Big Finale

I'm leaving Huntsville for home (central FL) tomorrow, so I wanted to get a good run today. I was slated to do 15mi and I thought I'd do them on the road, maybe part of the Rocket City Marathon course. I decided to do trails instead because of some fortunate run-ins with people. Thursday night I ran into a Huntsville trail legend at a Jason's deli - coincidentally right before seeing "Ultramarathon Man". Then Friday I ran into another stud and race director of the Mountain Mist (which I plan to run). All that good fortune of running into people inspired me to do one last run at Monte Sano. I set my sights on the first half of the Mountain Mist course. After cutting out one section and forgetting another, I finished strong with about 12/13 mi on technical trail. My trail pace is still slower than I'd like, but I'm really happy with how I'm progressing. Being here in Huntsville has been a blessing for me in many ways, and having the opportunity to get involved with trail running and its community was one of those. Now it's back home to FL where I will continue my running, spend time with family and get ready for school.

Trail Report
-Mountain Mist(2.5mi): run this one before; nice trail; not too bad; some rocks
-Warpath Ridge(~1.5mi): going south is better since it's got some incline; a lot of rock; alittle overgrown in summer
-Powerline Trail(~1.0mi): it was nice to get out of the trees and into the open sun and air for a little bit; came with a cost - the trail was BRUTALLY overgrown with briars and waste high grass, leaving me slow tired and cut up midrun; don't run this in summer
-Flat Rock Connector: this short section of trail is all uphill, rooty, and rocky
-Goat(2.6mi): for the 2nd time, the goat was nice; while technical, it's curvy and undulating nature makes time go by nicely
-Stone Cuts: good hike; rocky; goes uphill through some tunnels and cuts in stone (go figure); interesting and cool but not the nicest running area in my opinion
-Sinks(1.2 mi): nice, somewhat hilly; I was running harder and focused on finishing at this point so refer to past review

Equipment Review
-SmartWool Adrenaline Ultralight sock: this sock feels really nice. Compared to the tight stretchy hug of the synthetic socks, merino wool is nice. I can't fully rate these socks yet because I haven't used them in many circumstances, but for the hot summer trail run on dry ground they worked pretty well. Given this was a long hot run, but the socks were pretty wet when finished. My feet felt a little more soggy than with synthetics but no blisters or anything.

Committed
In other news, I am now officially registered for my first marathon, The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon!!