Cities to let freedom ring

MURFREESBORO — Each of the county's major municipalities will host their own fireworks shows this year, beginning this evening with Smyrna's.

Here's what you need to know about each event:

Smyrna : The town's annual Independence Day celebration at Lee Victory Park will begin at 5 this evening at the Lee Victory Rec Park, located at 110 Sam Ridley Parkway. Kids can play on inflatables and everyone will have a chance to see a Blackhawk helicopter on display. A hot dog eating contest will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the main stage. Those wishing to participate must register at the Parks and Recreation Department's booth by 5:30 p.m.

Residents can bring a picnic lunch or buy from any of the on-site vendors and enjoy live music from The Body & Soul Band. A flyover by a Blackhawk helicopter will take place just before the highlight of the evening, the annual fireworks show, which is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m.

The following roads will be closed between 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. due to the fireworks show:

- Sam Ridley at Fitzhugh Boulevard

- Sam Ridley at Nolan Drive

- Sam Ridley at Threet Industrial Road

- Sam Ridley, west of Nolan Drive

Murfreesboro : Celebration Under the Stars will be held at McKnight Park beginning at 5 p.m. Monday, with family games and activities lasting until 8 p.m. The colors will be presented and a singing of the national anthem will take place from 8 to 9 p.m. with the Murfreesboro Symphony Orchestra. Fireworks will begin at 9 p.m. If it rains between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m., the orchestra will be canceled and the fireworks will begin at 8:30 p.m.

Rock the Pool at SportsCom will take place from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., with music, games, prizes and free water exercise demonstrations from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. The fee is SportsCom water park admission.

The Stones River Chapter of the Military Officer's Association of America will be collecting old, unused or broken cell phones and recycling them in exchange for prepaid phone cards for use by our troops in Afghanistan. They will have drop boxes at McKnight park during the July Fourth activities. Parking will be available at McKnight Park and Rover will be running shuttles from Irongate Boulevard by the post office.

Long-day runs and late-evening climbs: making use of midsummer ...

Whatever one’s pastime, the long-daylight time of year ought not to be wasted, as the evenings will be clamping back down before you know it.

There are two general approaches: one is to use the 20-odd hours of daylight to attempt massive outings, the other is to do something – a hillwalk, a climb, a cycle-ride, a sail – surprisingly late in the day. Treat the evening as an add-on bonus, in other words.

The 2011 prize for the most impressive full-day effort (a day-and-a-half, actually) could well go to John Fleetwood, a very strong hill man who specialises in outings that would make even a fairly strong hillbagger blanche.

In a 22 June posting on the Fell Runners Association noticeboard , Fleetwood described his latest effort: “I’ve just returned from a new round: 21 Munros of Fannichs, Fisherfield, An Teallach (all Corrag Buidhe pinnacles and Lord Berkeley’s Seat obligatory!) and Beinn Dearg. 70 miles 28,000 feet.”

It took him 31 hours of “walking / sort of running”, with a six-hour break at Shenavall bothy. The weather was less than perfect – “thick clag for 75 per cent of it” – and there were problems in terms of injuries.

“I had a painful knee after 20 miles which was bad news with a further 50 to go,” Fleetwood said. “This meant I couldn’t really run, but I continued in the drizzle. The slow pace meant I had to stop the night in Shenavall (I didn’t fancy the pinnacles in the dark with thick mist, a pathetic emergency torch and anyway, I was knackered).”

The scale of the enterprise will be understood by anyone who has tackled any of these hills – particularly the remote Fisherfield Munros – in “normal” terms. Even fit, regular hillgoers tend to view the six Fisherfields as only just about doable in one push, so the idea of linking them with three other substantial hill groups is mightily impressive.

“The ground is very unforgiving over Fisherfield and An Teallach,” said Fleetwood, “particularly with a dodgy knee. Loads of angular boulders which were slippy in the drizzle. No crossing of roads for the first 50 miles, so you have to carry all your stuff. I did dump some food at the roadside which I was glad of.”

He reckons it was “a wonderful circuit but a tough call for a 24 hour round. I think that even if my knee hadn’t played up I’d have struggled to get close to 24 hours with needing to carry food, etc. It’s significantly harder than the Ramsay for example.

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