Mountain Runners Open It Up At The Eldora Trail 10k
August 3, 2009 by Bryon Powell · 18 Comments
After another three week break, the La Sportiva Mountain Cup made its closest approach to La Sportiva’s North American headquarters with the Eldora Trail 10k. The race is run out of the Eldora Nordic Center, a private area on which competitors may on run on race day. This limited access by locals may have helped level the playing field for out-of-towners … at least in the men’s field, which was stacked! Regardless of where competitors were from the elevation of between 9,200′ and 10,800′ was surely enough to have visitors and locals gasping for breath.
The Race
No fooling around today – we’ll go straight to the results! Matt Byrne of Philadelphia, PA (38:46) finally won race in this year’s Mountain Cup after being runner up at Rock2Rock Run and the Mountain Washington Road Run. We continue to be impressed with Byrne’s ability to tear it up at altitude while living at essentially sea level. As with Mount Washington, Coloradoan master mountain mauler Simon Gutierrez (39:11) finished a spot behind Byrne. Shiloh Mielke (40:46) finished third a full two minutes behind Byrne. Two locals from Golden, Colorado, Tim Waggoner (40:59) and Bill Fauselow (41:19), ran impressive races to finish fourth and fifth.
Top men rocketing up a hill at Eldora (This and all photos by La Sportiva)La Sportiva runner Bernie Boettcher (41:32) was sixth overall. That was only good enough third master behind Gutierrez and Fauselow. 46-year old Andy Ames (42:35) put four masters in the top eight showing that you don’t need to be young to run fast in the mountains.
Meghan Kimmel (43:49) ran away with the women’s race and has now won two of the three La Sportiva Mountain Cup races that she’s entered. Laura Horfeli (45:51), the top womens master, finished more than two minutes back of Kimmel. Nicole Hunt (47:34) and Maggie Conley (47:43) had a tight race for third and fourth. Susan Nuzum (47:57), second masters woman, wasn’t far back in fifth. Lisa Goldsmith (48:42) was sixth and the third master. Apparently experience helps the women at Eldora, as well. Series competitor Rachel Cieslewicz (51:48) was the eighth woman across the line.
Some youngsters races at Eldora, too!La Sportiva Mountain Cup Standings
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.
To be honest, he haven’t a clue what the trails at Eldora look like. With that in mind, we’d throw on La Sportiva’s Wildcat to face the unknown and now you can, too! The Wildcat is a great blend of lightweight and protection for the trails. Want to tackle the trail in these sweet generalists, then leave your name and town (in the US or Canada) 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 Wildcats you’ll automatically be eligible to win the grand prize at the end of August.
Call for Comments
If you ran Eldora, please leave a comment letting everyone know how you did and what you think about the race.<
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The La Sportiva Mountain Cup
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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
Love the Wildcats.Collen Godfrey Ortonville, Mi
Wildcats would look sweet in MD.
Mike V.
Easton, MD
38:46 is smoking! Patrick Garcia, Denver, CO
Good to see some of the locals keeping everyone else honest.
Jon Allen, Logan UT
The course was extremely well marked. Its the best when you don't have to think about where to go, breathing is too much of an effort in itself. I'd like to learn how to descend like you race monsters… whats the secret?
The wildcats would be nice in that area.
Nick Pedatella – Boulder CO
Maggie,
Good downhilling comes down to three things – practice, turnover, and, most importantly, confidence that comes from the first two. Find a smooth gradual downhill (an obstacle free dirt road or grassy patch wold be best) and run it easy. Work on being in control and comfortable without breaking on every stride. Over time, work on running it fast and faster. Once you are comfort on the obstacle free stretch, work on running that same quick pace and form on more and more technical trail.
Keep running technical trails in the mean time, including pushing some flats sections. You'll learn how to pick good lines further down the trail.
Let me know if you have any more questions! Now go bomb a downhill!
I was eyeing the Wildcats (& Lynx) a few weeks ago at the La Sportiva sponsered White River 50 miler. Seems like a shoe that is perfect for my running style and preference.
Will Thomas
Fall City, WA
see you all at Reading!
Another great coverage, as usual. I see why your site is #1 and a gold standard for all running sites! Do you actually travel to (and also run) the races which you cover?
Thomas Tan, Newcastle WA
Thomas,
Thanks for the kind words. I only wish I could attend all the races I cover, but that won't happen for a long time if ever. I've not been racing a ton this year, so I've not run many of the races I've attended. I find that sometimes running the race I cover is useful, but most of the time I can get a pretty good feel from just being at the race and talking to the runners.
Thanks for reading!
Still searching for that perfect trail shoe…
Cathy Bester in Gainesville, FL
As always, a great race report
Alex Jones
Pocatello, ID
I love your trail running coverage! Thank you. I'd love to win a pair of La Sportiva's Wildcats to hit the trails in!
I've gotta find a way to run some western trails! Bill Susa, Burkittsville, MD
Joey Cohen
Charlottesville, VA
I like the Wildcats and the Fireblades.
John McAlister
Toronto, Ontario