[Author's Note:  As is often the case with my "little" picture stories, I
often do not remove seemingly insignificant images!  I leave many of
them in - mainly because they ADD to the many interesting minor details of
the day.  Often, I think it is in the minor details that "the life" of a
story exists.  So, in patience, I hope you enjoy this rambling "trip" to
Haverhill, Massachusetts to run a 5 mile road race.]



Chip after the race.



The race was at 11:00 am.  I took a bike ride at about 5:45 am to
something called the Wellington Station ORANGE line subway train.  (I
was without a working computer so I had no idea when the commuter rail
train departed for Haverhill.) This ORANGE line subway trip (above)
would take me to North Station in the heart of Boston.  From there, I
would take a commuter rail train north to Haverhill, MA.



I arrived at North Station in about 20 minutes.  North Station is also
where TD Garden is.  This is where the Celtics Basketball and Bruins
Hockey teams play. This place is BIG!  There's a store inside where
millions of fans buy sports clothes. I could never get into that stuff. 
But pictures just outside the store front?  Get ready!



Well... here we are!  6:30 am and the train to Haverhill leaves at 8:45
am!  Looks like I need to go find some coffee and read a good book. I
prepared myself for both.  Well, not the coffee.  I had to do some
research for that - and finally found some.



Here's the bigger display sign for all the departures.  The tracks
are empty of trains outside the window underneath.  Arrivals have yet to
begin.



Another cool sign I found in the back.  I photo-shopped the red arrow on
it.



Any 'well-commuted' commuter recognizes these. One's for cash.  The
other's for credit.  I purchased my round trip ticket here for the trip
to the race.



My tickets:  $19.50 round trip to Haverhill. (They expire in 3 months.)



Here is a route map for the trip.  Commuter rail stops are clear. The
black squares represent "flag stops" where passengers getting on or
getting off must signal to the conductor their preference.



TD Garden is behind me.  This is the main train terminal.  The benches 
as you can see are pretty nice.  So nice in fact that this "not-so-homeless" man
decided to take a snooze on one entire seat.



A closeup of the not-so-homeless man.



As you can see, there was time to be had.  I brought this book along
from home about introductory math.  I pick it up occasionally to "brush up"
on math skills.  Today I was reading about integers - or as Danica
McKeller calls them: "mintegers."  It's written for teenage girls, but it's
great for anyone curious about math.  Great writing.  Very smart author!



I had not yet discovered I could buy coffee outside the terminal.  This
"more-homeless-looking" man just now made me more aware of the need for
it.  He spent a long time trying to get comfortable and may have been
there all night.



I got up from my own seat and went outside to ask if there was
a Dunkin' Donuts more open looking than this one!



The sun was coming up.  Note the leather Bruins banner hanging on the 
outside of the building.  Now THIS was huge.



Here's a closeup



I've arrived back inside the North Station terminal with a large coffee
in hand.  I'm good now.  Finally waking up... and LOOKING up.  And what do
I see but this interesting little sign which says "DANGER - DO NOT WALK
ON CEILING."



On close inspection I see that this is in fact what it says about 30
feet over my head!  OK...



Coming back to ground level, we find these very naturalistic (not) dyed
flowers out in front of the gift shop.  OK...



Eventually I will be taking the train to the race, but not before
discovering more art!  This photographic life-size rendering of some of
the Bruins hockey team members was pretty impressive.  I was curious about
the "fix" that evidentially had to be made for this art job. See anything
unusual? How about the size of all the images?  I like how they fixed
the problem for the third man from the left!



Great life-size image of Tuukka Rask - The Bruins goalie. For the
non-hockey fans (like me), his name is pronounced
"Tewka" Rask.  By the way - he's incredibly good!



Finally, we have an announcement for track 4.



Haverhill - here we go!



Walking out to get on train.



I stopped to take this picture of the Leonard Zakim Bridge to my right before
boarding.  It's a pretty amazing "work of art" (as Steve Prefontaine would
say about winning a race!)



A closer look at the supporting cables.



To my left is the train - which I WILL board.  But first a picture of
the concrete [roadways] over me.  Were talking tons of it!



These bikers got on before me.  I asked then if they knew where
Washington Street was in Haverhill (where the race was).  They made my
day when they said "No problem, this train line ENDS at
Washington Street!"



This seemingly boring picture (of the front locomotive from INSIDE the
end of the first train car) had a sign outside it which caught my eye
while we were traveling about 60 mph.



Now THIS looks dangerous.  Yes, I WILL heed this advice!



Some of these trains up here are new.  This, as you can see, is a double
decker.  I chose the lower level.  (Less distance to fall during a
major de-railing accident :)



We've made it to Haverhill.  Better yet -- the Lasting Grill Bar, where
the race is to happen.  As I look at the bib number list, I'm pleased
and surprised by the fact they've given me number 104.  For reasons that
would bore anyone I won't explain why THIS is my most favorite number. 
OK, I'll tell... My first girlfriend and I picked it at random as THE
best number in 10th grade - just because no one else would!  Her name
was Joanna.  Our most favorite word (in typing class) was "the." OK...



The bar before the race.  I imagined all the owners (of the displayed
license plates) must have had quite a story about the life of their
cars - to say nothing of their own!



The pre-registered runners list.



This road sign in the bar was cool.  But what did H. C. stand for?
The only thing that came to mind was "half cocked."



Bumper stickers on your car?  Sure that's fine, but how about 
millions of them on your bar room drinks cooler?  The feel of this place
was definitely "Old Irish, hard working, been through the mill, have a
"hell of a good time," loud, family, sort of place!



Well, it's race time.  Time to go out there and put in a mile warm up. 
It was 54 degrees and totally sunny.



The race has ended!  This is one picture I took of one woman still
coming in.



This race was "gender graded." It is similar to the mixed doubles system
of race timing.  We were not "paired up" but the women were all given an
adjusted handicap time which, when incorporated into the full results,
gave a much more "even" representation.  Since the "field" was
bigger, I finished 8th in my adjusted age-group.  Interesting!  The
awards went 6 deep for us in our 60-69 M+F group.  I placed 8th out of 30 and
missed placing by 2 this time.  Hmmm.  As races go, I was actually not
feeling great today.  Was feeling a litttle pre-occupied with things
other than racing.  



The Lasting Room Pub and Deli in Haverhill.  [the finishing line]
A "GO PATS" banner covers windows. [New England Patriots football]



The food was awesome!  Pasta. Dogs. Drinks.



The food was served outside the pub in the back, down next to a
lower-level parking lot.



The race is now over and we all eat and enjoy the awards [being given
out upstairs, inside the pub.



I leave you with two TOTALLY unrelated pictures.  As I was waiting for
the 1:15 pm train (which I missed because I was "too involved" in a
phone conversation with my sister Sally out in Arizona) I noticed two
kids playing a game called Hacky Sack.  I have NEVER seen two kids play
this game as well as these two.  For sometimes as much as 30-60 second,
and with incredible speed, each kid ALONE would use his foot only to
control the small bean-bag-like ball - keeping it in the air.  The
footwork was often so fast, that it was difficult to even see where the
ball was.  In my opinion, they were both the best of the best.  No
doubt in my mind.  Total champions who were loving every second -
praising each other for performances.  Others looked on in awe.



A close up of the hacky sack boys.

Another side note [and related to my distraction-prone afternoon] is
that I actually MISSED the second train, because I was talking
too much to a stranger about his life AS the second train came and went!  It
was not until after a "dinner out" at a local Subway restaurant in town,
that I finally boarded a 7:15 PM train back to North Station!

I got home around 9:00 pm.  It had been a long but good day.