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!