Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Places I've Run: "Marky Mark" (Boston, MA)

Four years of college cross country, indoor, and outdoor track mean that I’ve probably run more miles in Boston than anywhere else. Every day at 3:30 my team met at the TTC (Track and Tennis Center) to go for a run. Some days we piled into one of BU’s big red 15-passenger vans and our coach drove us to a park, or trails, or a reservoir. But mostly we ran from the TTC. The routes were passed down to me by the previous generation of BU Track girls and they all have names: River, Jamaica, City, Riverway, Science Figure-8, GC Sans GC, Fresh Pond, Res to Res, and my personal favorite: Marky Mark.

This run is named for the actor Mark Wahlberg (who started his career as a rapper: Marky Mark). Allegedly he has a house on Sargent Street in Brookline, thus this run is named for him (so the story goes). I like it because it’s one big loop, has minimal stoplights, and is a nice combination of streets and trails and dirt and ponds. The shortest version (mapped below) is 6.6 miles. This version starts and ends at the BU TTC (100 Ashford Street, Boston, MA). Of course you could start/end anywhere along the loop! 

You can add on by running around Jamaica Pond, and/or around the Brookline Reservoir (1500m around). When I was in Niger, sweating to death running around Le Stade, I imagined myself running Marky Mark. And when I’m on a treadmill I often picture this run. Why do I love it so much? I have no idea…if you’re ever in Boston you should try it and see for yourself!

If you can't see the map, click here.