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= EXTRA EXTRA! =

[|Brandon Thrower] [|Grand Kirk]
 * 2011 Linville Gorge Madness Reports **

= 2011 Rattle My Heart 50k Reports: =

[|Sultan]

[|Grand Kirk]

[|Brandon Thrower]

[|Denise Davis]

2011 Sultan 50k Reports: [|Jay Aldous] [|Matt Kirk] Brandon Thrower [|Kay]

This years Sultan 50k brought out 40+ runners with 21 of them going the full distance. Below are splits and finish times. The official finish times factor any bonus/boner points issued by our amazing volunteers!

Photoz:

[|Beth's photos] [|John L's photos] [|Charlie's photos]
 * || List of Finishers ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||


 * |||| FULL DISTANCE -- 33 Miles ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * || Name || Distance || Trail Name || Finish (official) || Aid Station 16.5M || Finish (actual) ||
 * 1 || Hill, Adam || 32 || madA || 4:07 || 2:13 || 4:59:52 ||
 * 2 || Kirk, Matt || 32 || Grand Kirk || 4:37 || 2:13 || 5:07:05 ||
 * 3 || Williams, Scott || 32 ||  || 4:51 || 2:25 || 4:56:24 ||
 * 4 || Lundblad, Mark || 32 ||  || 4:52 || 2:25 || 4:57 ||
 * 5 || Hargroves, Jeremy || 32 ||  || 4:52 || 2:18 || 5:12 ||
 * 6 || Shuler, Dwight || 32 ||  || 5:08 || 2:41 || 5:23 ||
 * 7 || Savage, Jonathan || 32 ||  || 5:15 || 2:25 || 5:20 ||
 * 8 || Mrochek, Keith || 32 ||  || 5:24 || 2:20 || 5:29:55 ||
 * 9 || Lilly, Richard || 32 ||  || 5:33 || 2:50 || 6:55 ||
 * 10 || Tribbett, Tammy || 32 ||  || 6:14 || 3:03 || 6:34 ||
 * 11 || Blackford, Doug || 32 ||  || 6:17 || 3:39 || 7:24 ||
 * 12 || Wright, Wendy || 32 || Worm || 4:53 || 2:30 || 5:07 ||
 * 13 || Connolly, Mark || 32 ||  || 6:32 || 3:01 || 6:57 ||
 * 14 || Leedy, Gail || 32 ||  || 6:41 || 3:33 || 7:55 ||
 * 15 || Roberts, Charlie || 32 ||  || 6:50 || 2:53 || 7:15 ||
 * 16 || Allen, Kay || 32 || Tasty Pie || 7:10 || 3:32 || 7:30 ||
 * 17 || Kumar, Naresh || 32 ||  || 7:19 || 3:29 || 8:03 ||
 * 18 || McGonnell, Jeff || 32 ||  || 7:24 || 3:09 || 7:24 ||
 * 19 || Idlibi, Mohammed || 32 || Sultan || 7:43 || 3:03 || 7:43 ||
 * 20 || Wimberly, Psyche || 32 || Midlife Crisis || 7:45 || 3:47 || 9:45 ||
 * 21 || Raffensperger, Charles || 32 || fittyK || 7:50 || 3:47 || 9:45 ||
 * |||| HALF DISTANCE 16.5 Miles ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * 22 || Austin, Jinnie || 16 ||  || 3:13 || 3:16 || DNF ||
 * 23 || Austin, Stan || 16 ||  || 3:13 || 3:16 || DNF ||
 * 24 || Foxworth, Terry || 16 || Daddy Choo Choo || 3:28 || 3:58 || DNF ||
 * 25 || Funderburk, Ashley || 16 || Corn Cob || 2:54 || 3:14 || DNF ||
 * 26 || Lewis, John || 16 ||  || 3:19 || 3:32 || DNF ||
 * 27 || Minnick, Beth || 16 ||  || 3:10 || 3:14 || DNF ||
 * 28 || Pryor, David || 16 ||  || [[image:file:///C:/Users/Mohammed/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif width="3" height="3" caption="https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif"]] || 2:47 ||   || 2:59 || DNF ||
 * 29 || Chew, Betsy || 16 || Dimmer || 3:11 || 3:14 || DNF ||
 * 30 || Foxworth, Nichole || 16 ||  || 3:48 || 3:58 || DNF ||
 * 31 || Paige, Greg || 16 || Gregness || [[image:file:///C:/Users/Mohammed/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image004.gif width="3" height="1" caption="http://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif,http://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif"]] || 2:59 ||  || 3:21 || DNF ||
 * 32 || Roper, Hayley || 16 ||  || ? || NA || DNF ||
 * 33 || Ryan, Patrick || 16 ||  || 3:11 || 3:14 || DNF ||
 * 34 || Harrison, Jonathan || 16 ||  || 2:25 || 2:41 || DNF ||
 * 35 || Holland, Alex || 16 ||  || 3:39 || 3:42 || DNF ||
 * 36 || McCaslin, Jeff || 32 ||  || [[image:file:///C:/Users/Mohammed/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif width="3" height="3" caption="http://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif"]] || UNKNOWN ||   || 3:06 || UNKNOWN ||
 * 37 || Shelfer, Drew || 32 ||  || UNKONWN || 2:30 || UNKNOWN ||
 * 38 || Thrower, Brandon || 16 ||  || UNKNOWN || NA || DNF ||
 * 39 || Hannah - Brandon's GF || 16 ||  || UNKNOWN || NA || DNF ||
 * 40 || Lucchesi, DC || 32 ||  ||   ||   || DNS ||
 * 40 || Lucchesi, DC || 32 ||  ||   ||   || DNS ||

