Brutal fun at The Ridge
Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Michael Callahan
and Graham Hadley
Starting with a yell and a cheer, the participants in the 2015 Panther Run at the Ridge were ready to face just about any obstacle.
It’s a good thing — because there were more than 30 of them between the runners and the finish line at the specially designed course on a Springville mountaintop in St. Clair County.
Normally an off-highway vehicle, nature and outdoor park — sometimes even a concert venue — the Ridge is converted once a year into a long, winding obstacle and mud-run course that attracts fitness enthusiasts from near and far, with some competitors coming from all over the country.
For that one day, July 13 this year, the Ridge, which is most famous as a top destination for off-road vehicles, is closed for riding and open for running (and climbing, crawling, rolling and whatever else it takes to get over the obstacles).
The Ridge started hosting the Panther Run three years ago, said park owner Jason White. What started out as a small event has reached epic proportions. With every entrant slot for the race sold out last year, they added more for this year.
And sold out again.
“We sold out. We sold out last year,
so we added about 50 more slots, …” he said. “We had 800 tickets we sold, plus there were around 30 volunteers, and then there were spectators, too.”
White estimates they topped 900 to 1,000 people in the park for the race.
The Ridge is normally run by a handful of people — mostly White and his family and close friends — but it takes a small army of helpers and volunteers to get the facility converted from an OHV park to the grueling 5K mud and obstacle course that has made the Panther Run such a big draw.
“It takes over a month to prep the course, including building the obstacles. It takes a lot of work, but anything worth doing is worth doing right,” White said.
Particular attention is paid to the obstacles. Organizers spend days looking at what has worked at previous races, what has worked at other venues, and then they group brainstorm all of those ideas into what unique obstacles they can feasibly — and safely — build for the Panther Run.
“Everyone gets together and brainstorms. There are six of us whose job it is to go over all the ideas and weed out the ones too hard to build or that are too complicated,” White said.
“Though we look at what other courses do, we tweak their ideas, then make them different to try to make them unique to us. We want everyone to experience something different when they come here.”
That attention to detail, their location and the facilities at the Ridge create a special experience that White credits with making the Panther Run so widely popular.
“I think it has reached out to people. We are piling in runners from all over the Southeast. Word of mouth and positive reviews online and on social media are pulling people from farther and farther out,” he said. “We have been compared to big events like the Warrior Dash and the Tough Mudder.”
The competitors
One of the key components to the success of the Panther Run is that everyone who competes is a winner. The fastest man and the fastest woman get special recognition, but everyone who takes part receives a medal and shirt, regardless of when they finish or if they were able to complete every obstacle on the course.
And there are different difficulty levels, from beginner all the way up to special endurance passes that let those runners continue lapping the course as long as the event is going on.
“We had the unlimited pass at this race. We sold about 20 of those where they get to keep running the course. I don’t know why they did it, but they did,” White said.
Some of the runners come alone, but more often they are part of groups — many times made up of experienced obstacle runners, traditional runners and beginners.
First-timer Shawna Stokes of Birmingham smiled, pointed to her teammates, Alania Stokes, Miranda Fohner and Wendy Thompson, and said, “I thought it would be fun to watch, and then I got sucked into running it.”
Miranda said they were going to work together as a team, especially since not everyone had done this before — “We are not going to be pushing anyone down.”
Though Shawna said she had a more competitive perspective on things. “You’re not pushing anyone down,” she clarified with a smile, adding, “I tried to do this a couple of years ago, but none of my guy friends wanted to do it.”
A number of local businesses were on the scene to support groups of employees and staff. CrossFit and other exercise centers from Alabama and surrounding states were particularly well represented.
Jay Stackhouse from Priceville and Staci Clemons from Summerville were there, both running in the early elite heat. Then, they helped other competitors they brought from the gym where she is a fitness trainer.
“It was pretty brutal, with some extremely challenging obstacles. The netting was particularly hard,” he said.
“The two of us came as a team to compete; then we came back to the course to help everyone we have with us. They may hate us while we are pushing them to finish, then they love it.”
Pell City-based Northside Medical Associates had around 40 runners in the race, something they said was a good way for the co-workers to have a day out together while promoting the importance of exercise and fitness.
“This is our first year out here organized as Northside,” said Ronnie Harris, human resources manager for Northside, speculating that Laura Gossett and Dr. Michael Dupre would end up leading their heats.
As much as the Panther Run is a competitive event, the underlying theme is for everyone to come out and have fun — and for many runners, that meant costumes.
One team, the Incredibles, sporting outfits from the Pixar movie of the same name, was made up of four family members and two friends.
For Majesta Bishop of Huntsville, who learned about the event on Facebook, it was her first race, though she is a hobby runner. One other member of the Incredibles team had done the obstacle run before.
As they donned their costumes and got ready for their heat, the team kept pumping each other up with encouraging words — a common theme for the day.
Sporting brightly colored hair and face paint, John Archer from Albertville said he was there with Sand Mountain CrossFit. John, who did competitive swimming for nine years, said, “This is my first run and I am very excited. The face paint and the hair, I did it because I thought it would be fun.”
Another group of runners were facing off along more traditional Alabama lines — in friendly fashion — made clear by their team name: Three tigers and an elephant. Larry Turner, Cambria Ware, Sidney Ware and Brandi Turner were all there to support each other, though there would be some friendly internal competition.
After the race heats, the tired but happy runners gathered for food and company along the various paths at the Ridge.
Buddy Spidle, a loan officer from Birmingham, said his experience was “outstanding.”
This was the first obstacle race for the physically fit former U.S. Marine. “It certainly tapped all my physical resources. It was very demanding; it was very thorough. It was fun, and I will be back,” he said.
More to come?
The Panther Run has become so successful, White is considering doing another race in the fall.
“We might do a second race — not necessarily the exact same thing, but we are definitely looking at some kind of race in the fall.
Whether it is putting together that race or preparing for next year’s Panther Run, White said none of it can happen without all the volunteer help they receive.
“I want to say thanks to all the volunteers — from people who help build obstacles to volunteer fire departments. This would not be possible without everyone coming together,” he said, adding that many of the people helping make the Panther Run a reality are former participants who have stepped up to keep the event going.
“We build relationships with people, become friends with people who want to come out here and see the park stay open and the race happen,” he said.
One of those — Billy Findeiss of Odenville (sporting a kilt for the run) agreed. He is one of those runners who also volunteers his time to make the event happen.
“I have been here every year, every year helping build the obstacles. These are great people, Jason and everyone are great people,” he said before having to go make sure one of the water-wall obstacles was working properly. Then, he took on the Panther Run himself in one of the later heats.
Check out the Panther Run and The Ridge online and on Facebook
