Mid race photo credit: Pete Schreiner Photography
This year marked the 30th running of the Mountain Mist 50K in Huntsville, AL. I have been lucky enough to be able to finish 13 times in 13 starts over the last 15 years. Unfortunately, I missed a couple of years (2013 and 2021) due to various health issues. The Mountain Mist 50K was recently coined one of just a handful of "Old School Ultras" by Ultrarunning Magazine due to not only its history in ultrarunning, but also due to its old school trail runing vibe. This event draws more than 500 runners from all over the US every single year and it is a true reflection of both the southern trail and ultra running culture as well as the gnarly terrain the Southeast is known for. What we lack in mountains we make up for in rocks:-)
This year, we once again held the unofficial XC style competition (or race within a race) which has now grown to five Southeastern cities, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Birmingham and Atlanta. This was the third running of this friendly competition that was started with just before the pandemic with three teams (CHA, HSV and NSH) and had been paused for a couple of years before coming back with the aforementioned 5 teams. After Huntsville taking the W in the first year, Chattanooga came back strong and has been dominating the last two editions last year and this year, leaving the other cities to fight for first runner up. Huntsville's performance has been solid allowing us to secure second place the last two years with yours truly only functioning as team captain as it was too early in my training cycle to even pretend to be able to score points for our team:-)
Just before the race start, I was also lucky to reunite with three of the four members of my original ultra running crew (Mike, James, and Ed). These are the guys that roped me into my very first ultra more than 15 years ago and had been my enablers for many years since.
Aside from being a true trail running family reunion before and after the race at the Monte Sano lodge (at the finish line), Mountain Mist has another tradition. It awards 10 and 20 time finishers a sweet down jacket with the Mountain Mist 50K logo with 10 or 20 time finisher embroidered on it. This is a jacket worn proudly and I was lucky to be able to congratulate 2 of my good running buddies to their 10 year jackets.
While I have had great results as well as not so great results, this race has never been about that. I almost spend more time before and after the event reconnecting with friends than running the actual race. In fact, my love for this race has even inspired friends of mine from Utah and Washington to fly into town just for the weekend, just so they could experience this one of a kind ultra. But don't get it wrong, this race is also one of the most fun and challenging trail ultras out there. It lulls you in with a fairly runnable first half before punching you in the gut in the second half.
If you've never run this race, check out this video and experience the unique nature of this event that is made up by the both people and the challenging course. This years featured unprecedented water features and an exorbitant amount of mud. Previous years have had ice, snow, heat and anything else you can imagine. So come out and join me for a fun run and a cold drink of your choice after.