What's going on in the WNC trail running world? Post your stories here. Use the discussion board as well. Let's fill this thing up...

2010 Pitchell 100k/FAC 50k Report: After much prodding from several running friends, I felt inclined to finally sit down and write down some notes on an annual fun run that I dubbed Pitchell back in 2004. This run has, in a way, always brought me back to my roots in this fantastical running lifestyle of mine (and hopefully a few others). Back to my roots, in that it is one of the first "fun runs" that I hosted, being inspired by the poise and style of the one and only Matt "the Grand Kirk" Kirk and his annual winter solstice pilgrimage of the Art Loeb Trail (ALTAR)! Back to my roots, in that this run embodies everything that I think a mountain ultrarunning challenge should hold true to...namely that of solely internal motivation, planning, and execution without the help of a paid entry fee where many of the worries and logistics are left to that of race director and crew. Now, this is obviously not as "pure" of a mountain trail challenge as many that are out there (as the Blue Ridge Parkway allows for some pretty easy logistic and aid scenarios), but the obvious challenge of running on trail between two of Asheville's most notorious (and visible) peaks is hard to resist to this adventurer, especially when those two peaks are approximately 67 miles apart.

In the spring of 2004, after dabbling in the ultra scene by way of David Horton's classic races, my body ached for something closer to home without the wallet-draining properties of a bonafide race. My apartment complex happened to sit only a half mile from the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST), so the idea came about for me, a recent transport to Asheville, to run from my apartment to the summit of Mt. Mitchell and back! This run was successful and was indeed my first time EVER to the summit of Mt. Mitchell (and to this day the longest time I have ever spent out moving on a trail!). Some 6 months removed from that adventure, my wife and I (and Asa) found ourselves moving from our apartment into the house we are living in now. I, of course, had to have one more adventure from the apartment, so it made complete sense for me to run from the apartment to the summit of Mt. Pisgah and back! The next day, we moved into our new house. Not long after this run, Matthew Johnson, Mike Jackson, Gerald Eldridge and I were running some of the trails in Montreat when the question arose, "what's next?"! Well, without much pause, I announced that the only logical thing to do at this point was to coordinate a run connecting the two summits! This, naturally, would be done in the northeasterly direction with the start being on the summit of Mt. Pisgah and the finish being atop Mt. Mitchell....Pitchell!

