Ultrarunning Boy Takes on the World(of Black Mountain Marathon)

This past weekend, Kenny and I headed up to Asheville so I could run the Black Mountain Marathon. The marathon is considered the "fun run" as it is run beside the infamous Mount Mitchell Challenge. I had thrown my name in for the challenge but hadn't gotten selected. Thinking this was probably in my best interest, I didn't think much of it until I ran with Rick from the Harbison Trail Runners in mid-November. He mentioned that he might be able to get me in the marathon if I won't. I was non-committal about it with my attention on the Mobile Marathon. And he didn't mention it again until the new year when he confirmed that he could, in fact, get me in. Crap. Now I would have to run a marathon that starts with 14 miles of ascending.

A little backstory- When I first starting dating Kenny, she had entered the half marathon that runs from the Loudon Speedway to downtown Concord. I had agreed to pace her for the last 5-6 miles. It touted that the last four miles were "all downhill". Well, imagine Kenny's surprise when she came across that uphill by Shaker Hill School. Suffice it to say that she spent a fair amount of those four miles grumbling. This has become a running joke between us whenever we do a race that supposedly is flat or mostly downhill. 

A little more backstory-The Mount Mitchell Challenge is one of the few races that I was aware of in the Southeast before moving down here. Since then I have come across some pretty great ones, no small part due to the Harbison Trail Runners, the races they throw and recommendations they make. But before I found them, I hadn't heard of anything other than MMC and its 40 miles of running to the highest peak on the East Coast. The first 20 or so were all climbing. This sounded like, to sound millennial, epic. The Black Mountain Marathon is the exact same course but turns but 6  miles before the summit. 

Back to the story. Once again  finding myself grossly underprepared for this race, I nevertheless had high expectations for myself. I had looked up the race results and spoken with some people and it sounded like it would be fair to expect 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per mile slower than a road marathon. So I went into the race thinking a 3:30 would be a good goal. Well, the mountain had other ideas for me. 

Never before in a race have I had to walk in the first 3 miles. There is a patch of ~1/4 mile pavement before you jump on the trail that I would say was as steep as Mount Washington. This may not be true but it certainly felt like it. And judging by the fact that everyone around me was also walking, I think it is fairly accurate. Shortly thereafter we hit the trail which was surprisingly runnable. I kept on having to hold myself back in fear that I would make a big pass and then come to a steep incline and have to walk again. But it never happened. The next 11 miles were all(for the most part) totally runnable with the biggest challenge coming in the form of golf ball sized rocks that kept pummeling my left foot. This foot is the one that I stress fractured mid-Flying Pig Marathon back in 2010 and still have residual pain from on occasion. Like when I repeatedly step right on a rock. 

So my mile splits to the turn around was slower than I'd had hoped but not due to the pitch of the climb but rather the terrain. At the turn around, I was informed I was in 7th place in the marathon. 

Side-note- The majority of the competitive runners do the Challenge, so while I was 7th in the marathon, I would have been something like 20th in the Challenge even though they were doing 14 extra miles!

On the descent, I was greeted by dozens of cheering Harbison runners still making their ascent(again because they were pacing themselves for 40!). It was really nice to have some camaraderie at a race Less nice? Those same stinking rocks. On an otherwise, fast descent, I spent my time carefully picking my line to avoid landing on my left foot. Which is fairly hard to do with ~90 foot strikes per minute. Then add it a few sneaky UPHILLS! Where did those come from? I laughed to myself when I realized I was pulling a Kendra ;) Suffice it to say, I didn't have the descent I wanted but I was able to negative split the race and barely sneak under 4 hours. 

Back on the pavement, and very uncomfortable. 

Despite my little pity-party it was definitely a fun race and I plan to do it again. After it, I passed by hundreds of people lining the streets waiting for Billy Graham's motorcade to go by. We lucked out that it didn't impact traffic where we were staying so Kenny and I spent the rest of the day in Asheville. Which turned into a beautiful day. We had such a good day and slept very well that night. 

All in all, a fun weekend marking the last marathon I will do pre-baby Ferreira. Who knows how things will go after that?

Until next time,

Danny