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Senator Barak H. Obama won the historic election last night against John McCain. It was only the day before that Barak visited UNCC at a rally in Charlotte, NC. This is a great time in history and I am glad to have been able to witness it. The photo below was taken on April 13, 2007 while Barak was visiting Charlotte for the first time at a breakfast function.
Two years ago I ran the Dowd Y half, and I relived that same race again this year. Motivated by racing buddies Greg and John I signed up the morning of the race. I was surprised to see Sarah Almodovar from Asheville drive down for the half. We exchanged hellos and talked about the new 24 hour race in NC at New Years. The morning was chilly for Charlotte standards with temps in the upper thirties. I felt good in the cold.
After running the first mile with Greg and John we all clocked a 7 min mile, and I decided to let them go while I enjoy this run. The weather could not have been better. I progressively slowed my pace throughout the run. It has been a while since I have run a half marathon, and it felt good to run hard. I finished by 2:25 slower than the last time I ran it two years ago.
After the run we all drove down to the Einstein Bagel and had breakfast.
After about 10 loops I took a little break and lied down, I was feeling a little tired. I grabbed a few salty potatoes and went on my way. I met many failure faces and a few new ultra runners. Along the way I ran into Laura who is always in the greatest of spirits. It was her birthday, and she was celebrating. I also ran into Lane who I met briefly at the Florida Keys 100, it was great to connect.
of the Appalachian Trail runs thru the recreation area. Mt. Rogers is also the highest point in Virginia. The trail up to the summit is 4.5 miles one way. After running past the ponies reaching the summit I ran on the AT for a short spur of 3 miles.
Today is the third day of the month fasting, the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the 9th lunar month in the Islamic calendar. I always look forward to Ramadan because it is a month of self-restraint and is an amazing way to purify and clear you entire body. I always find my running stronger during and after a long fast. The fasting starts at sunrise and ends at sunset for 30 consecutive days. This year I have committed to run 100 fasting miles. 60-30 minutes before the sun sets, at the time I am most dehydrated, and at the time when my stomach searches for empty calories. Running while in a state of fast is truly a challenge. Last year I ran a handful of miles which I thought were difficult. You really have to reach deep within to be able to run.
I have always been intrigued by Russia, and how it is portrayed in world history. That combined with my interest in the seven summits and my love for mountaineering led me to this amazing adventure. I do feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to have traveled to this part of the world. 
I picked up my bags, a large North Face duffle and an Arctyrex Bora 95. I immediately met Vern Tejas, our American guide, when I exited the airport. Shortly after Jason and Georgina followed. We rode a bus into town and checked into our hotel. That night the entire team arrived and we had a group meeting. We discussed our itinerary over the next two weeks. We would plan to spend two days in St. Petersburg, two days in Moscow, and the rest flying down to the Caucuses and climbing Mt. Elburs. 
recommend this place if your looking for a nice hotel) and my roommate was Joe from Tacoma, WA. The next day we took a tour of the city and had a chance to view the Hermitage. I felt like I was in a history class. By this time I was itching to go south and get up some mountains. 
After breakfast we all hiked up a mountain closest to the boarder of Russia and Georgia. Here we had to carry our passports and there were tensions between Russia and Georgia and Russian military was patrolling the area. They could ask you for your passport on demand. The plan was to acclimatize. We took a chair life up to 8,700 feet and continued to hike up to about 10,985 feet. It was a sunny and beautiful day in the mountains. That night Vern played his harmonica for us. He told me he learned how to play in the Alaskan back country, which is where he is from. 
altitude mountaineering. The human body needs to adjust when going up so high. If you climb high too fast you can suffer from AMS (Altitude Mountain Sickness). Pulmonary and Cerebral Edema can be life threatening. So we took our time going up and down several days before getting on the big glaciers. Today was about a 3,000 foot hike up to about 10,000 feet in complete rain. It was a bit chilly, but when I got moving I warmed up quickly. 
I wasn't comfortable riding up gondolas and chairlifts to the base camp of the Barrels (ill get to this later), but hey, that's what the itinerary called for and I was sticking to it. We took up two gondolas and a chair lift to take us right to the Barrels. How convenient? I was staying in Barrel #7 which was next door to the Norwegian team. I noticed that the Norwegians like to roast in the glacial sun. They don't get enough of it in Norway. Once settled in we pulled out all of our sharps and practiced our mountaineering techniques and self arrest moves. The weather was perfect. 
Postakov Rocks (4,700 M). This is a rock formation created by lava flow the last time this massive volcano erupted. Several people set up tents here and this would be considered a Camp 2 area for those trying to climb without using the huts or the barrels. A few days ago however they had white out conditions up here and 16 tents blew off the mountain. Most of the team headed back after the reached the bottom of the rocks, but me and a few decided to continue to the top of the rocks up about another 100 meters. The day was mostly sunny, with clouds on the descent. I ran down to the barrels in 50 minutes. 
