Nineteen miles and 5 Empire State Buildings Later...

Well, Directionless Dave and Crazy Craig did it. We ran from the Snicker’s Gap Hawk Watch to the Blackburn Center and back. And then some.

Sunday morning, October 8, with a start wisely delayed until it was light enough to see the Appalachian Trail, Dave Strauss and I cruised, grunted, skipped, slid, stumbled and yes, walked, for 19 miles atop the Blue Ridge on the West Virginia-Virginia state line. Why we did anything wisely, we don't know.

At the end, both of us wore huge smiles. This was a run that took away most of the concerns we had about completing the November 18 JFK 50 Miler.

Factoids:

- Our 4.5 hour run covered 19 miles and an elevational change of over 12,000 ft; that's equal to running up and down the Empire State Building FIVE TIMES

- Yes, even two days after this run, our legs are a little sore.

- Change was in the air -- the skies, the birds, other wildlife along the trail, and everywhere in the landscapes we passed through.

- Until the night before the run, Crazy Craig was sure that he’d be running south along the Appalachian Trail. Only a chance look at a friend’s map saved us from running 7.3 miles in the wrong direction.

- The description of this trail section from www.trails.com was just about perfect in its description of The Roller Coaster.

- Both Dave and Craig are topographically and directionally impaired; be sure to see a future blog entry about our incredibly fortuitous wrong turn that took us to the junction of Mission and Christ Church.

- Nuts! We found ‘em. Check out another blog to come about landscape changes and the ghosts of the Eastern Forest past.

- Trail running involves ingesting a lot of liquids and many, many calories.

Baltimore Marathon here we come!