On Saturday, 5 members of the NECC marathon team joined several other charity groups in a 17-mile training run along the Boston marathon route. We began at Mile 9 in Natick and ended at the finish line in front of the Boston Public Library. A few highlights:

• Michelle Richards, our fearless coordinator. Not only did she meet us at the buses to start and carry our bags on the train, but she also waited at the finish in 20-degree weather until everyone crossed the line. And to top it off, she treated us to lunch. Thanks again Michelle!
• Water stops. There is nothing better than not having to carry your own hydration. Thanks to the volunteers at all 4 water stops.
• Safety in numbers. Six bus loads of runners were on the route, so there were plenty of people to keep cars in check the entire way. There were more people out for this training run than at many races I’ve done in the past.
• Our team. Great spirit and attitude as always from Leon, Jen, Mark, and particularly Tom who I chased all the way to Boston.

Running on the route was fantastic. Hopefully we can do it a few more times before April 21.

What did folks do before mapmyrun.com? I know what I did – got in my car and drove around. When you’re planning marathon training routes that’s a royal pain. Thanks to this site those days are over. Route mapping sites have been around for a couple years. Gmaps is popular and just last year I was using the USA Track & Field site. It was ok, but I did run into a couple of instances where the map was wrong and a street that appeared to cross through was a dead-end. That’s no fun when you’re running.

The best feature of mapmyrun is “Follow the roads.” You used to have to click a lot to follow the streets on the map or just live with the inaccuracies of cutting corners. Creating a 15 mile loop took a long time. Now the software does it for you. Routes also include elevation so you can see where you’re going to suffer most. And unlike USATF it has a full screen mode making it easier to see a wide area. There is some annoying auto-centering, but that’s easily stopped by a click. I would like to see the addition of a drag-and-drop re-routing feature like Google and Yahoo maps have.

I currently rely on mapmyrun for both running and cycling. There’s a separate site called mapmyride that uses the same database so all your maps are in a single list. I even print out the maps and carry them when I’m in an unfamiliar area. I do suspect it won’t last much longer as an independent site. They appear to generate revenue through ads, but there aren’t a lot of ads on the site. My guess is Active.com will gobble it up. I hope it lives on. At least until April.

This morning I ran a 7-mile loop through Weston. Around mile 2 a barking dog came at me. It was an overweight Golden Retriever so I wasn’t too alarmed. Still, it’s always annoying when any dog comes at you while you’re running because you never know if it’s going to stop or take a chunk out of your leg. I slowed down, put my hand out, and said “nice doggy” which of course always tames even the most aggressive dog. Anyway, this dog didn’t bite me (bonus!) and I expected it to just go back to wherever it came from. But no, Rover decided to follow me.

I stopped, thinking that would end the game, but again he hung around. I picked up a stick and threw it in the opposite direction. He ran for it but quickly returned – without the stick (some retriever). About a half-mile later I made a turn onto a busy road. Even that didn’t deter my new friend. He followed me the rest of the way, for 5 miles and almost 45 minutes.

In the beginning Rover ran in front of me, so I tried to fake him out at the turns only to have him catch up once he noticed I had changed directions. After about 2 miles he began to slow down. He was running behind me now occasionally sprinting to catch up and was panting heavily. When this whole thing started I was annoyed because I knew people would think Rover was my dog and they’d get mad at me because he wasn’t on a leash, sometimes ran in the middle of the road, and harassed a couple of other dogs. Toward the end, I was concerned he was going to keel over or get hit. I started telling him to get out of the road and back on the sidewalk. Surprisingly he obeyed.

When we reached Weston Town Hall, the rain was coming down in buckets. I paced back and forth under the overhang on the front steps to get out of the rain and to cool down. Rover followed me back and forth. I asked a woman who was walking in if there was some way to contact animal control because this dog wasn’t mine. “Oh, he probably lives in the neighborhood,” she hastily replied, eager to get out of the rain.

I wasn’t sure what to do, but I had to get to work. So I threw my wet outer layer into the trunk and faked Rover with a simulated stick toss so I could get into my car without him. I felt bad leaving the dog panting in the pouring rain, but who knows, maybe I’ll see him again next Wednesday.

Last Saturday 11 members of Team NECC got together for an 11 mile run. Weather was perfect, and the team was strong. 15 runners belong to Team NECC, and all have more than casual running experience, and of course a more than casual relationship to the school. There are parents and relatives of students as well as staff members and other professionals who work with children with Autism.

Rob and I are using Hal Higdon’s marathon training plan, the 18 week version for almost intermediates Novice2. For those keeping score at home we just finished week 4.

My brother Mike and I are running the 2008 Boston Marathon to raise awareness of autism and funds for his son John’s school - The New England Center for Children. Our goal is to raise $3000 each for the school’s general fund.