Assault on Week XX

Mon - 0hr

Tues - 60min/ 6m/ 1300' - Crowders - Took it easy on this Crowder Mtn loop.

Wed - 50min/ 5m/ 300' - Poston Park - Felt really sluggish on the trail, so jumped off after 3 miles and finished the day with 2m barefoot on the fields.

Thurs - 45min/ 5m/ 300' - Davidson XC - just an easy run on the 8k course with Hannah.

Fri - 0hr - Preparing and driving to Asheville to attempt the Assault on Mt. Pisgah Marathon tomorrow!

Sat - 4hr54min/ 26m/ 5500' - Assault on Pisgah - Awesome course and felt really good!  More below...

Sun - 75min/ 7m/ 2000' - Eden Rock - Just a spectacular run on the Rock2Rock course with Adam this morning.  I climbed pretty well considering what I had just done the day before.

Totals =

Time - 8hr44min
Distance - 49m
Vert - 9400'
Barefoot - 2m

What an extraordinary loop Mad A has put together for the May Mountain Marathon, a.k.a "Assault on Pisgah."  I cannot say enough about how awesome this route is!  Due to extenuating circumstances, Hannah and I were not going to be able to join the WNC crew for this run next weekend so we decided to jump the gun and do it this weekend.  This was also to be Hannah's first marathon.  How about that!  The girl decided that for her first marathon she would practically run a "sky marathon."  Which I could say the same thing about myself.  Anyway, we started around 9:50 and began steadily climbing up Yellow Gap trail only to descend back down to the N. Mills River and follow it to one of the best trails I have ever stepped foot on, the Big Creek Trail.  This 5 mile trail gains about 2300' and all but 300' of that climb is gained in the last 2!  I decided to take it easy on the way up to Pisgah and didn't ever really push myself the entire climb which lead me to feeling great.  I made it to the Pisgah parking area in 2:25 and then waited for Hannah to join me for the last 1.5m, 700', super technical climb to the top of Mt. Pisgah.  After soaking in the views for a few minutes, I gave a kiss goodbye to the "Pisgah Nymph" and headed back down the mountain to join the Laurel Mtn Trail only to run into about 100 mtn bikers ascending the same trail.  I was feeling pretty well the entire descent, but I had to pull of the trail to let a biker go through about every 2 minutes.  That got really old, very fast.  Soon enough, I hit Yellow Gap Rd. and started clicking of 7 minute miles for the last three miles back down the car and some Shiva soaking in the creek.  I felt extremely well considering I had just ran downhill for the last 13.5 miles and sat down and read some John Muir while waiting for Hannah to finish  her first marathon, which she did and she feels very satisfied with it.  Now, to recover and prepare for RAM in a couple of weeks.  That one is going to hurt!