Runners Rip It Up at Rock2Rock Run
June 3, 2009 by Bryon Powell · 59 Comments
This past Friday evening Black Mountain, North Carolina played host to the first race of the 2009 La Sportiva Mountain Cup (iRF’s LSMC coverage) – the Rock2Rock Trail Run. With a 1,640′ climb in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside Asheville and elite competition in both the men’s and women’s fields, this was no ordinary 10k! When you consider who toed the line for the Rock2Rock, it shouldn’t surprise you that huge course records were set in the race’s third running.
The simple, but sweet sole aid station high atop the Rock2Rock course.(this and all photos in post by Chris Brown – click photos to enlargen)
Four runners – Matt Byrne (a US Mountain Running Team member), Jason Braynt (La Sportiva’s Mountain Running Team) (pictured on right), Shiloh Mielke (Vasque), and Aaron Saft (Inov-8) – took out the men’s race. At the top of the race’s huge climb, city-boy Matt Byrne and 2008 R2R champion Shiloh Mielke were only seconds apart. The race would not stay as close on the technical downhill that followed. Shiloh stormed down the technical rhododendron tunnel to beat Matt by more than a minute (43:48 to 45:02). In beating Byrne, Mielke broke the existing course record by two minutes. Finishing half a minute behind behind his Byrne, Jason Braynt rounded out the top three.
Megan Kimmel (La Sportiva) (pictured below and right) came east from the rugged San Juan Mountains of Colorado to dominate the women’s race. She bested second place Meadow Tavres (Inov-8) by nearly four minutes (52:17 to 56:10).
Kimmel also took 4 minutes off of Tavres’s course record set en route to winning last year’s race. Keri Nelson captured the final spot on the women’s podium for La Sportiva with her 56:57. We can only imagine how brutal this course is if it takes someone with the talent of Ms. Nelson almost an hour to cover 10k!
It should not be a surprise to anyone that local stud, Mark Lundblad (Inov-8) led the masters men with an eight place finish (51:03). It looks like local Barbara Baggett was the first masters woman to cross the line in 1:05:37. For full results, check out the race website. You can also read more about the race and the rest of Asheville’s ninth annual Mountain Sports Festival in the Asheville Citizen-Times and the newspaper’s blog. For more great photos of the race, check out Chris Brown’s Flickr album.
La Sportiva Mountain Cup Standings
Not much to report on the overall LSMC standings, as they mirror the race results. Check back next week for results from the Mount Diablo 25k and a look at how the Mountain Cup is developing.
iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest
As we’ve previously noted, we’ll be giving away a pair of La Sportiva shoes for each of the 10 races we cover in the Mountain Cup. Given the wicked climb and technical nature of the Rock2Rock race, we thought it fitting to give away a pair of La Sportiva’s award-winning Crosslite. (Runner’s World Best Buy in 2008). For more about this trail racing shoe, check out iRunFar’s Crosslite review. If you want to blaze the trails in a free pair of Crosslites, just leave your name and town (in the US or Canada) in a comment before we post about the Mount Diablo 25k trail run next week. As a reminder, if you enter to win the pair of Crosslites, you’ll automatically be eligible to win the grand prize at the end of August.
Final Thoughts
Did anyone run this race? If so, what did you think? Know if any of the top runners at Rock2Rock are planning to race the whole series?
This article is way out there. There are no related articles on iRunFar.
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Bobby Gill – Beltsville, MD
a 10k, huh? sounds more like iRunShort.com to me! (but still cool to get info on those races i'd never hear of)
Carson Coates – Grand Junction, CO
Turi Becker – Reno, NV
Hey, I like hearing about the shorter ones, too. Trail half marathons are my favorite races.
Nick Clark – Fort Collins, CO
Bobby, Glad you like the shorter race coverage. I think that in many areas of the country (Pac NW, Utah, Colorado, NE) I would have been mixing in more sub-ultra trail or mountain runs into the mix the past few years. I certainly enjoyed running the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase and miss cross country length races.
Turi, Happy to hear you like hearing about halfs. We'll be covering two later in the summer. I should try to jump in one sometime. Racing 13 miles on trail sounds like a blast.
