moderately epic trail run

So Cranmore is 4 days out and I have been following the coverage of who is going to be there. Not that I'm intimidated, but there are probably a legitimate 25 (or more) people going who can beat me down and up the mountain 3 times. With that in mind, I headed out into the heat today to maintain fitness, boost confidence and explore some new territory. I skipped out on the morning run today with the race this weekend, (although I'll probably try to run twice tomorrow) and delayed getting out this afternoon until after 2:00. It was in the upper 80's, sunny with a little breeze and I got into the woods and stayed on the same rocky rooty hilly single tracks I've run a few times in the past few weeks. I was on the spruce swamp trail and the cheever commons loop; the pulpit rock and the grassy ridge trails in the manchester-essex woods as well as some of the more technical trails through Gordon Woods. I turned around at 6 miles (52:20) and tried to back track, but made one wrong turn which the Garmin helped me correct (first time I've used it for that). Wound up covering 12.55 in 1:51:58, with lots of ups and downs.