into november

October has come and gone quickly. It was a busy month without as much training as I’d hoped. Halloween weekend brought Adam’s annual Pitchell 100K. Despite my sore throat and prior commitment to attend the CMC’s banquet dinner in Hendersonville Saturday evening, I thought I’d have another go at this old nemesis of mine (3 prior DNFs).

A small crew assembled at Adam’s pad Friday evening and prepared for a midnight start from the summit of Pisgah: Adam, Dave, Jeremy, Psyche, Mike, Sultan and myself. We cached supplies along several MST/BRP crossings as we carpooled to the Pisgah parking lot. Surprisingly, the clear night was warmer than expected on the summit (temps would dip below freezing in Asheville) and the views were outstanding.

Night running is not my forte. Yet I had no intentions of getting left behind in the dark along Shut-In this year (as in previous years). I took off in the lead ahead of the bobbing lights of the speed demons. The last quarter of a large orange moon rose on the eastern horizon and I felt energized and ready to give Pitchell another go. The momentum lasted for the first few hours into Bent Creek where, too busy looking over my shoulder, I missed an important trail junction. After running a mile off course, I resumed my descent toward the French Broad feeling somewhat deflated.

The temperature continued to plummet as I neared the foggy river valley. Wind shirt, wool arm warmers and balaclava were insufficient armor against the chill. Sleepiness set in as I let go of trying to catch the runners ahead. Soon, it was a full on suffer-fest and the plan was quickly hatched to take the power-line cut just south of US-74A down to Adam’s house and bail at the approximate 50K mark. I arrived to the house just before dawn and startled a sleepy Lily, Duke and Uwharrie (Suzanne, Asa and Annie were out of town).

The accumulated exhaustion I felt from this night run, my sickness and the workweek at school was rather alarming. With the wonderful exception of meeting Peter Barr at the SB6K Challenge awards banquet, the rest of this weekend passed in a bedridden blur. Many thanks go out to Peter and Allison for making Lily and me feel so welcome. Saturday evening was definitely a highlight for this past month… Also a BIG congrats for Adam’s record-breaking Pitchell finish in 15:06… Outstanding!