It had been 23 hours, 21 minutes and 43 seconds (the second-fastest time in Uwharrie’s 10-year history) since the beginning of the 2024 Uwharrie 100-Mile Trail Run, and Vladimir Martinez-Jimenez had just crossed the line in the pre-dawn glow. Many hours were still left in the event’s 36-hour time limit, but this moment was remarkable. “I just want to remember the pain…and the cold,” Vlad remarked, as he rocked back and forth on exhausted, aching legs.
The Uwharrie 100 Trail Run began in 2014 when a visionary group of local runners decided to put on a 100-mile event on their “weekly training loop.” Dan and Amanda Paige were the original organizers for the first seven years of the event and they, through love and dedication, laid the foundation for what the community has become today.
Before we handed Vlad his buckle, Meghaan (my wife of 17 years and co-RD) and I stood before 80+ starters of the 100-mile and 100k and announced, “This [race] was a part of our lives we didn’t know was missing until it came into our lives.” It’s a sentiment we have repeatedly expressed to each other since we began directing the event in 2022. This community has become part of the fabric of who we are as a family, and we honestly can’t imagine our lives without it. It has left an indelible mark on our hearts and souls which can never be erased – a mark as unrelenting as the trails themselves.
The Uwharrie 100 events take place on two trails: the Dutchman’s Creek and Uwharrie. The trails follow massive 20+ mile loops in varying configurations in the heart of the Uwharrie mountains, just west of Troy, North Carolina. These trails are the backbone of Uwharrie 100-mile, 100k, Gold Rush 50ks and the Uforea 50k events. The course doesn*t boast the massive 3,000-4,000-foot climbs like its Western North Carolina cousins, but what it lacks in sheer vertical relief, it makes up for in its "simply unrelenting" persona.
These mountains, worn down by millennia, are credited with being some of the oldest in the world (more than 500 million years) and were said to once brush the sky at their maximum height of over 20,000 feet. Though the highest and lowest points of the course today only vary between 400 and 800 feet above sea level, rest assured, the “ruggedness of ole” is preserved. There is little-to-no level ground in the entirety of the trail system, and the routes are nearly 100% single track (save for a few forest road crossings). This results in a uniquely challenging course which offers little-to-no mental reprieve as the miles and hours tick by. Such terrain requires a runner’s full attention, from the sound of the horn to the moment they cross the line.
Since 2022, we put everything we have (along with what is quite possibly the most dedicated and experienced core of volunteers we know (our most experienced captain, Vinny Swendsen, just finished his 94th, 100-mile event) into continuing the Uwharrie legacy, which historically sees about a 50% finishing rate.
The philosophy of the team is to provide the most amazingly supportive environment we can to give our runners the best chance at buckling up. This Tao is evident in the experience of the captains, the dedication of our volunteers and the food.
Year after year, we are humbled by the comments praising the quality of the food, which ranges from porter braised flank steak, shrimp and grits, Swedish meatballs, vegetarian fried rice, strawberry smoothies, gluten-free vegan blueberry muffins and 14-hour on-course smoked pork shoulder with smoked mac n’ cheese (aka “the special”). It’s an event put on “for ultrarunners, by ultrarunners,” with a central emphasis on family and community.
This community, above all, is a family. A family which embodies a “simply unrelenting” love for each other and a dedication as old and as primal as the mountains themselves.