Nice run today, 11.4, about 4 of that on the Appalachian Trail, a section that I've wanted to explore for a long time. Found a beautiful waterfall along the trail. Some of this was with DW and dogs, then I went ahead, ran the trail, and caught up with them on the return.

You can call me Spiderman. ~21 miles at Lynch's Woods in Newberry, SC (site of the upcoming 50K). Apparently, I was the first person to go through these trails in a while. I ran through countless strands of spider web silk which didn't bother me too much. HOWEVER, I ran through 5, count 'em FIVE!, full spread webs positioned perfectly to my height so that I got them right in my face or head. In one case, the spider was BIG (we call them writing spiders) which prompted me to strip down right there in the woods making sure it didn't get underneath my clothes. In a few cases, I must have looked like Curly from the 3 Stooges as I slapped my head and face area rapidly hoping to kill the spider before she/he bit me. Ridiculous, I know, but ever since my Dad was bit by a brown recluse when I was a kid, I'm a bit fearful of them as a whole.

This trail system isn't as tough as the trails I've been training on but it's still a twisting, winding, technical single track. The course will be completely shaded but it's really tucked back into the woods and there's no breeze at all. Starting temp at 7AM was already 77 and humid as hell. So once again, it was a slug-fest. I think trail running is pretty cool unless:

1. you're not the first one to go through

2. it's not mid-summer in the South 

3. the humidity is high.

2 more weeks til D-Day. Can I survive this thing?

MTA: 10.2 miles Sunday late afternoon. Amazing how much easier running is with low humidity.