~12 miles @ ~15 min/mi

"We need to carry a bucket of blue paint," I tell Barry Smith as we trot along Muddy Branch Trail. "Then we wouldn't go off course – by definition!" Heading downstream we miss the blue blazes and lose our way three times; on the return trip we go astray only once. The path, as Barry points out, is both muddy and branching. Clouds reflect lovely in "Lake Placid" as we begin at sunrise. Soon autumn leaves shine bright. Small herds of deer amble through the brush.

Today is a training trek for the Stone Mill 50 miler in a fortnight. Barry says, "You won't remember this," and tells the story of his fall during a training expedition on the Appalachian Trail for the 2006 JFK 50 Miler. He strains a hamstring muscle and is lying on the ground, and as he tells it (perhaps with poetic exaggeration) other runners jump over him or complain that he's in their way. According to Barry, I stop and ask if he needs help. At the time we don't know each other. I don't remember it. Hmmmmmm!

Runkeeper awards bonus distance for unknown reasons, and says we do ~12.7 miles. The Garmin says it's only an ~11.8 mile trek. Barry's GPS reads a similar number to my Garmin, so he runs an extra couple of blocks to make it a solid 12 for his logbook.

^z - 2013-11-19