Country Music Marathon

Early A.M in Nashville



Suzie Tubesock at the final stretch
I was going for a shot of Erin here,
but couldn't shoot it because of the crowd.

The Finish

I left the 30,000+ to the running...
...while I pedaled into the hills.
Percy Warner Park

Wild Turkey in the park

Middle TN Hill Country

Smiling at the finish







Erin completed her second Marathon in the same month, finishing strong on a hot day. I was happy to see her finish with a smile, but I know she was dissapointed to fall just short of her goal time. Her time was 4:13.


Back in Knoxville

Cohutta

The Cohutta 100 went off today, starting at the Ocoee Whitewater Center. Duey and I drove down and ran into several friends along the trail.

Dewey's decision not to race, opened the day up for a fun ride around the race. Although throwing in the towel on the 100 had been done weeks ago, giving up the $140 entry fee had to hurt. Lesson learned: discretionary valor and having a blast on the trails with your friends is "priceless."

I had decided several weeks ago not to race the 100 and didn't want to pay to race the 35, so the beautiful Saturday at the Ocoee was a great way to get a long ride in and enjoy the race scene.

Chris Etough took first in 6:45 and Tinker Juarez was second, about 15 minutes behind.

The last time I made it down to the Ocoee was in the snow.

Soul Searching Ride After 5:00

Black Mountain, Pisgah Forest, NC









After finishing a day of work at the Biltmore Estates, I headed to the mountains for what would become a soul searching ride. Getting hung up in traffic slowed my trailhead arrival, and I rode out of the group camp sites, at 6:30pm, up Clawhammer to Black Mountain trail and across five summits. Then descended, in near dark, to the ranger station. I found out, upon exiting at the ranger station, that Black Mountain trail was closed due to deadfall.
I had been a little nervous about finishing in the dark. My route was lengthened when I missed a turn coming up Clawhammer, and almost bit off more than I could chew. I kept moving and stayed the course, making it out in a near dark evening. Jumped in the car and booked it back to K-town.

P.S. Just for the record, I was carrying a fully charged Nite Ride bike light, sweater, lighter, 100 oz. of water and a variety of other tools that would aid in either riding out in the dark or if I were lost waiting until morning. And I was never lost, I just did a much bigger loop than I intended.

Norris State Park, Photos

Gloriously Sloppy

It was a wild Friday ride before the rain. I was happy to stay in the woods until dark; I figured we'd stay until I got it right. But my effort resulted in a high-speed crash that sprayed powdered dirt from the divot. Bruised and silly, I just sat there surveying the wooded topography.
I found no sanctity in my sloppy exit to the lot.
A return to glory will have to wait until the pass of the storm. I decided to bail on the weekends rain ride and head west to Nashville, visit with the family. Like Ben Franklin, flying a kite in the storm, I got to play with my nephew Aiden.

Sundown in the City

It was the first of the Sundown in the city, concert series. We had a good group that headed down to Eric's place via bicycle. Duey and Nicole, Jon and Alex, Shawn and Mattie, and guess it ended up being me and Jay. Erin sat this one out to prep for our trip to Nashville this weekend.
Eric lives on Market Square, the view from his living room looks out over the crowd and stage below. We had a blast. There was a keg of Downtown Brewery Ale. Antibalas and Low Stars opened for Edwin McCain. Antibalas was the highlight for me, their horn section was awesome.


The ride home was an adventure:

Urban Assault on Music City

Learning to sail on the city streets of Nashville's downtown and east boroughs was like sticking your face in a vacuum and pedaling against the pull of gravity until you caught afloat and took sail. When we hit the sweet spot, it was if a hand from above pushed us along. In suspended animation, the noise of the wind grew silent and leaves rolled along the road beside us; fast.
Me and Justin Mitchell rolled through town for a short hour and a half before hitting the restaurant "Battered N' Fried" for food and beers.

I'm not "Rad"...

... or "gnarly" or even "extreme." Although I often fancy myslef to have some element of the aforementioned adjectives.
Here's how I came to this conclusion:
I was on my way to Haw Ridge when the traffic backed up, so I cleaved off Pellisippi Parkway onto 62 and turned into Bigfoot Mountain Bike Park to avoid further traffic delays. I headed into the singletrack after getting directions from downhill Doug. After wandering through the woods for some time I popped out into the dirt jump area where I realized that I am not "rad."
But I'm okay with that, so I went back to Haw Ridge tonight.
See picture below.

Photos from the Ridge

Wildflower Winter

Dogwoods, redbuds and wildflowers line the singtetrack of Haw Ridges' trail. The blistering wind and chilling 30-degree temperatures made for an early April winter grudge match. With blue skies and billowy clouds above, we hung in for a fast four hour ride. Greg Castiel, the epic ride legend, joined Brian and myself, with the two dogs running wild. Hank and Levi had a big day running with the pack.

Mellow-steady Hammer

The golden pace that offers all day strength has been summoned from the unrelenting work load of moving back into the house and the foodservice industries busy March. Time is scarce and when the iron is hot, strike fast or miss the window.

Erin ran in Sunday’s Knoxville Marathon, placing 3rd in her age group. She weathered the storm putting down a 4:08 time in the rain. In addition to the precipitation, Knoxville’s hills make for a challenging course. The “elevator” on Noelton Street brought the pace to a crawl for most runners, but Erin seems to flourish in the demanding feat of climbing. She has trained in the hills and occasionally in the mountains.
The Nashville Marathon is around the corner and this will be her first time to run two marathons in a year, much less back to back, just three weeks apart. I think her strong performance last weekend has mentally prepared her for the Nashville run, and I know she is physically strong. Her goal is to beat the 4:00 hour mark which has been so elusive in her past marathons.
She has handled the fire, the rebuilding process, the displacement, the move, her training and all else with her usual solid “get it done attitude”. A testament to her strength showed up in her post race activities on Sunday. After finishing the long run, she continued “getting it done” by packing boxes and moving into our recently finished house. We made trips from our townhouse of heavy loads and she carried the weight and moved the boxes. These challenges could have broken many men, but she stays positive like warrior.

As I work toward preparing myself for the awesome challenge that awaits me and my new teammate in the PMBAR race, I am finding increasingly less time for training. Eric Nelson has joined up with me for this one, and I know he is stacking up some strong rides heading into the big ride on the first Saturday in May. I don’t want to just survive the ride, I want to stomp it and have fun. I have one month left to prepare myself.

Erin at mile 24

Mile 20

Early in the race, mile 6. Erin is in the middle and to the right, and just behind, is Tim O'Conner, one of the owners of the company I work for, Food Sales East.