I was fortunate enough to finish this stretch of trail in 2005 (the first year of Pitchell) in 16:30ish and again in 2006 in 17:30ish, however, after this I began to have a lackluster feeling about getting out there anymore. 2007 saw the most finishers ever and also saw Kevin Lane set a pretty solid mark of 15:18 in his first finish in two tries, but I failed to make it past 55 miles simply by "wimping out" from some pain in the shin. 2008 didn't happen as the Blue Ridge Parkway ended up being closed from Bull Gap up to Mitchell because of construction on tunnel rockslides, etc. The epic Arctic year of 2009 saw a "band of brothers" hiking/running up to the summit of Mt. Pisgah from Hwy 151 (where the Parkway was closed) to start our journey in sub freezing temperatures and several inches of snow, only to be foiled again by Parkway closures! I failed to make it past 26 miles, but Byron Backer was setting a torrid pace through the 50 mile mark only to be stopped (not by his decision!) by more road closures and icy/snowy conditions that would've had him adding on at least 6 miles to this already arduous trek. Brad Kee also fought a hard battle to reach Bee Tree Gap before dropping for the same reasons (again, not fully by his choice!). As 2010 approached, I reluctantly continued to host this annual trek in the hopes that I might be able to actually prepare myself this year for a finish, and maybe even a decent time (as in eclipsing my previous best). After some good natured ribbing from Byron Backer, I jokingly assured him that upon his return to this classic adventure (he could not come this year) that he would be chasing a new fastest known time! He wished me well, and I thought..."uh-oh, time to put up or shut up". October 30th was to be the day this year for Pitchell, and 7 runners stood atop Mt. Pisgah at midnight gasping at the stars above and in awe at what the day might hold for each of us. I was still gathering some things together when everyone started after the obligatory "GO" was yelled! This put me in caboose position along with our chauffeur for the evening, Jon Harrison. Jon and I ran down together chasing the headlights of those in front, passed [|Pysche], Dave, and [|Sultan], then he peeled off at the car to drive it down to the Folk Art Center where it would lay in wait for "dnf" temptation purposes later (everyone elses vehicles were already at the FAC). I soon found myself running with Jeremy Hargroves and we talked about the adventure ahead until we reached Hwy 151 and picked up Mike "Cheetah" Mason. We three would run together or near one another for just about the rest of the night as we all thought we were chasing a speedy [|Grand Kirk]. Somewhere along the way I mentioned to my two running companions that although I thought that I wanted to formulate some sort of strategy for the impending miles, it seemed better to just let it come to pass as each and every footstroke took to the trail. Well 20 miles and several turned ankles later, it just seemed that we were maybe a little slower than I was hoping, and certainly seemed to be working really hard to cover that ground in the amount of time that we did. I guess that can happen, though, when you start a run at midnight on leaf covered trails!?! Nonetheless, as I left the aid we had dropped at the French Broad River bridge, I thought that I would "give chase" to Matt. I know this section very well, and was pleased to be able to hammer through the constant ups and downs of the trail during this stretch. After arriving at the Hwy 25 aid drop, I quickly filled my bottle, dumped some rocks from my shoes, but also noticed that Matt had not used the water left there. So I hopped up and started out again at a smart pace in an effort to make up some time on my friend in hopes that we could run together for a while. Somewhere along this stretch I noticed my vision going blurry! It was as if my contacts had fallen out, but I knew that they hadn't. The temps had dropped just below 30 degrees, and I was thinking that it was some kind of frozen breath/fog getting up in between my contacts and my eyes....So I just stumbled along forcing myself to go a little bit slower than I would've been without the legal blindness!!! I focused my thoughts again to catching up to Matt. At Hwy 74a, I noticed that no water was used up there either, so figured that he must have run back to my house in order to drop out (my house sits a mile off the trail!)....bummer (thanks for being the carrot Matt!)! Well, I was a little disheartened to realize this, but also getting VERY sleepy. "Just get to the Folk Art Center, then get in and out of there fast!" I had made it there in 6:14, then spent 7 minutes and 4 seconds at the Folk Art Center grabbing a quick bite, refilling my bottle (and grabbing one more), then putting the shoes back on after a re-lube. Jeremy was there (he took the Parkway back to the FAC from Hwy 25 to drop, still running a speedy 6:10 split) and offered up some contact solution, so after a couple of drops in each eye, I took off with my thoughts set on a solid FAC 50k split to finish this thing up! I was very much looking forward to the sun coming up, but also getting more and more frustrated about my foggy vision! Sure enough, when the sun came up, I still had blurred vision, even as the day heated up! So I said a simple prayer for guidance over the rock and root covered terrain and plugged on....even appreciating the cool effects that my vision had on the sunrise...It was beautiful!

