The Seven Sisters Trail Race, Sunday, May 1, 2005
Gillis, Lassen, and Whittey made the trip out. The 7 Sisters is one part of the Mt Holyoke range that the race covered. Its in the Amherst Ma. area. The race started with, I would say, a half to three quarter mile vertical on a single track trail. So there was a lot of bunching up. Then you get to the top and its down, up, down, up......very little flat area to stretch out the legs. It rained fairly steadily, but if anything it was refreshing.
The course was somewhat muddy, but not bad, not many places where you'd worry about wiping out as a result of it. All in all, a gorgeous, wooded course with several spectacular vistas overlooking the Connecticutt River and surrounding farms. As part of the course you had to run around, both out and back, the wraparound porch of this lovely building on a hilltop ( I think its an inn ) and we got a little spectator push from that.
In the end, Steve and I had to dispute Wes' contention that 7 Sisters is tougher than Escarpment. Steve's view was that because you had to walk the uphills and put the brakes on for the downhills with relatively few flats to open up, it wasn't as tough. I felt that Escarpment was tougher just because of the 6 and a half extra miles.
But now that the three of us have done both, we can argue the points for years to come, and isn't that what its about anyway?
