Week 1/16 for Mohican 100 miler
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| Yesterday's destruction |
Botanical Gardens
6 miles 45 minutes
The three reasons that I love doing my shorter runs at the gardens are simple.
#1- Privacy. Today, like most days, I didn't see a soul. If I had it my way I would never run into anyone. Today was just me, my ipod and these fun trails.
#2- Closeness to my town home. This is only a five minute drive from my doorstep and that makes it the easiest place to run. I also enjoy climbing up the steep hill to return to my car at the end of every run. Regardless of how slow my roll is on a run in the gardens, running really hard up the hill never fails to make me wish that I hadn't intentionally tired myself out for the sake of hurting a little.
#3- The trails. My biggest annoyance with the gardens is the repetition that you can't avoid. There just are not enough trails to do more than 6-8 miles at once. But the few trails that are there keep me entertained. Once everything comes back to life in a few months the trails are beautiful, but can't be enjoyed due to the humidity. Sadly, Morgantown only sees two seasons that stretch out way too long; overbearing summer where you have to chew through clouds of humidity and annoying winters where the rail trails are not visible and all of winter's crap is swept onto the sidewalks, keeping the runners at bay. The gardens is home to one of my favorite places to sit down and relax.
Rail Trail
8.25 miles 1 hour
Later run, kicked off around 8pm. Cold, dark, and icy. Only notable thing is how good the legs felt today. After yesterday's constant climbing through the mud I was certain that I would barely function today.
Florida Vacation Recap 1/19/14 - 1/29/14
The drive from Morgantown to Palmetto, Florida is 15 hours, 1,000 miles; two hours and 150 miles less than the drive out to Norman, Oklahoma that I've made thrice. Yet, driving to Florida seems to take twice as long as the trip out to nowhere. I think this is because traveling west is easy; i80 or i70 forever. It couldn't be less boring until you hit the Rockies, but it is easy. Driving south through the Appalachian is the most draining drive that I make. West Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida each take a lifetime to get through; all three offering nothing but fatigue. Honestly, the drive is terrible until we make it to the Tampa area and head south down the Gulf Coast. There couldn't be a more welcoming finish line and that helps with surviving the last five hours of dark, foggy Florida backwoods through Tebowville, etc. What makes the drive somewhat fun, aside from conversations that would make for a quality podcast, is this little road dawg-
Palmetto was the destination and our home for the ten day stretch; it couldn't be a homier setting. Can't ask for better company than Josh's mom, grandma, and Bryan. The best seven or so dinners in recent memory all came back to back while staying and being served by Bryan. During the days we could run at anytime since the forecast was paradise with the exception of one day. The majority of our runs would be on Snead Island, in Myakka State Park, or just around the neighborhood at night. Neither of us came to Florida in great shape and we both suffered from the internal battle of trying to gain fitness while gaining mass from a surplus of great food and Grandma's candy. After a week of running by gators, palm trees, and old folks during the day and stuffing our faces and drinking the world's best wine at night: we set off to run the Florida Challenge Half Marathon.
Evidently the trail in Alafia River State park was supposed to be very technical and extremely difficult. But it is Florida. We live in West Virginia and have been out in the Rockies; there is no way a trail in Florida can be difficult in comparison. That was the mindset going in. Granted, thousands of feet were not gained, peaks weren't topped or present, but it was the hardest trail I have ever raced. There is a good chance that my lack of fitness made the race more difficult. The course absolutely annihilated both of us. The switchbacks were u-turns and constant throughout the entire race, the footing was either a minefield of roots and rocks or it was sand, and from approx. mile seven on we must have run up and back down sixty short, four/five step, hills that felt like being an armless prize fighter. Could not have finished that race more exhausted and defeated, that feeling was felt by both of us. And we did feel very defeated, but definitely not by other people; just by the trail.
========================================================================================= Male Race Place Time Runner's Name Age City Place Pace ========================================================================================= 1 1:22:54 Josh Simpson 29 Morgantown, WV 1 6:20 2 1:29:13 Dayton McVicker 21 Morgantown, WV 2 6:49 3 1:36:05 Rick Copley 40 Eustis 3 7:20
The following day would be our last in the Sunshine State. We had to drag Cadence away from Bubba and Maggie,
and return her back to Morgantown; where she has no dog friends. Returning home from trips is always the worst
part of the entire trip. There's nothing exciting about returning to Morgantown unless you are coming from anywhere
else in West Virginia. I am not an anxious person, but my anxiety has never been higher than that day of driving.
There was some joke of a winter storm blowing through the Carolinas and Georgia which was the first half of the drive.
Until we hit Charlotte there was zero precipitation, but North Carolina was a mess; almost as bad as southern West
Virginia. For the most part, the drive wasn't bad for a fifteen hour drive in one sitting. The temperature dropped from
almost fifty to below zero while we were in the car. With consecutive days below zero, our water pipes were the main
source of anxiety. Luckily, they had not busted while we were in Florida. They did, however, bust within an hour of our
return. Imagine driving for fifteen hours, hopping out of the car, and walking into a flooding house. Naturally the next
hour was possibly the most stressful hour of this lifetime. Once the power and water were both off after 1am, we
traveled south to Fairmont to stay for the next week.
Morale of the story- If you ever get out of Morgantown, never go back.
Tomorrow: More running and another life morale attached to a story
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