Not doing the Shillelagh Shuffle this year.

So, I was really excited about participating in Paddy’s Road Race. Especially since I woke up this morning and saw that the rain had stopped and it was SUNNY!!!!

Matt plays in a flag football league, and his game was at 10, so he was going to come home and we were going to rush over to the race, which started at 11:30. Matt was running a little late, so we figured we’d get there around 11:45 and catch up. We’re not serious runners; we were going to do it for fun and probably walk most of it.

Well, Matt called me about 10 minutes ago, and he got off 95 and is stuck in stagnant traffic on Lexington Street and Comm. Ave. The police have stopped traffic, but didn’t offer any type of detour. When he tried to get into our street, a cop told him he couldn’t go that way. Matt told the cop that he was trying to go home, but the cop said, “Too bad, you’re going to have to wait for the race to end.”

Matt told me that I could go ahead and do the race without him, but one of the reasons I wanted to do it was because it was something fun to do together.

Poor Matt has been lost in Auburndale/West Newton/Waltham for OVER an hour, and I’m trying to tell him how to get home to the best of my ability, but half the roads are blocked.

Sorry, Paddy’s Road Race…we didn’t make it. At least the $32 in registration fees went to Newton Special Athletes.

And to the City of Newton: Why were the residents of the streets affected by this not notified in advance that we would be viritually locked out of our street if we left via automobile before the race? And that we’re more or less trapped IN our streets?! Hopefully I don’t have a medical emergency between now and the time the race is over. But at least if we were alerted about this in advance, we could have made the appropriate arrangments.

Needless to say, we’re angry.

Filed under Greater Boston (General), Massholes on the road, My Life, New England, Things to do in the Boston Area |