Dan Moore – St. George, UT
Will Thomas – Fall City, WA
Aww, I can't let it slide! Do I still put the whole name, or the comment will suffice? I want me a pair of La Sportiva!
Olga Varlamova, Portland, OR
Lucia "Argentine Rocket" Olivera, Washington DC
Jayme Frank – St. Catharines, ON Canada
Andy Benkert – Boulder Creek, CA
Yeah, the shorter race coverage is nice – especially tough, ass kicking events like the Rock2Rock! I can imagine that is a tough one if the winning times are in the 40-50+ minute range for a 10K.
BTW, I just tried on a pair of the Crosslights, and they are pretty nice. I'm seriously considering getting a pair, but would much rather win a pair! ;-)
Amanda Stickel Stoutsville, Ohio
Adam Casseday- Beverly, WV
I hope you're enjoying the adventure Bryon!
Shaun Hansen – Mission, BC, Canada
I'm just gearing up for a nice 20K today!
Ryan Turner – Baltimore, MD
Jeff Smith – Laguna Hills, CA
Steve Wallen – Cicero, IN
Owen Schuh – San Jose, CA
Thea Lipinski- Denver, CO
sweet race (NC is my hometown!)
Michele Jensen – Littleton, CO
Gary Stuart – Montreal, QC
I love my Crosslites and another pair would be great!
Dave Allen – Seattle, WA
Why no LA Sportiva races in the Pacific NW??? Sounds like fun!
Dave,
Doesn't Bend, Oregon count as the Pacific Northwest? :-)
Great post – as usual. Nice to see all the diverse followers as well!
Brad, between this post and the iRunFar.com bumper sticker giveaway, it's been very cool to see the geographic diversity of iRunFar readers. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of Canadian comments today. :-)
Nick P edatella – Boulder, CO
Bryon, I thought that same thing the second I hit "publish" :) ok, how about in the Pac NW closer to me? Yes, it is all about me… :)
Too bad the U.S. is so … big.
Kendra Ralstin
Puyallup, WA
Cool blog! Thanks for the posts and the updates!
Juan A. Saenz
Urbana, IL
Chris Grove – Colorado Springs, CO
Matt Warner – Richmond, VA
Thanks for the post Bryon!
For those that want a few more miles, check out the Mount Mitchell Challenge and Black Mountain Marathon…put on by the same folks that direct the R2R…40 miles to high point in the East and back again…
http://www.blackmountainmarathon.com
Jay Curwen
RD
R2R and MMC/BMM
Thanks for stopping by, Jay.
Everyone else, I heartily endorse the Mount Mitchell Challenge and Black Mountain Marathon. You can't better run events that these. The only problem with those races is that they're hard to get into because so many folks want to run them! :-)
Here's my report from the 2008 MMC: http://blog.irunfar.com/2008/02/mount-mitchell-challenge-race-report.html
Ooof, gotta LOVE those uphill battles!
Carolyne Riggsbee, Alexandria, VA
Nicole Gaskell – Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
Ooh, Crosslites … Donald, Carmel Valley CA
Ryan Phillips- Portsmouth, VA
Kevin Sullivan – Yosemite, CA
Kevin Sullivan of Yosemite – we need to hook up for a trail run soon! I'll be out there from roughly June 17-24. I'll soon be living in Midpines and plan to be in the park multiple days each week!
Jerry Cagle – Tucson, AZ
Brendan Trimboli – Seattle, WA
i love crosslites :D
Ty Walters – Portland, OR
Solly Ferreira, Stellenbosch (South Africa)
Gert – Patensie, RSA
Damn, without your mad pacing skills I fell apart.
jeff wilbur – charlottesville, va
Running…yah, yah!!;-)
Stellenbosch, RSA – one more yah!
Coleen Voeks – Kansas City, KS
I don't mind hearing about the short races.. I like reading about allllll sorts of trail running!
Sorry 'bout that, Jeff.
Coleen, glad you don't mind the shorter stuff. See ya out at Leadville.
Trail Clown – Arlington, VA
Do they make size 14 La Sportiva?
Trail Clown,
It looks like the Crosslites only go up to Euro size 47.5. US size 14s are a Euro 48.5. Doh!