Mount Mitchell Challenge 2018

Mount Mitchell Challenge!

In the winter of 2016-2017 trail runner magazine came out with an article about the best winter races.  The one that caught my eye was the Mount Mitchell Challenge.  A 40 mile race that goes to the top of the highest peak east of the Mississippi.  Unfortunately, the lottery for the race was in September of the year before so I missed 2017.  Out of the five lotteries that I entered for 2018 running races, this was the only one I got in.

The race goes from the town of Black Mountain through the private college community of Montreat and then up double track trails till it hits the Blue Ridge Parkway.  From there it traditionally goes on road into Mount Mitchell state park and then to the summit!  This year, they changed the course to cut a bit of the road part to the top and instead go through the single track, rugged Old Mitchell trail.  Then we took the road back down back to the double track to a slightly different route back into Montreat and took smaller roads back to the town Black Mountain.  The race has about 4800 feet of elevation gain and of course you have to get back down!  For reference to my city folks, Harlem hill has about 82 feet of elevation gain.

The elevation gain wasn’t the crazy factor for me.  Just in NY, close by Breakneck marathon had 10,000 feet of gain in Coldsprings and the Whiteface Sky race in the ADK has 8,000 feet of gain in just 18 miles.   The new factor for me was that 1/3 of the course was on the road and most of the rest was on double track where I’m use to my ultras being out on single track.  So the course overall is easier and I feel like you could get away with training mostly on roads for this one.

I arrived to North Carolina two days before race day.  I did a moderate trail in Montreat run up Graybeard Mountain via Graybeard trail and then made a loop going down the West Ridge which went through some of the seven sisters (short hills) before descending back to Montreat.  9.1 miles and 2700 feet of elevation gain!  I planned to use my Nike Trail running shoes that I got for free from my 100 miler in the fall for the race but on this trail run I found that in the descent my toes hit the front.  The shoes were too small.  I recently got max cushion shoes and while they are comfortable, I found them extremely heavy when they got some mud so I switched back to my Brooks Puregrits.  These shoes have finger wide holes on both sizes and easily have done more than 600 miles but my quest for trail running replacements haven’t been going well.  The day before I did an easy trail run in the River trail by the agricultural Ward Wilson College, a flat 5 miles.  The Town of Black Mountain is by Asheville which the podcast hosts of No Meat Athlete are from.  One of the host specifically moved to Asheville because it was more vegan friendly so I was excited to eat around as well.

The Fear of Pain

I recently realized that I could run a lot faster than I previously thought.  I have always run at a comfortable pace for most of the race before pushing hard at the end.  I always thought it of it as running smart.  However, from racing shorter distances I realized that I didn’t even know what I was capable of.  When was the last time I blew up during a race or hit the wall?  I was determined this race to start off a bit faster than what I would usually do and see what happens.

Nutrition

I did both my practice runs wearing my Ultimate Direction SJ racing vest but in the race briefing the night before I learned that aid stations were only 5 miles apart.  So I decided to waist belt and double bottle it.  I had one ultimate direction hand handle and another Salmon soft flask that wraps around your wrist.  The Salmon flask has a pocket where I stashed a few gels and my waist belt stored my gel flask and more gels.  I brought 24 Science in Sport gels for $7 during a promotion they had so I used them for gels and I used my hammer gel flask which stores about 5 gels in a tiny bottle.  I planned to use the Science in Sport gels first, they had water in them so I used them to get some of my water needs in well.  At aids stations I usually ate two orange slices and then moved on.  I drank about 28 ounces of water during the almost 7.5 hours I ran the race.  Overall I felt like I didn’t need much.  I ate my first gel at 45 minutes and then ate another every 30 minutes or so.  Halfway I ate half a banana and near the marathon mark I felt slightly off so I ate a few chips and a shot cup of coke soda.  I ended up not eating half my hammer gel flask.

Start line

I parked at the finishing area of the race about an hour before start time.  Easily got a spot.  I had laid out half my gear out in the dashboard of my car the night before.  Bad idea, in the 20 minute drive quite a few things fell and got tossed around.  It took me about 45 minutes to get ready.  I actually had to rush out with one of my bottles only a fourth filled up.  I ran about a half mile to the start, got in the bathroom (thank goodness for a real bathroom at the start) and joined the 500+ runners at the race 3 minutes before start time.  Had enough time to tie my shoes and move near the back of the pack.  The race has two distances, the challengers who are doing the 40 miler and the marathoners who will run only to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then turnaround.  500 people was a lot for an ultra and it had a road running start feeling to it.

