Enter the Sewanee Perimeter Trail. It's a 20 mile loop 90 minutes outside of Nashville and it's maintained by The University of the South. There's no water on the trail, so for a Springtime sunny run... carrying water is necessary. A couple of weeks ago, I found a weekend with no races and no training runs and offered to drive the Grand Canyon Posse down there for a little trail action.
We decided from the onset to let the boys take off and do their own thing and the girls would run together. We figured it would probably take us about 5 hours and we were happy to just get some trail time and practice carrying the pack and some food.
We started at the Memorial Cross on campus which is this GIGANTIC cross on the top of a hill. And it just so happens that that part of the trail is the most technical.
Finally after a couple of miles the trail became pretty run-able and we were able to settle in.
It was a beautiful spring day and Melissa and I were having a great time. The trail got pretty monotonous after about 10 miles in or so, but it didn't bother us... we were making pretty decent time and found the trail to be really well marked with blue blazes.
I filled my pack with as much water as it would hold and I carried a pack of cookies and a pack of crackers (you know the type... the 6 pack of sandwich cookies and crackers). I tried to eat a couple of crackers or cookies every hour or so and I was feeling really good. The pack felt a little uncomfortable at first... but after about 3 miles or so, it didn't really bother me anymore. IN FACT... I LOVED carrying a pack. Like, I loved having tissues, camera, chapstick, cookies, crackers, hand sanitizer and water at my disposal. I wanna carry a hydration pack with me all the time! So many pockets! So many possibilities!
To be continued with the INTERESTING part of the trip to come...
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