Day 36 – The Damascus Marathon

I woke up at 5:30am this morning to make sure I left camp at 6:30am. I wanted to make sure I got a good jump in that day, since I was going to run the Damascus Marathon today! The Damascus Marathon is a hike from Iron Mountain Shelter to the Marathon gas station in Damascus. In theory it is 42 kilometers, but I timed it at 42 kilometers.

Starting the marathon

At the beginning there was a bright glow to the east as the sun began to rise. This gave me enough light that I didn’t even need to use my flashlight once I started walking. While I never got a great image of the sunrise, it was nice to see the orange, yellow, and pink sky to my right. As was the topic yesterday, the start of my hike involved walking along a ridge. The terrain was quite forgiving and slightly downhill, allowing me to make excellent time. I covered the first almost 5 miles in about an hour and a half, arriving at a road junction where there were magical trails! Nomad, had refill options along with pancakes and coffee. While he served me some blueberry pancakes, I helped myself to some coffee and a banana. After finishing that meal, I looked at some of their refill options. I didn’t want to carry too much as I didn’t want to carry it today and I knew I was going to resupply in Damascus tomorrow. So I took a couple of things to help me have energy for the day.

Nomad’s Magical Trail Setting

I had such a great time on the magic trail that I ended up spending a whole hour there, which wasn’t part of today’s plan. That delayed my schedule a little. After leaving Trail Magic, I had a very nice gravel road through some meadows. I even saw a shed with the AT logo on it, which was cool.

Back to Business

The view over the hills of the meadows and the mountains in the distance was quite beautiful. That lasted about a mile before entering a relatively quiet section of the forest. The forest continued for a few miles, before I had to fill up on water at a stream, about 11.5 miles into the day. Where I filled my entire water capacity and rode a camel into the stream in an effort to not have to stop for water the rest of the day. Which may have been pushing, but I wanted to make up for some “lost” time on the magic trail earlier.

Later, I ended up on a ridge again for several more kilometers. While there were some climbs, most were fairly moderate in nature and were vastly outnumbered by the declines, both in quantity and duration. While most of the time on the ridge the views were obstructed, I could occasionally glimpse the surrounding countryside in the distance.

At this point most of the day I had been able to maintain a 3 mph pace, but I was getting pretty tired once I hit the 22 mile mark. Fortunately, shortly afterward I arrived at the Tennessee-Virginia state line. Marking the completion of another state, the third of 14.

In Damascus

That rejuvenated me and helped me keep going in the last few kilometers. As I approached Damascus, I got a good view of the city from above. While walking through the village, my foot found a strong root that I couldn’t save with my trekking poles and I fell to the ground. Out of pride, I simply scratched my thighs a little, as well as a small scratch on my right hand. Overall, it was pretty minor and I was lucky enough that it wasn’t worse, but it was still frustrating. Yet another reminder to keep your eyes on the road. Anyway, shortly after I entered Damascus where I was greeted by the famous sign.

At the sign, I took a couple of pictures and continued with the last mile of the marathon. The trail passes through Damascus, down the main street and across two streams. Turning onto the road after one of the creeks, I was greeted with a large Marathon gas sign. It had arrived! I got to the front of the store around 4:30 pm, and my final time was 10 hours and 2 minutes, of which I spent an hour on Trail Magic. Which seemed pretty solid to me. Since I was at the gas station, I went in and hydrated with a Gatorade and a 24 oz bottle. Miller Lite.

After finishing them, I walked across the street to my hostel, the Broken Fiddle Hostel, and checked in. I quickly showered, put on some borrowed clothes, and gathered my clothes. With that out of the way, I headed to the Damascus Diner for dinner, accompanied by Ghost, Vermont, and Dirty Dog. There I had a double cheeseburger, tater tots, collard greens, and a couple more Miller Lites to wash it down. Maybe it was because I was so hungry, but I thought it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had! Once we had our fill, a couple of us went to the distillery and tried a couple of their products while playing darts. By this time it was 9pm and bed was calling, closing out a long and eventful day!

Statistics for day 36:

26.6 miles

3,658′ ascent, 5,827′ descent

Iron Mountain Shelter to Broken Fiddle Lodge

0 DSLC…

Stove use times: 7

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