Local man runs for 24 hours
It’s one thing to complete a marathon, half marathon, 10K or 5K race — which all can be done in a span of minutes or hours — but a Mount Airy man has managed to run for an entire day. This occurred when Charles Hiatt took on the OMR Ultra 24 Hour Challenge from Oct. 30-31 in Mint Hill, near Charlotte. Unlike some races with spread-out courses, the OMR Ultra 24 Hour Challenge involves a 1.35-mile loop that participants run over and over — “and over again,” Hiatt stated with a note of humor. The local man, an employee of Eagle Carports in Mount Airy, started the event on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. and finished on 7 p.m. the next day to cap what organizers call “a festive, Halloween-themed test of endurance.” While the running career of the former two-pack-per-day smoker previously included completing three World Marathon Majors in Boston, Chicago and most recently Sydney, Australia, he was a bit leery about the late-October event. “Running for 24 hours straight was definitely my biggest challenge yet,” Hiatt acknowledged. A friend and fellow runner, Josh Seawell of Pinnacle, had invited him to participate in the Mint Hill event. “Against my
