Quarry Crusher Run 1 – Columbia, South Carolina
We made the three hour drive to Columbia, South Carolina to participate in the first of this year’s “Quarry Crusher” runs, hosted by Vulcan Materials Company. They have established a series of these running events utilizing their quarries as courses. Vulcan hosts these runs at some of their facilities from Baltimore to Texas, and they are continuing to increase in popularity. I am also registered for the Atlanta and Birmingham events. Each quarry gets progressively deeper (by more than 200 feet) and steeper (up to 15 percent grades). These are very different and actually fun events. Last year, I got better at each race and actually placed in Birmingham! While they are not endurance runs per se, they are definitely challenging. The Columbia quarry is about 450 feet deep, Atlanta is about a hundred feet deeper and Birmingham will be more than 650 feet deep. They are constantly getting deeper as these are active quarries.
The road to the start area was closed (we discovered that on our preview drive Friday) so we arrived at the crack of dawn to make sure we could park close to the start/finish. We got to enjoy a neat sunrise…
Because of the road closure, there were a lot of late arrivals and parking extended for more than a mile on the approach road. I am glad that we check out the details of these events prior to race day/time.
This is before the race, notice the clean and dry shirt?
There was quite a crowd just before the start. The actual start line is about a block down the road. The quarry is over the safety fence to the right.
This is the quarry. You cannot see the bottom from this vantage point but there is a crane, over a hundred feet tall hoisting an American flag flapping in the breeze, an aid station and a live band. It is so deep and expansive that you cannot see the crane or hear the band until you are about halfway down. There were massive dump trucks and quarry equipment positioned for photo-ops on the way down. You could actually stand inside the rear wheel of one of the dump trucks. Even though they were large, they don’t stand out in this photo. Downtown Columbia is off in the distance.
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A little over a half an hour after the start I am approaching the finish. The guy in black is the Mayor who is greeting all of the runners. Must be an election year?
Checking my time (not as expected, must be my watch running fast) but I did manage to get the shirt dirty and wet:
Now that the sun was up, we saw this upon leaving. It was located at the fairgrounds and is actually (cough cough) a pretty good-looking stadium:
I may be running in the Governor’s Cup Half Marathon here in May and I will undoubtably see a lot more of the town. There appears to be a good zoo, several Revolutionary era homes and battle sites (General Cornwallis and Colonel Tavington related) and a very large State Museum that we plan to visit.
Quarry Crusher practice run, Atlanta, Georgia (the actual race was after the Birmingham Race below)
The Big Peach organized a “practice” run of the Atlanta quarry. I jumped at the chance to get this preview.
These three shots were of me making the turn at the bottom and the long haul back up.
This is a group shot of the runners from the Big Peach. Not a lot of runners but we had fun. We do expect about 600 on race day.
Quarry Crusher Run 2 – Birmingham, Alabama
This is a shot of the Birmingham Quarry run. First we climbed a 100+ foot hill overlooking Birmingham “for the view” then turned and ran back to the quarry, then down 500 feet into the bowels of the pit, then back up to the top and on to the finish line. This is my backside heading to the top of the quarry after the first ascent. Because I made this run last year, I knew the hard (fun??) part is still ahead. I overheard a lot of runners complain about the 100 foot climb and rejoice when they made the first turn, erroneous thinking it was “all downhill to the finish” unaware of the much larger and steeper 500 foot decent and ascent ahead. Kinda felt sorry for them . . . no, not really ha ha.
This shot is looking down into the quarry as we make the turn downward. The turn-around is at the very large dump truck at the bottom, directly under the white crane. The lead runners have not reached that point yet. It is a ways down there…
At the finish line:
Accepting my award for 1st in my division…
Quarry Crusher Run 3 – Atlanta, Georgia
I dressed like pumpkin, green and orange for the Atlanta run. It was cold and windy in the morning waiting for the start, which was delayed about 10 minutes to allow for late arrivals due to the I-75 shutdown. I started this race dead last, about 2 minutes behind the pack. As these runs are chip timed, it doesn’t really matter where you start. By starting last, I can concentrate on passing runners and maintaining my (slow) pace and generally don’t get passed much, which can be a psychological boost. Your individual time starts when you cross the start line and you overall time is computed when you cross the finish line.
This is just as we start back up and out of the quarry. We are about 660 feet below grade at this point. We have to ascend up the stone wall in front of us on a 10+ percent incline for almost two miles.
This is one of several waterfalls that cascade over the edge of the Atlanta quarry. There is a lower falls below this that goes near the edge of the path. The lower falls are about 75 feet high (the upper is much higher). The finish area is just to the right of this waterfall, a long way to climb out!
Final tally for the three runs:
- 4th in division – Columbia
- 1st in division – Birmingham
- 4th in division – Atlanta
Travelling with the Schinglers 