Final Day of my C26 weekend in Chattanooga and it finished with a bang!

After a slight delay, to let some storms pass through the area, six of us assembled on the side of Lookout Mountain for a trail run.  We were going to run to the top of the mountain and back down again.   The run was straight uphill, followed by straight downhill.  Total elevation gain was going to be about 1,150 feet.

The first part of the run was on a gravel trail, so footing was good, but it was a relentless, gradual slope upwards.  This long slow type of climb is something I don’t get to do in Pittsburgh, where the hills are typically shorter and steeper. I found this part of the run quite a challenge.  I was still warming up and the views of long gradual climbs, messed with my head a little.

Eventually however, we reached the true trails, with rocks, mud and tree roots.  The trail twisted and turned and was much more varied in slope.  There were not many flat sections to enable you to recover, but I loved this part of the run.  All of a sudden, I found my legs and started flying up the hill.  I was having so much fun and before I knew it, we were at the top of the mountain.

The views from the top were fabulous.  We spent about ten minutes taking in the scenery, and then started our journey back down.  We chose a different trail to get back to the gravel section.  It was a very cool route, with some good technical areas and a few single track sections, with quite steep drop-offs.  

My coach and I got back to the gravel section together, and ran the rest of the way side by side.  We didn’t talk much, which was fine.  It was so peaceful and the only sound was that of our feet striking the gravel in unison. 

The gravel section seemed to be longer on the way down. It wasn’t and we ran it much quicker than when we went up; just my mind playing tricks on me again. I was thinking we must be finished soon and just like that, we came out of the woods and were back at the cars.  The round trip was an hour and 45 minutes of running. 

I kind of wished the run was longer… but then the sun came out and it got very hot, very quickly.  We had timed our run perfectly!!