I really tried to frame Quest for the Quest not as a race but rather as an adventure through the mountains. As the thunderstorms raged in the skies the night before, I’m not gonna lie, I was scared for what was to come- the conditions, the climbing, the cutoffs, the slick descents, and the lack of support (aid stations) on the course. I’ve always been one to respect the course and terrain in the mountains and to respect Mother Nature, but I’m not often flat out scared before a race. Just an hour or so before the 5am start, Sean came on to our bus for a pre-race briefing and said something kind of unusual to put me at ease. He said “guys, help each other out out there, we’re a family.” Those words calmed me in a way that none of my self-talk could because he was giving all of us permission to treat this not as a race but as a journey we could all help each other out on. It gave me permission to not think of this as solely “self-supported” but as “trail-running community” supported. And I think that is something that really shone through when talking to other runners and reading their post-race accolades. We all knew this would be hard, but now we were all reminded that we had each other.
The Quest started up a short road before going up the trail and I ended up running up the road a little bit to make sure I didn’t get stuck behind too many people on the climb up Woody Ridge trail. I trusted my power hiking skills to get me up all three miles of the trail without stopping and I didn’t want to be stuck behind some folks who maybe didn’t have that power hiking fitness. I made steady progress up that first climb, appreciating the moments when I didn’t need my headlamp any longer. It was steep. I clocked a 41 minute mile on my Garmin that included 1,600 ft of climbing. Up the trail there was lots of checking in on one another, and encouraging words shared. That continued to be a theme throughout the day.
The view at the top, after over 3,000 ft of ascent, was incredible and unexpected. Light was shining through the clouds and on the expansive view of the colorful Appalachian Mountains in Pisgah National Forest. Oh, and the terrain was runnable! Someone was at the top, near Celo Knob, to scan our bibs with the RF reader, we took a right turn to start our way down to Bowlen’s Creek. Pretty much after this point my shoes and socks would never be dry. I took it a little more cautiously down some of the slick stuff after a pretty bad ankle roll but it was runnable the entire way down. The only real problem was that I knew I was going to have to run/hike back up everything I was running down! A couple of miles down I started to see the race leaders. They even took the time to tell me great job after I said something encouraging to them. The lead woman even gave me a high five. My quads were starting to feel the strain but I knew at the turnaround I would soon enough be using my uphill muscles. I knew I was getting closer the more people I saw hiking back uphill (the perk and non-perk of an out and back section.) The aid station was in sight, a woman scanned my bib, instructed me to run through the creek, and I realized how hungry I was. Half a cookie, a topped off water bladder, and a quarter of a PB&J later, I was turned around and heading back up. I had only beat that first cutoff by 50 minutes or so- too close for my comfort.
On the hike back up I tried to find some sections I could run but mostly kept up a solid power hike to put in under 20 minute miles. I kept trying to encourage the runners on their way down, knowing as it neared 8:30am that some of them probably wouldn’t make the first cutoff at the creek. I was looking forward to getting back to the ridgeline of Black Mountain Crest because I knew I’d be able to do more running and less hiking. After 1.5 hours up mountain number two, I was so happy to start using some different muscles at the ridgeline. Two of the three major climbs were complete!
In the past I’ve had some issues with taking in fluids so I was happy when I realized that I needed to pee because it meant I was staying hydrated. A couple of years ago my guide on the Inca Trail told me that the best bathroom spots are ones with a view. I took that to heart and found a good spot on the ridgeline that had a view! I took that opportunity of stopping to also tighten my shoe laces under my gaiters before doing any downhill running because my shoes and laces had expanded with the non-stop mud and standing water they’d been submerged in. That one stop took a little while and a few people I’d passed on the way up were able to pass me back and checked to make sure I was okay (again, there is that trail running community!) The traverse to Deep Gap didn’t have any sustained climbs but it sure had lots of ups and downs and technical spots. I was looking forward to seeing my friends Mindy and Tim at Deep Gap campground especially because at this point in the race I was mostly going it alone. Fog was obscuring most of the views but the terrain itself is pretty impressive on this part of the Black Mountain Crest trail. The race volunteer directing people to Deep Gap and Colbert Ridge was a welcome sight, a tenth of a mile later I was thrilled to get to hug my friend Mindy at Deep Gap! Also, what I thought was going to be a fluids-only aid station was filled with PB&J tortilla rollups and fruit! I grabbed a tortilla and after a few words with Mindy and Tim, left Deep Gap to get started down Colbert Ridge Trail and the next cutoff at the Colbert’s aid station at the bottom of the trail. The top of this trail was pretty technical and slow going but I was now headed down with a group of guys I chatted with. Once on more runnable terrain (less large rocks and roots) I somehow became the leader and we even got a 12 minute downhill mile in there! We checked on a guy who was limping his way down after hurting his ankle, while I focused on not eating it on the trail. For a downhill, it was a long 4 miles and just when we started to question where this aid station was, it appeared! At lower elevation I could feel more of the humid heat than I could up on the mountains so I made sure to take in some Gatorade in addition to water. No offense to Sean but I avoided his homemade rice crispy treats…
From here we had a tiny section of road to detour from the original route, which had a creek crossing that now looked like a raging rapid. You would think it’d be nice to have a section of road to run as a relief from the trails but with sun exposure and the heat, it really wasn’t that nice. A unicorn sign pointed me towards the Buncombe aid station which I was happy to be at for two big reasons 1) it signified to start of the last major climb! 2) it was the last cutoff until the top of Mt. Mitchell and I hadn’t lost any time so I was leaving the aid station at least 45 minutes ahead of the cutoff. I calculated that I would need less than 3 hours to do the climb to Mt. Mitchell and when I started this climb I had nearly 6 hours till the Mt. Mitchell aid station cutoff (which was at 5:15pm) so I was finally feeling somewhat comfortable – well not comfortable- but confident in making it to the finish without fear of missing the next cutoff. That being said, there was still 7 miles of technical hiking up to Mt. Mitchell, followed by 7 miles of descending from Mt. Mitchell to the finish at Black Mountain campground, which is quite a bit of mountainous terrain to cover!
