The Morning Run

After a good night's sleep . . . all right that is a total lie. After a brief nap the vans are up and running again! Around 7am the Orange Line pulled into the Van Transition Area located at Bear Brook State Park. Bruce came running around the corner

handed off the wrist baton and stopped for pictures!

This is one of the more picturesque transition areas with a small lake near where the runners perform the exchange.

Kind of cold but Bruce braved the icy waters anyway! Through the whole relay the weather was spectacular. Here Deirdre and Kirsten hang out in the sun while waiting for our runner to appear.

This is a particularly good picture of Nancy and Paul where you can see just how beautiful the day was.

Running by Moonlight

One of the most memorable parts of the relay is running at night. You run down a road with your headlamp, blinking tail light and reflective vest. Ahead and behind you can see a stream of other similarly decked out runners. Occasionally, one is wearing a tutu. Yes, a tutu. It is difficult for teams to identify their runners at night and use things like tutus to help. We used little blinking dots. Chris had the brilliant idea, pun intended! :), to put them on her sneakers. That apparently made it easy to spot her from far away. Expect this to become a regular part of the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club's night running outfit!

Here you can "see" Barbara coming down the road. The bright dots lower down on her vest are little blinking party lights we used to identify people in the dark.

I am not sure how Bruce got this shot at the transition area but he did! Dora is waiting for Nancy to come into the Vehicle Transition Area (VTA) where the Orange Line will take over from the Green Line.

Bruce even managed to get a shot of the transition!

Last picture for today is of Nancy and Deirdre walking back to the van from the VTA.

While not easy you can sometimes even catch a nap at night in the van as Kirsten demonstrates in this picture.

Day 1: Time to Go!

For this year's relay we have stunning weather! Not a cloud in the sky. Temperatures starting in the 40s and working their way up to the high 60s as the day progresses. Kristen started us off with a run up Bretton Woods. Yes up! Way up. To the very top. Then down again. A tough 2.5 mile leg.

We are team 43 and you can see her in blue on the photo's left. Since 2015 the course route allows the two vans to see off the first three runners. So, while Kristen was mountain climbing we had time for a picture of Nancy, Cathy and me.

Team support is very important. Who has the best team support? Why the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club!

Nancy had the van's last run and here she hands off to Dora.

Then it was finally time for the Green Line to stop for lunch.

Day 0: A Fun Filled Dinner

Day 0: We drove up to the Attitash Mountain Resort for the night. Arrived around dinner time and decided to eat at their restaurant, which turned out to be pretty good! Best of all was the company.

Next it was time for some van decorating. With an 8am start we figured there would not be enough time in the morning. Boy were we right! More on that later.

Un-official Rosie Ruiz Fan Club theme song – The Rosie Ruiz Marathon Blues

(Think Blues, 1-4-5 chord progression)

See Rosie was a runner, couldn’t run very far,

She ran just a little, but usually took a car,

Rosie entered the Boston marathon, to impress her boss at work,

But she never thought she’d end up such a marathon jerk,

 

Then she got the Blues……..,

The Rosie Ruiz marathon Blues……..,

And soon everyone heard,  the Rosie Ruiz  marathon news…..

 

Well Rosie had a scheme, to run Boston very fast,

But didn’t quite figure out, how long the run should last,

She jumped on the subway, after running just a while,

And then got off the train with a mischievous little smile,

 

Then she got the Blues……..,

The Rosie Ruiz marathon Blues……..,

And soon everyone heard,  the Rosie Ruiz  marathon news…..

 

Back in the race she went, but too far in the lead,

And ended up in first, then got caught for her evil deed,

So the story of Rosie goes, in good old bean town,

And Rosie will never be able to live this day down,

 

She got the Blues……..,

The Rosie Ruiz marathon Blues……..,

From then on and forever, she never wanted to see another pair of running shoes.

The 2016 Team T-Shirt!

This year's team t-shirts on the drying rack getting ready for their big race. Go Rosie Ruiz Fan Club Go! This Friday we start our adventure at 8am. Follow the action here or on our Facebook page.

Van Tags - What are They?

What is this you may wonder? It is an official Rosie Ruiz Fan Club magnetic van tag! What is that? Many years ago, our then Captain Erica came up with the idea of tagging vans with a little symbol of our team. Since then many teams have adopted this practice and by the end of the race our vans can end up with over a dozen tags each.

With just over a week to go the team's supplies are nearly all in! These van tags arrived recently. Next in line to show up are some lights that will (I hope) let us figure out which runner on the road at night is ours. So far none of the 8 tricks we have tried have worked. The first year we had no idea how difficult it would be to distinguish runners at night! Since then we have been on a never ending quest to find a solution.