The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.*

Yesterday, I finished third in the Uwharrie Mountain Run 20 miler. My time was 2 hours and 51 minutes. I ran without a watch which turned out to be a great stress reliever. When we went through the eight mile aid station there was lots of jostling for position, because prior to that time we had been in a row of runners—just like a Wednesday morning run in the forest. I thought to myself, it is great that I don't know my split because I have enough to worry about right now. This line of runners included just about everyone in the top ten excluding the guy who took off before the top of the first hill. We never saw him again.

This is a wonderful trail, and the gathering of those to run it the first Saturday each November is nice and easy-going.

Those of you who have run the Tanawha Trail along Grandfather Mountain, will recognize similar terrain, but the views along Shut-in are stunning as the trail rises to Mt. Pisgah.

Put this on your calendar for next year, November 7, 2009. I highly recommend camping at the Mt. Pisgah Campground, but it closes on November 1st 2009, so there's the Mt. Pisgah Lodge and other stays around Asheville.

It helps to have perfect fall colors and perfect weather. Some impressions:

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They say June 21st is the happiest day of the year - Summer Solstice. I started the 50 mile Big Horn Mountain Trail Run at 6:00 a.m. after a nearly 2 hour bus ride at 3:15 from Sheridan, Wyoming to a mountain pass and aid station called Dry Fork. Weezyl was finishing up the 100 miler a few hours later.

read on....

(Wedge tearing it up)

nothing to report, really...we got to the campground and there were no sites. we petitioned the park superintendent for a group site and were successful because: 1) we are an organization and 2) the same ranger talked me onto the trail via cell phone when I was lost on the Sauratown Loop 4 years ago...

...more....

MMT 100 Front Royal, Va May 17, 2008

This year Promise Land was my first truly long run of 2008 with temps above 80 and 100% humidity, not what I had expected for a day in spring in the mountains of Virginia. But I needed to move as fast as I could to cover 31.75M with 8K' elevation gain and loss...after having rain the night before, then sun and steam and sweat until finally getting hit by the rain again as race day was ending...packing up camp got to be as much fun as setting it up...it was great.

Black Mountain Marathon

At first this was a response only to Willow of whom I am so very proud of for her first ultra (and 2nd overall female in the Uwharrie 40 miler). She wrote: “Hey...how was your race? I thought about the fact that you started 2 hrs after and were finished about 5 hours before!”
Earlier, in response to her great race report and her effort, I emailed with only: “I'm so pleased. Congratulations. Monk”

My experience running the Salem Lakeshore Frosty 50K, a relatively flat, double out-and-back around the lake, was, to quote Weezyl, an ego check. What makes it so is the fact that, really, I had not grasped just how fast some folks can run this distance. Well, it is flat. So, I'm thinking it's going to be tedious at worst, but otherwise a relative piece of cake- no climbing!

A small group friends met for the 7th annual tradition of running the Art Loeb trail. Matt Kirk organizes this run to take place on or near the solstice. It's a celebration and adds to the challenge of finishing the 30M trail within the daylight provided on the shortest day of the year.