By Emily Byrd//Staff Writer

How Charlotte, N.C.’s Olympic Whitewater Center brings together the happiest hardcore athletes around

It’s 9:21 a.m., and I’m sipping a beer as I watch the first sweat-drenched racer approach the finish line.

Sometimes, this is what being a reporter on the job looks like.

When I arrived an hour earlier for the U.S. National Whitewater Center’s Fall Finale event, the parking lot was already full. The fifth-annual Fall Finale is an all-day affair on Oct. 11 celebrating the culmination of the Center’s River Jam Concert Series, which was created to let athletes and amateurs play, relax, and learn while trying out new sports and sampling local fare.

Basically, it’s a way to pile on extra fun (and sweat) to the already huge scope of activities that the Center has to offer to the public every day.

The Finale kicks off with the Dirty Dozen Obstacle Trail Race, followed by live music and an oyster roast, and finishes off with the Dynomite Bouldering Competition.

The parking lot is crammed with people stretching themselves into indistinguishable shapes to limber up for the obstacles ahead.

I’m struck by how diverse the crowd is — competitors range from 7 to 60 years old. There are children, badass grandmothers, body builders and college kids. Every person’s motivation seems to be different, too.

Mother and daughter team Jenny and Mackenzie Moor pose for a photo in their all pink attire.

“Look fierce, this is for grandma!” Jenny says to her daughter.

“This is Mackenzie’s first race. I’ve always been into running, and when her grandmother died from breast cancer a couple of months ago, she decided she could be too,” Jenny said.

Another family is sporting rainbow armbands. “For marriage equality, finally!” they say as they jog to the starting line. North Carolina’s ban on gay marriage had been struck down just the day before.

Race director Adam Bratton is pivoting back and forth, giving directions to Center staff and trying to make sure everyone is in order for the Dirty Dozen Race. He looks pleased to be so busy.

“We’re always looking for more ways to get people out here and to introduce them to a healthier, more active life,” he said. “It’s exciting when you hear that it’s someone’s first race and we had a part in getting them out here.”

The Dirty Dozen race is a 5k or 12k trail race with a baker’s dozen worth of obstacles.

“If you don’t complete an obstacle, you’ve got to do 25 burpees,” Bratton says.

“My friend Mike here can demonstrate.”

Mike obliges.

“Mike, I think a few people were unclear, how about a few more?” Bratton jokes. “Now hurry back, the beer’s getting nice and cold for ya!”

The racers are off, and the 428 participants leave me behind.

There are only two people left next to me. One is a woman in a cast, and the other is a toddler. I scramble to justify my inactivity. A journalist can’t get too close to her story; it might bias the report, right?

I remind myself that journalistic ethics are at stake as I take a free sample of beer from the Charlotte based sponsor, NoDa brewing company.

Before I can settle in, the excitement starts again.

“That guy who always wins, I think we just saw him cross under the road!” a star-struck volunteer says.

Zack Capets, apparently a local celebrity at 24 years old, is the first to cross the finish line for the 5k with a time of 21 minutes, 49 seconds. In other words, he finished with a pace of 4 minutes, 22 seconds per kilometer.

“I had to get the cobwebs out of the way for them,” Capets jokes.

After lying sprawled on the ground for a moment to catch his breath, he meanders over to the NoDa tent.

“This is part of what makes this place special,” he says, as a zip-liner jets past him in the background. “The sheer variety of things you can do here. It reminds me that running is fun. Everyone has a motivation, but here, fun is enough, and you really build a community with the other people who come here for races.”

The Center opened in November 2006 and features the world’s largest and most complex recirculating artificial whitewater river.

The river channels were designed by threetime Olympian Scott Shipley to mimic the Penrith Whitewater Stadium at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Luckily for non-Olympians, the Center has whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking, zip-lining, hiking and ropes courses for people of all levels.

Today, because it’s Fall Finale, the Center also has oyster dishes for people of all levels of bravery, ranging from classics, like buckets of fried oysters, to braver options, like raw oysters and oyster tacos.

It’s a nice reprieve before the competition begins in one of the most difficult sports the Center has to offer: bouldering.

Former intern Kat Manasa created the Dynomite Bouldering Competition in 2013.

“It’s funny, because I’m not much of a bouldering fan myself,” Manasa says. “I definitely want to be strapped in! But the sport really does draw in a cool crowd.”

Bouldering is the name for a type of climbing done without any ropes or harnesses, and this hardcore competition was named for a mountain climbing move called a dyno, where climbers have to leap between holds that are too far to reach otherwise.

Needless to say, there were no 7-year-olds in this free-climbing competition, and I felt a little less guilty for sitting it out.

The 12-foot boulder where the competition takes place is surrounded by recycled tire rubber, which is meant to cushion the blow of an inevitable fall.

Even though the cushioned ground was wellutilized during the event, Manasa says she is always impressed with the climbers.

“People are much more careful when they know there aren’t any ropes to catch them!” Manasa says. “It’s a competition for a bunch of skill levels, but I was amazed by how well everyone did, and there haven’t been any major spills so far!”

The competition spans three hours, during which time the climbers accumulated points by completing routes of various difficulty.

Though the sport is intense, this competition is open to any citizen climbers, allowing for a more laid-back vibe.

As the climbers work through their routes, the sounds of local bands and rushing whitewater usher in the evening.

Overwhelmed by the number of interesting things to see and do, I settle for another beer as Bratton sums up the day:

“This is what it’s all about for us. We want people to use the Center in a thousand different ways. We wove all the competitions into the whole festival—with the bands and the craft beer and the oysters—to encourage more people to watch and hopefully expose them to a new way to be active.”

I’m sure I had failed to impress Bratton with my level of activity during this year’s Fall Finale, but I had certainly been impressed by all of the Center’s activities. And I’m sure it wasn’t just beer goggles.