New London to Newbury

Distance: 8.32 Time: 1:27:41

Another great opportunity to run with Haley. She's in excellent running shape from all her marathon training ... while I plod along. Really enjoy her company.

Today's run started in New London where the town hall neighbors Colby Sawyer College and has nice open town green area with plenty of shops and restaurants. We started out on Main St with temperature in the 30s and winds a blowin'.

Within 1/10th of mile took a left and headed down (literally) on South Pleasant, but the landscape quickly changed to quick steep hill to complete the first mile where road jogged on to Bog Street and our passing Old Main Street Cemetery.

As I set up courses to follow I try to find "the road less travelled" when possible, but also with an eye to not back tracking on roads already run. Going into this run I had two route options - one would extend to a half marathon, but cover more back roads .. but it did require some back tracking -- so I opted for us to take the more direct route.

At about 3 miles we came upon a beautiful stone church (St Andrews) while we were on King Hill Road. At that point made the decision to head straight to 103A and follow that, instead of the long and winding alternate. It was a quiet Saturday holiday morning so there were very few cars and out running on 103A that hugs the east side of Lake Sunapee was very pleasant.

The winds died down and after climbing terrain from just past 4 up to mile 6 the rest of the run was a nice easy descent into Newbury. The Town Hall is on the corner of 103A and 103 with the white traditional historic buildings making for a true New England feel.

The tree in background of our finish photo with town hall shows the living evergreen that is lit up for the Christmas season. So nice to share the time with Haley and Nancy today - we departed Newbury and after scouting the next couple of legs (Sutton / Bradford) we headed to Henniker for a wonderful lunch at Daniels.

As per the Merrimack plan, I dropped off a golfball bread crumb clue along the course. The breadcrumb RUNNH234 inscribed along with the leg number and the clue word. When the words are put together for the legs from Merrimack they will provide a complete puzzle clue for people to figure out.

Here's a hint (and picture) to help you locate the RUNNH234 clue ball:

Less than 1 mile in

as you start along Bog

take a look in a knot

just above head height

and you'll find the orb

like a bump in a log