Trails Collective

Trails Collective’s Weekly Rundown | April 22, 2021

Sassquad / TC Live

Catch me tomorrow / Wednesday evening w/ Kim Levinsky on Sassquad Running Live. Looking forward to connecting w/ the Queen of Squatch.

Upcoming Races and Registrations Opening

Upcoming Races:

April 23^rd:

• Seven Trails Ultra Festival kicks off Friday at 6:00 am with the festival offering 25k, 50k, 100k, and 100m options, running in Damascus, VA. 213 entrants in the ix with a pretty solid front field.

April 24^th:

• C&O Canal 100, headed into the weekend 158 entrants strong for the flat and fast 100M in Knoxville, MD
• Hyner Trail Challenge 25k, 50k in Hyner, PA. One of if not the largest race in numbers in our region is going in with roughly 1200 entrants…pretty mind boggling given the last year and not quite out of the woods. It’s a beautiful and tough course and always some solid efforts. Good luck to all in the mix.
• Lucky Seven 7 Hour headed into the weekend with 16 entrants, running in Queens, NY.
• Promise Land 50k is slated to run in Bedford, VA. A VA and Horton classic. This year’s field is quite stacked, both men’s and women’s. My hope is to try to create a race video of the women’s race shaking out, so I’ll hang w/ them as long as I can before no doubt falling off the back somewhere mid to late race. Looking forward to getting out on this VA gem of a course.
• Dixon’s Revenge 5k, Canicross, ½ Marathon in Rollinsford, NH with notably a stout 40 entrants in the Canicross Division.
• On the Dam Trail 34M, headed into what might be their inaugural running in Hooversville, PA.

April 25^th:

• Sundown Trail Run 4M, 6M slated to run in in Alpine, NJ

April 30^th:

• UROC 50k / 100k in Skylark, VA

Race Registrations Opening This Week Ahead / UltraSignUp Hotlist:

• Lucifer’s Crossing, one of mine with Red Newt Racing beat me to the Rundown, capping out yesterday.
• The Soapstone Mountain Trail Races 6k in Stafford Springs CT is 94% Full
• The Bloodroot Ultra 50 Mile slated for May 15^th in Pittsfield, VT is now 94% full.

On the FKT Front:

This week’s FastestKnownTime.com podcast episode 133 was “Ben Thompson – Why was the coolest FKT in New England Flagged”. This digs into Ben’s Prezi FKT effort set on March 21^st, and which we mentioned on that week’s episode, being flagged, or in effect disqualified. A bit after our episode, though unrelated to our mention, I received an email from a couple friends who were a bit put off by the nature and mechanics of Ben’s FKT effort. Particularly the component of a winter set which changes the technical nature of the route and including slight deviations in course. Interesting to see a full episode taking on the event and impacts for precedent. Check it out here: https://fastestknowntime.com/podcast/133-ben-thompson

MA:

Richie Rodgriguez, a day after setting another route ark in NY/CT/MA ran a 3h 6m effort to set an opening mark for the 19 mile tour de Revolutionary History via the Battle Road Trail.

MD:

Patrick Blair, Jonathan Gowen, & Sam Gutner 11h 46m for the Patapsco Valley State Park Traverse, a route and effort we plugged in last week’s episode.

NJ:

• Carl Von Lewin, 18h 25m for the 72 mile NJ Appalachian Trail Section’s Unsupported Men’s mark, shaving 2.5 hours off the earlier mark set in January of this year.
• Jessica Simao and Melinda Coen 1d 40m for the NJ Appalachian Trail for the women’s unsupported mark on this route.

NY:

• Ben Nephew, 5h 18m on the Bear Mountain State Park 7 Summits, taking 8 minutes off of Justin Kousky’s male unsupported mark from November of last year. Good to see the old man nabbing one back from Mr. Kousky who’s had a penchant for picking off some of the master’s prior marks.
• Richie Rodriguez, 2h 34m for the 12.5 mile Tri-State Tri-Mountain Loop, pulling a stout 40 minutes off of Michael Lo Presit’s most recent mark from only a week ago. Touche.
• Ryan Mabey & Nickita Alexiades, 9h 36m for the 23 mile Catskills Fire Towers circuit, lowering Joe Limone’s mark from 2019 by 15 minutes. That’s gotta be a beautiful route.

PA:

• Shannon Cebron, 8h 2m for the AT Four State Challenge, spanning PA, MD, WV, & VA
• A Patrick DeSebato & Ivo Milic-Strkalj, shaving 9 minutes off the existing Wissahickon Four Corners circuit for a new mark of 2h 59m.
• Aaron Keckley, 1h 53m for the 14 mile Quemahoning Reservoir Trail, lowering his own mark from January by 13 minutes.

VA:

• Aaron Townsend, 7h 52m for the 51 Mile Virginia Capital Trail, cleaving 2 hours off the prior men’s self-supported mark set in September 2019.
• David Hedges, 4h 42m for the Wild Oak Trail, shaving 70 minutes off of Tai Roulston’s time on this classic VA beast.

Results

April 17^th:

• Chopawamsic’s 50k, 100k’s ran in Triangle, VA with Adam Vonallmen taking the overall 100k win in 13:04 with Laura Linville on top in 14:34. Lauren’s mark establishes a new course record. In the 50k Jeremy Gardner took the overall win in 4:50 followed by the top female, Karen Dunn in second overall in 4:59. Both of these individuals established new course records for Copawamsic. Results are here: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=79888
• MCW Runners Paradise 10 miler ran in Morristown, NJ. Taking the inaugural win with corresponding course records were Jason Friedman in 1:24 and Kimberly Battipaglia in 1:54. Results are here: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=83899
• English’s Ridge Rumble went down in Fayetteville, NY with 10M, 20M, and 50k events in the mix. In the 10M Erich Nieman took the overall win with top female Donna Langerfeld not far behind for second overall. Both established new course records. In the 20M Gregory Stowell took the overall win in 2:24 for a new course record, with top female finish going to Kimberly Wrate in 3:06 for the second fastest women’s mark on the course. In the 50k Jared Burdick hammered out a 3:44 win with a new course record, with Rhonda Bullard top female in 4:52. 50k winners Jared Burdick and Rhonda Bullard also checked in to give us a rundown of the event here. Results can be found at https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=79692
• Enchanted Forest Ultra 6h Ultra ran in Stratford, CT. Of 58 finishers Patrick Perry took the overall win with 46 miles, a really solid run for the relative 21 y.o. youngster. Nice work Patrick! For the women, Melissa De Fabrizio also laid down a solid day with 36.8 miles covered. Both establish new event records. Results are here: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=79551
• The CT Trailmixer’s Traprock 17k / 50k ran in Bloomfield, CT. Of 115 finishers in the 17k Edward Shibley emerged on top in 1:32, just a minute ahead of 2^nd place Eric Blake. For the women, Ellen Beth took the win in 1:38 ahead of 2^nd Place Sarah Connor in 1:42. In the 50k, also, strangely with 115 finishers, Daniel Grip hammered out a new course record in 4:26, lowering Brian Rusiecki’s prior mark from 2017 by 7 minutes. Both second place Justin Kousky and 3^rd Place Byron Critchfield also hammered with the 3^rd and 4^th fastest times on the course. For the women’s field Rachel Whitbeck also laid down a stellar effort and new course record of 5:35, shaving 13 minutes off of Kristina Folcik’s prior record from 2018. Thanks to both Dan and Rachael for checking in with clips laying out the event and weekend. Take it.
• Results: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=77352