[Natalie Sims Full Race Report]
Running races is always fun. Maybe not always enjoyable at the time but the experience as whole is something that creates a fond memory. After some thought on my "perceived enjoyment" of the experience I realized that a large portion of the fun is due in part to the friends you go with, the place you stay and the places you eat while you are out of town. Maybe insignificant for some folks, but I think these elements are at the core of the memories that we "run" away with from an event.

We just recently went to Black Mountain, NC and participated in the Mt. Mitchell Challenge. Although shortened this year due to record snowfall, still proved to be a Challenge. My husband and fellow Rock/Creek Race Team Member, Matt Sims, and I drove up early Friday with our good friend John Fellers. It has been fun to see John get so excited about ultra running now and has given both Matt and myself some new fondness for the sport. John works for The North Face one of the sponsors of the event, and the race director Jay Curwen set John up in a Bed & Breakfast for the weekend. We dropped John off, toured the B&B, stole some chocolate chip cookies and then met up with our good friend Adam Hill.

Adam lives in Black Mountain and is a psycho runner dude. The guy wears 4oz. New Balance shoes without socks and Capri pants every day, so that he can run everywhere he goes. And he does! Classic dude and one that we miss seeing regularly. He hooked us up with the course sweep who owns a house in Black Mountain. This house was mega! Big stone fireplaces in multiple bedrooms and beautiful views into the North Carolina Mountains.

Our friends and Race Team Members Cathi Cannon and Kathy Johns, along with friend Jonathan Mobley all came up later that evening and stayed in the house with us. We did the pre-race meeting and then ate a fantastic Italian meal at a local eatery. Another friend from Chattanooga, Dave Buntin came up later that evening and joined us for the whole weekend. Dave is also on the injured reserved list but loves to be around sport regardless of participation.


Before bed, while all the race participants were drinking their last beer for the evening and sorting out their clothing and equipment for the day; Matt played 8 games of vicious ping pong with the house host. Matt wasn't racing this weekend, otherwise he would've been frantically filling up water bottles with magic potions instead of goofing off. I've decided it's nice to have someone along that isn't racing so they can play "caddy". I don't think Matt will go for that one in the future though.

Off to bed we go quickly falling into a deep sleep until we hear mice tearing into our cliff bar wrappers and drinking Gatorade. Maybe they were going to have their own ultra the next morning. We'll too bad if they did because having mice in the bedroom with you is not okay. Matt dealt with the problem (kinda) and we ended up getting a good nights rest despite the fact that we heard them running around all night.
We also got to visit with our friend and fellow Race Team Member, Krissy Moehl from Seattle. She of course won the Challenge [You can read her report here] because she is sick fast. For such a quite, soft spoken woman that girl can motor.

Race director Jay Curwen predicted 20 degree temps at the start that would be maintained throughout the day. Summit conditions would turn to possible gusts of 60 miles per hour, single digit temps and wind-chill in the negative!!! Race day conditions turned out slightly warmer than anticipated registering around 28 degrees in downtown Black Mountain at the 7am start.
Being a warm natured runner I felt my clothing choices were going to be close to perfect, but were they??? I had a long sleeve Patagonia capilene base layer, another Patagonia cool weather top, stretchy wind protected vest, mittens, ear warmers running tights, Patagonia Multi Use Skirt, and I stuffed my Patagonia Nine Trails Jacket into my Patagonia Houdini pack. And yes, there is lots of Patagonia at my house as you can imagine Matt being a Patagonia Sales Rep. Laced up my favorite shoes, the La Sportiva Fireblades and off we go for another long day.

It was a great race and very well supported. I was excited to finish 4th but I will say, I was slightly disappointed that I did not get to run the official course and that I had to run on so much pavement. Honestly it was the most pavement I had run on in 6 months. I am blessed to be running at all. Good Times!!