Trekking 9:47:07 [3] 25.34 mi (23:10 / mi) +7137ft 18:17 / mi
(sick) shoes: Altra LP 2.5 W9.5 silver
Catawba Runaround with Sarah. Hitting the cool points of the AT(Tinker/McAfee/Dragon's Tooth) in a day as a loop. Started from Dragon's parking in a drizzle. The day quickly dried out and turned amazing. Kinda sitting in the clouds til they burned off. Took North Mountain to Catawba. Stomach was feeling iffy, but I was finally hungry so kept eating and it got better. Ran a lot of the flats/downs. Even saw my first bear cub! Down to the road then up Scorched Earth Pass to the AT. Light on water but figured we could make it to a better source than the flooded creek on the north side. Both of us were pretty hungry, so stopped at Tinker Cliffs to enjoy the view and eat a sandwich and fruit. The wheels started to fall off shortly after that, and it was spectacular. Super nauseous, stomach terrible. Fortunately, this started at about the furthest point possible from the truck, ~15mi, so there was nothing to do but keep moving forward. Every time we went uphill and with it my HR, thought I would puke. Pace slowed for breaks. Sarah offered to take my pack, and I didn't hesitate. She probably carried it for 4hrs. Bad storm rolled in but most of it missed to the N of us. Sarah was trying to get me to the shelter near McAfee and go from there. Lattanzi the trail angel met us at the shelter with Coke and oranges. One of those was the magic ingredient, and I lost my lunch to an audience of thru hikers taking a break. I've never thrown up in a race, training, or workout ever, so that was 30 yrs in the making :) Thankfully because Mark was there, we bailed on Dragon's Tooth and headed to his van (still another 5mi from the shelter) after basking in the views and sun at McAfee's Knob. Quite the sufferfest.