Charlestown to Unity

Distance: 13.15 Time: 2:42:51

That is not a misprint .... nearly 3 hours to cover a half marathon distance, no joke ... and neither was the course. This is not your run of the mill 13 miles and SO glad I had company along the way with my good friends Matias and Dan as well as Nancy's support. A hot sticky, steamy sweltering New England summer day. Not your ideal day to run this, but I'm running them in order so no option but to take it on.

As far as difficulty to this point - this leg takes the cake in distance and elevation. Check out this chart. I wasn't sure how I'd hold up taking this on as I haven't run beyond 10 miles in a long long time.

From a logistics standpoint the day couldn't have gone better. We were wheels up by 7:15 and running shoes on the ground by 8:15am. The first few miles through town and along route 12 were comfortable as there was cloud cover, but the stickiness was there. We were ready for support when 4 miles came. Keep those fluids coming. Even though it was open road and subtle, it was still noticeable that the road was inclined.

In hindsight I would have been wiser to design the course to traverse towns along the Connecticut River before heading back inland in Sullivan County since it means more significant elevation changes. Oh well - I have the Grafton course set up more along those lines.

When we got to mile 6 we were on a side road (Wheeler Rand) and then on to Stage Rd. Here's a couple pics of us saying good-bye to Charlestown and hello to Unity:

Nearing mile 9 was where the course went to dirt (Dunham) and then on to Costa which was a rocky off-road vehicle only stretch up for about 3/4 mile. Then it was on up to old West Unity Church for another refueling.

At mile 10 Glidden Hill stood in front of us - a wide dirt road that extends for a mile and is uphill at an insane grade ... and then when we came to the end of that road it was time to meet Libby the German Shephard. Fortunately I'd scouted the course and met her (and her owner) before so we were able to navigate through unscathed once we'd been sniff checked.

One last back / off road hilly stretch and then once past a graveyard then out to Center Road and on to the finish!!

An epic run - we made it ... one that I'll long remember ... and so thankful for the company and support!