Saturday September 12th 2020 3:00 AM
Bike 1- 23.2 miles
The ride out was pretty uneventful. I decided to stash my bike on the North Mtn. side of the road, rather than at the Dragon’s Tooth lot, since far fewer people venture over there. I didn’t want to spend the whole run worrying, albeit irrationally, about someone messing with my bike. 11 minutes locking up, changing, snapping pics and sending text updates before running across 311.
00:00 Cellar Side Door
01:39 North Mtn Trail - End of the bike
01:50 Start of the Run
Run- 34.8 miles
I passed a few tents and a group of students hiking on the way up Dragon's Tooth. Hit the top, climbed the tooth, then headed back down. I tried to down a liter of water in this section so that I could tank up and top off at 624. Filtered at 624 and set off with 2 liters. 624 to Catawba Creek is long and dry, but I was determined to not waste 10-15 mins dropping down to Pig Farm to get water. The PUDS (Sawtooth Ridge) rolled by and I took a 2 min break at the 311 lot to switch bottles and eat some solid food.
A little low point climbing the knob, but was quickly remedied by putting on headphones and ripping the descent to Brickey’s Gap. Most fun all day. I started to notice the effects of rationing water on the climb up to Tinker Cliffs, but was in great shape otherwise. Another 2 min stop at Tinker Cliffs to fire off some text updates and eat a pepperoni roll. The descent down Andy Layne should've been another crusher, but cramps started to kick in on the stairs as I ran out of water. Made it to the creek, but lost 5 mins or so struggling to unscrew the lid off my filter. The thought of drinking untreated water from here was less than appealing with all of the Cement Co. signs and wading cattle. I willed the lid off eventually, knocked back another liter (not enough) and filtered 2 more for the North Mtn. section. Total stop may have been closer to 15 minutes.
The climb up North Mtn was awesome, but once I got to the ridge things started to crumble. Killer quad and calf cramps from there to Grouse. Spirits were high, body just wasn’t quite cooperating. I knew it was under 5 miles downhill from Grouse to my bike, so I finished the last of the water and went for broke to go under 8 hours on the run. Seemed to work and the descent down North Mtn was a blast.
00:00 North Mtn Trail at 311
00:40 Top of Dragon’s Tooth
01:20 Rt. 624
02:29 Rt. 311 McAffee’s Lot
03:23 McAffee’s Knob
04:27 Tinker Cliffs
05:25 Andy Layne Parking
07:54:05 North Mtn Trail at 311 - End of the Run
08:08 Start of Bike 2
Bike 2- 23.2 miles
I got to the bike in good shape, slammed water, changed shorts and shoes then tried to ride. Cramps came back with a vengeance. Had to stop 5 or 6 times on the shoulder. I felt a bit better and could finally get some sort of cadence after turning onto Harding. It was still a full 10 miles of biking before I could use the big ring without cramping. Things started to click again and I was able to salvage a respectable ride home. I realized sub 12 was in the cards once I hit Dry Run if I could just survive the Harding Climb. Unapologetically grannied the whole thing - from the bridge to the town line. Hit town and hammered downhill back to The Cellar. A beer and basket of curly fries with Kate at The Cellar sealed the deal.
00:00 North Mtn Trail
01:46 Cellar Side Door
Total Time
11:44:25