South Carolina in the winter

Hello from South Carolina!  For the month of January we were looking for somewhere reasonably warm and somewhat close to hills or mountains for training.  Well, the Greenville area is indeed not too far from some great parks and nice scenery.  However, it hasn't really been warm much.  Occasionally we've had beautiful days.  But it mostly freezes overnight.  A good test of our trailer (and heater) systems.

So, we're here, let's see what there is to see.  We walked a bit in downtown Greenville and admired the pedestrian walkways and pretty little river running through town:

Dr. Charles Hard Townes, a Physics Nobel Prize winner from Greenville:

The gorgeous waterfall that is the town centerpiece:

Easily viewable from this amazing walking bridge:

Fun "running" sculpture:

And a view of the bridge showing zero supports underneath:

I spy... a blue heron!

Chatting with the town lion over coffee:

Yep, that's kind of our motto:

Selfie!

We couldn't NOT go to a place called Biscuit Heads.  I should have tried harder to get a better picture of the mural on the wall there:

Biscuits as large as your head (or at least, your cat's head), with a butter + jam bar, and yummy too:

On a different day, I drove up to Table Rock state park for a nice long hike up one end of the Foothills Trail:

I took this picture to bring back to John to make him wish he had come along (he loves doing trail work, and all these little branches would have entertained him for a while):

Lots of little waterfalls and neat rock shapes.  In this case, combined to make the trail slightly damp:

Enjoying the sunny day on the trail:

Excellent view from Bald Knob:

Just a few steps through the larger rocks:

A tunnel of mountain laurel, super fun to run through:

And I made it to North Carolina!

The summit of Sassafras Mountain, cool!  But it was a bit odd, because I KNEW we had been here before, but nothing looked familiar...

And it's true!  The summit area has been completely redone since we were here in 2014.  Too funny.  Maybe it's still the same bench at least:

Lots of giant boulders and interesting scenery:

Hey!  Someone came and did that trail work that I was going to tempt John with!  Thank you, whoever you were:

A sideways cascade that funnels into a couple crevices, an interesting bit of water movement I haven't seen before:

And lastly, a day in Spartanburg.  We walked around the Milliken arboretum, which is a neat place on company grounds with a bunch of trees (many are labeled) and places to walk.  This is a bald cypress with fun little shoots all around:

John in the magnolia:

Lots of bike-related art in downtown Spartanburg:

And a really nice sign language sculpture!

I love when the art is trying to define - or even liberate - itself:

Hmm, any idea?

We're having fun with little day trips while getting some work done - and trying to stay warm  :)

Crowders Mountain FKT run

We're in South Carolina for a month or so, the weather is pretty decent, I'm ramping up my training, and I just activated my InReach subscription.  So obviously, I went to see what people have been doing for FKT's around here.

I found a fun set at Crowders Mountain/Kings Pinnacle state park.  We also found a beautiful weather window and quickly pulled together an outing before the next band of rain.

The FKT I picked starts at the visitor center and hits both of the peaks in the park, following trails out-and-back to each.  John was up for the first climb, so he began walking while I set up my watch and InReach and took starting photos:

I took off after him, eventually caught up, and we climbed toward Kings Pinnacle together.  Having a "pacer" put this FKT in the Supported category, which made sense for me for this particular day and effort.  John is getting back to running and we're training for a rogaine this summer so we're planning for more exploring together (yay!).

They are serious about safety around here:

Fun little stairs going up to The Pinnacle:

The trail led up to a wonderful overlook, and then along a ridge over to a post at the very top.  Great views!  I briefly looked around (John pointed out a solar farm in the background of this picture), then turned and headed back down.

John says this is the "solar farm inspection pose"

Back down and starting on the Crowders Trail to the north.  I really enjoyed running on these trails.  They are well-maintained and marked, not too technical (just a few rocks in places), and quite nice.