We hiked up 1700 feet from the barrels to the high huts and immediately began to start packing our summit packs and resting. We would plan to summit tomorrow. The teams plan was to take a snow cat from the Huts to the bottom of Postakov Rocks (where most left off yesterday). I decided that I would rather hike up to Postakov vs. the snow cat. Dr. Jeff Prchal, a Czech native living in French Canada decided to join me and skip out on the snow cat. 
Me and Jeff work up at 1:15am, had breakfast with Nicolai, and had our crampons strapped on and ready to go by 2:30am. We met the rest of the group at lower Postakov at 4:30am. Me, Jeff, and Nicolai had been waiting about 15 minutes. My hands almost froze off at this point. I wanted to keep moving, but Nicolai insisted we wait and stay. The Russian tolerance for the cold is amazing. The temperature was better than expected at about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. The entire team was together after the snow cats 
arrived and we pushed upward at a slower pace than what me and Jeff were going a few hours earlier. This was good because I could feel a headache coming on. My plan was to not take any medication (diamox) at all, and climb this mountain el natural. I had done this before on Kilimanjaro the year prior and was confident I could do it again on Elbrus. I was pressure breathing like crazy, with three short power breaths in one long push. This helped tremendously. When the sun came up with was scorching. The weather was the best Vern could remember that 
high up. We all made it to the summit and took some photos and congratulated each other. We then hiked back down and made back to the High Huts safely. It took me 12:20 round trip to summit with a net gain of 5,080 feet. 
thoughts of the climb being too easy. The lifts made it so much easier. For this reason I had planned to get up early the next morning and hike up to the Barrels from the hotel room. Basically hike up what the two gondolas and chair lift would take you, about 4,500 feet of elevation gain. I ate dinner, packed what I needed for the next day, and slept early while the entire team was out celebrating the success of the summit. 
This section of trail was definitely less than 3 miles. This gives you an idea of how steep this section is. It's made up of scree and you can slide around easily. The most difficult part was the last 1/3 mile up to the Barrels when I hit the glacier. I had carried an ice axe with me, but didn't feel the need to carry my crampons, as I wanted to run down, and move lighter. I took me a long time getting up on the glacier and I was slipping all over the place (not recommended). We I finally reached the top of the Barrels I was pleasantly surprised by anther European sun lover! They were not expecting someone running up the backside of the mountain this early in the morning. I snapped a photo and began my descent. I ran down in about an hour. My total time up and down was 4:03:53. 
We toured Moscow. This is an amazing city. You can really see the effects of communism here. The contrast between the old and the new is clear. I could have spent a few more days here. 
The weather was bad on the Swiss-French side of the Alps, so we headed towards Italy by way of Aosta. Two days hiking, slept at almost 10,000 feet, snow, and really amazing views. I'm in the airport on my way to St. Petersburg. The remainder of this journey will be in Russia. More details later.
foot in each country. I’ll be there for a few days (warm up) before heading to St. Petersburg, Russia. There I will check out the town and see what it has to offer before I fly south to Mineral Vody, Russia. I will take a bus down to the Caucuses and begin to wander around until I find my way to the top of Mt. Elbrus. Once I reach the top and snapped a few photos, I’ll run down the mountain. From there I will fly north to Moscow and check out that town before heading back to the hills of North Carolina.
The Smokies is always a great place to visit, and running the section of the AT from Clingmans Dome to Davenport Gap I have only done once before. The weather was warmer than last and I started in temperatures just under 80 degrees only to get warmer for the next few hours. This is very warm for the Smokies. I walked up the half mile paved path to the summit of Clingmans and headed Northeast on the AT. I started at 9:05am. With in a few minutes I ran into a group of volunteers working on the trail. This would happened a dozen more times as they were working on the entire section I was running. What a great way to give back to something you cherish.
I started this hike/run with 8 other people. 7 of which were attempting to hike 24 miles. 4 from Newfound gap to Cosby Campgrounds, 3 from Cosby Campgrounds to Newfound gap, 1 was attempting from Newfound gap to Davenport gap (31 miles), and I was going from Clingmans to Davenport gap (37 miles). The logistics were a little tricky, but with a few that volunteered to hike in the opposite direction, and with a car drop, we were on our way to a well planned adventure. The group of 7 hikers had started 1 to 2 hours before me from Newfound gap or from Cosby, and I was 7 miles away from where they were starting. I eventually reached them at Pecks Shelter which is where I needed to refuel and refill water (4:45pm).
