In 2004, while I was hiking on Mount Mitchell (Appalachian Mountains, US) I saw a poster describing an interesting race: Mount Mitchell Challenge, 40 mile (64  km) and 4324 feet (1300 m) height gain. I liked the idea of combining my favourite things: running and hiking. I have decided to sign up for 2005 race and I started to train hard. Soon, though, I realized that I could not finish the race in a proper time so, I changed my mind and I registered for Black Mountain Marathon. This race shares, up to one point, the same course with the Challenge. This race has, beside the official length of a marathon, also 800m of height gain. 

In February 2005, at 7 am, I was one of the runners lining up at the starting line. Leaving for a while in South Carolina, the temperature around 0 C seemed cold. This is a trail race, so for ecological and logistical reasons there are allowed only 100 runners. This means that the registration must be done with at least 6 months before to assure a spot at the race. I was surprised to see runners of different ages. I finished the race in 4 hours and 20 minutes, without being exhausted and happy because I made a dream come true. I think the race was excellent organized, with plenty supplies of liquids and energy bars. I have to mention the cheerful volunteers that all the time have something nice to say in order to encourage the runners. 

At the hotel, in the morning with the support team….

The race start, each runner with a bigger or smaller bottle….

4 hours later…

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