Prospect Hill (6.42mi)

Today at lunch, Jim (a co-worker friend of mine and my largest donor to date - thank you Jim!!!) and I did the Prospect Hill Park loop, which at the summit, offers a spectacular view of the Boston skyline all the way out from Waltham. It really is a great vantage point and if you happen to live/work in/around the greater Waltham area, it's totally worth checking out sometime. From my office, it's roughly 1.15mi to get to the base of Prospect Hill Park road. From there, you start a roughly 350ft vertical climb up, over the next mile or so, until you get to the top at the vantage point. From there the route descends slowly back down, winding along the road through the park, until you get back to street level on the opposite side. From this point, there are 2 options. Turn around and come back the way you came, or turn and run up the old ski slope on the back side. We usually mix it up, depending on the weather and surface conditions. We opted to stick to the road as the rocky/icy surface of the ski hill could easily result in a twisted ankle or other injury, so we played it safe. This loop is one of the more difficult hill loops I do. I'm not sure if this will come through or not, but I think you should be able to see the elevation profile from this link: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1603967

In any case, it was a really good run. Jim and I pushed pretty hard and we finished this run up a few minutes faster than we normally do. It was the first time I had felt near 100% in a while. I'm really starting to look forward to my long run this weekend.