2012 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile Results
April 15, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 18 Comments
Both the men’s and women’s course records at the Lake Sonoma 50 Mile were smashed on a gorgeous bluebird California day.
Dakota Jones (post-race interview) ran in contact with fellow leaders Timothy Olson and Jorge Maravilla for the first half of the race before pulling away near the midway. He went on to win by nearly 20 minutes in a course record time of 6:17:27 (Old record: Hal Koerner ’10 7:08:20). Pearl Izumi teammates Timothy Olson (6:36:56) and Nick Clark (6:51:17) ran strong to finish second and third. Hal Koerner (6:57:18) bettered his old course record by 10 minutes in finishing fourth. Three more guys (for a total of seven) would break Koerner’s old course record, including Joe Uhan (6:59:55), Jorge Maravilla (7:04:16), and Dan Olmstead (7:06:00).
Dakota Jones leading at mile 30.
Joelle Vaught (post-race interview) led from start to finish, seemingly smiling the entire way. She reported slowing late in the race, but that didn’t stop her from taking more than half an hour off the course record in finishing in 7:52:44 (Old record: Devon Crosby-Helms ’10 8:26:53). Triathlete-turned-ultrarunner Tyler Stewart put a scare into Vaught during a short out-and-back in the final miles. In her second 50 miler, Stewart finished second in 7:56:30. Both Vaught and Stewart qualified for a spot in the Western States 100 by finishing in the top two in a Montrail Ultra Cup race. Stewart intends to run States, while Vaught is still considering the option. New ultrarunner Stephanie Howe ran in the top three all day before placing third in 8:11:51. Denise Bourassa was fourth in 8:18:03 while Rory Bosio rounded out the top fifth in 8:19:04.
Joelle Vaught leading at mile 20.
For more details on how the race played out, you can check out the archive of our live coverage page.
Lake Sonoma 50 Men’s Results
- Dakota Jones – 6:17:27 (Old record: Hal Koerner ’10 7:08:20) (post-race interview; race report)
- Timothy Olson – 6:36:56 (post-race interview; race report)
- Nick Clark – 6:51:17 (race report)
- Hal Koerner – 6:57:18
- Joe Uhan – 6:59:55 (race report)
- Jorge Maravilla – 7:04:16
- Dan Olmstead – 7:06:00 (Dan was one of seven men to go under the old course record)
- Gary Gellin – 7:15:29
- Dave Mackey – 7:21:41
- Leigh Schmitt – 7:28:32
Lake Sonoma 50 Women’s Results
- Joelle Vaught – 7:52:44 (Old record: Devon Crosby-Helms 8:26:53) (post-race interview)
- Tyler Stewart – 7:56:30 (post-race interview)
- Stephanie Howe – 8:11:51 (post-race interview)
- Denise Bourassa – 8:18:03
- Rory Bosio – 8:19:04
- Jennifer Pfeifer – 8:25:56
- Darcy Africa – 8:44:57
- Caren Spore – 8:47:47
- Krissy Moehl – 8:57:12
- Gretchen Brugman – 8:59:38
Related articles:
- 2013 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile Results Results of the 2013 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile....
- 2013 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile Women’s Preview A preview of the women's field at the 2013 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile....
- Joelle Vaught 2012 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile Champion Interview A video interview with Joelle Vaught following her course record-setting win at the 2012 Lake Sonoma 50 Mile....
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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
Young Money! I quess Karl now knows your a “runner.” ;)
Super great and talented field. Great job by all…
I think Dakota’s secret is the truck!
Congratulations Dakota and Joelle on your wins and setting a course record! Congratulations to all of the other runners who ran their hearts out!
Course records are being bested right and left. The talent of the elite athletes in our sport never ceases to amaze me. Good job to all the runners though!
Excellent coverage, as usual!
Thanks for driving all that way to provide the awesome coverage…
Dakota’s time is really impressive. Wow.
Wow, Dakota really opened up a gap on Tim and Tim had 15min on Nick! Interesting to see that variance. I think this may be the ‘Year of Dakota’
Does the run really have 10k+ of climbing??? Find that a little hard to belief with a time of 6:17.
Either way Great job Dakota and all!!!
Anon – believe it. http://app.strava.com/activities/6807351 I ran 50k effort the first 25 miles and was 14 minutes back at the turnaround. The climbing is relentless – over 80 abrupt changes in elevation for each of the first and last 12 miles with steep up and downs in the middle. Ouch!
Performance of the Year for sure thus far by Dakota and Joelle!
The sample of folks (4) who I asked who wore altimeters all had readings of 7500-8000 vertical (up and down of course). There were many flatter leg turnover sections at LS 50, and many anecdotal accounts (mine included) tend to agree with around those numbers.
Breaking a course record by 50 minutes is a bit ridiculous. Sounds like one helluva run by Dakota and the other 6 that broke the previous record.
Another game-changing performance by Dakota.
With his vagabond lifestyle, multi-sport mountain pursuits and wry sense of humor, I predict superstar status in 2012 – and a slew of imitators (although they’ll be harder to spot than the long-haired, shirtless Anton wannabes…)
What I wanna know is whether anybody has any explanation why so many people (7 men and 6 women) beat the course records, and by so much? You can’t exactly say the course record-holders were a couple of unknowns. Was there lots of prize-money or what?
Don, this was only the fourth running of the race and the first time the race was part of the Montrail Ultra Cup. The latter fact certainly brought out some folks looking for a Western States entry. Once the competitive level of the field starting improving lots of other top folks were drawn to the race. In addition, John Medinger, the RD, has a key member of the community forever. Once the field started improving I’m sure he could entice some of his many friends to attend. Aside from having twice (or more) the talent in Saturday’s race than the three previous runnings combined, having folks to push one another yields much faster times and partially explains with top runners are drawn to run against one another.
Assuming your right Bryon, it’s amazing how much a bit of competition brings out the best in people. I’m curious whether, in Dakota Jones, America has found it’s own version of Kilian Jornet. Can’t wait for the Transcanaria. That’s going to be like the world 50 mile trail championships, and at a normal time for us Europeans – thank God.
I’m guessing you meant Transvulcania. TransGranCanaria is a different race. :-)
You’re right Bryon. I hadn’t taken it on board that there are two big trail races on The Canary Islands (maybe more?) Am glad that you’re going to be there to provide live coverage. Have you any idea how many days before the race the American contingent are going to be flying out there?
Bryon is exactly right in his explanation. When Hal ran a CR of 7:08 in the 2010 edition, the only others in the hunt for a win would have been Nathan Yanko and Tim Olson. I don’t think either Nathan or the 2010 version of Tim Olson would have forced the pace on Hal that day. With that in mind, Hal would have had zero reason in 2010 to drop the hammer anywhere out on the course.
Let me add my perspective from racing (trying to) in the front pack of this thing this past weekend. This year there was a freight train fighting to stay at the front. From roughly mile 4 (yes, that early) it took a 50k race pace effort to stay on – for me, almost the same heart rate as at Way Too Cool 50k. Guys like me/Scott Jaime/Leigh Schmitt/Eugene Boys racing for a top ten spot have no choice but to roll the dice. Most of the top 10 slowed significantly in the second 25 miles except for Dakota. Dakota went through the 50k split (with upwards of 7,000 ft of climb behind him) in under 4 hours. Jorge Maravilla, racing for a Western State spot, lost a huge amount of time after being only a handful of seconds behind Dakota at mile 25. Sure, 2nd through 10th place could better their PR’s on this course in the future, but the aggressive racing is what brings the overall times down.