Fleming Mt. @ Rocky Mt. Road

Miles today: 9.1

Miles this week: 21.9

Miles in 2010: 191.6

Gregg and I started the day by heading up to Candler's Mountain to help Josh Yeoman with his Liberty Mountain 5k Trail Run this morning. It was pretty cold and windy up on the mountain, but we had a good time working the clocks at the finish line. The race was well attended...almost 160 runners. Josh did a great job.

After the race, I ran a few errands, checked on the store, and then planned my run. Today's run was not easy. In fact, when I set out to run today, I was pretty sure I was only going to do between two and four miles. But...after the weather warmed up a bit, I decided I wanted to go on a little longer run. Gregg was running with me, so I kept asking him where we should run. I didn't want to run from my house or on Rivermont because I spend a lot of miles there, so I suggest that we head down 501 to Shortcut Road. Gregg agreed, so we drove out past Eagle Eyrie and parked at the church on the corner of 501 and Shortcut.

Now, if you've never driven or run up Fleming Mountain, you wouldn't know how tough it is, but as seen in the elevation map, from just after mile 1 all the way to the top of the mountain at 4.5 is a steady incline...a gain of almost 700 feet. My original plan was to get to the top and then come back down...and then I changed my mind and wanted to run out 45 minutes. By the time we were almost to the top, we were past 45 minutes and I just wanted to get all the way up...but I was so tired. I whined and complained for about 100 meters of the steepest ascent, but Gregg pushed me through, and when we hit the top of the mountain, I stopped for a scoop of snow and admiration of the view from above.

We headed back down after I finished my snow and stopped for a bathroom break, and I felt exhilarated by the descent. It was a great run...lots of snow, mud, and splashy gravel. My legs were completely dead when I finished, but it felt great. Stopped at BP on the way home for a big jug of Gatorade. Mmmm.

Tomorrow's run is gonna hurt.