Asheville, North Carolina

I finally made it to the eastern standard time zone and a state that boarders the Atlantic Ocean. All of my stops along the way so far have been great and I've seen some awesome sights and people at each of them. However, this stop was the one I was looking forward to the most. Asheville is nestled deep in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, is based at about 2500 feet above sea level, and is now home to my best friends Mark Driscoll and Katie Gwyther. Up until now, my visits have been pretty short and have just given me enough time to see some friends, check out the sights, run the trails, and then move on. Since western North Carolina is one of my favorite places in the country, AND two of the coolest people I know now live there, I decided to make this visit a little longer. I also wanted to delay heading north as long as possible and enjoy some of the southern running weather.


The drive from Nashville to Asheville was really nice entering the mountain ranges and offered a lot of great sights along the way. I tried to take some pictures while driving but none of them did it justice. I finally arrived at Mark and Katie's place around 7pm on Friday night (Halloween), and they were already dressed up and handing out candy to the local trick-or-treaters. Their neighborhood is actually the hot spot for Halloween so they closed off the streets, houses all over were decked out with elaborate displays, and hundreds of kids were swarming for candy. Since I had been on the road for a week and wasn't really sure what my plans would be for Halloween, I didn't have a costume prepared. But since I never like to be a party pooper, I put together the easiest costume I could come up with and went as Bob Kennedy.


We were also joined by Amanda Chase, Randy Ashley, and Jaks. It ended up being a pretty fun evening and started my visit on a high note.



The next morning, Mark, Katie, and I went over to the Asheville School to do a moderate workout on the track. Mark was doing 4 Miles at about 5:20 pace so I figured I'd join him and test out the hamstring in the process. Despite twisting my ankle about 5 minutes into the warm up, it was a good run and the hammy wasn't screaming too badly.



The next few days were mixed with awesome trail runs (pics below), hearty home-cooked meals, huge noodle bowls at Doc Chey's, coffee at Green Sage, and a lot of good times... all with the great company of the previously mentioned Asheville residents. I did one last workout with Amanda on Tuesday, consisting of 8 x 1000m from 3:25 down to 3:00. It was a pretty easy workout for me, but was a good one for testing the hamstring and the ankle.





To end this post, I just want to give you a little more of an idea of how beautiful this area is. These photos don't come close to doing it justice but until you have a chance to visit this place yourself, these shots from the Blue Ridge Parkway will have to do. Enjoy!

Next Stop: Lenoir, North Carolina