This was such a well-marked course I never felt at risk of going off course, but I did question whether some marked sections were actually part of the course! This trail had us hiking up a creek. Some of it was a creek just because of how much it rained the previous week, but other parts were actually meant to be a super rocky creek bed. About a mile into this climb my hip flexor was starting to bother me so I found a rhododendron branch on the ground to use as a walking stick for a couple of miles (until it broke on me.) Around the same time, I passed a guy named Brian who was needing to find his second wind. He caught back up with me once he found his second wind and we paced each other up the climbs while chatting. Brian ended up being my buddy through the end of the race, minus a couple of places where he descended faster than me. A light rain fell and helped cool us off during the heat of the day but the storms thankfully held off as we approached the ridgeline again.
The trail between Mt. Mitchell and Deep Gap is one of my favorite trails in all of North Carolina. Each mountain summit on the traverse has a different micro-climate and you have to stay on the trail because of endangered plant species that can’t be found anywhere else on the planet! As soon as we were on our way towards Big Tom, I started nerd-ing out about the different summits we were going to hit above 6,000 ft. The photographer at the fixed rope section just made me feel like more of a badass as I powerfully pulled myself up a giant slick rock.
This part of the race was pretty familiar to me from previous hiking excursions so I just tried to soak it all in now that I was 25 miles into the race. More rock scrambling and fixed ropes took us up and down Big Tom, Mt. Craig, and then to the Mt. Mitchell parking lot area. The Mt. Mitchell aid station was glorious! I got a grilled avocado on tortilla, some watermelon, and a cookie (or two) while volunteers refilled my water for me. I thanked them profusely and then headed up the ‘nature path’ and paved path to the Mt. Mitchell summit where a couple of dogs and their owners congratulated us while we took in the beautiful 360 degree views! Brian and I then started the 7-mile descent to the campground and race finish!
The descent was fairly uneventful, just chatting with my new trail friend, talking east coast ultras, while plodding our way down the last mountain. A better descender than me on tired legs, Brian paced us going down the more runnable sections. I was pretty excited to calculate that I would be able to complete the race in well under 12 hours, which was my goal (beyond just finishing)! I was happy to have a friend for the last couple of miles when my quads were screaming at me and I just wanted to finish. The skies opening up on us felt pretty nice, and the trails were already wet so I wasn’t worried about a little more rain. We made it to the campground and still had a little bit of flat trail to run to the finish, I couldn’t help but notice that my legs were not moving like they normally do when running on flat ground. The sound of cheering led us to the finish and we saw Run Bum himself waiting to give us a highfive or hug, and our pint glasses and woodallions at the finish! (My dog and my boyfriend were there to greet me as well!)
That whole “being a family” idea that Sean mentioned on the bus, made what could have been a brutal day in some unforgiving mountains into an epic one that showcased the beauty of them. The race and aid station volunteers, the other runners, and Sean himself tried to make a very hard race as free from non-running distractions as could be. I never felt unsafe, off course, under hydrated, or under fueled thanks to all of the help out there. This trail family ensured that I finished with a smile on my face and a well-deserved beer in one hand and brownie in the other.
P.S. This is what recovery looked like.
- It took 3 days for me to walk down stairs normally.
- It took 4 days until I could do more than a shuffle run and look like I was maybe jogging.
- It took 5 days before I could stand on my tiptoes without thinking my calves were going to seize on me.
- It took 6 days to run consecutive sub 10 minute miles on flat road.
- It took less than 24 hours to decide that I’d sign up for this race again.
postgradjourney 