Last weekend, I went back to Georgia for the third time, since I moved away in 2020. All three visits have been for weddings. In my last visit, I went to Stone Mountain and ran up and down it a personal record of six times, which was both brutal in the Georgia summer heat, but also delightful. There were years and years of good memories on the giant granite slab that I wanted to continue to add to, and just like last time, when I landed this time, I got in my rental car, and went straight to Stone Mountain, but this time, I only went up and down it twice. I was saving my long run for another mountain, and this entailed a pilgrimage back to Berry.
From 2015 to 2019 I called Berry College my home, and it is the place that fostered my love for running the most. Sure, I ran in high school, but I did not really understand it. I did not know how to train, and I was still trying to do other sports, although running seemed to keep calling me back.
When I got to Berry, I was told about the rowing team, and to get onto the rowing team, there was a three day try out that included running a 5k, rowing 500 meters on the rowing machine, and I think the third day was a 5k again…? (it was 2015, so I am a little fuzzy on the details) Knowing I was a good runner, I said okay, and I went for it. I won the time trial, and then the next day, when I got onto the erg (rowing machine) for the first time ever, I did okay on my time trial, but after watching other people do it, I felt confident that I could do better, and I immediately improved my time and became the fastest person trying out with that time as well.
So, I was now on the rowing team. Something I was completely unfamiliar with, and an activity that has a huge learning curve. Not only do you have to have endurance, but you also need muscular strength, which I was seriously lacking, and you must have rhythm. Rowing is tough. I think it is harder than running, because almost every muscle is being used while rowing, and if you are in a boat with others, you must stay in tune with them as well. I learned so much about endurance and pushing my body from these two and a half years (including doing a marathon on the rowing machine), but another opportunity arose that I could not pass up.
The fall semester of my junior year, I signed up for an intro to half marathon class. While rowing, running had stayed a major part of my fitness journey. It remained an activity that I loved, so I was super excited to get a college credit for running. My training went pretty well considering I had no idea what I was doing. I used to just go out and run as fast as I could for 3, 4, or 5 miles depending on the day, but I slowly upped it to 4, 5, or 6 miles as my preparation increased, but every time I ran, I ran as fast as I could, slowly increasing the speed as the run advanced. I also would pair a bike ride with it to get a total distance of 13 miles, so on a 4-mile run day, I would bike 9 miles, and on a 6 mile run day, I would bike 7 miles. A weird mental game I created. The thing is, when you start to add in long runs, the whole run as fast as you can the whole-time thing does not work as well.
This is when I really started to learn about pacing. The run would go great the first half or so, but it would get hard at the end, and I would slowly fade, so I started to adjust it, and it took some serious mental effort on my part to slow down. (There are definitely days, when I still have this problem.) Also when I was getting to the half marathon distance in practice, I was doing out and backs, and this would take me all the way down Viking Trail, and then onto the trail to the Res, a reservoir with a cool castle like tower protruding from the water, but to get there, what I used to consider a big long hill, was standing in the way. This made the pacing aspect even harder, but I slowly learned to have more self-control. It made for good hard training, but my stomach hated long runs at first. I would finish, and I would get some seriously bad stomach cramps, but I kept at it, and thankfully that problem dissipated. The actual half marathon went well enough that a cross-country runner suggested I ask if I could join the team, so I did, and I was accepted, and now I really got the chance to learn to run.
Berry is a small school population wise, but it is the largest school in the world by acreage. So there is a central concertation of the academic buildings and the dorms, then there is a ton of nature to explore. Once you get to Mountain Campus, the trails really start to explode, and the one route that we did the most was called the goat. It is eight miles, and it starts at the cinders track, goes up the trail to old mill, then it follows the trail up to the Res, where you run around part of the Res, before you start to climb again, a hill that takes most of a mile, and it gains 200 feet, and it is the crux of the route, to take the climbing word for it. After that you turn right, and you follow the trail, until you hit the House o’ Dreams gravel road, which you take back down to the cinders lot.
I do not know how many times I ran this route, but I always loved it, and it was also mixed into our long runs as well. We would start on main campus, run up to mountain campus via Viking Trail, and then do goat, and take the OHS trail back to main campus. There are so many good memories of those runs. There are few sounds better than a group of runners in tune with each other’s steps just creating a beautiful rhythm, which sounds even better on a gravel path than a road plus many ridiculous conversations layered over the sound of footfalls.
Besides the Mountain Goat trail, there was also the House of Dreams trail, which is about two miles up a gravel road to the top of Lavender Mountain, where the House o’ Dreams sits with an incredible view. There were not too many times when I went to the top, but there are a couple of workouts that stick out, one of which was my favorite. We did 30 seconds on hard 30 seconds easy 30 times as we ran up the mountain from the cinders track. That was one of my first workouts with the team, and I loved it. There is also a bad memory from that workout too.
Fall of my senior year, when my anemia had started to set in, and I was seriously struggling to breathe, and of course, this gets amplified even more when running up hill. So I was falling behind the group, but every five reps, the group regroups. So they would come back to me, and it sucks to be the last person that everyone goes back for. I still remember what I wrote on my Running2Win post that day. I said that I felt like a dead dog that was being dragged behind its owner just slowing their progress down. I still have that thought even when I am doing a workout by myself and am struggling. I do not know why I created this bad analogy, but I guess it stuck in my mind.
