Accidental trail -- Wed. June 9

Aiming for a road route with the Allen hills, but I wanted to get my stretch in, so started there (again buggy, despite cooler weather and recent rains) after a slow first mile; to wake up I figured I'd do a minimal trail loop before going back to Hamilton, but lost the route, and ended up coming out at Wallace pond. Dithered a bit running back through state school (past a troupe of kindergartners being led on an adventure by several teachers) and decided to stick with the Allen hills idea. Exit state school on Jackson, double back onto rail trail and follow to geohannum, then cross through baseball field and continue on trail to come out at end of Hamilton. Then up to Allen as usual, now with some good trails miles under my feet (shod in road shoes, ironically). The hills are as tough as ever; go the whole hog, over 202 and through to Enfield, then enjoy the gentle descent back to 9, and thus back towards home, running past super market all the way to Greenwich, thus:

Time: 1:11:51
Distance: 9.65 miles
Pace: 7:27s

Comment: after stopping clock took shoes off and jogged on grass and then road back to house. Quite a pleasant change, like the cooler weather (wore Boston shirt, long sleeves, and did *not* get hot). The timing includes a pitstop where I let the clock run, so pace was maybe a second or two higher. Bug bite on right ankle not helping achilles at this point. . .