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Two miles high in Leadville, the competition is heating up! Day 2 saw some very strong performances in the Run 3 Women's Open division. Amanda Basham (Gu Energy) topped the podium in an impressive 2:22. Sandra Koblmuller (Salomon) ran strong to a second place finish in 2:31. Jennifer Comiskey rounded out the top three with a speedy 2:38.
In the Run 3 Men's Open, Owen Bradley (Gu Energy) nabbed the top spot in 2:20, with Zac Marion close behind in 2:31. Victor Maisano (Elevation Culture) pushed the pace to snag the third place spot in 2:49.
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Heading out bright and early on the 'cheap and cheerful' rafting bus.
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On the Run 6 side, the women's open podium was super close. Monique Van de Boogaart clocked an impressive 2:41 and with Tessa Chesser right on her heels in 2:45. England's Rebecca Ferry rounded out the top three with 2:54.
Cody Reed (Under Armour/Coconino Cowboys) is running away with the first 2 days of competition. He smoked the field with a scorching 1:58 performance Matthew Cavanaugh (Mad Moose) crushed the descents for a solid 2:15 finish and Howell Craske from the UK grabbed third place with a strong 2:23.
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Hydrating at the top of Hope Pass
with Sufferfest Beer
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Our masters runners never let off the gas today! Vicky Oswald (Gu) earned the top spot with a 3:13 performance. Margaret Monfort ran a very solid 3:21 with Luanne Park right on her heels in 3:22.
Chris Hill landed on the podium for the second day, with a strong run in 2:49. Wilhelm Von Frenckell secured second place in 2:58 and Thomas Wood rounded out the top 3 in 3:13.
Full race results can be found here at Zone4.ca.
Photos courtesy of Myke Hermsmeyer, Phillipp Reiter and Sportograf.
Stage 2 Know Before You Go:
- Stage 3 is our longest stage, with the first Checkpoint at 7.3 miles. Please be prepared with adequate fluids and fuel.
- We are now at 10k feet in elevation and you may be really feeling it. It is vitally important to listen to your body, stay hydrated and keep eating.
- Prolonged sun exposure can sap your energy. With a warm and sunny forecast, you may want to consider keeping a light colored hat/buff in your pack.
GU Energy Stage 3 Preview:
24.5 miles/39.4 kilometers - 2,700 ft/823 m elevation gain
Three Checkpoints: Mile: 7.3, 14.3 and 21.6
Our longest stage, stage 3, has moderate elevation gain, with the largest climb out of the way early in the stage. After 2.5 miles on the pavement out of downtown Leadville you will climb steeply on four-wheel drive road to the summit of the first climb. Descend again on double track into the first checkpoint. A more gradual climb on doubletrack takes you onto Ski Cooper, where you descend to Checkpoint 2 in the ski area (Ski Cooper) parking lot. You will cross the highway at Tennessee Pass onto the Continental Divide. From there you can look forward to a long rolling descent. You will be running on the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail into Camp Hale. Once you hit the gravel flats in Camp Hale you have about three miles of gravel ahead of you, which will test your mental toughness. You finish at Nova Guides, where the camp is waiting.
Weather Forecast:
Partly cloudy in the morning with intervals of sunshine. High of 77 degrees in mid-afternoon, with a 20% chance of a stray thunderstorm in the afternoon. Winds will be 5-10 mph out of the west. Low of 50 degrees overnight.
WTF: Who is That Face
Jessica Carroll and Blake Burket aren't your average teammates. They both work at the Pentagon (casual) and bonded over a love of ultrarunning. They now make up 2 of the 14 people on the Pentagon's ultrarunning team, and take turns pacing/crewing for one another in races.
Jess works for the Department of Defense and started ultrarunning after the birth of her 3rd kid, when she embarked on a "year of crazy", running a truly insane amount of long distance races like the JFK 50 Miler in Maryland, the North Face Endurance challenge in Algonkian,
and the Burning River 100 miler in Ohio (her first 100 miler ever) just two weeks ago.
Blake works as a Navy Seabee and has been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait where he works on the ground with local governments to develop infrastructure (think houses, roads, bridges: you name it, he builds it) and then he and his team protect that infrastructure against attacks from adversaries. When he's stateside, he works on everything from construction projects all over the country to disaster relief efforts.
As if that wasn't impressive enough, he was also the disaster recovery team Commander for the first three days of the U.S.'s Hurricane Katrina response, which he cites as the proudest point of his life, saying "People who had lost everything just were out there day in and day out, clearing debris and making sure that help got to the people who needed it." Blake will be running his first 100 miler this November, after getting hypothermia at Mile 75 of the the Umstead 100, because if there's one thing this guy doesn't do, it's leave a job half finished.
They want to give a shout out to Kahtoola for sending them on this crazy adventure, and asked for some words of wisdom, they had this to say:
"It never always gets worse". Remember that at your toughest point tomorrow.
GU Mountain Heroes of the Day:
The Mountain Hero of the Day award is a special recognition of a TRR athlete who has contributed to the TRR community in positive way. Runners and crew alike may nominate the Mountain Heroes.
Today, TRR presented the GU Mountain Hero of the Day awards to Margaret Monfort and Pete Smith. Both of these athletes went above and beyond in providing help to their fellow competitors.
Margaret was nominated by her fellow age-grouper, Luanne Park for going above and beyond in providing on-course assistance. She noticed that Luanne had trouble breathing early in the stage and offered her inhaler. Luanne was incredibly grateful for the gesture and was blown away when Margaret met her at the finish to check on her again.
Pete, racing in his first ever trail stage race, stopped to help Alejandro Gomez, who had fallen ill with dehydration on the descent from Hope Pass. Pete stuck by him, offering supplies, carrying his pack and getting medical assistance.
Both of these athletes embodied the best elements of the trail racing community today and our Gu Straw Hats are off to you!
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| Margaret (L) and Luanne (R) |
Also in this issue of the TransRockies Runner:
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