Jarman's Invitational Marathon recap Aug 2 2014

Danton's JIM race director report:

The First Annual Jarmans Invitational Marathon was a success! 41 runners started and 31 finished the 29 mile "marathon" with over 7600 feet of gain and loss total.

The weather was unseasonably cool, yet no rain - ridiculously perfect running weather for August and it allowed a great group of friends, crew, volunteers, and kids to hang out at the bottom aid station all day, with very special guest David Horton.

"The JIM" is 5 laps of a 1500+ ft climb over 3 miles up Jarmans Gap Rd, then back down 1500 quad pounding feet over 3 miles to the start. Runners conversed and cheered each other on all day as they passed by each other.

We really, really tried to make this race suck. A terrible hill, 5 times, in August, starting at 12:01pm...but it did not suck, it was a wonderful day! Damn you perfect weather and awesome ultrarunning community!!
Nick Dipirro (Crozet Running) won in a crazy time of 4:21:10 while Rachel Bell Kelley (of Chapel Hill, NC!) won the ladies race in an equally impressive 5:05:25.

There were THREE first time ultra runners today, all of which who finished!! Michael Dubovsky (2nd place overall!), Mikael Herlevsen, and Andria Jensen all were initiated into the ultra marathon world today.
There were also 2 bear sightings on the course, a train ran through the course at 1:16pm and stopped runners, and Sophie was charged by a dog.

Thank you to Jen and Marc Lebendig, David Horton, and all the spouses and families who helped out and supported runners today, and thank you ultrarunners for just being the incredible people you are!

Bob's notes on JIM:
The mission was doomed to fail.  Even if the temps had been in the 90s and muggy, there was no way it was going to suck with so many cool people out there.  "Danton" ruined it all with some hilarious pre-race videos.  Go check out the JIM facebook page for the videos, pictures, results, and other reports.  Thanks to Dan "Danton" Spearin and Jon Andersen for putting this on, and everyone else who contributed.  From my own perspective, one time up and down usually sucks more than the 5 times I did on this run.