Peaked Mountain 7K (?!) -- Sun. Oct. 22

One of the runs included my over ambitious fall season plan, and I'd be intending to let it pass. But on meeting with Ivan G. on Friday, and hearing he too had a run he was going to do despite lack of prep time, I said I'd give it a shot. It was my first time to the place, and the information ended up being a bit misleading. The Friends of the Res. (organisers) had posted 3.8 miles, so a long 5K+, starting at 9:30. But when I found my way there (slightly overshot at first -- it is practically in Connecticut, but I still went too far) I learned that it was to be 4.4 miles and starting at 10:00. The Peaked (pron. w/ two sylls) Mountain reserve was really lovely, and it looked to be a perfect day, sunny and not too chilly. Having warmed up with a mile or so I then hung around a bit and warmed up some more, watching the few dozen other runners arrive. I think there were 38 in the end, a very small crowd. An undiscovered run, so nice, must do it again next year w/ Mark . . . I thought. When we started I think I see one reason people might not choose this one-- the first mile was just brutal, like the mean hill in the Shelburne Falls run only on trails. Kind of like the Holland Glen run I've got, the one I shared with Mark the other day. Well, one chap went off at almost a sprint, but then petered out on the slope, and the rest just chugged up as best we could. I couldn't see who was out front, but a couple of cyclist types (multo spandex, club pattern shirts, muscly) I passed -- slowly-- going up then passed me as we neared the top, but then on the turn down I passed them again. The rest of the race--down the hill, along the road, into a field and round a lake, then back along the road to the parking lot--was me trying to keep ahead of them. Got some distance at first, but round the lake I could hear them closing (I think it was just one) and I figured that even if they passed I'd probably be in the top five, so I wasn't minding. But along the road i was still ahead, and then at the end I had just a bit left, and he didn't. Retched a bit after the line, but that was partly because the last 100 yards was mainly uphill (shades of the Cave Hill run). Came in second with a 31:50.

Time: 31:50
Speed: 8.2 mph
Distance: 4.38 miles

Comment: A lovely run, if tough. Great breakfast after and nice people. Prize was nice too -- must bring the family down to hike the trail to the hill top proper (1224 feet; we ran only about a third of the way up).