Falmouth Road Race '05
We braved the muggy, hot weather to go to Woods Hole this morning to help our kids' old preschool with some fund raising by volunteering for the Falmouth Road Race. It's an annual 7 mile run that draws more than 9,000 runners to Falmouth, Mass, and kicks off in one of our favorite parts of the Cape. Woods Hole is a little village on the southern tip of Falmouth that's hope to a world-class marine research institution. It's also where a lot of tourists depart from to visit Martha's Vineyard.
For us, it's just a nice spot to see the ocean; there's an aquarium that the kids like to go to, and there are a number of small shops and restaurants that are worth going into. Plus there's a bridge that goes up and down to let boats pass into a small lagoon, so that's something fun for the kids to see.
9,000 runners have a huge impact on the area, and our job was to clean up after them. So armed with trash bags and gloves, the kids and we filled up our bags and collected trash. Most of the runners are pretty good about finding trash bags or receptacles. Some apparently think they're already in the race and just discard bottles and cups on the lawn or in shrubbery by the side of the road.
It's interesting over the years to see the changing trends in running -- three years ago they were eating a lot more energy bars before they ran, but this year they were focusing more on water and sports drinks and Red Bull.
One thing that always cracks me up is how the runners toss clothes away. They layer, and then close to race-time they strip down to their racing clothes. We find t-shirts, sweatshirts, pants and other layers of clothing in the bushes. Silly ectomorphs don't retain heat too well, apparently.
This year, as with last, lots of the runners were wearing iPods. A lot of iPod shuffles this year, and a lot of iPod minis, mainly on armbands. The full-sized iPods seem to be a bit too bulky for the preference of many of the runners. There were numerous other flash-based MP3 players and small FM radio receivers in view, as well.