Andrew Moore and Brian (B-Rex) Beduhn were going to be running the FAC 50k starting that morning, and I was pretty sure that Brian would be up ahead after starting a little bit earlier. Andrew was not going to get started until after 7, so this immediately gave me a couple of goals to take my mind off the blurriness. Catch Brian and don't get caught by Andrew!! After "waking up" finally around 7:30 I was aware at how good I felt physically, but continued to run smart without the risk of blowing up. I was loving every minute of the day (aside from not being able to see well) and just pumped to be running on such a beautiful day! I came up on Brian on the way up Rich Knob and we ran/hiked together for a little bit, catching up on things until the steeper switchbacks started just before cresting Rich Knob. I hollered to Brian to have a great rest of the day and pushed very well up and over the roller coaster to Lane Pinnacle. About a mile before Bee Tree Gap I bumped into Mike Jackson, who had come out to help with aid and get some good running in! We ran together up to Bee Tree Gap, and I spent a little extra time here getting my things together and scoring some Combos from Mike before heading off and up into the Craggy Gardens! Mike ran with me up to just past the shelter on the next summit, and I was very pleased to have his company. I was still feeling pretty good, and looking forward to running on some sections of trail that I had not been on in a while. The 4 miles of rock garden leading over to the Graybeard Overlook were actually very fun for me and kept things interesting as I had to guide my feet on and around these blurry boulders! Sultan (who dropped out at Hwy 25?) greeted me with some techno music upon arriving at Graybeard Overlook, and I did my best to muster up some dance moves, but simply scored a quick S-Cap and Nuun tablet from him and bid him farewell! I was still impressed at how I was feeling and hoping to make it over to Balsam Gap in good time, but forgot how long these couple of short sections last before there! It is on this next section that you ascend up and over Bullhead Mountain. The grassy balds, rocks, and views of this ridge are unbelievable and may be my favorite stretch of the whole run. I conveniently needed to stop at one overlook to stretch an aching IT Band and was super pumped that I could tell that my eyes were slowly starting to come around (I CAN SEE-SWEET!!). The longer I looked, however, the more daunting and distant the curvaceous cliffline of Potato Knob looked! Alright, back to task! I bumped into Mike Jackson again before the last hump of a climb before descending into Balsam Gap, and we ran together over to there. media type="youtube" key="rD8b0LgDFJ8?fs=1" height="320" width="402" align="center"

Sultan was there cheering me on again and encouraging me to keep up the pace in order to get in under 15 hours! I blasted up Blackstock Knob better than I ever have and remember feeling as if that climb wasn't as bad as I remembered. Mike Jackson caught up to me just shy of the summit and ran with me for another 10 minutes before he turned back. After rolling in and out of climbs and descents through that surreal landscape, I started the drop into Rainbow Gap and the next significant rock garden before the final push past Hwy 128! I stopped at the signature lookout rock on the side of Potato Knob (see pic on Pitchell page) and just soaked in the view (I was so pumped to have clear vision!!) I left there very satisfied to be feeling so great, and flew into the last aid drop. I dropped my hip pack, filled up a little water in the handheld and took the turn onto the Buncombe Horse Trail (that the MST follows to Commissary Ridge). Forgetting about the slight incline of the first mile of this trail, I foolishly tried to muster up the strength to run what was as close to 7 min. pace as I could. Well about 1.5 miles of that were all I could handle, so I stopped for a minute to regain some composure and decided not to look at the watch until the base of Camp Alice Trail (which would be the 1 mile to go mark, but still with approximately 800 feet of climb?!?). I was able to run pretty well to there, then upon starting the power hike up the final mile I realized that sub 15 was out, but sub 15:18 was more than likely! I actually felt good enough to run a good portion of the trail leading up to the final turn onto the "paved path" that takes you to the summit of Mitchell! When I made that final turn, I was running like a madman...and it is more than likely that snot was slinging from my nose and drool was dripping down my beard, because bundled up dayhikers galore were jumping to and fro from this crazed mountain man in a t-shirt and compression shorts running at them with a wild look in his eyes!


 * 15:06!!** As I looked at my watch before clumsily laying down on the ground, I couldn't help but smile...smile because I was finished, smile because it was a beautiful day and the views were amazing, smile because there were numerous parka covered tourists with mouths agape at what they had just witnessed (of which none were sure), smile because I really felt great, smile because I had enjoyed the company of many friends on this adventure, smile because I had bested my previous best time by an hour and a half and set a new fastest known time for Pitchell (with an 8:44 FAC 50k split!), smile because this was what a mountain adventure is really about...finishing after pushing yourself against a desired route, then sitting there by yourself looking out along the path taken (yes, you could see Mt. Pisgah from the summit that day-WOW!) with a greater appreciation for what it took to get to that finish!



Many thanks and congratulations should be extended for the 2010 Pitchell 100k/FAC 50k!

Congrats to Mike Mason for his Pitchell 100k finish in 16:48! Congrats to Psyche for running 50 miles of Pitchell a week before tackling her first 100 miler! Congrats to Dave for running from the summit of Pisgah to the FAC, then following that up a week later with a PR at Shut In! Congrats to Andrew and Brian for solid FAC 50k finishes!



Big thanks go out to Andrew's wife Carole for the shuttle from the summit and the goodies; to Mike Jackson for helping out; to Jon Harrison for the ride up to Pisgah and the shuttling of my car to the FAC, as well as for him, his wife, and sister and friend coming up to cheer and provide rides to us after the run!! You guys all ROCK!

See you at the next one!

peace.adam