This morning I met Bill Wagner at the Station Road bridge and we did a run through Chippewa Creek up to Rt. 82 in Brecksville and back. I planned this run in preparation for the rocks that are to come at the MMT 100 in a couple weeks. We had a great time today and the weather was phenomenal. It felt like a summer day with highs near 80 but with a nice breeze. Perfect for going in and out of the cold water…
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This evening my brother and I met Bill Wagner and Tara Schweitzer at the Everett Road Covered Bridge in the CVNP and did a couple hours of hill work on each side of the bridge. It was really nice out tonight. Dry air and temperatures in the mid 60s.
A section of the MMT 100 Trail
Well, after starting out at #48 on the waitlist and slowly making my way up as people dropped out, I finally became an official entrant of the 2010 Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Miler today! This is considered by many as the toughest 100 miler in the East and notably so, with many large rocks/boulders and over 18,000 ft. of elevation gain on the course. Last year this race was my first attempt at the 100 mile distance and I ended up timing out at mile 65 after dealing with temperatures in the mid 80’s, a severe storm with hail & lightening, and an all night cold rain. Since then I was able to complete my first 100 miler though at the 2009 Burning River 100 and have been training each month with my sights still set on this year’s MMT 100. Here’s a picture of my “visitor award” from last year’s MMT that I’ve kept above my computer all year long to remind me of my ultimate goal. In a couple weeks I hope to replace this rock with a nice pewter belt buckle finishing award!
This morning I drove from Pittsburgh to Ohiopyle to meet Beth Miller for a run on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. Before going to bed last night I glanced at the radar and saw that the entire Midwest was filled with rain and storms. I really wasn’t anticipating any good weather during our run but was pleasantly surprised when the rain stopped at the beginning of our run and then the skies turned sunny and blue later on. During the middle of the day temperatures were in the mid to upper 60s, the sun felt warm, and the strong breeze was nice and cool. Once again the trail gods were looking out for us! We ended up getting in 26 miles after running to mile 8 and back, to the overlook and back, and then up to Cucumber Falls and back. All around it was a great day!
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This afternoon I drove to my sister’s place in Shadyside, PA, which is just outside of downtown Pittsburgh, and we headed over to run on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. We had thought about running park trails, but my sister suggested this scenic route which passes by many downtown landmarks including PNC Park, Heinz Field, Station Square, and most importantly the Mr. Rodgers statue! It was a beautiful day to run and we ended up getting in 10 miles. Then we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, the Spaghetti Warehouse, afterwards.
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On the birthday of “the father of the national park system”, Kellie Truesdell and I met at the Happy Days Lodge and we ran the Ledges Trail over to Kendall Lake. We did a Pine Grove loop on the way and then ran up to Pine Hollow before heading back to the Overlook to view the sunset. We then ran the ridge along the Overlook and finished up with 7 miles back at our cars. The weather today was gorgeous – mid 60’s, warm sun, and cool air. It doesn’t get much better.
Tonight I ran from Happy Days to the Ledges Shelter up by the Overlook and did a few laps around the large field to get in an easy 5 miles. Temperature was around 60 and the air was nice and cool.
This evening I met Greg Murray and Brandon Russell at the Pine Lane trailhead and we ran the Buckeye Trail north to the Boston Store and back for a total of 8 miles. My legs started off a little sluggish but continued to feel better as the run went on. Once again today we experienced above average temperatures with the high getting up around 80 degrees. The cool air that filtered in through the valleys felt nice though. Unfortunately the rest of the weekend is supposed to be in the 40’s with lows in the 30’s. A reminder that the calendar still says April!
This evening my brother and I ran an easy 6 miles from Happy Days to Kendall Hills and back. The weather was perfect for running – cool air with temperatures in the 60s. A little tired from yesterday’s workout but overall I felt pretty good.
Currently I’m #16 on the MMT 100 waitlist with 12 days left to go for lottery winners to withdraw and still receive a refund. It’s looking pretty good right now that I’ll have the chance to go back to Virginia in May to finish the toughest hundred miler east of the Mississippi, but only time will tell!
