Finally…The Black Mountain Post

Back in May, Chrysa and I participated in the Race of Awesome Black Mountain Monster Ultra Marathon.  We had an amazing time with our friends from the River Run Club.  Below are Chrysa’s thoughts on the event.  Enjoy!

This run was amazing. The venue, the people, the whole experience was something that made me understand why people run ultra-marathons. The race itself started on Saturday at 10am so Jesse and I got to camp on Friday afternoon. It was rainy and a bit unpleasant so we hung out before heading to set up our tent. Jesse’s mom decided to be there to see us start the race so we hid from the rain in her hotel room.

We headed to the craziest college campus I have ever seen. The roads were one way dirt trails. Thank goodness we had the Jeep otherwise we never would have made it to the big field that would be our home for the next 36 hours or so. We drove down this little path while honking in case anyone was coming up. It was worse than the trail I grew up on. It was barely wide enough for the Jeep to fit. We parked near the other River Run Club members that were there setting up their own tents. We unloaded the Jeep and started setting up camp. Jesse and I are not experienced campers and we didn’t have very much, just some pillows, blankets, a tent and a tarp. Thankfully we were with some amazing RRC folks that had a ton of camping gear. They were kind enough to loan us an air mattress, although when we tried to fill it in the tent it didn’t leave much room for sleeping. Or anything else for that matter. We eventually got our hands on a twin mattress and decided we would make it work.

 

As we looked around we saw a very nifty rope course and a house where there were showers with hot water and some cots. We also met the Black Mountain Monster… a huge LOUD freight train that went by the campsite about 100 feet away.

We went out to dinner that night with Jesse’s mom. It was a great place in Asheville where we had some good beer and food. I couldn’t eat it all since I was nervous about the run that was ahead of me. Even though the race didn’t start until 10am we wanted to get a good night sleep so we headed back to our tent and tried to fit on a small twin size air mattress. It was cold that night, about 39 degrees so we were happy we had to fit on that little mattress, we were able to huddle for warmth. And then we heard the train it rumbled so loud we could barely hear ourselves think. I began to laugh; it was just such a crazy absurd situation.

The race started the next morning and we all followed our usual pre-race rituals. I was feeling nervous as I put on my race gear and pulled on my bright green compression socks. I was about to spend 12 hours running as far as I could go. Would I be able to do it? Would it hurt too much and I would have to stop? I just didn’t know.

The race organizer called us all to the start line and just like that we were off. It was a 3.1 mile loop. The terrain was crazy! We started on a slight downhill through the grass, then we were on dirt, then some gravel, then back to dirt for a while, then some pine straw, then the race was on a paved greenway for a little bit, then onto a very slim single track of dirt… I think you get the idea. It was amazing. Even the views were beautiful. After you ran down a path lined with strange trees you came out to a field that had a back drop of the beautiful NC mountains. It was so nice to see big mountains again after missing them for so long. I spent my whole childhood growing up on a mountain and I saw them every time I left the house. It made me feel like I was back home.

After each loop I would stop at camp since we really did set up at a great place. I would have some water, some Gatorade, some pretzels and some chomps and then go off for another loop. Of course you have to make sure the man tallying your laps saw you and added another tick to your number.

The first few laps were OK. It was hard going and as the miles added up I started to walk more than run. But I kept moving. I wanted to make it to 10 laps. 31 miles. A 50K. At the 8^th lap or so I had to have one of the wonderful RRC supporters help pull my compression socks off. He was our camp dad, cooking food and offering encouragement.

I did it. I made it to my 10^th lap. I had reached 50K. The sun was still up and I wanted to do a night lap just to say that I did but once I sat down and wrapped myself in a heavy blanket to get warm I knew I was not going to get back up. I did manage to hobble up for a hot shower. Jesse gave me some of his beach sandwich that he made so I could finally eat something that was not in gel form.

Overall this race was just fun and something I would do again in a heartbeat. I think I can push myself even harder since I was moving pretty good the next day as Jesse and I walked around Asheville NC.

The encouragement of all the RRC people there is what made it easier to keep going. Without them we never would have done this race. It was an amazing experience with some of the best people we know. We miss all of our River Run Club friends and we hope to run with you guys again someday.

 

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