Our Thanksgiving Day event, the Earn Your Turkey 4 Miler and kids races was great fun once again this year. About 900 people showed up to run or walk to earn their turkey on thanksgiving morning. Everyone who came truly earned their turkey for the day—guilt free eating on thanksgiving! Over 150 people literally did earn their turkey by either winning in the races or in the prize drawings afterwards. It takes a long time to give away 150+ turkeys and 60+ pies! Those who stick around are rewarded for their persistence and nearly all win something great! About 100 kids participated in various distances of kids races according to their age and they earned their turkey too. All in all it was a great event with good people, good food, and good fun! We are very thankful to all those who showed up, but especially to the many great volunteers and club members who helped the race to go well. Thanks!
Sojourner and Runner’s Corner employee Danny Moody held off Chase Edgerton of Colorado and Sam Brown of New Hampshire to win the ULTIMATE XC “10 Mile” Off-Road Challenge held in Moab. The Ultimate XC is a very competitive series held in several rugged places in the U.S. and Canada. The 10 mile race was actually nearly a half marathon in length and included a great amount of vertical gained and lost with running on a variety of surfaces including slickrock and spongy streambeds. For more on the Ultimate XC, see www.ultimatexc.com/moab . Congratulations Danny!
Click here to check out the Provo Peak pictures (It’s the ‘Provo Peak’ Album under the ‘Adventure Excursions’ Album). The route has been uploaded in Google Earth format to runutah.net under the routes section.
Provo Peak is one of the ‘Seven Peaks’ in Utah County along with (S. to N.) Nebo, Santaquin, Spanish Fork, Cascade, Timp, and Lone Peak. While peaks such as Timp and Nebo are often climbed, Provo Peak is quite neglected and rarely climbed, so much so that there is no actual trail to the top. The trail is very runnable up to about the 9,000 foot level, where you hook on to the West ridge and ride it (very steeply) all the way to top.
On this particular day, Danny Moody and I (Golden Harper) decided to start from rock canyon down in the valley. We knew this would give us over 6,000 feet of elevation gain and take quite a while (and also be relatively painful). We ran up rock canyon (trail 60) and followed it up to Squaw Peak road and took it to the big bend in the road just above 8,300 feet. At this point we started up the trail that led us to the West Ridge and eventually the top. We took some pictures on top amid the incredible views and the excellent visibility we had (the Uintah’s were easily visible to the east).
We made a decision to go down the North Ridge (knowing that we had never read any account of anyone actually trying this). Now we know why! It was quite the ‘experience’ to say the least and was the kicker in turning this run into a true adventure. That said, the views were incredible on the way down and also in the cirque between Provo and Lightning Peaks. After bushwacking our way down to Squaw Peak Road, we cruised back to the car and called it a day. Pictures coming soon.
In Moab, on a day where extreme racing conditions caused over 1 out of every 4 entrants to drop out, Golden Harper and Shane Martin of the Runner’s Corner Mountain Ultra Team went first and second place at Moab’s Alpine to Slickrock 50 Miler (The MAS 50). Golden and Shane both called the first 30 miles the toughest 30 miles they’ve ever seen in a race. They were bombarded with heat down low, cold temps up on the several 11,000 ft+ passes, stinging freezing rain & hail, lightning and thunder, and energy-sapping heat and hard red slickrock near the finish. The race course gains over 11,000 feet of elevation over a lot of very technical, rocky terrain and bad footing.
Shane and Golden both missed the start by a couple of minutes but slowly worked their way up to the front of this race that has never been won by a non-pro sponsored athlete before. Golden said he guesses he just had “good karma” and had a great performance including just over 1 hour 20 minutes for the final half marathon and 37:30 for the final 10k. Shane’s performance was also astounding considering he just finished the Wasatch 100 Miler two weeks ago. Golden’s official time (including the late start and half a dozen pit stops) was 9 hours and 12 minutes. Shane finished in 10 hours and 2 minutes. The women’s winner was Helen Cospolich of the North Face Endurace Team.
