The Sunday Slaughter

Today's run was quite the opposite of yesterday's, hence the title of this post (albeit a little overly dramatic, but it fit in nicely with yesterday's title). Not a brisk pace, but still a fast one given the technical trails we were running on. I felt great throughout and simply enjoyed it. Just the kind of run I needed, and my buddy Stephen definitely was a big help. We met up at Bradbury Mountain at 7am and disappeared into the woods on a sunny, cool morning. Temperature was 20 degrees when we started, which turned Stephen's water to slushy ice later into the run. My bottle was insulated on my running belt and was spared of any freezing.

The trails are very windy and full of rocks and roots which help keep the pace slow. The hills are relatively small, but constantly rolling. The combination of these two factors make for some technical trails that are a blast to run on.

As we cruised along, we chatted about hunting, fly fishing, teaching ethics, and of course ultras and the ultra scene. Both of us have our hats in the ring for the Western States 100, and we both are also going to run Massanutten 100 as a back-up. We'll find out in less than two weeks who's doing what.

Afterwards, we headed over to a local breakfast place in Cumberland to meet up with Stephen's wife, Kellh, and their two kids, Riley and Quinn. Riley's little 3 year old eyes lit up when she spotted me in the parking lot and she ran over and jumped into my arms, asking me to carry her. At the risk of sounding very corny, I've never been big on the idea of having kids myself, but that little girl always makes me think it wouldn't be bad someday after all. Cute kid.




Ran 10.3 miles @ 9:08/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 143/164
Technical trails.
Very hilly.
20 degrees to start, lower 30s to end. Sunny.
Long pants, fleece jacket over long sleeved tech shirt over short sleeved tech shirt, beanie, gloves (off and on).