This past weekend was the best getaway in quite a while. My college friend Dylan Carson was running in the Mt. Washington Road Race, a 7.6 mile race up the tallest mountain in New England. So my friend Nicole Schiavi (a former co-worker) and I met up with Dyl in Manchester, N.H., camped out near the foot of the mountain and hiked up early in the morning to see him finish.

The hike was great -- neither Nicole nor I wanted to be the first to say, let's take a break, so we pushed it and made good time. (About 2 hours 45 minutes ... my shirt was soaked with sweat after 30 minutes). Seeing the race was quite a thrill ... there's a great picture of Dylan finishing here. As the T-shirt says ... it's just one hill -- 6,200 feet up. The last bit is REALLY steep.

Afterwards we all hiked down again, feasted on pasta at this great Italian place in Conway, and then Nikki and I stayed at our friend Dan and Jenn's place on the beach in Rye, N.H. ... we got to walk along the shore the next morning. All in all, a great weekend!