The first 13 miles

The first 3 miles of the race were on main roads going to Montreat.  I maintained about 10 mile pace with some steady elevation gain.  I passed a few people here and there.  Then we hit the double track where the pace quickly picked by.  Passed a lot of people in the next few miles here.  It was hard not to get excited when you finally hit the trails.  Despite the uphill the pace was quick but I stuck with it.  I passed by the first aid station without getting anything.  The next few miles you started to go back and forth with some people which allowed for some small conversations.  A guy gave me some of his dried mango which I found delicious.  Conservations were a mostly about where you’re from, training, and gear you’re wearing.  I met a man that is running this race for the 19^th time and he talked about someone else on course that is doing his 21^st one (that’s every year since the race started).  This man ended up running a lot faster than me and it blows my mind that someone who started running this race when I was around eight years is still crushing it!  As the trail got steeper I fell into a jog walk but still moved on the quick side.  Around mile 11 I started seeing the marathoners going back down. 

The Road Ascent

At around mile 13 we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and started a 2.5 mile ascend up on road.  I drove up this road the day before to take some pictures from the summit of Mount Mitchell.  Recently, I stopped carrying a phone with me while racing (since I should be focusing my attention on moving faster) so I like to take my time the day before getting the photos.  It was weird seeing the road from this point of view.  I started jogging up, I figure that road would be a good way to do well on time but about a mile in, I got passed by three individuals walking.  So then I started walking but I couldn’t walk as fast as these three.  I fell about .8 of a mile behind by the end of the 2.5 mile road ascent.  Then the course turned to single track, rugged trail with plenty of roots and rocks.  It was very similar to Catskill terrain.  It was also wet from the light rain and fog.  I made good time here, easily passing those that passed me earlier.  I talked a bit with a man from Atlanta before I picked up the pace.  I kind of just went whatever pace was natural for me but people afterwards would tell me I crushed it there.  Two miles later and we end up right below the summit.  A volunteer marks an S on my bib.  Summit and turn around to the aid station.  I eat a bit more here since I’m halfway done before moving on.  Now the way back down is all roads till we are back on the double track.  I was expecting to make good time here.  Maybe 9 minutes a mile but I found my pace to be around 10:30 a mile.  I didn’t practice running downhill fast so I wasn’t able to pick it up here.  I found it different that running downhill on trails which I am somewhat good at.  Halfway through the three that passed me on the initial road climb passed me again.  I started feeling off towards the end of this section and then I touched my neck to find that there was a lot of salt on it.  As I hit the aid station at the end of the Blue ridge parkway I decided to drink a shot cup of coke with a few chips to get some salt and calories back in.  I passed a few runners here with my shorter time on the aid station.

The Double Track Downhill

The double back down was pretty rocky.  I sorted of noticed on the ascent but on the downhill I guess your feet hits the ground a bit harder so you feel it a lot more.  I did well here.  I passed by quite a lot of runners.  I talked briefly with a man from Burlington, NC, it seemed like quite a few people were here from there.  He was pretty impressed that I could manage this race while training in NYC.  The double track became less rocky but still downhill and I slowed a bit here.  There were quite a few splits of the trail and the course wasn’t marked that well in my opinion.  On the way up there were so many people so I had no trouble finding my way but now I was running alone 95% of the way.  I checked the map of my watch on a few of the splits; I pretty much had to assume that the larger trail was the right way.  After what the first aid station on the way up was is now the last aid station on the double track trail the trail became a very steep downhill.  I flew down but at one of the turns I couldn’t tell if I went the right way (again marking wasn’t as frequent as I’m used to).  So I went back up and found out that I was going the right way.  I wasted two or so minutes here which sucked since I was moving so fast. 

Back to Black Mountain!

The double track trail ended on Montreat roads and now the road descend was crazy steep.  It was the steepest road downhill I ever encountered (even steeper than San Francisco marathon downhills).  I passed by an aid station manned by Montreat college students.  As I got closer to finishing I thought about tips about moving fast that I have gotten recently.  I focused a bit on picking my legs up a bit.  A small section cut through park trails and in one of them I spotted orange marking in the middle of a stream and more orange marking on the other side.  It was hard to tell at this point if they belonged to the race or not.  I jumped to the giant boulder in the middle and was ready to jump into the stream to get to the other till I realized that the orange marking on the other side was no way a trail.  I must have wasted 3-4 minutes figuring this out and then proceed to continue the usual route.  Found more orange marking so I assumed that the other orange marking were a county or town mark for something else.  Rest of the two or so miles went smoothly.  The race ended with a loop around Lake Tomahawk.

After the race they had food in a community center building.  They had some delicious mushroom soups and I filled up on bread with peanut butter, bananas and pinto beans.  I talked with a few of the finishers and even a bit with the overall winner Morgan.  He finished the race in 4:20, more than three hours faster than my 7:23!  Others that finished the race said it was easier with snow since that covered up rocks.  It was the second hottest temperature of the race, high 60s in the bottom and high 40s on top.  After a little more than an hour of relaxing and talking I went back to Asheville to get a postcard which ended up being a lot harder than I thought.  Next was dinner and then the 10.5 hour drive back to NY!  I had two free beers that I could have claimed where they were doing the overall awards but I thought that to be a bad idea before a long drive.