Madison/Tamworth Roads

Made it to Tamworth by 7:30am for my shift. My partner, Tyler, was finally back after being out for a shoulder injury that happened just before Christmas. We were supposed to work the Christmas 24 hour shift together, but when he got injured (fell off the back of a fire truck), I was stuck with the most depressing person ever. Nice guy, but when the first thing he says on Christmas morning is, "If I wasn't here today, I would probably be dead," you know you're not in for a Christmas filled with yuletide joy. Ha ha.

Tyler and I have had some fun times working together in the past. We took one truck down the North Conway strip one time blowing huge clouds of black smoke all over the cars behind us. It was the funniest thing ever. One guy eventually followed us until we stopped at Walgreen's to tell us that the smoke was so bad, that he couldn't see or breathe and had to pull over. Very difficult to hold in the hysterical laughter while talking to him. Then a Conway PD officer, stopped by to let us know there was something wrong with our truck. We didn't hold in the laughter with him and even got him laughing.

So today ended up being a fun day catching up with him. He got married over the last 9 months and has really gotten his life more in line with where he wants to be. We had a decent call in the morning that was pretty entertaining and then just hung out at the base the rest of the day. It was nice to have him back.

The weather was beautiful today, so I couldn't wait to get out for my run. The air was cool and dry!! I decided to just run from the Tamworth base down 41, then up High St to Washington Hill to Deer Hill and back to the base on 41. What a difference the weather makes in how I feel, since I felt fast and strong. I haven't felt that in awhile, other than a random run here and there. This run is exactly 13.1 miles. 7:06/mi pace. 794ft of elevation gain. Good pace for a training run. And I wasn't dead tired after it either. Such a relief, although it will be short-lived when the higher temps return over the next few days. As soon as weather like today becomes a mainstay, I'll be back out running some of the same mountain and road runs I was doing last Fall and this Spring to see how I compare to those runs now.