Author: I'm Ash Walsh.

February in Georgia can be nothing short of strange. One day it’s 27 degrees. And when you are running, and you try to spit-it doesn’t go anywhere except down your chin, because your mouth is too frozen to function right. That usually makes for an embarrassing experience….
Oh yeah.. Tying all of this together
Well.. It wasn’t that type of dreadful day. Instead it was almost 80 degrees out, and while I was running I was spitting very happily! But this really has nothing to do with spit. And you’re just waiting for me to get to the DeNiro and Travolta part…

So I’m running along, very painfully might I add, and I see a blonde girl that kinda looks like me coming from the opposite direction. There’s not many blonde ultra chicks that look like me running stone mountain, and I knew it could only be one girl: ERIN GOLDEN! Erin runs ultras and just recently started training at Stone Mountain. So we stop and chat for a minute and Erin says, “Oh yeah, by the way, if you’re headed back that way, get ready to see some cops. Apparently John Travolta And Robert DeNiro are here today filming a movie.”

Whaaaat?
At my mountain???
Are you fur real?!

I decided to go see for myself, and sure enough when I continued onto the trail, there sat several cops and security guards and two massive trailers, and all sorts of shenanigans. I’m assuming John and Robert were just there to watch me run or something because they must have heard about how insanely dedicated I am.., but it’s more likely that they were just making a ridiculously awesome trail running movie. Because the Cherokee trail is awesome… And they must know that….

Of course I had to share my newfound interestingness with others, which turned into quite the twitter conversation:

…..and while I didn’t end up pranking John Travolta with a Danny Zuko voice, I did end up feeling a twinge of happiness that something entirely RANDOM happened at my stomping grounds today. Hah! How bout that. Don’t you just LOVE random?

So…moving on…
The next cool thing that happened is I ran up my mountain of stone and sat up top and did what I always do- call Amber. Amber is my partner in trail crime that I am headed to the Canyon with this spring. So we talk life, tri-polarisms, trails, adventuring.. What have you..

Don’t my feet just look so content???
Well after that good stuff of sitting and looking at the sky and earth below.. Thinking about many deep things like sunshine and butterflies, and why people bring trekking poles up a 1 mile climb…..(lame)…..I decided to run back down the mountain! Turns out someone spotted me.
“ERIN!? You’re still here?” I last saw Erin about 2 hours prior on the trails. She smiled, and said “yeah I saw you coming down” then she just took off running.

Oh you wanna race? It’s on…
Once I realized Erin wanted to let our competitive forces come out to play, I dug deep into my tired muscles (and slick un rock friendly racing shoes) to school this girl down the rock. I love Erin: but I wasn’t gonna let her beat me. Even with that head start!
We were flying.
I mean.. Really y’all. People were like jumping out of the way and hiding their children and stuff..probably intimidated by our insane displays of athleticism..
So I trailed Erin the entire way down, and saved just enough pack in my punch to slide past her before we reached the bottom.;) sorry Erin. You know I love you, but I seriously HATE losing. “And that’s all I gotta say about that.”

Erin and I said our goodbyes and laughed about our competitive tendencies, and I decided to do one more 5 mi trail loop before I headed home… I swear it had nothing to do with movie stars lurking nearby..

And about a mile into that loop, my quads completely failed me, my heart rate sky rocketed, and I felt like I had asthma.. While walking.
Crap: I forgot I took the past 4 days off because I’m trying to get past a bout of over training syndrome! Maybe running 16 miles and racing mountains wasn’t the “you can’t workout you have to rest” type of…workout?
Ugh. I trudged my sorry butt slowly for 4 more miles around the trail, quietly-and sometimes loudly-cursing myself for being such a cotton-headed-ninny-muggins.
And then I smiled. 🙂
The sun was shining, the clouds were all white and puffy, I had a very fun and different kinda day, and it was just what I needed. Who cares that I can’t walk tonight and I may not even make it halfway through next week’s hundred??? Shoot, not me.
Today was fun! 😉