Saturday morning, July 1st at 8 a.m., the first leg of the Avery County Triple Crown Foot Race kicked off at the intersection of Ivey Heights Road and Old Toe River Road. The first leg was a four (4) mile run with a 300-foot plus elevation climb which ended in the Ingles/Roses Express parking lot some thirty (30) minutes later.The winner of the men’s division was Gereme Daniels of Newland with a time of 31 minutes, 47 seconds for the four mile run, and Buffy Clark of Crossnore won the Women’s Division with a time of 42 minutes, 19 seconds. Both winners of each division were presented with a $40.00 gift certificate from Stone Walls Restaurant in Banner Elk, NC.
The creator of the Avery Triple Crown Foot Race Stephen Duncan is allowing the Avery County Foundation to be the pass-through agent for the profits to go to local authorities. The overall winners of the men’s and women’s divisions will have the option to choose what local charity or church will receive their portions of the monies raised by the event.
The next leg of the event will be Saturday, August 8th at the Montezuma Run, which will begin at Aaron Baptist Church in Montezuma at 8:00 a.m. and will go by old Montezuma Road to the Avery County Middle School, at which location runners will reverse their course and return to a start/finish line at Aaron Baptist Church.
The last and third leg of the Triple Crown Foot Race will be held on August 15th, beginning at Linville Resorts and Camp Yonanoka, with the runners racing to the Blue Ridge Parkway and back by way of Roseboro Road.
In all, creator Steve Duncan and Avery Community Foundation hopes this will be an annual event that will ignite the attention of local runners to come out and enjoy a nice Saturday morning run and stem fellowship and philanthropy for Avery County.
Schedule:
Aaron Baptist Church, August 8th at 8:00 a.m.
Linville Resorts, Camp Yonanoka, August 15th at 8:00 a.m.
(Runners should arrive by 7:30 a.m.)
