back to bent creek

The 5th annual Bent Creek Gobbler 50K took place this past Saturday, which is always a local favorite. I was thankful to get a chance to run with Jeremy and finish in under 4.5 hours after a delayed onset of tight hamstrings and a stiff knee on the second lap. Feeling less than fit for this one helped put Mad A's delivery of a sub-four (on a challenging course with a mile of climb while videotaping?!?) into perspective. Wow!

gordian knot

(((arcane mathematics)))

section 11

Congrats to Carl, Adam (and soon Denise) for setting FKTs on some tough traverses. Inspired by (and slightly envious of) all this exciting adventure running activity, I spent Veteran’s Day training on some beautiful local trail so that I may get back in shape to join in on some of the fun.

Lily dropped Uwharrie and I off at the Woodlawn MST trailhead at 8:30 AM. We met up with Scott Williams, who ran east with us for about an hour. Fresh off a 2:30 3^rd place finish at Shut-In, he turned back to let his legs recover. Uwharrie and I headed onwards to NC-181, some 37 miles and 8000’+ of climbing away.

We kept plugging along up over Bald and Dobson Knobs on a sunny and unseasonably warm day. We reached the summit of Bald by 10 AM, Pinnacle by 11 and the Linville River ford by noon. Not wanting to repeat a 2009 Labor Day ordeal, I tried to refill my water bottle as often as possible.

After enduring the brutally burnt out and exposed climb up Shortoff Ridge, Uhwarrie and I were pleased to find water at the summit spring. My bottle filled slowly from the trickle. Halfway through at 1 PM, we were on track to break 9 hours, which seemed like a worthwhile goal.

The distance and unusual November heat was taking its toll on my legs. They threatened to cramp as we plowed our way through the leaves on gnarly technical single track. Still, panoramic views of the gorgeous late season foliage took my mind off any suffering… That is, until the 1000’ steep climb to the Chimneys, which I had forgotten about. Ouch.

Onwards over Table Rock and down to Steels Creek, we encountered shade and cooler afternoon temperatures in this gem of a gorge. It was time to dig deep to finish in less than 9 hours. I would have much preferred to walk it in, but we trotted most of the way up the last 1500’ climb to meet Lily and Jessica at the finish before sunset at 5:15 PM. Good to get back out there.

november sky

But of all the months when earth is greener
Not one has clean skies that are cleaner.
Clean and clear and sweet and cold,
They shine above the earth so old,
While the after-tempest cloud
Sails over in silence though winds are loud,
Till the full moon in the east
Looks at the planet in the west
And earth is silent as it is black,
Yet not unhappy for its lack.
Up from the dirty earth men stare:
One imagines a refuge there
Above the mud, in the pure bright
Of the cloudless heavenly light:
Another loves earth and November more dearly
Because without them, he sees clearly,
The sky would be nothing more to his eye
Than he, in any case, is to the sky;
He loves even the mud whose dyes
Renounce all brightness to the skies.

-Edward Thomas, 1914

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!