King of the Mt Race Report
Leg 1 - 5 mile Bear Run
Profile -
http://www.hopeformarrow.org/bearinfo.htm
Conditions - Mid 70's as base
The Course from the bottom -
http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/grandfather-mountain-annlynn-ward.jpg
From the top -
http://www.trianglerentacar.com/userfiles/GrandfatherMountain.jpg
Overview - 800 enteries, 700 finishers, 54:58 finish time, 311th
Based on my training I was expecting a time between 1 hr and 1:03. Basically 12 min miles on the steep stuff and 10 min/mi on the "flattish" mile.
Here were the splits
mile 1 - 11:16 pace, 335 ft climb, 155 hr
mile 2 - 10:18 pace, 210 ft, 161 hr
mile 3 - 10:00 pace, 174 ft, 158 hr
mile 4 - 12:52 pace, 430 ft, 162 hr
mile 5 - 10:30 pace?, 367 ft, 162 hr
I started in the middle of the pack where I expected to finish. The first 1/2 was a brutal traffic jam. Probably was a good thing to keep me in check. We turned and hit a gravel road for the next 2 miles. Very steep and windy. It was hard to run tangents with all the walkers. Heart was not in the 160s where I haven't been training.

This could be a problem.
At the start of mile 3 we hit the entrace to the Grandfather Highland games. Several thousand people were lined up cheering as they were camping and getting their party hats on. One guy offered a beer as I went by but that wasn't in today's plans. Very fun section of the course as we got to do a 1/2 lap on the track. Upon exiting the track there was a 45 degree hill for about 20 yards that had me walking and my hr pushing 167.
We clear the woods and hit the pavement to the top of Grandfather. I had a clear view to the top and I couldn't believe how far up I had to go. As you can see, 43o ft in a mile is brutal. I did walk one of the steeper sections as other walkers were keeping pace with my "run".
As you enter the final mile you have a clear view of the stair case of switchbacks to the top. I started to count them but couldn't concentrate. My gps had jived with the course the entire way but I hit the home stretch much earlier than expected. I "sprinted" the last 50 yards once I saw the finish but I expected it to be further as my gps had 4.8. Not sure if it was great tangent running or a hiccup in the gps. I saw the clock under 55 min so I gave it everything and crossed in 54:58 min.
Overall I was very happy with the outcome. I hadn't been training in the 160 hr range and was shocked that I was able to substain this effort.
Only 3 people broke 35 min or 7 min/mi pace on this course and only 35 were 8:00 or under. That should give you an idea of how tough the track was.
Biggest focused now was recovery. It was now about 8:00 pm and I had to get off the mountain and home to get cued up for a 6 am arrivive at the bike start.