Saturday, February 26, 2005 – “What a day!”…That was the sentiment from virtually all of the 218+ competitors in the 2005 Mount Mitchell Challenge and Black Mountain Marathon. The post race banquet venue, a local historic mansion serving as the Black Mountain Campus of Montreat College, became the perfect venue to relive the events of a memorable day on the highest mountain in the East.

            Both the Marathon and the 40 mile Challenge started simultaneously, under crystal clear, 30 degree blue skies at 7am Saturday morning. Each race wound its way out of the small Western North Carolina tourist destination of Black Mountain, through Montreat College and up the trails traversing the spine of the Black Mountains before separating at the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here, the marathoners got a brief look at the face of Mount Mitchell before returning to town, while the Challengers continued on through the difficult mud and ice covered trails to the highest point the east has to offer – the 6684 foot summit of Mount Mitchell. Athletes then faced the no less daunting task of returning to town along those same trails.

            Leading the field in the day’s shorter race, Asheville, NC’s Scott Wolfe and defending marathon champion Coates Kennerly separated themselves quickly and dueled all the way to the Parkway turnaround and back into Montreat before Wolfe pulled away in the last few miles to a convincing 3 minute win in 3:07:01. The women’s race also saw a close contest as Shontel Jung, from Asheville, narrowly took a 1 minute win from Durham, NC’s Allison Brown (who, at age 42, also became the masters 40+ age group champion). The men’s masters’ title went to yet another Asheville resident, David Ariola, in 3:40:35.

            In the day’s premier event, the 40 mile Challenge, the men’s field looked to be the most competitive to date with 3 time defending champion Will Harlan from Asheville, multiple Leadville 100 trail run winner Paul Dewitt from Colorado Springs, perennial Mt. Mitchell runner-up Cid Cardoso from Raleigh, top ultra marathoner Eric Grossman from Louisville, KY and Asheville dark horse hope Drew Shelfer, all toeing the line Saturday morning.

            As the race progressed, it was clear that the day would belong to Colorado’s Dewitt. Each checkpoint saw his challengers slip back slightly. Going over the summit, Dewitt claimed the High Gear summit prize (a $200 MP3 player) with Shelfer showing the only signs of a challenge at just under 2 minutes down. On the return trip, the Montrail/Patagonia team member dropped the hammer and extended his lead to a comfortable 10 minutes, claiming the win in 5:01:58. Grossman rallied well on the downhill to overhaul Shelfer for the runner-up spot at 5:12:00 to 5:14:15. Harlan, the defending champ, struggled valiantly through a badly timed case of the flu to claim 4^th in 5:23:41. Ridgeland, Mississippi’s John Brower rounded out the top 5 in 5:30:48.

The women’s race proved to be a contest between foot speed and technical skill. Defending champion Annette Bednoski, also running for Montrail/Patagonia, from Boone, NC faced the daunting task of squaring off against local favorite and multiple National Championship winner Anne Riddle Lundbladt. The lead see-sawed back and forth for most of the morning, with Lundbladt clearly showing her superior speed through the less technical sections, but once the trail turned icy and rocky, Bednosky’s skill over the challenging terrain paid off with close to a 6 minute victory in 5:50:19 to 5:56:03. Both women were the first to beat the 6 hour mark for the full course. Asheville’s Beth Nabers (7:07:08), Cary’s Nancy Pullen (7:26:11) and Raleigh’s Leah Harkness (8:09:10) rounded out the top 5 overall.

The men’s masters Challenge victory went to Greenville, SC’s Byron Backer in 6:24:50. Backer held off challenges from Durham’s Guido Ferrari (6:31:50) and Claremont, FL’s David Harper (7:26:45). On the women’s masters side, Liz Walker of Plainville, GA took 5^th overall to claim the over 40 title in 7:28:01. Arlington, VA’s Vickie Kendall (8:13:19) and Clifton, VA’s Julie Guy (8:19:56) rounded out the top 3.

The 2005 edition of the BMM&MMC proved to be the biggest and best yet with primary national sponsors Patagonia, Camelbak, Montrail, Smartwool, Powerbar, Adventure Sports Magazine and High Gear, along with a host of local sponsors including Black Mountain Savings Bank, Black Dome Mountain Shop and the town of Black Mountain all receiving extensive media coverage for an event that has grown from a local gem to a premier southeastern winter adventure.

Raz'sComments:

A reporter from the Charlotte Observer was at the summit. All I got was a quick look around because the "paparazzi" was photographing Booper. Says he's going to write her up. I had to give him all kinds of info. We had a literal photo session up there.

Booper got a lot of attention. She's in great shape. I took her out a few minutes ago for a potty break and she took off running for a squirrel. She grabbed up a toy of hers when we got in and started running around wanting to play.

Oddly enough to me, I'm just a tad sore. I could go for a run today if it were not for the blisters. I don't understand that. I was certain that I would be needing a wheelchair today.

How are you? What did you think of the course?

Rob asked me if I was going to do it next year. I replied, "Been there, done that, don't need to go back." I don't think I can face the rocks and the ice at the top was horrible trying to get through it. Busted my bee-hind several times and did a lot of skating, too.

I would have waited outside the car to yell cheers, but, man, my feet have got some nasty, nasty blisters. Huge blood blisters from those horrible rocks! Those rocks chewed me up. Rob drained them last night and they are sore as the dickens. Wearing shoes ain't an option.

Great job for everybody.

  William "Bill" Hollihan, Ricky Scott, and Ron Horton at half way on the 40 miler. 
Quite a day. Started at 7AM and finished at 5:47PM

Ricky 's Comments (to RAZ):
 

Raz at the top


Dennis and Iva head back down


Iva apparently wandered off course, but luckily ran across some folks
recently relocated from Mississippi (see trailer), and they could
 understood her MS accent well enough to get her headed  back on course

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