Millstone to host MTC’s NC FA 50K run

 

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

* Event website
Running events in Richmond County

Mark Long wanted to make his first trip to Millstone 4-H Camp count. By the end of his trip, the Hamlet resident helped make Mangum Track Club history.

Long, director of the MTC’s annual North Carolina Fat Ass 50K (31-mile) run, made the decision Friday to relocate the uniquely styled footrace from the All-American Trail near Fort Bragg to the one of the jewels of Richmond County.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Genno Cline, of Raleigh, won the women’s title on Saturday at the May Madness 50K last month on the Sandhills Game Land. The Mangum Track Club is bringing the North Carolina Fat Ass 50K to Millstone 4-H Camp and the game lands in January.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Genno Cline, of Raleigh, won the women’s title on Saturday at the May Madness 50K last month on the Sandhills Game Land. The Mangum Track Club is bringing the North Carolina Fat Ass 50K to Millstone 4-H Camp and the game lands in January.

The 2016 event date, the seventh time the race has been under MTC’s umbrella, is to begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30. The race will be the fifth event in which competitors contest 26.2 miles or more at a time in Richmond County: the Ellerbe Marathon in March, the Bethel Hill Moonlight Boogie in June, the Hinson Lake 24-Hour Ultra Classic in September and the Derby 50K in November. In addition, Doug Dawkins brought back last month the May Madness, a 10 x 5K event adjacent to the Sandhills Game Land. The Game Land area encompasses portions of Hoke, Moore, Richmond and Scotland counties.

Long said some of the new NC FA 50K course could duplicate the May Madness event, which featured 10 repetitions of a single 3.1-mile loop starting and finishing at the  J. Robert Gordon Field Trial Area along Ledbetter Road.

Long spent part of Friday with Keith Russell, Millstone director, and hammered out the expectations and responsibilities of using the main building — that includes a kitchen and bathrooms. Bunk-style beds will be available for $15 per runner.

FA events are unique, Long noted, and each is “a low-key event just thrown together by a group of runners who want to run.”

“There are no awards, no aid stations,” Long said. “None of the hoopla that comes from big-time running events.”

There is no entry fee. Long caps entry at 99 runners; each year, he said, approximately 50 show up. There is no running clock and no official results. It’s a race that doesn’t offer T-shirts, course support — sometimes not even the trail is marked. That allows veteran runners like Long to sign up for the events. He and seven others — Rosemary Baxley, Doug Dawkins, Fred Dummar, Susan Dummar, Chris Johnson, Jerry Lindstrand and Lee Watson — already have done so. Dawkins, Lindstrand, Baxley and Watson, as well as Long, are Richmond County residents.

Long admitted “there’s some excitement” in carving out a new course, especially in the 63,000 acres that make up the Sandhills Game Land area. He said it’s possible the course, which will be similar to the All-American Trail in elevation and terrain, will be a single “10.-something mile” loop run multiple times. It could be a mixed of hardcap and sandy trail, Long said.

Details on the event and how to register can be found by clicking here.

Filed in: Latest Headlines, Outdoors, Sports

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