Hessian Hill

Today was scheduled to be 5 miles with a "long hill climb" according to my self-inflicted training schedule. Since the woods are a wet mushy mess, I ran the Hessian Hill loop in Cornish. This is paved, very rural with almost no traffic, and a heck of a good climb. I run it counter-clockwise so the climb is a steady tough 1.5 miles long and the descent is a screaming steep downhill half mile. When I bike this hill, I always do it in the other direction, because that steep half mile down will just about throw me over the handlebars and it hurts my hands to squeeze the brakes the whole way down. The rest of the loop is fairly flat and very nice running with no traffic and narrow country roads. I parked in a spot that allowed me to save the hill for last and do the easy stuff first. The entire loop (with a little out and back to my car) was 5.2 miles.

If I time this right, there is usually a beautiful sunset visible from the top of the hill. I was a little early tonight so I got to see the distant White Mountains instead. Also the almost-full moon was out early and was very pretty hanging there just above the tree tops. What an awesome run!