Northeast Adventures: weekend update

Sunday, May 5, 2013

weekend update

On Saturday, I went up to Chesterfield, NH to take photos of the Chesterfield Fun Run 10K race. I'd worked out an issue I'd been having from time to time with the focus on my D600, and the shots came out beautifully. A gallery should be up within a day or so. Afterwards, I parked at the trailhead for Mt. Pisgah and Kilburn Pond, and went in to do a run on the infamous Kilburn Loop Trail (see any blog entry about the Pisgah 50K to see what I'm talking about); I'm giving serious consideration to doing my first ultra there later this year.

This morning I went to the base of Mt. Tom to take photos of the first few miles of the 51st Annual Walter Childs Memorial Race of Champions Marathon (note to race organizers: that is a seriously clunky long name! definitely at least consider shortening it some). After catching a bunch of shots of each runner (I'm very excited about how these turned out!), I zipped around across the river to catch the halfway point of the Seven Sisters Trail Race. After talking briefly with the volunteers at the halfway aid station, I hiked up about a quarter of a mile to a spot to take shots of the leaders coming through. Then I spent the better part of the next hour taking photos of runners descending the ledgy section in the powerline swath there. Again, I'm pretty psyched about how these shots came out! Anyway, after the final (or near-final) runners came though, I headed back over to the marathon to catch anyone finishing above a 3:30. It's a cruel finish, asking runners to climb for more than a mile to the end, under a beating sun with no shade. But the runners I saw looked fantastic. Strong, determined, and fit as hell.

Galleries will be posted for all three races later this week. And now... I get to go for another run!