My 2nd year doing the RAM, next to Linville Marathon my next favorite trail marathon. 28 miles out & back on the AT across the Roan Mountain Highlands, only a few natural bald mountain areas in the world like this & right in my backyard. Sultan puts this one together & sets up the support. To give you a gauge of the difficulty of this course, I was the second on to finish last year at 6 hours. Falling in the beginning of June makes this marathon extremely difficult considering your exposed on the balds all day & very little H20 on this section of the AT. I managed to run & enjoy the 1st half with Adam Hill(Mad A) to the turn around Adam & I in the 1st & 2nd position. We fueled up at the aid station & I went ahead & started on the return 14 miles expecting Adam would catch me on our way back. I hit every little minuscule water accumulation & kept my head wet for those 14 miles. I kept looking back as I summited each bald, figuring I would see Adam hot on my heals, but no dice. As I hit Round Bald for the finish, I turned the music up & finished with my best time of 5 hours & 40 min. Another breath taking & really hard day with my favorite WNCtrail running crew, always an inspiration.
