Black Mountain Marathon takes over the trails

Annual race takes runners from downtown to Blue Ridge Parkway and back

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
February 24, 2024

While a snowy night in the high elevations north of the Swannanoa Valley kept dedicated runners from the top of Mount Mitchell, Feb. 24, the trails were all clear for the Black Mountain Marathon. 

The annual event, which brought approximately 265 ultra-marathon runners to downtown before dawn, when they trekked north, through Montreat, bound for the Blue Ridge Parkway. Competitors finished the race with a half-mile lap around Lake Tomahawk. 

“This is the best weather you will see all day,” race director Jay Curwen told the crowd of runners while the sun came up over Cherry Street and Sutton Avenue. “There is snow on the mountain, so we’ll only be running the marathon. You’ll be wet, cold and muddy with the conditions up there.”

As the lead runners—Sean Bowman of Bloomington, Indiana and Nathan Thomas of Sumter, S.C.—returned to the valley floor for the final stretch of their 26.2-mile run, occasional flurries began to fall over Montreat. The duo battled through a foot race around the lake where Thomas finished with a time of 3:18:22, while Bowman finished less than a second behind him. 

Asheville runner Anne George won the women’s division in 3:53:39, followed by Laurel Atwald (4:03:28) of Hendersonville, who finished second in the group. 

Kevin Barrett, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, rounded out the top three overall runners, while Rachel Vedder, of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, took third among the women with a time of 4:06:12.

When weather permits, the first 250 runners to reach the Parkway before the cutoff time are permitted to compete in the 40-mile Challenge, turning around at the 6,684-foot peak of Mount Mitchell. With the road access closed due to snow, runners made the ascent from an elevation of 2,375 feet to Bald Knob (5,338 feet). 

Runners drenched by a steady mix of rain, ice and snow came down the mountain along Appalachian Way, passing the volunteer aid station on Texas Road, before exiting the Montreat gate into Black Mountain. The route followed the Flat Creek Greenway before ending at the lake.

Among the finishers was 63-year-old Durham resident Guido Ferrari, who has completed the race every year since it began.

Photos of the 2024 Mount Mitchell Challenge and Black Mountain Marathon can be viewed in the gallery at the top of the page.