WNC running groups reroute in wake of Helene

Sometimes rebuilding a community starts with lacing up your shoes. 

That was the approach that dozens of residents took during the Oct. 27 Runners Gotta Run event. Organized by the 828 Endurance Community, a collective relief effort for outdoor and endurance businesses in Western North Carolina, the gathering drew roughly 75 people from around the community to bask in the healing and camaraderie that group running offers.

Savanna Waites, manager of Jus’ Running, a locally owned shoe store on Merrimon Avenue, was among the participants. “[We] all came together and just wanted to run together after going through something so devastating [as Tropical Storm Helene],” remembers Waites. 

For some, running in a group has always provided built-in motivation as well as a way to foster friendships. But in the wake of Helene, Waites and others point out that the act of running has also taken on a deeper meaning: strengthening community. 

Detours ahead

Like most things in the days after the storm, the WNC running community ground to a halt. Trails and greenways along the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers were washed away, while power lines, trees and other debris filled neighborhood streets.

Carrie Baris, who works as the director of the Hellbender 100 race and serves as president of the Run 828 Foundation, says that Bent Creek was among the impacted areas and was closed for several weeks, forcing the N.C. Mountain Trail Runners to pause its activities. That’s when Baris and others began coordinating with local officials to inform local runners of which places were safe and which remained off-limits.

“People were coming to the [group] leaders asking, ‘What is open? Can we go here? Could we go there?’ So those of us who lead quickly became kind of experts at finding that information and disseminating it,” she explains. 

While Bent Creek and its trail system is now reopened, some running groups have had to completely alter their routes. Mark Driscoll, who helped start Weekly Wedge Run decades ago, says the group gathering returned to its original starting point at the Wedge Studios, due to damage at the brewery’s Foundry Street location. New routes for their Thursday evening runs are being mapped and tested as cleanup along the River Arts District progresses. 

“Don Kerrigan is one of the regulars who has been pretty committed to trying to figure out a new route, which has been ever-changing because of construction,” Driscoll says. “We’re still keeping off some sections because even though the river is open for running, there still might be some construction or clearing going on. So we’re paying attention to what’s open and what’s safe and what’s runnable, and that has led to several different routes.”

Standing strong

For trail runner ​​Brandon Thrower, the mountains in WNC are a runner’s paradise, offering a perfect blend of rugged terrain, breathtaking vistas and seemingly endless winding paths.

Thrower founded Tanawha Adventures, which holds races on WNC mountains. He says the effects of Helene have been felt far and wide. “Every single race course that we had had some sort of damage to it,” Thrower says. 

The largest impacts, he continues, occurred in Old Fort, east of Asheville. The damage there, Thrower notes, went well beyond the town’s trail systems — roughly 50 homes were damaged or lost in the storm.

 Thrower, in partnership with 600-acre Camp Grier, staged the Old Fort Strong Endurance Festival in December to raise money for flood victims. It sold out in three days with 400 participants, including trail runners and mountain bikers. 

“Our goal was to raise about $1 million from the event alone, and that’s what we did. We ended up hitting $1 million,” says Thrower. “We’ve already distributed about $500,000 to communities, so it’s been a huge impact.

Thrower also sends about 10% of profits from every Tanawha Adventures race toward conservation efforts in WNC.

“That conservation piece is more needed than ever. These trails are what draw people here and are an asset to the people who live here. And that’s not something that we want to lose,” Thrower says. “We have all this damage now and it might take a while, but we’re going to get it back.”