Tear it Down

• Today I traveled 20.2 miles with 5371 feet of ascent.
• I had a nice breakfast at Camp 43 before bring dropped back off at the trailhead. In the trailhead parking lot I saw a sprinter van with a few people around and a bunch of trail running brands written in the window. I’ve know that Tera Downer was starting a FKT (Fastest Known Time) attempt of the AT a bit after I startes the trail and it turns out that van was her crew! I talked to them and she would be passing through this section of the trail today. So I was stoked at the chance to see her on trail during the attempt.
• The first 13 miles of the trail today were nice gentle hills. I ate lunch on a small sand beach along a pond. I realized I left a block cheese and a pack of pepperoni in the fridge at Camp 43. I was devastated. My bagel with tuna was but it was no cheese n pep bagel.
• I passed my first group of Sobos today! I’m not alone out here. They started the trail 6 days before I did so I felt like a speedster.
• Later in the day I stopped at a Lean-to to refill on water and had a short convo with a guy named Tiger Lilly. He told me that a biblical prophecy from Revelation was going to come to pass in 10-15 years and then suggested I should be named Shadow of the Sun after learning I didn’t have a trail name yet. Interesting dude.
• Tera ended up passing me about a half a mile before camp. I saw 2 women jogging up the mountain behind with no packs on and knew it was her. I told her to keep crushing it and she asked if I was a SOBO as well and gave me a fish bump.

Peace!