The Stew Crew

March during Marathon season, means it's time to return to the mean hills of Clinton, Sterling and West Boylston and revisit our Reservoir Dogs Days with the Stu's 30K, organized by the Central Mass Striders and providing an E Streeters culinary gathering rivaled only by the hallowed New Year's Day Soup Run

 This year's edition features several special guest stars (more on that later)

Pre-race, your Stew Crew

Everyone seems to be getting a kick out of Tommy's pre-race stretching routine

Photo-bombing courtesy of Andrew in the early goings

At the Wachusett Reservoir. Keith O'Brien of Chelmsford makes his early move

This is how Andrew started his Spring Break from Holy Cross

Scott's looking fine, pre-blister

Here comes the pack.  You can always hear them coming with the telltale Carlooooooos call signal and see them coming with Andrew's muscle beach poses

Coming into mile 9, Andrew has apparently been holding the pose for four miles

One of my favorite spots in the race, for obvious reasons - Wicked Good Cookies.  Like they were made for this blog.

Not to be confused with a Wicked Good Blog

An impressive four-pack

One of these runners was in need of some Vaseline.  The other one was spooked by the offer.

So, in one of SEVERAL surreal moments along the course, and for reasons I still can't fathom, there were several Wicked Good shoutouts.  Multiple people - and I kid you not - gave a shoutout to the roving cameramen, with several saying they're readers of the blog and others just randomly asking to have their pictures taken.  Which led to moments like this, a near on-course collision.

Yes, even in the throes of a grueling 18.6 mile jaunt, we find the time for town-line battles

In the wilds of Sterling, a near-sterling performance by the crew

Always know where the cameras are, no matter which side of the road they migrate to

No to mention, watch your back.

Another request from another runner who knows about this blog.  She kicked all our asses, by the way.  Except that is, for the Founder of the Feast himself, Scott

Try as he might, her husband Mike couldn't catch up to her

Thumb's up from Barry, because he knows he's in the final 5K of the course

21:10

21:07

Caught off-guard, Andrew was unable to flex

The medals await

Sean, clearly stunned by having earned his hard-fought-for medal, tries desperately to grasp the concept, while Barry just grasps

Tommy clocks in

Meanwhile, at the tailgate, Scott readies the magical elixir

And the rest of us were all to happy to sit and enjoy the spoils of war.

Lots of passers-by were envious of our tailgate spread.  Judging by the comments on the course, most of them are probably reading this blog today, so a big Stu's Shoutout to all our unknown followers out there!  Happy to have you aboard!