs left, unless you count the tiny road near ON Semiconductor on Rt 2 / Middle, or the mobile home park on Rt 2 across from Bostitch or whatever it is now (Toray, I believe?). The north end of Rt 2 is also available, but I was kinda hoping to save that for a short celebratory concluding run :)

Stats to date: I started this foray on Feb 23, but it was still winter so I had a bunch of treadmill runs in late Feb and March that didn't provide any progression on the map. So far, I've had 30 EG runs for a total of 152.51 miles, which is an average of 5.08 miles per run. The mileage and average per run will certainly be climbing quickly given the areas I have left to complete.

Humidity!

Whew, humid one yesterday. Only about 70 degrees but I actually wrung out my shirt at one point on the way home from my 6 1/2 mile run over to River Farm.

I think that knocks off all of Tanglewood, and I'm getting much closer to having the entire eastern part of EG finished. There are a few outliers off of Post that I hope to knock out this week, then the longer Rt 2 - Frenchtown - Post loop to close out the area north of Frenchtown and East of Rt 2/4.

As you can see from the map, the Western side consists of much more distance, but the density of the roads isn't even close.

I'll continue my commercial for dwMap - this thing is invaluable for my effort here. I map out a few courses in advance to ensure I'm covering dead ends and optimizing my route - limiting retracing my steps, for example - and then choose a route that's got the distance I'm feeling comfortable covering each day that I run. Definitely saves me from the problem I described a few posts ago, where I'm blindly guessing (and wildly underestimating) my distance and the duration of my runs.

Heat!

I'm not a fan of the heat. Before heading to Mexico, it was 60 with enough wind to make it feel much cooler than that. Returned from Mexico and it's in the 80s with no breeze whatsoever. Not conducive to long runs.

Went out on a short one on Thursday to knock out a small road, Frybrooke, off Middle across Rt 2 from me - turned out to be a private road, but I didn't have anywhere else to go for a quick run at lunchtime so I bit the bullet and did it anyway.

This morning, I went for a more aggressive run - about 6.25 miles - and knocked out an area in Tanglewood but deeper in, almost over to Post Road.

Couldn't get up early enough to venture out Division past the highway on/off-ramps so stuck to this side of Rt 2 again. Maybe tomorrow or Monday morning...

Here's the full map to date.