The New Year’s Resolution Run was this morning from Maine Running Company to the Great Lost Bear in Portland, Maine. There was a 3 mile (which could be extended to a 4 mile) loop and a 6 mile loop. I do not know if there was an official head count done, but I would estimate that there were between 60 and 70 people there.

I was there half an hour earlier than I needed to be, so I did a short warm up ahead of time. The back roads were a little slippery, though, and a loss of footing quickly led into a powerslide that a baseball player would be proud of. It was actually kind of fun. Then I finished rolling and my face bounced off of the ice and it wasn’t quite as fun anymore. No blood means no problems, though, so I was back up and moving.

For the actual Resolution Run, I ran the 6 mile route through Downtown Portland. It was fun running through my old neighborhoods. The pack that I was in was about 8 or 10 runners strong and was represented by PR Racing, Dirigo and Trail Monsters. Traffic was very kind to us, except for one young woman that was listening to her ipod and texting on her phone while she was driving and did not even look up when a few of the runners banged on her window and yelled at her to pay attention.
Resolution Run Map
The run turned into a tempo run towards the end, and we caught up to a few of the 3 milers on the way back in. Everybody met up at the Great Lost Bear after the run for drinks and a raffle. I won a pair of gloves, but I traded it for a small side dish of rice since I didn’t need the gloves and she wasn’t going to eat her rice.

All in all, there was a great turn out, everybody had a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to running again next year. I will post a link to the pictures once they are online. Don Penta was there with his camera along with the local news stations and a few others.

(Run Summary and DetailsFull Sized Google Map of the 6 Mile Course)