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2008 - Thursday night schedule, 6pm. Trail Runs.
5/22 - Springside Park - Meet in parking lot. Afterwards at Matt Reily's
5/29 - Kennedy Park - Meet at Arcadian Shop. Afterwards at 5 Chairs
6/5 - Kirvin Park - Meet at Laurie's house. Afterwards at Laurie's house
6/12 - Kennedy Park - Meet at Arcadian Shop. Afterwards at Heritage House
6/19 - Pittsfield State Forest - Afterwards 3rd Thursday, North St.
6/26 - Kennedy Park - Meet at Arcadian Shop.
7/3 - Paul's Restaurant, Wahconah St, Run the 4th of July course. Afterwards at Paul' Restaurant
7/10 and rest of summer - Kennedy Park - Meet at Arcadian Shop.
ARCHIVE
2006-2007
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Apr 12th - Elbow Room, Pittsfield
Ran up to Gulf Road which still had snow on it. Sandwiches were tasty at the Elbow Room.
Apr 5th - Poncho's - North St. Pittsfield
Did the Jason to Valentine route again. Freezing cold again. Winter was slow coming and even slower leaving. Dan showed up, coming off an injury but still planning on running Boston. Except that about halfway through the run he disappeared. If you've seen Dan let us know.
Grand opening this week at Poncho's. Nice atmosphere inside. Food was very authentic Mexican and was excellent. They also have the Blue Iguana room where they show movies, could be interesting. No beer license yet. Not a problem, we ate dinner and then headed over the Brew Pub for dessert. We had the beer sampler, 10 samples of different beers. We had to charge Todd extra because he drank so much coffee.
Mar 29th - Jimmy's - Pittsfield
Can't remember the route, but I'm sure it was nice. Always a great feast at Jimmy's. For some reason the funny comments were flying this night. My sides ached after because we all laughed so hard.
Mar 22nd - Matt Reilly's in Lanesboro
Mar 15th - Lantern, North St, Pittsfield
Ran the Jason - Valentine route which we all like. Took and ill-advised detour down to Onota Lake, where the path is not cleared. Took us extra time to negotiate that route. Dinner at the Lantern was excellent. Tasty burger and Blue Moon beer with an orange slice in it. Ben didn't like it, I did. Good night.
Mar 8th - Misty Moonlight Diner, Dalton Ave, Pittsfield
OK, I'm officially sick of winter. Ready for spring. The run was cold, mercifully short. Good meal the the Misty Moonlight. The menu pointed out the burgers are good with a cold beer, which we verified.
Mar 1st - Bousquet, Pittsfield
Nice run down airport, Barker, S Mt, then Tamarack. Pace was a little faster than usual. Tasty food at the lodge with pitchers of Berkshire Ale.
Feb 22nd - Midtown Tavern, Dalton
I heard it was pretty good, except for nearly being eaten by a beer or wolves or something.
Feb 15th - Sloan's Tavern, Cranwell, near the pro shop in Lee
Cold day for sure. Quick run and then into the tavern for a tasty dinner and good beer selection.
Feb 8th - Teo's Hot Dogs, East St, Pittsfield
Good run around southeast Pittsfield, then Teo's hot dogs, what can I say? A Pittsfield tradition.
Feb 1st - Arizona Pizza (formerly Pasta's) in Lanesboro near the mall.
Fresh snow under foot for the first time this year helps us remember winter. An easy paced run took us down the Ashuwillticook Trail until Old State Rd where we curled back to the mall and the finish. One long hill caused a few in the group to become restless and attack the hill. It felt good to air it out a little.
The restaurant, although crowded, offered a quick table. We split two delicious pizzas and a plentiful plate of meaty wings. It was a lot of food, but we accepted the challange and polished it all off. A minor misunderstanding was handled by the manager quickly and appropriately. Nice night out.
Jan 25th - Heritage in Lenox
With the temperature in the single digits and a bitter northern wind rolling down from Canada, the first mile was the toughest this season. Global warming has made us soft with the enticing start to the winter the past month. But, then our hearty New England heritage kicked in and we remembered that we weren't frail southern Californians who need to declare a federal disaster when the temperature drops below freezing. We ran down Cliffwood and turned up the hill by the reservoir until we reached Pleasant Valley Sanctuary and turned around and retraced our steps back to the Heritage. One of the most pleasant runs this year.
