MST 27M

4 days before the Blue Moon ALTAR, Charlie and I decided to do a quick out and back on the Mountains to Sea Trail. The parkway was shut down in Ashevegas due to ice and snow, so we had to meander a bit on the drive the Folk Art Center.

Photo by Charlie

From the Folk Art Center we ran 13.5 miles all the way to the French Broad River in 2:33:30. The condition of the trail was good. Some sections had snow on the trail, and some sections the trail was clear and visiable as the snow on it had melted. We decided to try and negative split the return, throwing down a strong pace.

The temperature began to climb to a high of 50 degrees, and although I knew it would be a little warmer and sunny, the warmth gave me a healthy sweat rate. The negative split was still in sight as we passed Hendersonville Rd. We opted to not retrive additional water here so we could maintain our pace, which ended up being a mistake. We ran dehydrated to the Folk Art Center and finished in 5:08, positive splitting the run by one minute. Great training run!

in 2:03:30 one way, touched the French Broad River sign and headed back. Challenging ourselves to negative split this section of trail that blazes right thru Asheville. We were on pace, and felt great for the majority of the run, but ran out of water at Hwy 25 on the return and slowed our place due to mild dehydration. Positive split it by 1:01! Great run today Charlie. Now its time to rest the legs for the Double Altar on Blue Moon New Years Eve. No other way to end a decade!

9th ALTAR

The 9th ALTAR this year never took place. A winter snow tsunami hit Asheville, NC Friday night shutting down all major interstates and dumping more than 10 inches of snow. Travel to Asheville was possible but risky, thus many of the runners bailed out. Scott, Liz, and Carl, all from Georgia made it to Camp Daniel Boone and went on a hike up Cold Mountain and back on Saturday.

Charlie, Matt, David, and I made it to Brevard late in the morning and decided to go for a short run/hike. We ended up running an 8 mile loop. Downed rhododendron’s made many sections much harder and slower than they would have been. The wet snow was perfect for making snowmen, but made the run harder than it would have been with powdery snow.

Word is out that the ALTAR maybe put on in the weeks to come.

Pre-Winter Solstice Run on the Art Loeb Trail

The 9th running of the ALTAR, an invitational winter ultra run on the second solstice of the year, is upon us. Winter starts on the solstice, and it will roar like a beast this Saturday in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Photo: View from Camp Berlin (19,490 ft) on Aconcagua taken by the Sultan.

Weather Update:

WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM FRIDAY TO 7 PM EST SATURDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM FRIDAY TO 7 PM EST SATURDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

SNOW... POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SLEET AND RAIN... WILL SPREAD INTO THE SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL MOUNTAINS OF NORTH CAROLINA... THE ADJACENT NORTH CAROLINA FOOTHILLS... AS WELL AS PORTIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH CAROLINA FRIDAY MORNING. THE PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO FALL MAINLY AS SNOW THROUGH MUCH OF THE AFTERNOON... ALTHOUGH A CHANGE TO A MIX OF SLEET AND RAIN IS POSSIBLE ACROSS THE SOUTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS DURING THE EVENING. PRECIPITATION WILL GRADUALLY TAPER OFF FROM SOUTH TO NORTH FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY.

STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 4 TO 8 INCHES ACROSS THE SOUTHERN FOOTHILLS OF NORTH CAROLINA... AS WELL AS PORTIONS OF THE SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL MOUNTAINS... GENERALLY IN AREAS WEST OF INTERSTATE 26 AND ALONG AND EAST OF THE BALSAMS. ACROSS THE GREENVILLE AND PICKENS MOUNTAINS... TOTAL SLEET AND SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1-4 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE.

THE SNOW IS EXPECTED TO CONTAIN A LOT OF MOISTURE AND WILL EASILY ACCUMULATE ON TREES AND POWER LINES. IN ADDITION... NORTHEAST WINDS WILL BECOME BREEZY ON FRIDAY AND WILL REMAIN THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT. THE COMBINATION OF THE WEIGHT OF THE SNOW AND GUSTY WINDS MAY DOWN TREES AND POWER LINES... CREATING AREAS OF POWER OUTAGES.

Photo: 2008 ALTAR start, taken by Patty Kirk.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT... FOOD... AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.
... MAJOR WINTER STORM TO AFFECT THE AREA FRIDAY THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON...

A STRONG COASTAL STORM WILL SPREAD WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE REGION FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY. TEMPERATURES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SYSTEM SHOULD REMAIN COLD ENOUGH TO SUPPORT SIGNIFICANT WINTER WEATHER ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS AND THE INTERSTATE 40 CORRIDOR ACROSS THE NORTH CAROLINA FOOTHILLS AND PIEDMONT. PRECIPITATION RATES WILL GENERALLY DECREASE ACROSS THE REGION SATURDAY AFTERNOON AS THE LOW TRACKS NORTHEAST ALONG THE ATLANTIC COASTLINE.

Words from race director Matt Kirk:

“Guys, this may be the year that puts '03, '05 to shame. The year you wished you stayed home. If you come, travel safely at your own risk. There are no guarantees that the back roads will be passable.”

Thunder Road Marathon 26.2

An estimated 9,000 attended both the half and full marathon yesterday morning. I arrived in the convention center a few minutes after seven am to attend the pacer pre-race meeting. I was assigned to pace the 3:45 group. A pacer is a runner that runs a consistent pace throughout the race and helps other runners stay on target. We were running 8:35 minute miles.

I learned I would be pacing with John Teed, this meant good times and laughs were in order. I also met up with Bedford and DC. This kind of made up for my miss at Laurel Valley, and I had a chance to catch up.

On the asphalt, another successful year was had at the Thunder Road. After the halfway point a few more ultra guys popped up? Richard Lilly also came out of the woodwork after the midway point and finished with me and our pace group. Along with JT I was able to navigate a few runners to the finish just before our intended target finish time completing the 26.2 miles in 3:43:54. A few runners qualified for Boston with seconds to spare. It was a cool 27 degrees at the start, but felt warm compared to the brutal summit of Aconcagua with the wind speeds of 80 mph and a windchill of -40 degrees (more on this later). Richard and I decided to take the tops off and finish shirtless at the finish in a full sprint!

Other news on the run, John Crombez a friend PR'ed at 3:28:42. John Lewis finished his first official marathon in 3:55:26, and old time friend Assim promises to start training for a marathon next year!

Big A - No Summit

I am back in the town of Mendoza. After fighting off bad weather for 5 days, 4 of which Erik and I were hunkered down at camp Nido de Condores (17,600 ft) in a tent torn apart by snow, wind, and ice, we attempted our summit. On our 6th day we slept at Camp Berlin (19,000 ft). We left camp by 3:35am and ended up turning around at 6:30am just below Camp Independencia at an approximate elevation of 20,700 feet due to high winds, and sever cold. I wanted to keep my toes.

This trip has been an amazing experience, and I will surly write more on this when I get stateside. Ciao!