It's been a while since my last update. The problem is, life got busy. School, work, and running got in the way. It's OK though, because I have a chance to update now!
I'm taking today off from training for the first time since before the semester started; January 11th was my last off day. It's a good "pausing point," I feel, for training, since we're less than a week from Albany, it's a good day for resting and recovering. To make it an even better day to recover, it's snowing super hard outside and the trails are bound to be pretty slushy and slick.
The last couple of weeks have yielded some really solid workouts that indicate I'm definitely ready to run fast in Albany. The latest was 2x3200m + 1600m on our cross country course. It was hilly, it was muddy, and it was generally not conducive to running fast. I went 11:37, 11:43, and 5:38--all told, that's 5:48 pace on a very slow surface for five miles. If I can knock that out for 13 miles on Saturday, I'll be boarding a plane for St. Louis and Nationals in May.
Yesterday was the Black Mountain Marathon/Mount Mitchell Challenge. The famous trail races start in Black Mountain, go through Montreat, and go up the trails towards Mount Mitchell (the highest point east of the Mississippi River). The Marathon (or "fun run," as they call it) doesn't summit Mt. Mitchell, but the Challenge goes all the way to the top and back--about a 38 mile endeavor. Ben, Daniel, Jared and I arose at 6:15 and hiked up to the first aid station, six miles into the race (although probably only 3/4 mile of hiking for us) and helped count bib numbers. Then we drove into town, and brought back some propane so that the people staying at the aid station all day would have some heat, as it was ridiculously cold and windy and rainy. This time, however, we ran up the 3/4 mile trail and then kept running up the course, completing our long run on the course that the racers were taking. It was pretty cool to be running past guys and cheering them on. It turns out they had to cut off the Challengers from completing the race because the conditions on top of Mt. Mitchell were ridiculous--two feet of visibility and hail, etc.--but about 20-25 guys made it through before they cut them off.
After our long run, lunch, and a nap, the four of us went down to the aid station which was actually on Montreat's campus (about 5k from the finish) and helped out there. The guys coming off the mountain at that point were all Challengers who had been able to summit, and they had crazy stories. "I saw three or four people get pulled off the mountain for hypothermia, but I know those weren't the only ones. It was crazy up there. Hail was hitting us, we couldn't see anything. The only thing that saved me was I had some dry clothes inside a ziplock bag in my pocket, and I was able to put those on once I summited so that I could be a little warmer," one runner told us. Absolutely insane. Yesterday confirmed my previously held suspicion that trail guys have some sort of disconnect in their brain. To quote Coach Larios, "trail runners are the pole vaulters of distance running." I agree wholeheartedly!
With less than a week to go 'til Albany, we'll be recovering much of this week, with a light workout or two just to keep our bodies feeling normal. I'll try to keep the blog and Twitter updated as much as possible throughout the trip. In the meantime, I leave you with a short video of my teammate Luke Copeland's cover of The Fray's Look After You in a recent Open Mic here at Montreat. It was dark in the room, so there isn't much to the video, but the audio is pretty sweet.
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