Popped into the Heritage where our favorite host, Rachel, recognized us from frequent summer visits after Kennedy Park runs. She even recalled our preferred beer from those days and quickly pulled a pitcher to quench our thirst. We then were joined by our good friend Annie, legs temporarily stilled but spirit always strong and vital. Annie's journey and the evening's run remind us that when reaching for your goals, the first mile is always the toughest. The path is not always easy, winter comes, winds blow, but by using the spirit of the group, you can weather that first mile and continue down the road.
We attempted to buy her dinner, but she would have none of it and accused us of offering pity. We pointed out that when we charge Todd less its because we pity him, but in her case we were just glad to see her. That didn't fly and she paid her share. When we received the check, we noticed that Rachel had identified our table as: Runners. Nice touch. Thumbs up for the run and fun.
Jan 18th - Arizona Pizza in Lenox on Rt 7
Run up W. Mountain Rd to Pleasant Valley and thereabouts
Jan 11th - Jimmy's Restaurant on W. Housatonic St in Pittsfield
Jan 4th - Matt Reilly's in Lanesboro
Our old favorite. Can't beat the course. 3 tough hills make that run feel like you worked for your reward afterward. The women set out first, being in a hurry and growing tired of waiting for me to show up. It was then up to the men to catch up and tell them to slow down. Which we did when we finally caught up to them in the parking lot at the end of the run. Pitchers of Labatt's at $5.50 went down pretty smooth. Biggest crowd yet.
Dec 28th - Brew Works on Depot St in Pittsfield
Small crowd due to the holiday with all the world travelers off on adventures. Solid run followed up by exceptionally tasty burgers and fries and I have to say the best beer in Berkshire County. Another bartender providing great service while handling the entire bar by himself. Quick with a sampler beer if you asked about a particular flavor. Brewed on the premises, can't be beat.
Dec 21st - Cimm's on Fenn St. in Pittsfield
A different Cimm's than old time Pittsfield natives are used to. It is strange and nice to walk in Cimm's and not be driven out by smoke. Very friendly service from the bartender who was working hard. Good run down into the southeast following the East Side Pizza run more or less.
Dec 14th - Brazillian Restaurant on McKay St in Pittsfield
10 out of 10 for the run and the restaurant. Great run up Jason St over to Valentine, swinging along the lake, down Pecks to Waconah to North. A little longer than usual but well lit streets with not too much traffic and safe shoulders.
Unique food style at the Brazillian. Buffet style setup, with tasty choice meat carved special for you right off the flame broiled rotisserie. Man was it good. Ate way too much in order to compensate for the long run.
Dec 7th - Olde Forge in Lanesboro
The first snow of the season was falling as the group debated the route for the first mile of the run. The choice was between staying on the flats of busy Route 7 or heading into the lesser-traveled but tougher hills. The debate was at an impasse until Michelle forced the decision and turned uphill. The group didn't hesitate to follow, as they knew it was the right decision. Two tough hills kept the group talking long after the run was over.
The atmosphere has changed at the Olde Forge from the days of being a biker bar of some disrepute. It's downright fancy these days. However, we certainly changed that atmosphere when we arrived after the run, both in decibels and in fragrance. The food was certainly tasty, with wings that are tough to beat. But with no pitchers available we ordered our beers individually. No shortage of choices, but certainly expensive. The bill ended up about double our usual with our server including a tip that exceeded the level of service provided. Although a fine restaurant it didn't suit the special needs of our running group, afraid that we won't keep this one in the rotation. A question to our server about the bill was met with "I can't do anything about it, the machine prints it out." Unfortunately I can't do anything about this review, the machine just printed it out.
Nov 30th - Shamrocks, Main Street in Dalton
A longer run than usual that followed the Dalton 10k route with a little extra thrown in to make it an 8 miler. The weather was great and all wore shorts, this will certainly be the last run for a while where that happens.
The food was fine at the Shamrocks, enjoyed by all. Short writeup is just because I couldn't be there to record all of the details.
Nov 24th - Turkey Day, no run, but races in Great Barrington or Adams.
Nov 16th - Betty's Pizza Shack, 26 Housatonic, Lenox -
With ominous storm clouds approaching, we wondered whether we'd get our run in before getting swept off the road with gales of wind and sheets of rain. The night air though, to quote Ben Kaplan, "doesn't get any better than this". The approaching cold front pushed ahead tropical air that was warm with only occasional sprinkles of rain. Everyone wore shorts; afraid we won't see that again until spring.
