Around 150 pax from the Greater Carpex region participated in the 2024 Hill Climb Challenge. We ran, rucked, or walked a total of 5,300+ miles worth of hills, which would be enough to walk both from coast-to-coast and north-to-south across the USA. Which, come to think of it, might be the natural answer to people who are already asking, “What’s next?”

The event kicked off with a bang at midnight of February 10th, when several Peak City pax completed a ruck of Umstead, and continued apace until closing with the 4th Annual Duck Donuts Dash, hosted by South Cary on February 24th. In between were countless caravans to check off regional hills, rivalries new and old, travel and skiing trips that took people away, and strategic shenanigans to rally the pax to complete the HCC’s goals of:

• Accelerate your 1st F by encouraging you to run, ruck, and walk more hills in two weeks than you thought possible or desirable.
• Foster Greater Carpex inter-region camaraderie and friendly rivalry.
• Get as many Pax as possible to contribute to these goals by completing the challenge together.

Results

Almost a complete Peak City sweep. If only our Nantan had his priorities straight #skitrip.

🌎 Top Region: Peak City

🏆 Top Individual: Cheap Trick from Peak City

🤝 Top Region by Average Per Pax: Peak City

🌟 1st Place Star Ruck: Clockwork and Bumper Sticker from Peak City

🦆 1st Place Duck Donuts Dash, Youth Division and Overall: Garfield from Peak City

🍩 1st Place Duck Donuts Dash, Mens Division: Clockwork from Peak City

🤴 Most 1st-place KOMs: Revere and Mohawk tied with 7 each, from Peak City…so nice to see sibling rivalry channeled in a healthy way :D

👑 Most KOMs (1st, 2nd, or 3rd): Steaks from Peak City

🤓 Top Nantan Scorer: Jigglypuff from South Cary

For full results, check out the spreadsheet.

Differences from last year

If you have ideas for the next iteration of the HCC, add them to the Ideas for next time tab on the spreadsheet. This year, we made several changes based on last year, including more promotion before the event (even with a YouTube video!), hill segments closer to AOs, changing the point distribution to encourage other more participation, options for pax on travel or to self-organize events, and adding more cross-regional events.

Some positive results from these changes include:

🛣️ Overall participants logged an extra 1,000+ miles (25%+ growth over last year)

🌱 More segment completions…last year had fewer than 100 region completions, this year had 250+ (150%+ growth)

📈 More active participants by about 50, with each region having at least 20 active participants (more than double for most regions)

💰 Way more even average points per pax

Photo Album

What’s next?

There is never a dull moment in Greater Carpex. You will have a chance to update more spreadsheets as part of the Core Challenge, kicking off in March.

Other local Spring events coming up include:

• Mar 16, South Cary’s annual CSAUP, The Highland Games
• Mar 17, Tobacco Road Marathon or Run the Peak 5k
• Mar 23, Mt. Mitchell 55k or 50-miler
• Apr 6, Umstead 100
• Apr 20, Tar Heel 10-miler
• Apr 26-27, Smoky Mt Relay
• Apr 27, Tobacco Road Relay
• May 3-5, GTE-47 in Richmond, VA
• May 23, Beer Mile at Bond Bros

Summer is sure to kick off training for Fall classics such as the 20th anniversary of the BRR.

Tclaps

Thanks to all the pax who participated, especially the following regional captains:

• Peak City organizing: Flenderson, Clockwork, Zero Drop
• Carpex: Happy Gilmore, Banjo, Kwikstop
• South Cary: Chops, Term Paper, Trickle. And to Bagels for the Duck Donuts Dash.
• Green Level: Pivot, Stolen Valor, Sunshine
• Hotspot for the initial spreadsheet creation

Cur colles non currunt: Why not run hills?