Race Report - 2018 Bel Monte 50K
3/10/2018 04:06:00 PM![]() |
View from above the course and the waterfalls at mile 4 & 31. |
I kinda got roped into doing this one. Jerry and Paul had signed up and told me about it. So I signed up. They wanted some UTMB points and I wanted some miles, win win, except that we'd have to drive 9 hours each way. While I initially dreaded the long road trip, it was actually quite a bit of fun. Easy for me to say, I wasn't the one driving:-)
The Bel Monte 50K is part of a 3 distance race series (25K/50K/50M) in its thirteenth year in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In fact, the race has runners running along the actual Blue Ridge Parkway for the first 2.5 and final 2.5 miles of the various distances. However, its 6AM mass race start requires all runners to start with a headlamp that runners can choose to drop in a collection box at the end of the parkway section, to be picked up at the finish line.
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View from above the course and the waterfalls at mile 4 & 31. |
We arrived at Wintergreen Ski Resort in Virginia just 10 minutes from the race start, where Jan, and old high school friend of Paul's had rented a condo for all of us to share during race weekend. Jan had been running ultras for a couple of years and was in the middle of getting ready for his first 100 miler at Umstead. When we arrived at the Condo, Jan had already picked up the race packets for everyone and what was even more impressive, he had cooked pasta and marinara for all of us, even considering Jerry's vegetarian diet and my vegan diet. I had barely met Jan but already knew he was a rockstar, a very considerate rockstar:-) We opened a few beers Paul and I had brought along and started digging in. After some final race planning for the next morning, we all turned in pretty early for a 4:15AM wakeup call.
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View from the course on the ridge line section. |
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