Right now I'm in Orlando (that's our hotel, above) for a printing conference, which gives me the first chance of 2013 to pick up a new state: Florida! Land of the low-hanging fruit, and also the hanging chad.
The weather here is pleasant, with a mid-day high (right now) of about 75 degrees, which is a big improvement on 0 degrees in New Hampshire, which we left behind yesterday.
I went for a brief run this morning (2.5 miles) to gauge the area and climate prior to attempting an 8-mile circuit on either Monday of Tuesday. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to rent a bicycle where I am (hotels near the airport), so it's running.
There's a pool, too, so I may go swimming today (Saturday, Jan. 26) and tomorrow as part of the prep. I need to do more swimming anyway if I'm going to do better in any triathlons this summer.
Today I got a nice e-mail today from a guy named Andrew Cushing, a guy who was race director of a 5K I did in the town of Grafton this past fall. To help in my question to run in all of New Hampshire's cities, town, and unincorporated places, Andrew proposed organizing a few 5K runs in the sparsely populated hill communities north of Interstate 89: places such as Dorchester and Orange.
Not sure if this proposal was made out of pity, but I'm game. So I look forward to joining Andrew and his running pals some day when the weather warms up to bag as many as three towns in a single day. Thanks, Andrew!
And you know, I just cruised the N.H. race listings at www.coolrunning.com and out of something like 100 races already scheduled for the 2013 season, I think I saw maybe two towns that I hadn't run in before.
So this is the year, it seems, where I have to seriously broaden my effort to include non-racing towns, just as Andrew has suggested. It's the only way I'm ever going to get to finish this silly quest by the self-imposed deadline of May 14, 2016.
Also, one more note to myself. As motivation to keep things going this winter and into the summer, I have to remember there are plans afoot to join an expedition to trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in August or September of this year.
As a climb, Kilimanjaro isn't technically that difficult. With its big broad profile and steady slopes, this immense mountain is like a gigantic version of New Hampshire's Mount Washington. Even so, conditioning will improve my chances of making it to the summit, which is (gulp!) 19,341 feet.
So I have a specific reason to push myself in the months ahead, don't I?
And so maybe this will be what gets me to complete another list-in-progress: the 48 4,000-footers in New Hampshire, where I've been stuck at 30 since the season before last. We'll see.
