  We present a simple mechanism which can mimic dark energy with an equation of
state w < -1 as deduced from the supernova data. We imagine that the universe
is accelerating under the control of a quintessence field, which is moving up a
very gently sloping potential. As a result, the potential energy and hence the
acceleration increases at lower redshifts. Fitting this behavior with a dark
energy model with constant w would require w<-1. In fact we find that the
choice of parameters which improves the fit to the SNe mimics w = -1.4 at low
redshifts. Running up the potential in fact provides the best fit to the SN
data for a generic quintessence model. However, unlike models with phantoms,
our model does not have negative energies or negative norm states. Future
searches for supernovae at low redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.5 and at high redshifts
z>1 may be a useful probe of our proposal.
