Most ultrarunners on the east coast know about the Uwharrie Mount run and the Mt. Mitchell Challenge. There are some additional spring races in North Carolina that  showcase a couple of state parks.
The Gator Trail 50K has not been held for a couple of years, but it is back for 2007 and will be held on March 24 near Wilmington. Click here to download a pdf race application. The Gator Trail 50k is held within Lake Waccamaw State Park.

Once again the Crowder's Mountain 50K will be held on April 21 . This race is held within Crowder's Mountain State Park.

Fred Dummars models the 2006 NC Ultra Series Award Jacket (in blue). Click here for a larger image.
Photo: Joey Anderson

Don't miss the January 31 early registration deadline for the 2007 North Carolina Ultra Series. On February 1st, registration fees go up by $10 to $60. This year there are 15 races in the series. Competitors must complete 3 races, one of which must be 40 mlles or longer. You can use your best three runs to calculate your final point total. Points for each race are awarded based on your finish time relative to the winner, with bonus points for longer races.

The Award Jacket from 2006 is pretty cool, as you can see in the photo.

My first experience with ultrarunning was volunteering as a pacer at the 2002 Umstead 100. I ended up pacing two different runners for a total of three loops, which was the first time I ever exceeded the marathon distance. I knew right away that I wanted to get involved with ultrarunning. I volunteered that year because I was curious about ultrarunning. When I finished my first marathon I felt I couldn't run another step. So I wondered how one could finish a 50 or 100 -mile race. Later I read an article in Marathon and Beyond that discussed volunteering as a pacer as a way to learn about the sport.

Mike Walsh (mikew underscore nt at yahoo dot com) is the volunteer coordinator for the 2007 umstead 100. He recently posted a call for volunteers to the Mangum Track Club Google Group. I suspect other groups may also have seen this same message. 

When I volunteered as a pacer, I was concerned that I may not be prepared. As I discovered, runners of all abilities can successfully pace at Umstead, or most 100s for that matter. Sally Squire outlines the requirements for a pacer in the same message. This is information that would have been useful to me back in 2002. As always, thanks to everyone who volunteers at Umstead and other races!

Team Slug had a slugfest this past weekend in Delaware. From the Chief Slug:

Our lives are made up of long strings of individual moments. Some days are good, and some are bad. Today, for this list of Slug-finishers the memories will be great. They may not know it yet, and that's O.K. But, after they get over the crab-leggedness, the overwhelming fatigue, and the blisters, they will look back and think, "I had a good time." I know this, as all ultrarunners do. We may want to quit, but we can't . Even if we fail on a particular day, you can bet your sweet arse that we're coming back. Today, as always, the Slug-field had a wide variety of personalities and experience, and every single one of them deserved to be here.

At Across the Years this past weekend John Geesler came close to matching his incredible 2004 300 mile performance, logging 287 miles in 72 hours for the first place finish. Last year Geesler finished second to Yiannis Kourous, who logged 323 miles! This year there were four athletes who exceeded 250 miles, including the female winner Tracy Thomas, who finished 4th overall. The field included some accomplished international athletes as well as a full slate of US ultrarunners. ATY has built a great reputation since moving to the track at Nardini manor a few years ago. NC ultrarunner Brad Smythe finished 8th overall in the 24-hour competition.

The Phunt 50K was incorrectly entered on the NCULTRA calendar as Friday, Jan 5th. The correct date is Saturday, Jan 6th. Phunt is a " frigid foolish 31 mile nature jaunt.  The course is a single loop with one cut-off point for a lite version of the run, and is mostly hilly single-track trail with no problematic stream crossings, and just a teensy bit of rocky stuff to satisfy the trail-running purist. We haven't precisely measured the distance, but it's 95% trail with something like 3,000 ft. of aggregate vertical climb and has some super views! This run is meant for experienced trail runners, but anyone with marathon experience who wants to try an ultra distance and promises not to whine if they get tired and dirty is welcome. We will have snack/water refill stations. The course will be marked by tape, flags, spray chalk or some creative combination of the three. We hope to have maps and course instructions."
The Traildawgs are based in Delaware and are familiar faces at all the mid-atlantic ultras and beyond.

ultrarunning ultra+marathon trail+running traildawgs

Submitted by Bob Kern

2007 Carrboro 50K

Date: January 6th, 2007
Place: Wilson Park, Carrboro NC
Start Time: 8:00 AM (prerace meeting 7:30 at Open Eye coffee shop)
Course: Two 25K loops of mostly technical single track. This year
the course crosses over and visits most of the trails in
the Horrace Williams tract.
Cost: Free
Profile: Low-key, mostly self-supported. There will be one mid
course aid station with beverages and support at Wilson
Park (beverages, donated food, soup, a warm fire, and some smiling
volunteers).
Details: www.technicalpublishing.com/carrboro50k
Contact: bob@technicalpublishing.com, or 919-933-2629

Photo: Steve Pero

In recent years both Dave Snipes and Jay Finkle have run back-to-back Old Dominion 100s. That is, OD Memorial one weekend, OD 100 the next weekend. For 2007 there is the possibility for a Massanutten Triple: MMT 100 on May 19th, OD Memorial on May 26, and OD 100 on June 2nd. All three runs are over and around Massunutten mountain or Fort Valley. Where else in the world will you have three consecutive 100 mile footraces with overlapping courses? Will we see a triple?

Photo: Dan Lehman

12:01 am Sat. morning 100 or so runners will set off into the darkness with temperatures in the teens. After running through the woods for a few miles they will embark on 18 miles of sustained climbing with a very tight deadline, arriving at one of the coldest spots in Virginia at the coldest time of day. At that point the worst will be over but they still face the challenge of 43 additional miles of fire road and rocky single track. There will be no time for recovery breaks, injuries, or rest if they are to meet the cutoff at Bearwallow Gap.

Hellgate is a unique challenge, and each finish is something of which to be proud. A select few will finish their fourth Hellgate Saturday afternoon. I've finished this race twice but I won't be among the starters tonight at the hellgate trailhead. I'll be thinking of all the folks I know and wishing them well. Joey Anderson is going for his first finish. Every year at this race there are amazing adventures and I can't wait to read the reports.

The weekend of November 17-19 saw some incredible performances at the Ultracentric time-limit races. This year's race served as the USATF national 24-hour championship as well as the selection race for the United States national team to compete at the World 24-hour championship in Quebec, Canada this coming July. To be selected for the national team, athletes needed to run at least 135 miles within the 24-hour time period.

Because of the championship implications the field was especially strong this year. Among the competitors was John Geesler, who astonished the ultrarunning community in 2004 by running 300.1 miles in the 72-hour race at Across the Years. Also present were celebrity ultrarunners Dean Karnazes and Pam Reed. Karnazes took a weekend off from his run across the North American continent to run at Ultracentric.

In the 24-hour race the Men's winner was 42 year old Alex Swenson, who clocked an incredible 146.4 miles. Second place was 58 year old legend Roy Pirrung with 139.68 miles. The Women's winner and third overall finisher (by less than 1/2 mile) was Carolyn Smith with 138.2 miles. Some have commented that Smith's performance is the best by a woman since Anne Trason's near win at Western States in 1994.

The 3rd man to finish was Philip McCarthy, who recently finished a very close 2nd place to Rimas Jakelatis at Hinson Lake. Rebecca Johnson and Connie Gardner were the 2nd and 3rd women finishers. Karnezes just missed making the national team with 137.76 miles, which is good enough to win any other 24-hour race in the country and should have been enough to make the national team. Overall there were 14 finishers over 120 miles, and 8 finishers over 130 miles.