June 1-2, 2007
Pingman's Run

We met up and went to Marco's Pizza for the prerun feast. We had to carb up with a couple of brews and throw down enormous quantities of za. This was certainly a task for which I was down. Adam, Todd and I then headed up to Mt. Pisgah to camp out and head out for an adventure in the morning. Adam was attempting to run from Mt. Pisgah to Clingman's Dome in the Smokies. Todd and I would run support and then I would pace him, while Matt Johson and Sarah Almodovar would pace him toward the end.

In my infinite wisdom, I left the sleeping bag and pad in the car and we hiked up to the summit. It's just 1 1/2 miles, but it climbs 700 feet and is extremely rocky. We made it up and set up camp on the lookout platform. After turning in for the night, we were awakened by a dog sticking its nose in the tent. A guy had hiked up at midnight with his three dogs. Not surprisingly, I didn't sleep well.

Morning broke and we made breakfast, broke camp and headed down the mountain. Todd and I filled up on supplies at the camping store and set out down the Blue Ridge Parkway to meet up with Adam a bit later. While waiting, I was doing yoga in tights while Todd was strumming his guitar and singing. It had to have looked comical. Adam arrived quickly and we moved on.

Adam cruised right along and we met him on the trail at Skinny Dip falls. It has a rep for nude bathing. We were all topless but kept our business covered. They both jumped from an 8 foot high rock. I'm a bit of a wuss with jumping into shallow pools so I just jumped/got pushed off a 3 footer.

On the way to next meeting point, the skies became dark and we heard numerous thunderous clangs. The trail would become soup in short order. I wasn't looking forward to starting out in the rain but this is an adventure run so it was time to suck it up.

I started running at mile 24. It was pouring down rain and we were going through a wilderness area. The trail is not marked so we had to guess a bit. We made some wrong turns and had to backtrack several times. It was a challenge getting through that but the worst was yet to come.

The next section was 25 miles without aid. It started out climbing and then we hit a forest road stretch. I don't generally like forest roads but this was soft, with no gravel. We hammered it, probably setting personal best 10k times. The trail stayed on the forest road for a good while until an old growth singletrack section. That 1 1/2 mile stretch took about 45 minutes. The footing was insane, and loaded with posthole opportunities. It definitely was a not a place we wanted to be after dark. We stumbled constantly and hoped for easier trail.

We did encounter more forest road. At 8:00, I looked up the ridge and saw a mama bear, followed by two tiny cubs. She climbed a boulder and turned and looked at us. She didn't feel threatened, so she went on her way. She looked more like a male bear in size.

It was a slow go after dark. The trail went on forever. We though we'd pop out between 10:30 and 11:00. Those times came and went. We moved on. The trail just got rockier and rockier. We were banging our feet and ankles constantly. Mentally, it was taking it's toll on us. It was if the trail was trying to spite us. We had entered a Bermuda triangle of dirt and rock. Another bear took off running. We caught a deer in our headlamps.

After midnight, we were still going. We saw lights down below and thought we were just about there. The trail took us within earshot of traffic and then out of earshot. It did it to us several more times. It just would not end.

We finally made it to the rendezvous point after 1:30, three hours later than we'd anticipated. The 25 mile section took over 8 hours! Only, in actuality, it was at least 35, perhaps more. The guide book was way off. He decided this would be the end of the line. He did 65 miles and I did 45. It took 17 hours. The entire trek would have likely taken 33 hours or more. Sarah and Matthew greeted us with pizza and we headed home.
Raging Bull