The Brighton Reservoir

Few places in the city are as conducive to communal exercise as the Brighton Reservoir. It has ample parking, its accessible by the T, and if you happen to pass out mid-run, there’s half a million people out there, so the chances are high that you’ll get immediate help. What more could you ask for?

Well for one thing, a goal. And I’ve yet to find a place in Greater Boston that provides one as easily. Because there is enough wiggle room, the distance of the path changes too much from measurement to measurement for anyone to get an accurate read, but all reports fall within 1.75 miles with a standard deviation of .25. For guys like me, that’s huge.

Running coaches all my life have told me, “if you’re just getting off the ground, its best to run for time, rather than distance, until you know you can run for 30 mins stright. Then move over and track distance.” The problem is, no matter how fast you run, a minute is still a minute. For me, that’s not incentive enough to keep going. I could crawl and meet the requirements. But with distance, I can finish early if I want to. If all I have to do is get from A to B, then I can convince myself to do it. Each step matters, and for me, that’s what matters.

If you’re getting into fitness, understand this. Sometimes advice is smart because its uniform. If you roll an ankle and it swells, icing it is always a good thing. Most times though, fitness advice is half-informed. Beyond universal causality that occurs within human biology (like swelling), people are different. What works for A doesn’t necessarily work for B. The quicker people learn that, the happier and more successful they’re going to be with their exercise routine. And 90% of getting in shape is just doing something. When I did corporate sales for a health club, I did enough research to know that roughly 11% of American’s have a gym membership. How many of those 11% do you think actually use it? Those numbers were bad news for my sales career, but they were certainly motivational. It means, really, that if you go out and take a walk, you’ve exercised more than well over 75% of the country. According to information from 2009 that puts you in front of 230,254,913 Americans. Its hard not to be motivated when you’re kicking that much ass.

But the Reservoir isn’t just math, hard figures, and heart-attack prevention. Its got some soft-value that’s hard to see in the short run (pun intended). First of all, its dirt. Or it looks like dirt, either way, its easier on the knees. I’ve spoke to enough 45+ year olds who come to me like Jacob Marley warning against the perils of running on asphalt. I make my bones defying convention, but its hard to refute their arguments when they’re saying them to you while wearing a knee brace and sitting a week away from replacement surgery.

It also has water. Given that it’s a Reservoir, I’m sure you’re shocked. But in the summer, that means a cooler breeze. It also means Goose shit and gnats all over the place, but if you want to run through hot tar on an 85 degree day while your knees slowly deteriorate, more power to you. In short, I can’t recommend going here enough. Last night I went down at 9:30/10:00 p.m. and there were still 7 or 8 people there. If that isn’t enough of an endorsement, just remember that its not a road, and you don’t have to worry about cars, cyclists, or idiot pedestrians sauntering out into the sidewalk, oblivious to their surroundings, you, and what the impact of 7 minute miles feels like slamming into an inert object.