Carpe Viam - "Seize the Road"

The Blue Ridge Relay | 208 miles | Grayson Highlands, VA to Asheville, NC | 27,000' elevation gain | 6-12 person teams | 99 total teams | 1052 runners

Nothing like being spontaneous and having a wicked awesome wife.  One who is understanding and will let you take off to be gone for 2 days running a race through the blue ridge mountains on short notice.

I had friends on a team that needed a last minute runner and since I planned to get an easy 20 mile run in over the weekend I figured this would be a 'fun' way to get my miles in.  My 3 sections totaled 21.5mi but there really wasn't anything easy about it.

Before I knew it I was off in a rental van w/ team 'Carpe Viam' on a wild adventure through the mountains.

2010 Blue Ridge Relay 208 - Team Carpe Viam
(L-R front: Luke, Lucretia, Karen, Stephanie, Emily, Anne Marie, Stephen, Bjorn, George
L-R back: Anthony, Andrew & Eric slightly hidden from view)

Carpe Viam - Van #2 for runners 7-12 & my 'home' for the next 30hrs

With a 12 person team you run 3 legs of varying distances of the 36 leg race.  I was runner #8 running legs 8, 20 & 32 with a total of 21.5 miles.  Organized chaos is the best way I could describe the setting of this race.  Very quickly it became clear that the challenge of dealing with all of the logistics would be just as important (if not more) as how fast you ran the actual race.  Luckily for Carpe Viam we had a captain who had put an amazing amount of work into planning & organizing things for our team.

 

Leg 8 - 4.6mi - 31:48 - 6:52/mi pace - run @ 2pm

Elevation profile: 604' gain & 828' loss

Leg 20 - 7.5mi - 59:41 - 7:56/mi pace - run @ 12:30am

Elevation profile: 1,970' gain & 1,886' loss

Leg 32 - 9.4mi - 1:02:45 - 6:39/mi pace - run @ 10:30am

Elevation profile: 982' gain & 3,092' loss

Icing down in a mountain stream after my last leg.
The water was actually clear and looked nice before we stirred up the silt on the bottom. 
I didn't care how it looked... it was cold and felt great!

We all had a lot of fun and everyone ran really well for our team!  Even though our team said we weren't in it for the competition,  we still placed 54th of 99 teams.  Total time was 30 hours 10 minutes with a team average pace around 8:42/mi (within a minute of the estimated time by Emily our team captain!)

Carpe Viam finishing with team captain and final runner Emily in Asheville, NC

What Goes Up - Tyler's Treehouse 5k

What goes up must come down.  I heard that numerous times today and am quite thankful for that simple and predictable fact of physics, especially when it comes to running hills.  Big ones.  Long ones.  Frequent rolling ones. 

In addition to remembering a sad, dark day nine years ago,  today we honored the bright, but too short, life of a local five and a half year old.  We ran in a 5K race to support a foundation called Tyler's Treehouse; it was kicked off by Tyler's younger brother saying, "Weddy, Set, Go!"  And we were off.  In a sea of colors... to run down streets lined with people in green and yellow (Tyler's colors) cheering us on.  By the time I made it to the starting line with the jogging stroller, I saw a flash of orange (Andrew's shirt) a quarter-mile ahead rounding the first turn and then I didn't see Andrew again until he looped back to (literally and figuratively) push Alekzander and I toward the finish line (after his overall eighth place finish!). Thanks to Andrew, Alekzander and I finished strong after tackling the many hills in Old Georgetown.  It wasn't pretty, but we did it!

The happy hum of the runners, the excited energy and solemn spirit of the race, the beautiful houses in the neighborhood, and the cool late summer morning made it a perfect start to a good day.

The look of determination :: After 3 miles

Winner!  

And a cute baby!

(Originally posted by Ashley @ http://aswistakstory.blogspot.com/)

5th Anniversary Run 5:04:09

"Happy Anniversary babe... to celebrate I'm going to go run for over 5hrs in the mountains on trails I've never seen before.  Hopefully I won't encounter any bears or break anything while you stay at the condo with our son."...  is how I hope it didn't come off when I explained it to Ashley.


I had a marathon length run planned for the same weekend as our 5th anniversary (September 4th).  We had also planned a trip to Blowing Rock so I saw the opportunity to get some good quality mountain running in.  It would be my last long training run before I cut back for my first ultra marathon race.  Since I would be out running for ~4hrs anyway, I thought I could use this run as a way honor our anniversary and round it up to a nice 5hrs (for 5yrs of marriage).  Giving it a little further meaning I decided to do my best to push myself at least until 5 hours, 4 minutes and 9 seconds (reverse of our wedding date 9.4.05).


I hoped to use the Grandfather Mountain Marathon course until further research showed that the course 'only' had ~1,000' of climb and didn't actually go to the top of Grandfather Mountain.  I managed to map out a route that would take me up and over Grandfather Mountain, then towards Blowing Rock along the Mountain To Sea Trail (MST) with some possible detours for more mileage & elevation.  I had some maps printed so I could make decisions on the fly and made sure Ashley had copies as well so she could find me when I called after 5 hours or if I had to bail early.

A common question for people who run for long periods of time... 'What do you think about while you are running for so long?'  In my everyday life I may have 1,000 different things running through my mind at any given time.  When I run I somehow find clarity.  Sometimes I don't think... I just exist.  I exist on that portion of trail, in that point in time and amongst God's great creation.  When I am consciously thinking of anything, those thoughts are dominated by my love for God and my family.  I may come back tired, hungry, thirsty and sometimes in pain but my love and bonds grow stronger while I'm out on there.

Ashley dropped me off early at the Profile Trail head (elev. 3,802') and I started my run.  I created a more detailed post about the run for anyone who might want to do all/part of it themselves and would need more information.

Detailed Grandfather Mt (ultra) Marathon Post


Along the MST I would pass along the Tanawha Trail, Boone Fork Trail, Julian Price Park then connect to (and climb) Rich Mt.  Rich Mt is part of the Cone Park Trail system and I reached my goal along these trails.  From Rich Mt I ran the long way past Trout Lake, the Manor House and along Watkins Rd towards 321.  Along this trail I hit 5 hours, 4 minutes and 9 seconds.  I stopped and unsuccessfully tried to take a picture of my watch, call Ashley to tell her I love her and try to coordinate where she could pick me up.  I wasn't a spring chicken by that point but since Alekzander's nap was going long and Ashley couldn't be out soon I decided to keep going for a bit.  I followed the trails and exited the park at 321




I said goodbye to Ashley and Alekzander and planned not to see them again for at least 5 hours, 4 minutes and 9 seconds.  We were married on 9.4.05 and I thought I would reverse those numbers as my goal time for this run.