North Yarmouth "Flats"

I really hate to draw attention from the general public. I'm not loud, I don't dress with a lot of flare, I don't tell people at work what I do for fun, and I don't need compliments or flattery from anyone but my husband. I'd rather stand back and take it all in. OK, I admit it, I once got a lot of attention when I drank too much at the Tamarack Grill and got way too involved with a name-that-tune competition, at one point almost standing on my bar stool shouting incorrect answers, but that was a rare exception.

Today I took to the streets of North Yarmouth with my running friend, Mary. She has recently relocated there from North Conway. We could have headed over to nearby Bradbury Mountain or even closer, Pineland Farms, but she wanted to show me her new neighborhood. Plus, she's more of a road runner than a trail runner. So I willingly (reluctantly) strapped on my big black Velcro strap over my bulky sling and set out to run for the first time in public with my sling. People out running or walking their dogs or pushing baby strollers looked at me and shook their heads as if to say, "what an idiot." They were the same kind of looks I give people who I see out running in the middle of busy roads in heavy snow storms. Oh well, let them think I'm some kind of running fanatic, Mary and I know better.

At the start of our run, Mary announced, "we are not slow! We just have been running hilly and mountainous routes all this time! You'll be amazed how fast and how far we can run today on the flats of North Yarmouth!" I was not all that amazed and we didn't run all that fast or all that far. But we had a lot of fun.

Mary (a former Maine Marathon winner more than once) has a new scheme. She says, and I quote, "you and I are going to train like we used to and show up at the Maine Marathon next year and blow everyone away!" I looked at her skeptically and she continued, "we just have to find some desire... and some motivation... and some discipline...OK, so maybe we won't blow everyone away, but we can probably finish it." You know, I haven't run a marathon in a long time. Maybe I'm due!