As for the route, it was the same as the night, perfect. We left Betty's in downtown Lenox and headed for Tanglewood, turning right on Under Mountain Rd. and followed the now defunct April Fools race route. Its a good mix of hills and flats, passing by some nice Lenox "cottages" along the way with very little traffic. A lengthy discussion on the perils of improperly pronouncing the word fartlek carried us up the long hill. The only drawback is that it's REALLY dark on those streets. I don't think we passed a single streetlight.
It was nice to end the run and not be so chilled that you have to dive into your dry fleece. Betty's served up the perfect atmosphere for such a warm night, surfer hangout in Hawaii. The men were unimpressed and thought it was too bright, but the women loved the motif! There were photos of surfers on the walls and a young couple having a summer romance at the next table.
Betty's doesn't serve pitchers of beer, so the mathematicians calculated the cheapest way to order our beer would be the Coronitas Bucket of Beer. The buckets were served filled with ice and six miniature 7 oz bottles of Corona beer. The sole bottle opener got quite a workout being passed around the table.
Then came the dinner decision. We opted for group pizzas and challenged the capacity of our stomachs by ordering too many larges. It's just that there were so many choices for toppings and the names were so much fun to say that we just couldn't narrow it down. We settled on "Ride the Pig", Maui Mushroom, and Gidget's Veggie. The thin crusted pizzas were generously sized and loaded with tasty toppings. The Maui Mushroom featured mushrooms and lots of garlic. Ride the Pig was a meat lovers delight, and Gidget's veggie was good too. All in all, the evening was one of the best. The route was fantastic and Betty's gets a high rating; fun atmosphere, great pizza, and cute bottles of beer. Next time though I hope they have more lemons on hand.
(thanks to Laurie Schwartz for cowriting this review)
Nov 9th - East Side Cafe
Since most of us were racing on the weekend we decided to make it a sensible run. Picked up a couple of new faces making it nine. I accidentally led the group down a wrong turn and we had to back track, well, you would have thought that I led them across hot coals with all the complaints. It was a nice run on a relatively flat course, 6.75 miles I hear. Sometimes the easy paced run can be the most true to the spirit of running, settle into a pace and add the minutes.
Back to the East Side for pizza - place was jammed, fortunately we were able grab two opposing booths. All ordered their own pizza, which was nice because I mixed it up with half anchovies, a choice that is not usually popular with groups. East Side makes a great pizza, thin toasted crust, with a savory sauce, loaded with cheese. Pitchers of Bud at $6.50. Dave Murphy had the quote of the night with "Irish Alzheimers - forgets everything but the grudge."
Nov 2nd - Matt Reilly's Pub
Nine runners kicked off the inaugural Winter Pub Runs at Matt Reillys last night. A chilly night as a cold wind off the lake stabbed through clothing with icy needles. Running in the dark suddenly seemed like a dumb idea, but we intrepid souls set off anyway. Things soon heated up as we turned up the Hancock Rd hill. Idle chatter proved inversely proportional to the gradient increase of the hill. Soon we were back to comfortable flat grounds along Pecks Rd, actively discussing the finer points of recent and future races. The anticipation of Bull Hill Rd proved to be as tough as the hill itself. The hill doesn't try to deceive you from the bottom, it looks steep and it looks long, but you can see the entire gauntlet laid out in front of you. As a runner no hill can make you back off, you must lean into the hill, swing your arms higher and attack, don't show your weakness and when you crest the peak, take a deep breath and push yourself over the top and feel the exhilaration of the conquest. The hill stands aside and nods to you, like a teacher, silently admiring your effort on the test it laid before you. A final stretch down fresh pavement along Route 7 and it was time for food and drink.
Eight eaters kicked off the inaugural feast inside Matt Reillys. Banquet room to ourselves we took our places at our usual table. Fried food and trans fats led the night, with a few salad sprinkled in, health benefits negated by copious amounts of dressing. Much expressions of satisfaction about the food were tossed about. Food critics with an hours run behind them are easy to satisfy but the choices were numerous and the preparation nicely done. Challenging run, good food, and Labatts at $5.50 a pitcher will make Matt Reillys tough to top over the coming weeks
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