Bono, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Feb. 4, 2025 – The CrossFit Ridge City Gym owners are gearing up for their gym’s first-ever ultra trail running race, Ridge City Grind and Grind Fest this weekend at The Silos in Bono.
The Ridge City Grind is a 24-hour, or 12-hour race designed for teams and individual athletes. Each lap will consist of a basic, simple and light to moderately loaded strength and fitness movement to start and/or finish each lap.
According to gym owners Casey and Emily Spencer, this will be a fun and challenging event.
“This is our first event,” Casey Spencer said. “Our goal is to challenge ourselves often and we wanted to come up with an event that was challenging, but that was different as well. We’re looking to create really a festival of fitness, and our goal is to grow this thing to where we can celebrate challenging events but also get people outside and I’ll bring awareness to movement.”
Although the gym is in Brookland, Spencer said they chose The Silos, located at 1757 County Road 380 in Bono, as their location due to friendship with its owners.
“The owners of The Silo [Samantha and Wade McFadden], they’re good friends of ours,” Casey Spencer said. “As we talked about this idea and dreamed about it one night at Native Brew Works with them, they were like ‘Well, we’ve got a property that would be a good suit for that, and we want to do something different as well.’ So, they were open to the idea in their down season, and it just worked out with that.”
The 24-hour race is for teams of three and begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7, and continues until 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8. Meanwhile, the 12-hour race will have three divisions with teams of three, teams of two, and individual competitors. This race be on Saturday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Saturday.
Spencer also noted that the participants are completing a course consisting of two-and-a-half-mile laps.
“One participant of the team of three will be completing that lap at a time so the other two participants will be resting and waiting on that teammate to return and then they’ll alternate who goes next. So, the goal is to get as many laps as possible completed in that 24- or 12-hour time that they’ve signed up for.”
Each lap also incorporates a light strength or bodyweight exercise to test their fitness and endurance.
With 30 of the 50-person limit already registered, registration will continue until Thursday, Feb. 6, at 11:59 p.m. Registration can be completed on the gym’s My Fitness Event website at Ridge City Grind. Division costs are as follows:
- 24-Hour Team of Three will be $600
- 12-Hour Team of Three will be $600
- 12-Hour Team of Two will be $400
- 12-Hour Individual will be $200
No refunds will be given as this is a rain-or-shine event.
As well as a variety of gift cards, the top three winners, no matter the division, will receive medals as well.
The finalized leaderboard will be posted on Ridge City Grind after the race on Feb. 7.
The race will also be accompanied by the Grind Fest on Saturday from noon to 9 p.m., which is a festival featuring sponsors, various vendors, food trucks, and live music by Music for Cougars from 5 to 9 p.m.
“We’re going to try to grow the festival as well,” Casey Spencer said. “I think this year, it’ll be smaller than we’d like, but we’re looking to grow it for sure.”
This festival is free and open to the public.