Skip to main content

Fire On the Mountain 50k

11.3.24 Fire on the Mountain 50k ⛰️

Today began at 4am with a drive to Green Ridge State Forest for a run with friends. The 7am start aligned perfectly with the sunrise over a misty Potomac River. The course was challenging and had us rock scrambling along high ledges and holding on to tree roots for dear life. It was part terrifying, part beautiful and I loved every ankle-rolling, quad-burning, finger nail-clinging bit of it.

Thank you Lori, Dylan, @2lowerunco and all of the amazing volunteers for a truly unforgettable adventure!

And now a poem:
An Ode to a Scathing Sound
Love the leaves in the trees.
Then they fall and crunch beneath my feet,
And hide the roots and rocks that batter my knees,
I hate you, leaves.

Asking your friend if she’d do it again at the turnaround aka “The Oasis” is apparently like asking if you want another child halfway through childbirth 🤣 I’ll wait a couple days.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bull Run Run 50-miler

Official Time: 12:31:31 ( a 50-miler PR) I did it. I’m not sure how, but I crossed the finish line yesterday of the Bull Run Run 50-miler. It had been an intimidating race from the moment I shared with others who had run it in the past. I heard all sorts of stories - the infamous Do Loop, the rolling hills, the unpredictable weather, the tough cutoff, the rocky sections that might trip you up later on. I also heard about how it was one of the most beautiful races with the BEST volunteers. I chose to keep the latter in my mind!  Although the “BRR” makes me think of cold weather, and years past it has snowed and stormed and apparently gone through all 4 seasons in a day one year, yesterday’s weather was not what anybody was prepared for. It was hot and humid with cloud coverage most of the day … until the sun came out at 3:30pm and scorched your left side as you ran along the waterline of Occoquan River.  It being early April, I was not acclimated to 90% humidity. For a few mile...

A Day in the Canyon

Find friends who say YES! “For a little while we are again able to see, as the child sees, a world of marvels. For a few moments we discover that nothing can be taken for granted, for if this ring of stone is marvelous, then all which shaped it is marvelous, and our journey here on Earth, able to see and touch and hear in the midst of tangible and mysterious things-in-themselves, is the most strange and daring of all adventures.”  -Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire A bucket list National Park, a bucket list trail adventure, and some of the best kind of peer pressure led my dear friends, Lori and Karen, and I to reach out to another amazing strong friend, Amy, who had just completed this with her sister. And the planning begun… Our original plan was to conquer the infamous Rim to Rim to Rim hike in two days. We would hike down from the South Rim, across the base of the Canyon, and then hike up to the North Rim to stay a night at the North Rim Lodge. The North Rim is an isolated, landma...

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...

This event was not about me at all. It was about helping my amazing friend Dylan accomplish what he has been training for months, for over a year for. The experience was so memorable; however, I had to get it out. I've paced a couple friends at their attempts of 100-milers at Devil Dog in 2022 and 2023. Unfortunately, neither of them finished and I took it to heart, I really did. The cutoff at DD is strict, and the weather is cold. I've never seen that course in daylight, and I don't ever want to. That is not the race I want to die on. The C&O 100 has been on my radar because it's the closest 100-miler to home. Before it was even a WSER qualifier, I had considered it but it's also the flattest and I like climbing, which is why I haven't hit the Register Now button. However, after running the last 30 miles of it, I am reconsidering. Driving to Knoxville, MD from home at 9pm on a Saturday night seemed odd. I was up all day and tried to take it easy. I walked i...