Karen Chávez|The Citizen-Times
GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN - Don't be turned off by the fog-covered fields and the hovering rain clouds. That's all part of the allure of the 63rd annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.
One of the largest Scottish Highland Games on this side of the pond, the four-day, all-things Scottish began Thursday with the grueling, 5-mile, all-uphill The Bear footrace, and continues through Sunday with traditional Scottish Highland music, food,dancing andathletic competitions.
"It's been pleasant so far. It's afoggy, ideal morning for the games. It makes youfeel like you could be in the Scottish Highlands," said Frank Ruggiero of the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, which operates the private park where The Bear took place.
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The Games draw between 20,000-30,000 people from around the country and the world, said Thomas Taylor Jr., assistant general manager of the Highland Games.
About 930 people came from across the country for the tortuous fun, including Anne Wheatly, 33, of Asheville, who took third place in the women's race.
The race started inLinville and headed upU.S. 221, before veering into the Grandfather Mountain nature park and there up to the topmost parking lot near the Mile High Swinging Bridge — an elevation gain of some 1,600 feet.
Overall winner Michael Holland, 21, of Beech Mountain,finished with a time of 33 minutes, 13.1 seconds. Holland has run The Bear 10 times, and also won the race two years ago.
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Holland, a Watauga High School graduate and rising senior at Clemson University in Greenville, South Carolina, is working toward a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.
“It’s great to get all the way to the top,” he said. “It was more like a competition out there this year, with a lot of good people. They definitely pushed me up the hill. You get to know a lot of the people running every year, though, and it’s super cool.”
Matthew Borneman, 27, of Madison, Wisconsin, finished second in33:34.9. Sandy Roberts, 30, of Raleigh, placedthird in34:37.5.
For her second year in a row, Amanda LoPiccolo, 35, of Boone, was the first-place women’s finisher, this year at 37:24.5, beating her 2017 time — 38:34.4 — by well more than a minute.
This marks LoPiccolo’s second time running The Bear. Last yearshe and her family moved from Caryto Boone, where she works as a chiropractor. Her husband, Matt, works for Blowing Rock-based ZAP Fitness, a nonprofit training center focused on post-collegiate, Olympic-hopeful distance runners.
“He kind of convinces me to do it — but it doesn’t take a lot of convincing,” she said. “We’ve got a big group out here, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Her favorite part of the course?
“The finish,” LoPiccolo said. “Having it done. Getting to the top and just looking out and seeing what you accomplished is pretty amazing."
Sophia Ritter, 16, of Boone, was second in38:33.1. Ritter came in third last year with a time of 41:42. Wheatlycame in third in39:10.6.
Although the race started in humid mid-70s, the race brought runners up to Grandfather Mountain’s lofty peaks with breezy temperatures in the upper 60s, comfortable cloud cover and light drizzle.
Race director Jim Deni saidthe weather is part of the mystique that surrounds The Bear.
“We had 930-some runners registered in less than 10 minutes … and we had people coming from 20 different states to run in this year’s Bear. So that’s pretty astounding, to think that we have people from all over the country coming to run this mountain,” he said. “I think it’s the mystique of the mountain and the challenge itself."
The fierce competition continues with the ultra-tortuous Grandfather Mountain MarathonSaturday starting in Boone and ending on the track at MacRae Meadows.
The 26.2-mile race is known as "America's Toughest Marathon." Runnersnet 1,000 feet of elevation gain, but over the course, they climb more than3,000 feet cumulatively. The last half of the race, 13 miles, is almost entirely uphill.
Tickets are still available for the weekend competitions, dancing, music and other events at the Highland Games.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday are filled with competitions in traditional heavyweight Scottish athletic events, highland dancing competitions, bagpipe band parades, piping, drumming and harp competitions, sheepherding demonstrations by Scottish border collies and concerts, featuring a colorful tapestry of Celtic music.
The nation's top Scottish athletes clash Saturday in traditional heavyweight events, such as “Turning the Caber” and “Tossing the Sheaf.”
"Until you see it, it’s hard to explain," Taylor said of the Games. "You have to see it and smell it and hear it yourself. The ancestry thing has blown up. Once people find out they’re Scottish, or have a cousin who’s Scottish, it brings a lot of people who want to learn about their ancestry.
"But you don’t have to be Scottish. Just come to the mountain, listen to the music, meet some interestingpeople. It makes you part of something bigger."
If you go
The 63rd Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, which startedJuly 12, run through July 15 at Grandfather Mountain’s MacRae Meadows. For tickets and more information, visitwww.gmhg.org.
