Brendan and I ran the Fells Skyline trail; the distance is from
fellsbiker.com (7.88 mi) and is consistent with my expectation. We may have ran a bit farther running to and deviating from the trail. The climb is a conservative guess.
The trail itself is beautiful, with pleasant though tricky rocky ground on most of its length. The ridgelines offer a few good views of the park, and the trail entirely encircles the reservoirs west of I-93. We ran into a few hikers and dogs (some of which were unpleasant), but I didn't see any other runners. Perhaps counterclockwise is the preferred direction of travel?
Brendan set a good pace, and I was content to follow him, since I'm usually very bad at pacing myself. My joints felt excellent throughout the run despite the numerous hills, and my muscles responded well. Breathing was labored at times, varying from 3/3 at the start to 1.5/1.5 and up to 1/1 at the toughest sections; I held a steady 2/2 for most of the run. The biggest impediment was perspiration and dehydration. The dewpoint was about 13 C (50+% humidity), and I guzzled the liter of water I left at the start once we returned.
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