The road crossing over to Crowders Mountain:

I was RIGHT here:

I'm curious as to why this FKT was designed to follow the Crowders Trail along the side of the mountain, around to the back, and then to the top.  There's a more direct trail called Rocktop.  I suppose the name "Rocktop" indicates that it's not nearly as runnable... someday we'll come back and find out.

I started noticing lots of these "report this location" posts, with numbers based on the trail and the location along it.  This park definitely gets points for safety.

An occasional GPS location marker, with trail mileage:

It was great to see all the people out there!  The park has free entry, very nice.  And it's certainly popular on a sunny Sunday.

But not overly crowded either, as I'm realizing that most of my pictures show empty trails...  Here's the one starting up the Backside Trail toward the top of the mountain:

Oh right!  There was some mention of stairs.  I was pushing the pace more and more as I went along, and this climb took some effort:

At the top, admiring the large antenna towers:

Yay for summit #2:

More beautiful views from here (into the sun so the photo's not great), taking just a brief amount of time to admire them, then I've gotta go.

Back down the 300+ stairs:

I ran harder on the trail going back, as it made a bunch of little dips and climbs.  One last little ascent and then I was back at the visitor center.  What a fun almost-10 miles!

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-crowders-mtn-nc-2020-01-12

We had noticed a permanent orienteering marker along the Pinnacle Trail, so when John came back down he asked about it.  Yep, there an O-course, and here's a free map - cool!  He went for another trek and bagged a few checkpoints while awaiting my return from Crowders.

Super fun morning!  Oh, and we saw a giant peach water tower...

So I'd call that an all-around success.

Trail of Fears LMS race

I do enjoy the last-man-standing races.  I guess I better, having run 11 of them to date!  It seems like a good idea to check out the new ones occasionally, to get an idea of the variety of options.

Or to run one of the oldest ones!  The Trail of Fears started not long after the Big Dog Backyard, and it is now a Golden Ticket event for Big's.  The winner automatically qualifies for the world championship next October.

I'd sure like to run in Big's backyard again, but I have a ways to go before I'm back to that level.  Training has started!  And the Trail of Fears was a good next step.

Because let's face it, any LMS race that is at all technical in the dark will be hugely challenging for me overnight.  I've been spoiled by laz's race (pavement at night) and the 4MPH Challenge (mostly flat and rails-to-trails courses).  Coming into an event of this type where I don't know the course at all is bit of risk.  Good to remember for future race selection.

Hey, it might not even matter!  I had a quad muscle giving me a weird issue the week before the race.  Getting more than a couple laps would be great.  Running the whole day would be wonderful.  Lasting until 12 hours (50+ miles) would be spectacular.  So we shall see.

I've never had to sign a bunch of posters before - one for each runner with everyone's signature on it.  It felt a (very tiny) bit like being a Star Trek actor.  After a few of these, I can say with certainty that they deserve to get paid for doing this!

The race director gave each of us a humorous nickname and even put them on our bibs.  I liked mine - "Marcy Day Parade":

There was rain in the forecast for the whole weekend, yuck.  And no tents or easy-ups allowed, double yuck.  One more reason I doubted my ability to both run fast enough and put up with the elements overnight.  But maybe I can last through the daytime hours, wet or not.

John and I set up a spot with a chair, a small box, and some drinks.  I'm playing with a switch from fruit/chocolate snacks to more salty items.  Trader Joe's has a ginger miso broth that was really good all day, in a thermos to keep it warm.  Thank you TJ's!

Before the race started, we met Chris from Memphis.  He was fun to chat with in between loops:

Lining up for last-minute instructions and a group photo (I was always too far back to be in the picture):

John came around to fix that problem - thanks John!

And we're off!

Low light action shot of me starting loop 1:

Streaming into the woods to start a roundabout circuit of bike trails:

I like bike trails!  The more I run on them, the more I appreciate them.  And the people who built and maintain them.  Fun running, entertaining swoops and curves and loops through the woods.  They packed a lot of miles into a small area.

