Every body's different, and no single way of doing things will work for everyone. That goes for running styles, I suspect, and it's definitely true for stretching.

 

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Just a reminder, folks… the lottery for the Mount Washington Road Race runs from March 1 through the 15.

 

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We’d originally planned to follow the Webster Cliff over Mount Jackson and Webster, but around Eisenhower we began to consider bailing out at the Mizpah Springs cutoff. That became our solemn plan as the afternoon wore on, and we were greatly cheered by a sign indicating that we would reach Route 302 in just 2.6 miles. 

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I hadn't seen my friend Michelle in a long time, so it was great to get out and run together while the sun shone today.

 

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Mount Washington was a bit of a letdown. The biggest mountain in New England, and people had to put a tourist trap on top. It must have been  spectacular before some busybodies went and built a hotel, cut a road and laid tracks up the side.

 

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Speaking, as I was, of N. Nipmuck, here's the application, courtesy of race honcho James Campiformio: The race is out-and-back, 16 miles, and does NOT cover the same section of trail as Nipmuck Marathon, he writes.

So far as I can tell, the first trail race anywhere in New England this spring will take place on Saturday, March 24. The good news is it's right here in Nashua. The bad news (for me) is that it's a wee little 5K.  

UPDATE 3/20 - worse news... it's cancelled!

 

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We planned to hit every summit on the range, but by the time we topped Jefferson we realized that we were going slower than we’d expected.

 

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I finally got around to posting pix of the gig at Tupelo. Steve's fans will want to catch the next show, March 25 at Nashua High South, even at risk of still more cowbell...

I’d always thought it would be cool be on the top of a mountain in time to see the sunrise. I was right.

 

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We used headlamps at the start, heading up the Daniel Webster Scout trail, which winds up Mount Madison from the campground. It got pretty steep pretty quickly, and I soon started shedding layers.

About an hour or so into the hike, we passed a sign warning that we should turn back if the weather was bad and we wanted to live to run another day. We saw no cause to reconsider.

 

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Since I didn't exhaust the Potanipo trail system, I had plenty left in my legs, so we drove to the Eastman Meadow trailhead at Beaver Brook and ran for another 1.5 hours.

 

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I’d never heard of the Potanipo Rail Trail. I first noticed it on the lower left corner of my Beaver Brook trail map. Once I saw those little green lines leading tantalizingly off the edge of the paper, I had to go see for myself.

 

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I got lost on the way up Mount Madison, and so learned an early, important but ultimately painless lesson: if you can’t see a blaze ahead, make sure you can still find one behind you.

Madison was the first peak along our Presidential Traverse. The trip was my friend Michelle’s idea, and I’d rank it among her best. It was the most rewarding hike I’ve ever done, and I recommend it to anyone fit to handle such treks. We reckon our north-to-south route wound about 22 miles, and it took us about 14 hours. Though we did it way back on Aug. 26, it’s still clear in my memory and epic enough that I thought it worth writing about. Besides, I haven’t done anything half so cool of late.

 

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I’ve met plenty of runners who don’t stretch. Some admit it sheepishly, knowing they probably should work on flexibility. Others sincerely believe they don’t need to stretch.

 

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