Jen Does Stuff - Training Weekend in SNP - Saturday, Day 1

In addition to coaching at Old City, I have owned a dog walking and pet sitting business on my own for the last 3 years. Once a month I take a weekend off from working, which I’ve done for the last 1.5 years when I realized I once went over 6 months without a day off from caring for animals. I was burned out and not having fun. Rewind to 1.5 years ago when I got in my head that I wanted to run MMT again after having been away for 3 years, so I used those weekends off to get out to the mountains of Virginia to race and train.

This was one of those weekends.

I was able to secure a cabin outside of Sperryville not far from a few trails in Shenandoah National Park that you can access from outside of the park. My plan for Saturday was to run from Little Devil Stairs up to Elkwallow Wayside (MP 24) along the highlighted blue trail, then follow the marked orange trail counter clockwise back to Elkwallow, and back down to my car. I had loosely planned to go down Keyser Run Fire Road, but left my options open based on daylight, time, etc.

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I arrived late Friday and got to work prepping my food, water, and gear for the next day. I got to the trailhead a little after 8am – a bit later than I had hoped to start – and took off at 8:17am.

Check out part 1 of 3 pictures on my Instagram page.

I went with a fairly thick baselayer top, WindProof pull over, shorts, tights, running hat with a Buff overtop, and Hokas. It was a touch warmer than I had thought, and figured I should’ve gone with shorts instead. It was overcast, but no low-lying clouds, much different then about a month ago when I did the Overall Run/LDS route. And since I planned to be out there for awhile I was carrying 2 70oz hydration bladders (~1 gal), 900 cal of Tailwind, and 2-3oz packets of shredded chicken to sustain me.

I moved fairly well on my way to Elkwallow, not stopping as much this time to take pictures since I’d already been there/done that, and more decisive and trail markers since I knew where I was going. At one point I thought I had hit ‘lap’ on my watch instead of start/stop after having gone to the bathroom, and that messed me up a bit since I couldn’t compare to what I had done previously. When I got to Elkwallow, I started going down the wrong trail. If you look at the second map, I was on the ‘Cutoff Trail’ between Neighbor Mtn and Knob Mountain – the trail that runs along the line pointing to Elkwallow, and turned around to start the counterclockwise loop.

Honestly, I’m not sure how much time or how many miles that added, but it was a slow slog back up towards Matthew’s Arm campground – marked as “P” in the upper right of the second map. Heading down the service road towards the Treatment Plant, I took a left this time instead of a right, which would take me back towards Overall Run.

Check out part 2 of 3 pictures on my Instagram page.

This was a great trail to run, and I’d never been on this section of Knob Mountain between the Treatment Plant and the Cutoff Trail. It was very runable. Coming up on 1pm as I neared the summit of Knob Mountain it started to sleet and snow. Crazy! On the run down towards Jeremys Run trail I was getting a little concerned about how much daylight I would have especially since I realized I didn’t bring a headlamp or any light source. I mean, I brought it, just left it all in the car. *facepalm* As a last resort I had my cell phone flashlight, but that was losing juice – even on airplane mode – as I was using it for pics and videos.

The climb out was long and slow. You can see all the switchbacks in the second map on Neighbor Trail where I gave the last 2 video updates in the second series of pics. But what was REALLY long was that section on the map that follows along the name of the trail. I was slow, and I knew it, and I knew time was an issue, but I still wasn’t quite sure how much daylight I had left.

Check out part 3 of 3 pictures on my Instagram page.

It took much longer than I remembered to get from Neighbor Mtn Trail to the AT and then back to the Wayside. I had seen a couple at the trailhead leaving around the same time I did, then saw no one until around 3pm. I saw maybe 8 deer, 3 pheasants, and lots of squirrels. Nature is awesome. And I definitely prefer to run in solitude, but I was bored. So when I came upon a couple hikers, I was surprised and happy and didn’t want to scare them. We stopped an chatted a bit, and it actually lifted my spirits for a bit, and I ran well for the next mile.

And then I was thinking again about the light and time and what I had packed.. and didn’t pack. This was supposed to be a ‘redemption run’ of sorts, making up for my ill-fated run at Reverse Ring when I underpacked; making up for my hydration/salt issues at MMT and RR when my hands got super puffy; and finally eating enough calories. So I overpacked with 1 gal of water, a light running shell jacket, and a rain jacket. Then I underpacked with nutrition – 900 cal of Tailwind and 6oz of chicken. And completely forgot any form of lighting. I guess the only positive was I had a PATC map of the northern part of SNP/AT. I also had my phone and was able to pull up PDF maps of the route with descriptions between trail markers, which was very helpful.

Frustration set in after the Wayside. The trail didn’t look familiar. And then I took a wrong turn after passing Range View Cabin and headed up towards Skyline Drive to Rattlesnake Point Overlook along the AT. I went back to the trail marker and took out the map on my phone and paper map to figure out WTF I made a wrong turn. It just didn’t seem like I’d passed through there before, yet I had.. OVER 10 HOURS AGO. And even when I finally righted myself by eliminating all possibilities..

.. “okay, I came from this way, I just took a wrong turn to Skyline Drive that way, and the other trail takes you to another point on Skyline Drive, so it must mean I HAVE to go that way..”

Literal confusion and overthinking. I was chasing the sun, chasing a ‘cutoff time’ of sorts with the sun setting and my phone battery around 30%. I was out of Tailwind and chicken and I was going back and forth in my mind – take the Stairs again or the road? The road looks longer, but it’s wide and runable. But how fast and how much would I actually be running? The Stairs is more direct, but technical.

I chose the Stairs. My reason being that it was more direct, and with it being technical I would be forced to focus and move quickly. I didn’t need or want extra miles. I’m not a good technical downhill runner, either, so it was a chance to work on a weakness while tired, stressed, and under pressure. It wasn’t overly marked with blazes, so I had to take a few seconds to right myself a few times to find the best route down the rocks. I did slip on a large rock at one point, nearly falling flat on my back, so I stopped to collect myself before forging ahead.

Luckily the technical part was only a mile, but I still had another mile back to my car.

This picture doesn’t do it justice how dark it really was. Luckily I like to run sans headlamp for as LONG as possible, either waiting until absolutely necessary to turn it on when it gets dark, or turning it off as soon as possible when it starts to get light.

I was incredibly relieved to see some lights in the distance – porch and inside lights from the houses just off of the parking area where my car was located. I could hear the small stream I crossed at the start and started to recognize a few other visual cues to know I was close to the end. Extremely grateful to be done.

As evident in one of the last videos in the 3rd set of pics, I was very frustrated with a lot of ‘things’ surrounding the day – heavy pack with unnecessary items, and forgetting necessary items. The trail from the Wayside to the Fourway trail marker didn’t look familiar AT ALL. I was on a slight decline most of the time, but I didn’t recall it being that much of an incline on the way out. I felt like I was on a completely new trail. What was supposed to be a solid training run was only so-so time on my feet. However, I was also grateful to be able to get away for the weekend and not have to think about invoices or programming or clients to cover, for having really good trail conditions, for having the items in my pack even if I didn’t need them (bet I would’ve needed them if I didn’t bring them). I also only drank about half of each hydration bladder.

My watch wasn’t off, and my total mileage for the day was just under 30 miles. No need to run around the parking lot for an exact 30.

I stopped at the closest gas station to fuel up – my car and myself.