CARY - More than 50 avid disc golf players from all over the East Coast woke up shortly after dawn on Saturday to participate in the 12th annual Great 8 North Carolina Disc Golf Iron Man Competition, which started in Zebulon at 6 a.m. and ended in Durham at 9 p.m.

The courses were from all over the Triangle - including the Middle Creek disc golf course just outside Middle Creek High School.

Those who played the eight full courses in one day ranged from as young as 21 to as old as 56 and represented all areas of North Carolina, with a few competitors from as far away as Pennsylvania.

"I played in the days when it drew seven to 10 people," tournament coordinator and Middle Creek Course Professional Jay Pontier said. "And now, this year, we had a full field signed up with two months to go before the tournament. The word is getting out, and it's such an accomplishment to get eight courses in one day. People strive for those types of things and goals."

And Pontier has already started considering arrangements for what he expects to be an even larger crowd next year.

"Next year we will open it up to 36 teams, and we will probably have to have two flights. We will have 18 teams start at 6 a.m. and 18 more start at 6:30 a.m.," Pontier said. "Next year, I also want to give some type of commemorative 'I finished the Great 8' medallion that participants can put on their wall or desk."

Despite blistering conditions, including a high temperature that reached 100 degrees, nearly 14 hours after the competition started, all but one of the 27 two-man teams had completed the eight-course, 144-hole marathon. For Pontier, who helped design the Middle Creek course, the sweltering heat started to take its toll just after he finished his fourth course of the day.

"When I got to Buckhorn, the fifth course, that was my wall," Pontier said. "But we finally got to UNC and I got hydrated and got some Ibuprofen and a complete change of clothes. And then I was in business. I shot an 11-under over 18 holes at UNC, which was really good for that course."

The 2010 installment of the Great 8 disc golf event concluded about 9 p.m. with a cookout and various skills competitions. Winners of the skills competitions took home hundreds of dollars in cash and prizes paid for by sponsors and the required $15 entry fee.

The image of players coming from out of state to participate in post-competition festivities with a total of more than $2,000 on the line represented quite the contrast to the inaugural Great 8. The first annual Great 8 featured two participants, Lowe Bibby and Mark Faggion, who started the event in an effort to satisfy curiosity regarding the maximum number of disc golf courses one could play in a single day.

Bibby and Faggion quickly found the feat not only possible but enjoyable. They then played eight courses in a day again in 2000 and 2001 before deciding in 2002 to spread the word and see how many people were as in love with the sport as they were.

"You have to have the, 'Hey, what if we did this' kind of mentality," Pontier said. "In 1999, they had that. They did it for a couple years and sometimes when you get something out in the mainstream and light a match, you have a wildfire. They started that wildfire in 2002."

Pontier joined Faggion and Bibby in their burgeoning disc golf endeavor in 2004, and took over as tournament director in 2006. Planning for the 2010 Great 8 began in January.

The preparation for this year's event included online registration, a candy bar fundraiser and the attraction of several sponsors, including Rudino's and Innova Disc Golf.

Sponsorship helped Pontier give each participant an Innova water bottle, a sticker, a Koozie and a miniature disc.

Brent and Brad Allison led all competitors with an eight-course total score of 348, or 87-under par, and were also the fastest finishers, taking an average time of 52 minutes per course. The competitions that took place after all teams completed all eight courses included a long distance throw, with the winner, Mike Norris, the Professional Disc Golf Association North Carolina State Coordinator, taking home $200 with a winning throw of 474 feet.

In addition to the longest throw contest, players competed in "The Last Shot of the Night," a closest-to-the-pole contest won on an ace - hole-in-one - by John Marchi. Marchi walked away with $100 as a prize.

In the "Ring of Fire," a series of putting competitions, Mark Faggion took home the grand prize, a traveler basket worth $130. More than $300 worth of cash and prizes was awarded to individual winners of the putting competitions.