Running or other strenuous activity done in temperatures greater than 90 degrees can lead to heat stroke, brain damage, or death. That’s the sign at the Palo Doro trail head. Next to that: a huge thermometer that read 110 degrees when I arrived on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. I made the decision right then if […]
I’m set up for tomorrow’s training run: an 5.5 mile out-and-back along a trail I’m told is amazingly beautiful, ending out the “Lighthouse” rock. I expect to bring back pictures. The Givens, Spicer, and Lowery Trail is 1/2 of the Palo Duro Trail Run ultra-marathon that takes place here in October. I’m planning on coming […]
Editor’s Note: I wrote this piece before my 9-mile run this morning, a quick out-and-back over most of the trail I was supposed to run yesterday. *** After Monday’s brutality, there’s little chance my body will allow anything like that to happen today. Instead, I’ve made the executive decision to push as close to Canyon, […]
Don’t improvise. I’ve read this advice repeatedly as I prepared for this trip. I’m not a trail runner, at least not yet. I’m not a camper, at least not yet. I’ve tried to take each learning experience in small steps, reading and learning as much as I could before proceeding. Recently I have been […]
I’ll have more about this 19-mile after I recover a bit more. It was not a good day on the trail mostly because I decided to add 9 miles to the run after I’d started. I was ill-prepared – a first on this trip. Fortunately, I had some mountain bikers watching over me. A great […]
My body is beat up. Despite running just 44 miles this week, my legs feel like iron anchors. I’ve climbed several miles on trails, which I haven’t done much before this trip. Still, I wake up every morning and drag myself out. It’s helpful that I’ve brought nothing else to do. Once I pull myself […]
After the brutal 13.1 mile ascent on Shut-In Mountain yesterday, I decided to let my body rest a bit before heading off to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park for today’s run. Functionally, I still awoke at 6:20 a.m., but I leisurely got started around 8 a.m. After a brief stop at McDonald’s to send […]
When I first read the Runner’s World issue with the best trail runs in the United States, I latched on to the Shut-In Trail for two reasons: it was near Asheville, North Carolina – a city I’d longed to visit, and it ran from the base of a forest 18.9 miles into the mountains. These […]
There are 27 trails within the Bent Creek system in the Pisgah National Forest Southern Research Station. I know this because when I checked into the park, I was handed a map. The reason for the organization: Bent Creek is a research forest, which means scientists are here conducting all manners of research around conservation. […]
Wednesdays are my off days, which in Muncie means I spend most of my time lounging around my town home doing a whole lot of nothing. I’d like to say I’m motivated to get out and do activities in my town of residence but there’s not a culture of activity there. Here in Asheville – […]
I’m sitting in my tent, nestled in the Hard Times loop of the Lake Powahatan Recreational Area. The campground itself is just a small part of the Bent Creek Experimental Forest project on the edges of Asheville, North Carolina. The drive east along Interstate 40 and then south along Interstate 26 was breathtaking. I kept […]
I had the opportunity to do two runs while I was in Nashville, both at Percy Warner. I realized when I’d completed the first day that I’d neglected two important particulars: take a picture of the awesome Stone Gate entryway into the park and run the last .3 of a mile to the top of […]