La Sportiva Runners Squash Competition at Squaw Valley Mountain Run

Oh boy, what a weekend! While the La Sportiva Mountain Cup competition may have been steep at the Eldora Trail 10k (iRF coverage), the course was no less steep at the Squaw Valley Mountain Run. The course at SVMR is brilliantly simple – climb 2,000′ from Squaw Valley (6,200′) to High Camp (8,200′) in 3.6 miles. Game on. While a large field shoot up the ski slope, two top Mountain Cup competitors won the men’s and women’ races. Read on to find out who they were.

The Race
An iRunFar favorite, Caitlin Smith (34:57) of La Sportiva, showed no mercy in dominating the women’s field with a three minute win. It was Caitlin’s second win in this year’s Mountain Cup. We’ll direct you over to Caitlin’s post for her breakdown of the race. Chelsea Homles of Truckee, California had the distinction of being the next women’s finisher (37:57). The top masters woman, Pat Matava (39:13), finished a little over a minute behind Chelsea to finish in third. Gretchen Brugman (39:33) and Julie Young (39:40), both of Truckee, made it a close race for fourth and fifth.

An early summer look up the mountain

The men’s race was a whole a lot closer. In the end, another La Sportiva runner, Jason Bryant (31:13), beat Peter Fain (31:41) of Truckee (do I sense a theme?) by just under half a minute. Youngster Mike Sunseri (33:05) finished third – quite impressive for this 17 year old. Sunseri edged out William Raiter (33:16), who managed fourth place. The final runner to break 34 minutes was Jeff Moreland (33:56), which was good enough for fifth. La Sportiva runner, Thomas Borschel (34:10), was the first male master across the line. Borschel finished seventh overall.

Ultrarunners Note
We enjoyed seeing a La Sportiva Mountain Cup race share the trail with an iconic ultramarathon – the Western States Endurance Run (a/k/a the Western States 100). (See iRF’s coverage of all things Western States) Not only did the Squaw Valley Mountain Run share an ultrarunning trail, but a number of ultrarunners toed the line for what have felt like a sprint to them. On the ultrarunner side, Mark Lantz was ninth in 34:35, Paul Sweeney ran of Truckee ran 35:27, Grae van Hoser finished in 41:54, and Betsy Nye ran a 44:32, which was good enough for 14th woman and 7th masters woman.

The view of Squaw Valley from part way up the mountain

La Sportiva Mountain Cup Standings
[If you've already read our Eldora Trail 10k post, skip down to our contest section.] With two races this past weekend and seven out of ten La Sportiva Mountain Cup races having been run, we decided to go hog wild and analyze each of the Mountain Cup fields: open men, open women, masters men, and masters women. Yeah, we’re biased, but we think the full analysis is worth a read.

The official La Sportiva Mountain Cup standings aren’t yet up, but check back later this week. Next week, two of the final three series races – the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase and the Haulin’ Aspen Half Marathon will be run. We’ll be covering both races. As a bonus, we’ll be racing Jupiter Peak. If you’ll be there, look for a man wearing an iRunFar.com hat and say hi!

iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest
We’ve got a winner from Canada! (Coincidentally, I’m sitting in Banff, Alberta at the moment.) That’s right, Shaun Hansen of Mission, British Columbia is the winner of the new pair of La Sportiva Fireblades. (Read iRunFar’s Fireblade review for more.) Shaun get in touch to claim you winnings and roll through some trail miles in new kicks.

Having run up from Squaw Valley in an inappropriate shoe choice earlier this year, we know we’d love to rocket up the mountain in La Sportiva’s Crosslite. If you want to hit the trails in your own pair of Crosslites, then leave your name and town (in the US or C
anada) in a comment before we write about either the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase and the Haulin’ Aspen Half Marathon early 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.

Call for Comments
If you ran the Squaw Valley Mountain Run, please leave a comment letting everyone know how you did and what you think about the race.

The La Sportiva Mountain Cup

Related articles:

1. Men’s Sportiva Mountain Cup Solidifies at Squaw Mountain Run iRunFar covers the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase, part of the 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup....
2. La Sportiva Mountain Cup Giveaway Grand Prize Two final winners in iRunFar's 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup giveaways....
3. 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup The schedule of the 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup....

Filed under Contests, Races · Tagged with La Sportiva Mountain Cup

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