Walker Course Description

Strollers and dogs are welcome on the course! Grab your neighbors, your friends, your dogs and your kids and make this a real community affair.

Walkers' Stories

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Originally appeared in the weblog "Rumi Nation" on MassLive.com.

Walking Kelsey the DJ/MC was the first to greet me when I arrived on Gothic Street for Mayor Higgins' Hot Chocolate Run at a little after nine this morning. I got both a hello and a quizzical look, the latter directed not so much at me as at the baby carriage I was pushing. "You do know, Jeff, that that's not your son in there," Kelsey said, looking more amused than concerned -- which was good, since it indicated that she believed I had the situation under control, which I did.

In the carriage was not Rumi but his Cousin Groucho, in town with his mom, my sister-in-law, for her and Nightingale's final one-weekend-a-month-for-a-year yoga teacher training. With the moms off in asana-ville and Groucho's dad out in New York State doing renovations on the house they just bought, it was going to be just me and the little boys. But we decided to hire Rumi's babysitter for the day, to keep me from being tied up like Gulliver by these lilliputian toddlers. And since my son loves his sitter, I thought I'd leave him with her and take my nephew with me for the charity event.

The Hot Chocolate Run was held to benefit Safe Passage, an organization that provides support and services to survivors of domestic violence. That's obviously a great cause to support, plus I knew Kelsey of "The Morning Show" on WRSI was going to be the MC, and I knew that another friend, Hilary Price of the Must See Funny Pages strip "Rhymes with Orange," was involved (she created the illustration that graces the hot chocolate mugs that each runner or walker received), and sometimes when you don't know much about an organization, you judge it on the basis of who's involved.

So we were there, paying our $15 and getting a course map for the 5-kilometer run and the 2-mile walk. We were doing the latter, along with a couple of hundred others. There were even more folks doing the run.

Earlier, on the walk into town on South Street, I'd been passed by some woman and a baby carriage. And while her runner's carriage did give her an equipment advantage, I was just a little bothered that I was ambling along so slowly that I was passed by another carriage. So when it was ready, set, go for the 2-mile walk, I took off in something of a power walk. And it felt good.

Walking along Main Street with a head of steam, rather than the usual meandering and gazing, gave the event an aerobic quality I hadn't anticipated. I liked that. I often think of these benefit walks as casual strolls whose good cause has nothing to do with a heart-pumping workout, but now I was seeing that more was possible. By the time we had turned onto West Street, then veered off onto Green Street, I was pushing that carriage with a purpose.

At the end of Green, we ended up on the unpaved trail that follows the curve of the Mill River, which at this point looks like a pond or little lake. The dirt trail was a little difficult for the carriage, and as I slowed a bit, some skinny guy in a blue sweatsuit whizzed by, then turned toward me as he kept going, looking like a quarterback dropping back to pass. His tongue was hanging out as he backpedaled along the trail ahead of me. This bugged me a little, especially the tongue. Was he just trying to work some different muscles, or was he taunting me? After a few seconds, he turned around and went back to walking forward.

Back out on Route 9, which out by Smith College is Elm Street, I kept the backpedal guy in my sights, and as we passed the Smith student union I passed him. Neither Groucho nor I stuck out a tongue.

Soon we were covering ground we'd already walked. Just after passing the Edwards Church, I saw good friends Stef and Melys coming toward us, with their daughter, one of Rumi's sweetest friends, in their carriage. I didn't slow my pace, just exchanged on-the-move hellos and a quick promise to meet up at the finish. It didn't occur to me till I was a half-block away that I never got to mention who the kid in the carriage was. I was laughing pretty much the rest of the way, imagining what my friends were thinking, or saying to each other.

Groucho and I didn't stay at the finish area for long. There was no award ceremony planned for First Place, Baby Carriage Division, which we would have won in a walkaway -- the next carriage didn't cross the finish for 10 minutes. We did stay long enough for me to be able to introduce Groucho to those friends we had passed and confused. But other than that, we just took out hot chocolate mug and went home.

Whereupon Rumi grabbed his coat and demanded his turn outside. So I left Groucho with the babysitter, and took my little son for a short walk down our block, then right back home. But later we got in a 90-minute nap together on the futon in his room. So my son had no concern that his cousin was getting more of me than he was.

Walker Route Map

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