The trail was mostly quite runnable, not too rooty and no rocks.  A couple sections contained several short steep down-up-down-up parts.  There were some things to trip on, and people did.  The markings were great, which is good because otherwise there would be runners scattered everywhere.  As far as I know, everyone stayed right on track.

Being singletrack, occasionally there was some bunching, but mostly people figured out their pace and made passes in places where there was extra room.  For the first lap I was in the middle of a group, making notes of time marks as I went.  Having really no idea how long this should take, I pushed more than I might have liked.  At least my legs were like, "sure, why not!"

And before you know, we were back to the start/finish in just over 50 minutes.  OK, this will be doable!  At least as long as it's light out.

Hi again John!

Getting ready for loop 2:

Yay, this is fun!

John followed for a bit to get a little walk in:

John's view of the runners on another part of the trail - it was entertaining watching pieces of the "snake" over there, then that way, almost coming together, splitting up again.  Gotta love the mountain bike trails.

And a shot of me, not knowing John was just right over there:

I purposefully slowed down, added on some time to my splits, and paid attention to places where it was easy to maintain a faster pace vs. where I should ease up and walk the hills.  This put me almost at the back of the pack, which was perfectly fine with me.  I was pleased to have time to work with.  And super happy that my quad issue, while still nagging slightly, wasn't a show-stopper.

One of the race's starting line photos from one of the many Day 1 starts:

One funny item of note - we could hear the clock bell from the university across the street.  At the 15 minute mark we were quite close to it, so I could always tell how I was doing in that section when the "quarter-past" chime sounded.  We were far away for the half-hour alert and I almost never caught that one.  The 45-minute bell was the important one - learning just how far back I could be and still make it to the finish in the next 15 minutes.  Or if I was running too fast and should kick it back a notch.

iPod time, yay!  Always a good motivator to just keep on running, so many good podcasts and books to listen to.

Another hour, and hey, not only is it not raining (yet), the sun actually came out for a while.  The tree cover was great, the temperature was perfect, and I couldn't have asked for a better day.

The day was uneventful and any further details (if I could even remember enough to write about it) would just be boring.  So let's move on.  I ran, I enjoyed it, it eventually became more work, all normal.

The start of the lap where it would get dark near the end (loop 10):

Not everyone carried a light (especially the faster runners), but I felt it would be dumb for me to time out simply because I couldn't see well enough to get to the finish, so I had my handheld Fenix with me:

#10 was straightforward, only a bit dim near the end.  I was glad to have the light.

Loop #11 was dark.  I kicked a root once and put a knee down on pine needles.  I had to push but be careful at the same time.  Everything slowed down.  And took longer.  To be honest, I'm sure I was also getting tired.

My splits were way longer than normal but I kept pushing.  When I heard the 45-minute warning I calculated that I might still make it.  Parts of the course were certainly easier or harder than others in the dark.  Sure enough, I had over a minute to spare.  I called for John, he brought me the Spiz to drink right quick, and I was ready to run again.  Good practice on the quick turnaround thing.

Loop 12 got even slower, I got more tired, and it was clear in the first third that I wasn't going to make it.  Hey, didn't I say I would be ecstatic to get this far?  Well yes, I surely was.  50 miles, sweet!

I was about 3 minutes late getting back and that was that.  And then it started to sprinkle.  Timing could not have been better.

Chris stopped running at the same time - well done, Chris!

Getting my photo with the poster and finisher medal - it's not a Golden Ticket, but it was a satisfying run:

We boogied back to the RV park to clean up, eat dinner, and listen to the rain.  It rained all night.  It rained all the next morning.  Those poor people.

The last 2 hardcore runners - in the rain.  Mark Beggs (I believe the guy on the right) ran 26 loops for the win, with Kevin Lashley bowing out after 25.  Amazing, y'all!

In summary - it was a way better experience that I thought it might be  :)  and a good next step in my training.  Fun times!