This evening I went over to my fitness center and got in a great workout, which consisted of alternating between a 10 and 15 percent incline every 15 minutes at 3.5 mph. After doing this for an hour, I lowered the treadmill back down and managed to run a 6:25 mile.
This morning I met Bill Billock at the Pine Lane trailhead and we ran the Buckeye Trail north all the way past Columbiana Road before turning back. The weather was absolutely perfect for running today – sunny and mid to upper 50s. I started the run very tired after a late night but as the run progressed I was amazed how well I felt, especially after my long run yesterday. We finished up with 16 miles today, giving me a total of 30 between today and yesterday.
I met Kellie Truesdell this morning at the Frazee House for a trail run to Bedford and back. As you can see from the photo above, we also encountered a few other visitors on the Buckeye Trail. I came within about 30 feet of this deer. Temperatures were very chilly throughout the entire run and probably didn’t go above the mid 30s, but the air was much easier to breathe than earlier in the week. It snowed a little and we finished up our run during a nice ice pellet storm! Total mileage – 14.5
I met my brother at the Happy Days Lodge this evening for an easy 6.5 miles. We ran the same route that I took last night, which included the ledges, overlook, and Pine Grove trail. As we reached the overlook the sun was beginning to dip below the clouds so we stopped and I took a couple photos….
Today was just too nice of a day to pass up a run. Cleveland and most of northeast Ohio reached new record highs with temperatures climbing as high as 86 degrees. I started my run from Happy Days and did a few loops around the ledges area before heading up to the ridge by the Overlook to check out the sunset. The strong warm breeze felt nice as it passed through the pines and the orange sunlight casted a wonderful glow on everything around me. It was one of those moments when everything seemed just right. As the sun set below the horizon I continued running over to the Pine Grove loop and then headed back to my car in the dark to finish up 6.5 miles.
My plan this morning was to meet a group at the Boston Store at 6:30. I fell back asleep though after my alarm went off and ended up waking up at 6, which didn’t allow me enough time to get there on time. Mike Keller called me around 6 though and said he’d wait for me at the Boston Store, so we ended up starting our run a little before 7. The temperature was perfect when we first started… mid to upper 50s. The air was nice and cool but had the smell of summer. Later in the day temps rose close to 80. Our plan was to take it easy and just make sure that we got the miles in. About 5 miles into the run my sister called me and said that her and my brother were on their way. They met us at Snowville Rd. and ran with Mike and I to the Brecksville Stables and then back to their car. The good thing about starting late was that we got to see all the other runners as they ran past us on their way back to the Boston Store. We had a lot of fun out there today and Mike and I finished up with a total of 20 miles. Today’s run gave me 43 miles in the past 3 days.
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I met Brandon Russell, along with both Brian’s that I ran with last Saturday, at the Frazee House parking lot this morning at 9 o’clock. We ran the Buckeye Trail northeast up to Bedford. Once we got to the Egbert Pavillion both Brians turned around to get a little over an hour out. Brandon and I continued on to the “Great Falls” at Viaduct Park. With a forecasted high of 83 degrees we were definitely looking to cool ourselves down so we did a waist deep stream crossing in Tinker’s Creek and proceeded to make our way through “The Arch” tunnel to the other side. The water was nice and cool but the stream inside the tunnel was moving very fast as you’ll see from the video below. After playing around in this area for awhile we headed back to the Frazee House and finished up with 16.5 miles and 3 1/2 hours of time on our feet. Towards the end of our run it was getting very warm and we were low on energy, so we were both glad to be done.
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I met my brother at the Happy Days Lodge this evening and we ran the Ledges Trail over to the Pine Grove Loop. We then finished up by doing the outside loop around Kendall Lake before heading back for a total of 7 miles. Today’s unseasonably warm high temperature of 80 degrees made me feel pretty sluggish, but I’m not complaining…. Spring is finally here in N.E. Ohio!
