Running The Freedom Trail & Giveaway!
/Annddddd the winner IS:
CONGRATS!!!!
Thank you to everyone that participated and big thanks to our Sponsor!!!
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For kids that grew up in the Boston area, the historic Freedom Trail was a given field trip multiple times throughout school. For those that don't know, the Freedom Trail:
The Trail takes the visitor to 16 historical sites in the course of two or three hours and covers two and a half centuries of America's most significant past. A red brick or painted line connects the sites on the Trail and serves as a guide.
Sometimes history can be boring ... I don't think I am alone in that. Soooo once you elevated to the age of 21, some people would do a Freedom Trail Pub Crawl ... similar results, right? ;) Well, a few weeks back I noticed that you could actually run the Freedom Trail. Aptly titled: Freedom Trail Run.
Freedom Trail Run is the active way to tour Boston's historic Freedom Trail! Our unique running tour will show you the sites in an up-close and detailed way that's unlike any other tour!
With a description like that, I had to give it a try! :) The Freedom Trail Run is offered on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings at 8:30am ... ALL YEAR ROUND! You heard that right folks. It is a great experience for tourists AND locals alike. The whole experience takes about 2 hours and in the end you run just about 3 miles.
We meet on Boston Common (at the corner of Park & Tremont St.) and run a 5K course that passes some of America's most important historical landmarks. We don't just "run-by" the sites, we stop and explore them! And since we stop so often (16 times), even beginners can participate!
The organizer, Eddie, who also runs the amazing Cambridge 5k series, offered me a chance to check out the Freedom Trail Run for free ... and even bring a friend along. :) I asked Becki from Fighting For Wellness, a fellow Boston healthy-living blogger, to join me and thankfully she said yes. This was going to be the first time we would really get to hang out - outside of social media - so I was excited. We met the group just before 8:30am on one corner of Boston Common (Park St & Tremont St). The group has four guides: Eddie, Shelly, Ginger and Sean!
Eddie gave the group the overview of what to expect during the morning and a little history about Boston. And I must admit I grew up and have lived here most of my life and I learned things within the first 5 minutes of him talking!
1-2-3 FREEDOM and we were off...
The first stop was just about 0.2 miles from where we started so it was a good test of what we would expect along the run. Short runs in between the 16 historical stops.
Our Group
(Photo Courtesy Freedom Trail Run)
Isn't the State House beautiful? From there, we headed to the first of three burying grounds. Oohhh...
Paul Revere has 2 headstones
How funky is the last headstone? No one knows who it's for, but it has a funky design and has withstood years of Boston weather. When we stopped at the Old South Church...
...we turned to our right and found the place where Benjamin Franklin was born. (Again, I forgot that from school!)
Obviously, the street has changed since he was born, but Boston had to claim some ties to being his hometown and the above was created.
Did you know that there was just one spring that gave the city of Boston its water? Since it was the only source of clean water, it drew people to it to live ... and hello downtown Boston!
We stopped at the memorial for the Boston Massacre and the old State House:
Before heading to the North End to see some great Paul Revere spots.
Paul Revere's House
We are #BostonStrong!
After visiting the final burying ground of the tour, we were able to see the thinnest house on the East Coast. This little house is just 10.5 feet wide. Can you believe that?
So far this had been the most fun I'd had on the Freedom Trail ... and we weren't even done yet.
The next stretch of the run was the longest straight running section, which was about 1/2 a mile. We were heading from the North End to Charlestown.
As we neared the Bunker Hill monument, we came to the largest hill of the morning. The group did a race up the hill. Before the "race" began, it was announced that 2 guides had never lost. *Challenge accepted* Thankfully our group had a high school cross country kid in it (YES!), so Anthony was able to defeat the guides and take reign as fastest up the hill. :P
And as we hit the top there it was ... the Bunker Hill Monument!
All of a sudden, it was time to head to the final stop ... the U.S.S. Constitution!
Wow! That time flew by.
We ran to a nearby convenience store to collect our t-shirts and free drink! Of course, I had to refuel with #myafter of Chocolate Milk! :)
In total, it was a 3-mile run. I stopped the Garmin whenever we stopped at a location so you can see in total it was about 30-or so minutes of running.
After everyone in the group had their awesome shirt and drink, we headed over to the Ferry to head back to the Faneuil Hall/Start area.
As we toured back to where we started, we got some beautiful views of the city!
Photo Courtesy of Freedom Trail Run
The entire Freedom Trail Run was 2 hours start to finish. Thank you Eddie for being right on time.
The group included people of all ages and athletic abilities. There were even a set of girls there on a bachelorette weekend. It was a mix of locals and tourists.
The Freedom Trail Run is $40 a person and includes the guided tour, a t-shirt, your drink of choice from the convenience store and the ferry ride back to the Start/Faneuil Hall area.
But what is that? You want to try the Freedom Trail Run for free?
Well ... OKAY!! :)
Eddie is giving me the task of giving away a tour to one lucky winner and a guest of their choice (this can be used anytime this year so you can be an out of towner and win!!!).
Here’s how to enter the giveaway: Giveaway is open from June 11 (Tuesday) to 10am June 14 (Friday)!
The winner will be announced on Friday!
