Sky Running

Because "running a mere 26.2 miles is so ancient Greece," growing numbers of adventurists are taking up "sky running," reports David Howard in The New York Times (3/25/05). "The sport is a cross-pollination of three disciplines -- ultramarathons, trail running and adventure racing -- combining tests of endurance with mercurial climates and challenging landscapes." Basically that means running up -- and down -- mountain peaks, usually in incredibly bad weather. Over the past decade "sky running," fsa-sky.org, has gained popularity the world over, with events happening "from the Alps to Japan to the Rockies." One such race is the Mount Mitchell Challenge, "an annual 40-mile race from the town of Black Mountain, N.C., to the top of 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell and back down again."

Mount Mitchell usually happens "in February, a time of year that invites horrendous weather for the 100-plus runners grinding up 4,324 vertical feet," where winds of "over 100 miles an hour are common." This year the race was held on February 26th and the weather wasn't so bad -- around 35 degrees at dawn when the race began, rising to the low 40s as runners "topped out on the balsam-fir-covered peak in light winds and under a bright, robin's-egg sky." There was some ice though, which most runners overcome using Yaktrax, yaktrax.com, "cleat-like devices that fit over running shoes." The nice weather didn't change the fact that getting to the peak was "a net vertical gain ... roughly equivalent to climbing 430 flights of stairs," and the last two miles involves a 1,000-foot climb ... on a skating rink surface."

Then it's an icy 20 miles downhill back to town, including "a mile stretch that seems to drop straight down." The winner finished the course in about five hours, but stragglers were on the trail for more than ten. Jay Curwen, who in a 1999 race, "had to plow through thigh-deep snowdrifts for six miles," says the number of runner applications "jumped by 40 percent this year from last year." So, who are these people and why do they do this? One of them is Jay Guffey, "a professor of outdoor education," explains: "For me, it's about appreciating and understanding that my body's limits are a little further out than I think ... It's a time to think, pray, contemplate. I like the solitude." Many of them complete the course cheerfully, perhaps enjoying an "endorphin-fueled" high. "It always surprises me how jovial these people are," says Wendell Begley, who co-founded the Mount Mitchell Challenge, blackmountainmarathon.com, eight years ago.

Taken from Reveries “Cool News” weekday letter.