WOODVILLE — Beau Beard was 9 years old when he fractured his femur and heard doctors tell him he’d never run again. Beard has spent the last 31 years proving them wrong, and Saturday morning added the Cathedral Caverns 15K title to his list of accomplishments.
Beard, 40, of Chelsea, scampered along with hybrid trail-road-cavern path course in a nice 1:13:01 at Cathedral Caverns State Park. Runners start near the park campground and have a mix of crushed gravel, asphalt and mostly trail. The final 7-tenths or so of the race is inside Cathedral Caverns on the lighted footpath. The first 1.5 mile is fine before starting the 1,000-foot climb up Pisgah Mountain.
Conditions were perfect, with dry leaf-covered trails despite rain early Friday morning. Temps were comfortable but warmed up during the morning for the field of 62 finishers in the 15K and 140 in the 5K. Field numbers were down a bit from last year, but Saturday morning had a few other nice races going on.
Andres Manuel, 29, of Valley Head was second in 1:21:54, and Nate Barstow, 47, of Hixon, Tenn., was third in 1:22:54.
Mary Ann Koch, 54, of Huntsville, won the women’s division and was 8th overall. She finished in 1:35:10. Anna Barstow, 45, of Chattanooga, was second (13th) in 1:38:18, and Jenn Hanna, 47, of Birmingham, was third (15th) in 1:39:30.
Runners from seven states participated, including from Florida and Pennsylvania. The runs are part of the Running Lane Events series, which also has springtime road events that end in the cavern.
Jacob McLendon, 14, of Anniston, won the Cathedral Caverns 5K race in 22:14. Sheena Johnson, 39, of Cullman, won the women’s division in 30:32. She was 10th overall.
About Cathedral Caverns
At the cave, everyone enters the massive mouth on the lighted path to run to the back. It’s one of the most awesome caves in the country. The cavern is replete with stalactites, stalagmites, calcium formations, shapes and colors. The cavern was explored and developed in the 1950s by Jay Gurley.
The cavern mouth is 126 feet wide and 25 feet high. One stalagmite, “Goliath,” is one of the largest stalagmites in the world. It is 45 feet tall and 243 feet in circumference. Another stalagmite is 27 feet tall and 3 inches wide. At the back of the path, the view is amazing but there’s a secret. Another small entrance, in the back, leads to more cavern rooms. They’ve been explored but aren’t open to the public.
Another cool feature is the creek that flows under the Jay Gurley Bridge about midway through. The water level rises and falls with rainfall, sometimes quite quickly. Also unique about it is the source of the creek and end point are unknown.
RESULTS: See all of the 15K results here and the 5K results here
PHOTOS: See the images from both races by Spencer Cox Photography here
MAIN PHOTO ABOVE: A runner strides along the path in the Cathedral Caverns 15K Saturday morning in Woodville. (Photo: Alan Clemons/TVO)
(Photos by Alan Clemons/TVO)