The other workout that I only did once was the OHS HOD 10k tempo. I can’t remember if it ended at the sun gate or went all the way up to the top, but again this happened when my breathing had started to disappear, so I did not do great, but I think I would kill it now! It was basically a flat 5k immediately followed by an uphill 5k. These were not the only workouts that stuck with me. There were a plethora of them, and I still have the sheet of workouts for the semester in my dresser if I ever want ideas. I mostly do mile repeats now, but I chose to do six by mile repeats, because I heard from teammates that Rhodes, who won conference in Cross Country the year I ran, did that workout all the time, so I figured if they were so good that I might as well do it too. So that is how that one became a staple.
So when I had a ton of free time last Saturday, I decided that I had to go back and do my long run, and do the Tour de Mount Berry. Coincidentally, right after I started, I saw Coach Syverson, so I stopped and said hi to him, and then I headed to Viking Trail, where I saw a few runners, that were shirtless, wearing running shorts, and were moving at a good pace, so I can only assume that they are some of the current cross country runners. The whole thing was such a shot of nostalgia, so despite being out way too late and getting up way too early, I was now running way too fast on the second mile of my long run, because I was so lost in the feeling of being back in a place that I love. So on the same trail where I started to learn how to pace myself, I had to remind myself that there was a long way to go.
Even on Viking Trail, which is a few miles long of paved path, I was captivated with the beauty of the place where I went to school. From the frolicking deer to mountainous vistas and the pure feel of nature, I was in heaven. I forgot how much of a summer camp vibe my college gave off, and I was so excited once I got to the real trails. Hills that used to seem hard were now much easier, and I was up at the Res before I knew it. The last time I saw the Res, it was partially drained, and it did not look as pretty as I was used to, but now it was back to full strength and despite the overcast day, I was still pleased with my view of the tower in the water, which again brought so many memories back of swimming around in there, jumping off the tower, and even a few night trips up to the Res.
I stopped to take a picture, then I moved on to the goat hill, and at first I was a little disappointed. I felt like it was too easy, but then when I got up to the top, I started to feel that familiar burn, and it was glorious. I ran a 7:30 mile going up the hill, which was enough to make me content. I wish I could have sprinted up it, but I still had more than half my run to go.
The trail to the House o’ Dreams trail took longer than I remembered, but it gave me a chance to catch my breath after the goat hill before I took on the next hill. On the normal long runs back in the day, we would just go down the HOD trail, but today I was going up! And it was further to the top than I remembered. It felt like I got to the Sun Gate quickly, but I forgot how much further it was to the top and how much steeper it got, but when I finally crested the hill, and I got to see the scenic vista I was awed by the view. It was prettier than I remembered. Just numerous rolling mountains off in the distance rippling like waves, and the house itself is a landmark, and on top of that, there is a water fountain up there! So after I touched the door of the tower marking my summit, I got to fill up my water bottle, take some pictures, and then hit the door again to head back down.
This was the part that I was looking forward to, two plus miles straight downhill at a grade that is perfect to pick up the pace and not feel the pounding of the hills too much. It was a great way to lower the overall average pace of the run to sub 7 minutes, which was my goal . So I made it down the hill, and I went to the left and ran place the Berry Middle school, the place that I had worked happily for four years and loved, and then I hopped onto OHS, which is a relatively flat trail that connects mountain campus to main campus.
I used the momentum of the downhill to pick up the pace, and I accidentally turned the whole trail into a three-mile tempo. My first mile was a 6:09, so I thought I could probably hit sub six, so I did (5:58), but then I turned it down a little bit and ran a 6:02. It reminded me of times when the team would be running back to finish a long run, but when we got back to main campus, there were tempo miles awaiting us on the track, but the pace would always start to be pushed on OHS. This made it a struggle deciding between trying to hurry up and finish the run, but also trying to keep enough energy to do the tempo at the appropriate pace. I was very thankful to not have this hanging over my head.
I was originally planning on doing 18 miles, but when I came off OHS I had just hit 18, and I was about a mile away from where I started, and I still wanted to see the Ford Castle, so I made the executive decision to bump it up to 20. It was well worth it. The Ford Castle is beautiful, and I enjoyed taking it all in again. Finally, I looped back to the dorm that I resided in for three of my four years, then I finished off back where I started feeling very happy with my run.
While in college, it is easy to overlook all the formative experiences that are being had, and how the people I was around helped to shape me into the person that I am. I probably would not be here writing this paper, if it were not for Berry. I left high school with a poor view of my writing ability, but at Berry there were history professors that believed in me and told me that I was a good writer. There were teammates at Berry that believed in me and thought that I could be a good runner. There were friends that loved nature as much as I did, and they helped to foster that love of nature in me that now plays a key role in my running, and there is so much more that happened in those four years that made me who I am today, and I am so grateful to have gotten to spend four years in such a beautiful place.
The weather prediction for the weekend was that it was going to rain everyday while I was in Georgia, but over the course of three days, three runs, and 40 miles, I experienced a collective minute of sprinkling while I was there. The weather was right around 70 degrees, and it was overcast the whole time. I am so grateful that I got to enjoy all of these routes, and not have to worry about terrible conditions. When I told people at the wedding later that day, that I went to Berry that morning just to go run, they all seemed surprised that I went so far out of my way to go for a run, but that run meant a lot to me, and Berry as a whole will always mean a lot to me, and I plan on making more pilgrimages back to Berry to homage to the goat, one of the most formative routes in my running career.
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