The top photo was taken by photographer Stewart Smith in November 2007 in Grayson Highlands, VA when he was getting a portrait for this month’s Trail Runner…(I wasn't wearing much of Mtn. Hardwear last fall)-but I wanted folks to see some of the beauty of southwestern VA! I expect we’ll have to wait until fall to see what photos taken on Sunday 4/13 Mountain Hardwear might use...The bottom 2 garments are 2 of the pieces we got to wear on Sunday-hopefully we'll see them in "use" in Mtn Hardwear's fall 2008 promo materials!
This past Sunday, teammate Sarah Johnston and I got together with photographer Stewart Young. It is early spring in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and in the valleys and elevations below 3500’ the daffodils, forthesia and pear blossoms are out in full force. Most trees have least buds on them.
Our challenge was to find a location that made it look like winter this time of year. My first thought was the Virginia Highlands as it seems it is always cold and windy up there, even in July! Though we sought to find a place closer to Lynchburg where Sarah lives, none of us are too familiar with areas midway between there and Asheville (where Stewart lives), so we went with a sure choice and Sarah agreed to do the 3.5 hour drive each way! For me it was an easy 32 minutes on a Sunday morning…
We spent 5.5 hours together running, jumping and doing just a bit of posing for Stewart’s camera. We were told the idea was to be authentically windblown and gritty and not have it be “just a run in the park”. It was windy and our eyes teared for hours. And cold (afternoon highs were in the mid 30’s) and it snow showered much of the day-though the snow was tiny pellets that up close looked like dandruff on dark hair and showed up only as background mist in the photos. We smeared ourselves with mud, rain through creeks and tried too keep our noses from obviously running (I am perfectly fine if a photo of me appears and I look tough or like I am working hard or in pain and not pretty at all-yet I draw the line about 2 things: 1) having snot leaking down my face and 2) getting caught on film leaning over and creating a little “belly roll”. I am not too worried about these for this shoot as I am certain neither one would do anything to positively promote the selling of clothing!
Stewart worked furiously for hours…his gloveless hands were cold-I am not sure how he could function! At times our directions instructed “athlete 1” (me) to remove gloves and hat and I did so while stifling a whine. Sarah “athlete 2” also had to take off layers-yet she kept on smiling and laughing and did not whine!
We had fun and did our best to do our “job” although we are both newbie’s at this sort of thing. I loved the clothing that we got to wear-though most were way too big for Sarah and my tights also too big…though the jackets and hat and gloves were perfect. (Later I learned the sample/model size is size medium and usually when things don’t fit photographers tuck and pin them…I am not sure how staples and pins would do when really running?) Anyway I really hope Stewart got the sort of shots Mountain Hardwear can use!
I got to wear my favorite piece of Mountain Hardwear Gear to date: The transition jacket with thumb loops and a hood.(pictured above) It is much like our 2007 Montrail uniform jacket with longer sleeves and a hood. Perfect to wear and “stuff in the pack”… (When mountain running for hours alone-I always have extra clothes as one of my greatest fears in to have to stop and get too cold!) Also pictured are the transition tights-not really tight –but definitely windproof and water resistant…the same uniform pant from 2007 but in dark grey...Mountain Hardwear has some other neat pieces for fall, not yet available to show!
Sooo…Sunday was fun and cold and now I am back at “real life”: working, finishing up my last graduate class, finding the balance between “babying” a sore calf muscle and not loosing fitness for the upcoming Zane Grey!