For future reference, I don’t recommend filling up water from this shelter, it’s almost a mile off the trail round trip. Fill up at Tricorners which is much easier and faster to get to. I spent about 40 min eating my turkey sandwich I brought along, and filling up all 4 liters again, hiking up and down to the spring. I wanted to keep moving because I still had another 20 miles to go, I wasn’t even half way!
weight was something I felt in my legs. We started on the Connelly Cove trail which descends into the gorge and crosses a bridge. The vegitation was thick and was growing fast. If I was hiking down the gorge this way again, I wouldnt wear shorts. My legs got chewed up. From there we ascended the Little Table Rock trail which is steep. The weather was warmer than I have been used to this year. The breeze was refreshing at the summit of Table Rock. Here we had lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather and views. 
We then descended back down to the river and swam in the water which felt perfect. Hiking back up to the car I walked past a loose rock and fell over a steep ledge. Luckily a sturdy tree branch caught me and prevented me from falling further down. Other than a few scrapes I was good to go. The fact that I have been running more than hiking with weight was evident in my speed and ability. I will be focusing more on pack training and starting to do more heavy weight hiking to better prepare myself for Mt. Elbrus.
never gets boring. The weather at the top was 53 degrees about 20 degrees cooler than the campground. We lost about 5 degrees every 1,000 feet of elevation gain. On the return I lied in the South Toe river to cool off.
This past weekend the Florida Keys 100 raised thousands of dollars for prostate cancer research. The ultra marathon had over 100 runner running mostly the relay, with 20 runners starting the 50 miler, and 19 starting the 100.
The road was very flat. Bridges were the only places we had any elevation. I had packed ice on my back, head, and chest at times to keep my body temperature from over heating. It was humid. After running 50 miles I decided to drop out as the heat totally exhausted my body.
This year I attempted to get into the Massanutten Mountain 100 but unfortunately signed up the same day but a few hours too late and was wait listed. The race director informed me that I would not make the cut! So I quickly moved to plan B, the Florida Keys 100 Ultra. I have never been the keys, and what better way to experience an area than to run thru it on foot.
I arrived at Camp Rockmont sooner than I anticipated with a whole 70 minutes before the start to register, gather my provisions, and possibly get some rest before what I thought would be a 24 hour run. I met up with Richard Lilly, Brian Bedhun, Mike Day, Mike Piercy, and Drew Shelfer.
After scratching plans to run from Clingmans Dome to Fontana Lake solo due to weather conditions we came up with a new itinerary. It was me, Ann, Paul, Jason, and Wendy. Everyone was interested in a 13 or so mile hike, and I really wanted to get a long 30 mile’s out of my system. So we planned to take two cars and drop them at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) and Stechoa Gap. Paul and Ann would hike in the direction of the NOC and me, Jason and Wendy would hike from the NOC to Stechoa gap. When we intersect, we do a key swap. My plan was to keep going from Stechoa gap and run all the way back to the cabin in Fontana Village 16 miles away from Stechoa.
Mix it up a bit. Fast pace, fast twitch action Tim Long puts on races all over the map. He brings his skills to the local running community in Charlotte all for the sake of a good time. With a water stop and being timed! One of the reasons I fell in love with running a few years back is people like Tim who actually give back to the community and ask for nothing. This is a pretty common trait among most of the trail runners I meet. Although I am more used to trail, and slow paced longer distance running, the fast pace fast twitch action will certainly be part of my game plan this year. Look forward to more great running
I packed a thin lightweight rain jacket as the forecast mentioned rain all day. At 6am fireworks set off to signal the start and we were off running. The first loop went well, and I was running well. The air was humid, and no rain yet. My body doesn’t react well to the humidity and I sweat a lot, much more than the average runner. So I have to make sure to replace the fluids and electrolytes I lose while running. The Umstead 100 is a 12.5-mile loop with spurs in Umstead Park (Raleigh, NC). The course will be repeated eight times equaling 100 miles. There is also a 50 mile option, so if your not feeling the 100, then you have the option of just finishing 50 miles. This is a huge psychological game when your at mile 50. During the second lap I began to feel the effects of my short recovery from Coyote 2 Moon two weeks ago. Coyote 2 Moon was the first 100 I had ever finished. It took me 38 hours and had 28,000 feet of gain. I did not run a single time between finishing Coyote and Umstead. I know this sounds like bad planning, and it is. 
My legs felt like there were at mile 70 when I was only on mile 14. I also made the mistake of wearing Gore-Tex shoes. I figured It would be raining all day, and Gore-Tex would be the right option, wrong! I was sweating profusely and soaked my socks and shoes. The sweat in my shoes had no where to escape as the Gore-Tex wouldn’t let them. So I squished my way back to the aid station fully intent on dropping. I knew this wouldn’t be my day. As I shuffled into the aid station I saw Charlie, who I had met at Adam Hill's Pitchell run last year in October. I told him I was dropping and that this run was just bad timing. He told me to "take a break, and go slow and steady."
That’s what I did. I ended up running another painful two loops, and met up with Fred Dumar on the 3rd loop. No sense in dropping at the third loop and DNF'ing when you can just finish one more and get credit for a 50 mile run. He was right! I kept telling myself to keep going and finished the 50 miles.
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