Fort Mountain Follies
It was a massacre. The Mystery Mountain 12-Mile Run? No, the 49-10 ass kicking that the Florida Gators put on the Georgia Bulldogs! Wooo Hooo! Go Gators!
Fort Mountain: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
I spent the majority of my weekend at Fort Mountain State Park in Chatsworth, Georgia. I drove up after attending a happy hour on Friday and returned yesterday afternoon.
The Good
- The race organization was top-notch. Kudos go to GUTS including ITP-readers Sal and Sarah for putting on a well-organized, properly-marked, sufficiently-supported, event. Everyone involved was committed to making this a great event. Now if we could only figure out how to kill off some of the bees.
- I finished.
- Sleeping in my car was wonderful, especially when I figured out the best angle at which to park so that I don’t slide down into the trunk.
- I camped like a champ. Once I do some post-camping trip analysis to figure out which items I need to bring and which ones I do not, things will be even better.
- The fleece throw that I purchased in Bi-Lo whether it cost me $3.33 or $9.99 (it was in a bin labeled 3/$9.99 but I didn’t look at my receipt) was the best thing ever. On Saturday night I was a little cold in my sleeping bag and slipped the fleece down the sleeping bag and was snuggly-warm.
- Fox Bros BBQ’s smoked chicken wings and a half-Tomminator were a perfect meal to end the weekend.
The Bad
- I had to fight people off my campsite on Saturday night. When I returned from sharing a beverage with those staying in the pioneer campsite I was stunned to see a car pulled into my campsite and people putting up a tent. I was furious and asked them what the fuck they were doing? It was clear that they did not have a reservation and were squatting on my site even though I had left a pan, my toothbrush and toothpaste, the cover to my camping chair, a half-gallon of water, and my wood behind. Remember, there was no tent since I wasn’t sleeping in one. After much conversation I got them to pack up their stuff and leave. I was rather worried that they were going to retaliate my anger once I went to sleep, especially since I accused them of removing my name from the campsite leaving me no proof the the site was mine.
- I walked way too much and cramped during the race.
The Ugly
- The altercation with the campsite squatters really took a lot of the fun out of the idea of camping alone and sleeping in my car.
- It took me three hours to finish the race, well behind the rest of the hashers running. Even with my lack of training I really expected to finish under three hours.
ITP Flickr Pic
There’s not much water running up in the mountains, but I found a little.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I added the leaves to the stream.
Anyone Go To The Drive By Truckers / The Hold Steady Show Saturday?
Missing that show was one of the casualties of deciding to go to Chatsworth this weekend.
Returning The Defective
On Friday I took my defective Macbook to FedEx Kinkos to be returned. Hopefully this week I will receive a full-functioning replacement.
Last night I opened my latest delivery from Netflix and was bummed to find out that I have been given another broken disc. I quickly reported the problem on their website and dropped it into the mail this morning.
I hate failure, followed very closely by waiting.
Flexing My Brain Muscle Tonight, Not My Leg Muscles
Sure, I could run with the East Atlanta Monday Night Running Group, however tonight I choose not to. Actually I want to give my ankle and knees the chance to recover and have had a long-standing commitment to join with some friends to play team trivia at North Highland Pub tonight.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – Even though I’m slow and I ache I feel great
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Oasis — “Falling Down”
Website Of The Day – Want to invite people to a gathering but are sick and tire of using Evite? Give Pingg a chance.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: running/hiking, 12 miles
Monday Morning Weigh-In – 198 pounds
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 12 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3 (3)
Vegetarian Days – 1
Carnivorous Days – 1
Marta Rides – 0
Ongoing
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 4
November Goals
1) Lose no fewer than three pounds
2) Drink no soda
3) Run no fewer than 75 miles
4) Bike no fewer than 100 miles
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Oh, and I’ve made some changes to the statistics portion of the blog. I like to call them “improvements” and would like to know what you think.
Loved your photo even though you added the leaves. Had you run the 301 loop you would have seen water!! I could have stayed in the mountains all week and not have to deal with this morning’s traffic!
Congrats on finishing the run! Don’t forget to sign up for Red Top Rumble 11.5 miler in February. A much easier trail!
Congrats on finishing the run! Don’t forget to sign up for Red Top Rumble 11.5 miler in February. A much easier trail!
I’ll be re-upping my GUTS membership come January and by February I might be able to run 11.5 miles.
Okay, I must still be out of it, I can’t tell what the changes are..
Paulie, just finishing that race was an accomplishment. I thought I was going to have to drop out about mile 3 because of my foot. Glad it fixed itself. There was a point where I thought I was going to be out there for 3 hours and I almost lost it. I was so happy to just be finished and I don’t think you were the last hasher out there. If you can do MM I would think Red Top will be a piece of cake.
It was a good football weekend for me also, I guess I shouldn’t have given up so quickly.
Sal, I’ll be at Red Top in February. I’ll be signing up for GUTS and the run shortly.
I broke it into three sections “Daily,” “Monthly,” and “Ongoing.”
I was thinking “three hours good” because it was the time I was trying to beat at Twisted Ankle. Then I remembered that MM was 1.1 miles shorter.
In my defense, MM was much harder than TA. If you become a GUTS member you save $5 on the registration fee (in addition to many other benefits).
Who’d Purdue beat? I haven’t spent much time looking at the scores this weekend.
Glad you guys survived the weekend. It was such gorgeous weather, I’m sure even with the run being hard, it was better than being in Atlanta. Did you run into many mountain bikers?
I can’t believe someone tried to poach your campsite – I guess you need to leave more stuff there so it looks more occupied. I guess you could have gone & gotten the park ranger if you would have had to?
The weather was PERFECT (perhaps a bit warm for those running 26.2 miles). It got cool at night and the fleece I purchased (and I now see I got distracted and didn’t finish that section) was perfect for sliding down into my sleeping bag.
I only saw three mountain bikers but that when I was out taking photos on Saturday. I didn’t see any on Sunday morning.
It would have been a royal pain in the ass to find a ranger. By 8pm I think that the trading post / check-in would have been closed. I meant to go there and report the problem before leaving the park yesterday but I forgot.
My time for MM was about 16 minutes faster than TA, so that is about the 1.1 miles. I totally agree MM was WAY harder that TA. I know I’ve been running a lot, but I had no idea what to expect. One thing is for sure…I need more trail running, the road doesn’t prepared you for that sort of insanity.
Barb, I think only the marathoners would have had to deal with the mountain bikers. I only saw two other non-runner on the trial while out.
Congrats to all those MM runners. Harder than Twisted Ankle? Uggh. How did your knee hold up? We were a little worried that you might overdo it a bit.
-FP
The knee brace I wore yesterday did a great job of keeping my knee in line, although it also may have been responsible for the massive left-leg cramp I suffered at mile eight. My left ankle and right knee are the sorest today.
I walked almost every uphill but the worst parts of the course were the stairs, both the man-made ones and the stone ones place as part of the trail because they required me to make 90-degree angles with my knees and hoist myself up.
Oh Purdue beat Michigan and of course the Colts beat the Pats yesterday.
@ Steve, WAY HARDER…TA once you get up that big hill at the beginning you just run along the ridge line, at MM the whole course was up and down, maybe a mile or two (tops) of it was flat.
Heres the elevation profile:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atlantaboiler/2999579528/
Netflix movie streaming now supported on the Mac…have to install MS Silverlight though… but a potential small price to pay for instant gratification of their small but expanding library…
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/11/02/netflix.mac.player/
Thanks Cory. I heard about this last week but never followed up on it.