Wallsburg is typically the last long (18+ mile) training run before St. George for the club. Aid is provided along the way and it’s a good run to get a taste of the St. George Marathon course while still being a quick tune-up long run. This year was no exception and those who went had a great time aside from the COLD at the start. It was 33 degrees in “beautiful downtown Wallsburg” (as Hawk likes to say) and it stayed cold the first 5 miles or so. There were definitely a few of us who were unprepared for that kind of weather. The dirt section below the dam was exciting as always—having to go into stealth mode for a mile or so—only Scott Dixon got cut on the barbed wire fence. We hope he’s not reading this from a hospital bed somewhere! All in all it was a great run with beautiful views of Deer Creek, Mt. Timpanogos, Cascade Peak, Bridal Veil Falls and more. Thanks to everyone who came!
Still as a brand new team and not even doing workouts together yet, the Sojourners Women’s Racing Team surprised the crowd with a 3rd place finish in the Autumn Classic Cross-Country Collegiate Invitational 5K at BYU this morning. Competing at the race were University of Nebraska, Idaho State, Utah State, Utah Valley, & Brigham Young Universities.
The Sojourners team was led by Mary Ann Schauerhamer, with Sarah Ingebretsen, Amber Andrews, Kristen Ogden, & Anika Busby to score for the team. Their places in the hilly, deceptively hard course were 5, 7, 18, 22, & 26 respectively. Teammates Anne Heiner (33rd), Hilarie Glenn (37th), Lisa Frischknecht (51st), Amelia Troutner (53rd), & Sam Peavler (60th) helped the team along and pushed each other to their 3rd place finish.
The BYU women won the race with a score of 35, University of Nebraska was 2nd with a 51, our Sojourner women were 3rd with 78, and Utah State, Idaho State, & Utah Valley rounded out the top 6. There were 89 women in the race.
Congratulations girls for getting our name out there! Their next cross-country race will be at the UVU Invitational @ UVU on October 4th @ 5:15 pm! Come support!
Bethany Lewis (5k Winner), Mary Ann, Amber, Amelia, Sam, Michelle Lowry (10k Winner), David Danley (5k Winner), & Seth Wold (10k Winner)
The Runner’s Corner/Sojourners Women’s Racing team kicked off their fall racing season of road and cross-country races this morning @ the Payson Labor Day/Onion Day 5K. Maryann Schauerhamer, Amber Andrews, Amelia Troutner, and Sam Peavler placed 2nd, 3rd, 5th, & 6th places overall, respectively. With great times on a countryside course, the women were 18:39, 18:48, 21:01, & 21:14 in order. As their first race of the season, the women placed very well in a competitive field and hard course. Their next race will be the Autumn Classic Cross-Country 5K held at the BYU track facility this weekend on the 6th. Teammates Sarah Ingebretsen, Kristen Ogden, & Lisa Frischnecht who were unable to race today will be joining them to put on a great show against the college athletes. Great job girls!
About 40 people joined in for the club’s annual Hope to Hobble run on Saturday. The run was fantastic with great scenery, great people, and great refreshments! The twenty four mile route ending at Hobble Creek golf course turned out to be very popular but a few people did opt for the twenty as well. There were quite a few new people who seemed to have a good time and we hope they’ll be back! Many thanks are in order for Bryce Ostler who dropped off all the aid on the course the night before: The water, pretzels, powerade, and chocolate milk were fantastic! The refreshments at the end weren’t half bad either! Next week: Wallsburg/Soldier Hollow! We’ll have aid and refreshments once again and anyone is free to join in: 5:30am at the mouth of Provo Canyon parking lot.
The scene before the start of the 2008 Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon
A little late on this report but nonetheless here it is! This years Hobble Creek Half Marathon was a successful event thanks to a few tweaks learned from years past. More bathrooms, earlier busses, more durable tech shirts, an ice bath and mist shower all added to make the race even better than before. One milestone was having the race start on time this year which was a minor miracle due to some circumstances that were entirely out of our control.
We would like to thank the many wonderful club members and other volunteers who helped the race to go smoothly from t-shirts to food to awards and beyond. Thanks to John Harmon, the Christensen’s, Jamie and Karen Andrews, Almond and the Bethers family, Skinner’s, Howlett’s, Larry Lawrence and Bruce Miller and many others who really helped out. Also, a big thanks to Hammer Nutrition for bailing the race out last second with gels and drinks and also the Orem High Cross Country team for their hard work at the water stops.
Sojourner and Runner’s Corner Employee Mike Vick won the men’s overall while Michelle Lowry won the women’s with Sojourner Marie Glahn coming in second. See www.srcevents.com/hobblecreek for the results. Thanks again to everyone who participated in this great event.
