My training leading up to Yeti Snakebite 50k included Grandfather Mountain Marathon in Boone, NC. If you are unfamiliar with this marathon, it’s 26.2 miles of mostly uphill. The cut off time for it is 6 hours. I had signed up initially with our friend Tom, and then my friend Laura wanted to join the “fun”! We trained by running extremely hilly road courses to prepare ourselves. Our goal was to finish in 6 hours and have the finish line still up when we crossed. A short run on the Appalachian State campus the night before the race to stretch our legs proved to us that this would be no easy task. We may have taken on more than we were ready for.
We met up with other Marathon Maniacs (www.marathonmaniacs.com) on the Football Field at App State for the 6:30am start for GMM. We began our race chatting with several other runners along the first few miles. We settled into a comfortable pace a few miles in, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way and taking pictures as we went. By the half way point, we were at 2:22 hr mark, it was now obvious we could reach our goal and even surpass it. It was a huge boost to my spirits when I came in at 4:49 and Laura just 5 minutes later. For us a huge accomplishment but not really a race we wanted to repeat anytime soon.
Laura crossed the finish line with a herd of sheep! The race ends at the top of the mountain in a Scottish Festival!
Trail Running 100 