Asheville Blue Ridge Runner: Black Mountain Monster 12/24 Hour Race, June 2, 2012

No, we didn't have to climb over the obstacle course!

Several weeks ago our friend Lydia Odell was telling us about the Black Mountain Monster race she had signed up for. This is an event where participants can run, jog, and walk for either 12 or 24 hours on a 3.1 mile looped course. The goal is to keep moving and see how far you can go. Wow, count us in...

Lydia had never attempted this type of run before, so her goal was to try to keep moving for 4 hours, see how she feels then go for 6 hours, and above all else, enjoy herself. This sounded like a fun adventure to us, so we told Lydia we would come out to cheer her on, run some laps with her and just hang out. Well it didn't take long for us to realize we wanted to be a part of the race, so we signed up for the 12 hour race also. The money raised from the registration fee would go to local and international charities, and as part of the registration fee, they asked that everyone bring two cans of food. These would be donated to local food banks to help provide food for the needy and homeless.

Lydia getting ready for the start

Like Lydia, we were newbies to this type of ultra event, and since we knew we would be bringing along our dog Shadow, we decided our goal would be on every second lap, stop by the van to check on Shadow, relax some then go two more laps. We would just keep doing this until we had had enough and were ready to call it quits.

The race took place on Montreat College's beautiful Black Mountain campus. It's a very easy 3.1 mile looped course that winds over and around Tomahawk Branch River. It is entirely on flat ground and soft rolling hills and is a combination of wide grassy trails, simple wooded single track, 0.5 miles of asphalt, fields, and an occasional dirt road. There were two aid stations with water, Gatorade, watermelon, grapes, oranges, bananas, and pizza at dinner time and also importantly, port-a-pottys.

The race was really exciting and fun. There were people of all ages, everyone having different goals. Prizes were awarded to individual male and female winners and to relay team winners for both the 12 hour and 24 hour race (although we were home passed out in bed sleeping while awards were being passed out). We started our adventure with Lydia and ran the first lap and a half with her. She was feeling and running great, so when we stopped for a potty break, she kept moving. We never saw Lydia again until her last couple of miles. It's crazy that you can be running so close on a loop and not see her for literally hours. She must have lapped us a couple of times during our breaks to check on "The Great Furry One". Lydia had an awesome day and finished her last lap with her nephew/crew chief. When we were on lap 8, she was on lap 11! Way to go Lydia, so much for us being there for you. Maybe Lydia kept running faster and faster thinking at any minute she would catch back up with us and little did she know, we were hanging out in our van! haha!

As of this posting, the official results were not available yet.

Here's how we did:

Bart and I were able to complete 10 laps before calling it quits after about 7 1/2 hours of running, walking talking, laughing, eating, totaling 32 miles which includes our out and back visits to check on Shadow.

Lydia completed 11 laps, 34 miles in under 6 hours

Anne Riddle Lundblad world class ultra marathoner and INOV-8 team member completed the 12 hour race with 22 laps, 68 miles in a little under 12 hours

This was so much fun that we are already making plans to do this again next year!
Here's some more pictures of our adventure...