Today it was 28 when I left work just after 4pm and headed to Biltmore House to do a trail run. As you know from an earlier post this week, Eric, Josh and I visited Biltmore this weekend and Eric went on and on about all the special privileges that yearly passholders have (just another excuse for Eric to lift himself up while stomping others down). You should hear him belittle the daily visitors like they are scum, unworthy of existing in the same place as passholders. I've gotten off track - the point is that even passholders weren't getting on to Biltmore grounds at 4:15 today, because their winter hours are now in effect. I boogied on over to Bent Creek and hit the trail at 4:40. I parked at Hard Times parking area, like I usually do for a run.
I was shocked to find remnants of snow still on the ground. It did snow Monday night, but it had of course completely disappeared from the roads and yards so I didn't even think of it being on the trails. It was spotty at first, but a few minutes into my run I discovered that most of the trails were fairly covered in snow, a winter wonderland if you will.
It was nice to have a change in scenery and it definitely got my adrenaline pumping because I was convinced that I would slip, fall, knock myself unconscious and be left out there to freeze to death overnight. No one would find me, I told myself repeatedly, there were only 2 other cars in the parking lot and it was almost nightfall.
I took Hard Times clockwise around the lake, veered left onto Deerfield, wound up, down, and around to Pine Tree, back out to the northern side of the lake, and back to the trailhead. That's a normal route for me, but I usually break in the middle and walk for 10 mins before running again, finishing in almost exactly an hour. Not this time, I ran the whole way.
Obviously I made it out without much consequence and managed to get a 42:19 run in before it was too dark.
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