Race Reports

Rob Hall: Hatfield & McCoy Marathon - No Feudin’, Just Runnin’
June 14, 2008

There is now peace in the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky, because for the 9th year the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys was decided by a marathon.  The race takes place during the Hatfield and McCoy reunion festival in June.  It follows a route that goes near many of the historic feud sites.  Each runner that is not a true Hatfield or real McCoy is assigned to a family and the combined times decide who wins the feud for that year.  I was assigned to the Hatfield family.

It was less than 6 hours to drive up to Pikeville, KY where we (wife and I) stayed for the night.  The Hampton Inn was the best I have ever been at and the staff was up before 5 with breakfast.  After some biscuits and gravy, we headed out to Goody, KY.  The registration, packet-pickup, and start took place in the parking lot of the Food City Food Stores.  We got my picture taken with a historic looking Hatfield and McCoy, who gave an account of the feud during the pasta dinner.  We soon had our shotgun start and I was the last across the line.

	The race is full of 50 staters as it counts as KY or WV and I talked with many of them along the way.  One told me their motto is to start slow and taper from there.  I did that as we started the climb to get over Blackberry Mountain.  Many feud sites such as the Randolph McCoy home, the site of the hog trial and election day stabbing of Ellison Hatfield, and the place where the Hatfields shot the 3 McCoys involved in the stabbing are along the course and these are marked with medal plaques. I came across Cindy from Maryland and Larry from Indiana around mile 10 and I joined in on their conversation about different marathons we had run.  Larry had finished a marathon in over half the states.  Cindy and I both planned on using this one for our 9th state.  Larry stopped as we passed through the finish of the half as he had done the full the year before.
The half finished in historic Matewan, WV and they had fresh cut watermelon for the runners.  After 2 slices, I caught up to Cindy and we made our way to the golf course.  There was a foursome on the t-box as we approached and I asked if they mind if we play through.  The golf course has the famous swinging bridge you cross over.  Besides all the scenic beauty, the race also supplied plenty of water and Poweraid served by some of the friendliest people I have ever met. We followed the Tug River down into Williamson, WV and finished in front of the famous coal house.  They had towels for us to dry off from the rain that was present on the back half and a fancy race medal as we crossed the line.  Cindy had run for the McCoys and I had run for the Hatfields, so our finish together showed how the families can get along.  They had more watermelon and pork BBQ (western style).  The finish had a street fair feel to it with some vendors selling all sorts of stuff.  Not sure which family won the race as they have not posted any combined results for a couple of years, but I do know it was a lot of fun.