Trails Collective

Trails Collective Weekly Rundown | October 8, 2021

Weekly Rundown

October 8, 2021

In the Media

This week’s PainCave Episode #95 dropped today and is “Twenty Questions with Matt Flaherty”. I’ve known Matt for quite awhile, recruiting him to run in the early and championship years of Cayuga Trails, and being lucky enough to have him back for several runnings. He’s a wonderful individual and I was really excited to see him have an incredible day at Leadville just a few weeks ago, finishing second in 16:59 to Adrian Macdonald.

https://www.gunksrunner.com/paincave/2021/10/6/episode-95-twenty-questions-with-matt-flaherty

Registration Hotlist

MA

Notchview Ultra – The 72H distance, slated for July 8 in Windsor, MA is at 97% Full with 1 spot remaining. The other distances / timed heats are in safe territory.

MD

The Patapsco Valley 50k – One I really enjoyed running and filming in ’19, is slated for October 30 outside of Baltimore is showing as 100% full. At time of filming there are 5 spots remaining.

The Western Maryland Rail Trail 10k, ½ marathon and marathons, running October 17^th in Hancock, MD are up another 3% this week to being 97% full so there’s a good chance they’ll fill by this weekend, if not mid next week.

NY

The Clark 6 Hour Classic – scheduled to run on October 23 in Jamesville, NY is on the warning track at 90% full.

VT

Trapp Lodge Mountain Marathon – The ½ and full marathon distances, slated for October 16 in Stowe, VT are 90% full. Though, if I remember correctly, that was pretty fluid in the months ahead of the race, so I’m not sure they are hard / fast caps (which reminds me of a fine moment in political history).

VA

Gritty Leakes Trail Marathon running November 6^th in Goochland, VA is on the track at 90% full.

FKT’s Of the Week

Canada

A shout-out to a friend Karen Holland on setting a new FKT for the Bruce Trail in Ontario. The mark was set on September 3 but I’d missed it until now. Karen is a wonderful individual, tough, and quick. She covered the 895 km or 556 miles in a supported 8d 22h, shaving over 4 days off the prior mark set in 2017. It’s also 5 hours quicker than the men’s supported FKT. That’s pretty incredible.

Maine

Leslie O’Dell, 1h 59m for the Miles Knob Loop, a 9.3 mile loop in the White Mountains of Maine. Leslie shaves over 18 minutes off the prior women’s unsupported mark from September of this year.

New York

Bethany Garretson and MacKenzie Haskins, 6h 8m for the French Louie Loop, a 22.6 mile circuit through the West Canada Lake Wilderness of the ADK’s, gaining over 7,000’ en route. This is an opening unsupported women’s mark.

Pennsylvania

Stephen Eland, 44m 51s for the Springfield Trail, a 4.5 mile loop west of Philly in the Main Line area. Stephen took a bit under 4 minutes off the opening mark from April of this year.

Results & Voices

CT

Nipmuck Trail Marathon:

The Nipmuck Trail Marathon, run in Ashford, CT, and put on by the Shenipsit Striders, is one of the oldest and classic trail races in the Northeast. With its inaugural running in 1984, it comes in in the top 10 according to my tally in the Trails Collective Northeast Roots article. https://trailscollective.com/2021/07/01/northeast-roots-historic-trail-races-in-the-northeast/

Of 51 finishers, Juan Chacon took the overall win in 3:33 with Brendan Atkins coming in in a hot second in 3:35. For the women, Chiara Bistarelli took the win in 5:07.

https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=256096 / https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=85191

ME

Bad Little Trail Run (Maine, Bold Coast crew): https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=256044The Bad Little Trail Run, put on by the Bold Coast Runners in Northfield Maine, along the Machias River. The course uses predominate singletrack under giant hemlocks, through grassy swales, over rocks and roots, bog bridges, some wet holes, and across a beaver dam. They’re run to raise awareness for the protection of the Downeast Coastal Conservancy’w work to protect Maine’s Wild Places.

Of 25 finishers in the 2.5 mile, Cedar Lenke Beeftink, age 12, took the overall win in 30 minutes. That name is right up there with the best that I’ve ever announced. But, looking at the finishers, it doesn’t stop there. This event may take the cake. In the top 10 we also have Walter Longfellow, Hope Rankin Soren Danielson, Taibatou Adamou, and Uncle Jim Floyd. Of 29 in the much-less-exciting-in-names 7 miler, Peter Williams and Anna Loome were the overall men’s and women’s winners.

Camden Trail Fest (Mass): https://www.baxteroutdoors.com/event/camden-snowbowl/

The Camden Trail Fest went down using the Camden Snowbowl in Camden, ME, offering a 5k Run on the Mountain, a 10k Mountain Bike, 15K Duathlon, and 15K Duathlon. In the 5K trail event, of 33 finishers, Luke Thombs took the overall win in 26:46 with Erika Aschauer for the women in 31:28. https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=255989

NH

Bubba’s Backyard Ultra in Center Conway, NH had 66 participants, a solid trajectory with 19 in their first year of 2019, and 44 in 2020. The Last Person Standing was Ed Clifford with 157.5 miles covered, a new event record. The last standing woman on the day was Maia Buckingham with 94.5 miles covered.

https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=83165

NY

CatsTail Trail Marathon – CatsTail is a beautiful course, a final trail and race leg of the Catskills, anchoring Escarpment and Manitous Revenge. It offers some fun rock scrambles, beautiful singletrack, and a descent into flat finish to push if you’ve got any legs left. Of the 90 finishers in a size-limited field, Steve “the QuadFather” (thanks for that one Eric Kosek) Lange had an great day, running to a new course record in 4:13. For the women, the win went to Kirby Mosenthal in 5:25. Taking us deeper into the CatsTail experience are women’s Kirby Mosenthal, and multi-year finisher Michael Lo Presti.

https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=85058

Danby Down and Dirty 10k / 20k – The Danby Down and Dirty is a wonderful, classic trail race run outside of Ithaca. It’s close to me as I’d held the 10k record since 2007. Wanting to give the race more pull, and long finding it high time my record was taken down, I through out a $500 prize purse offer to anyone, or split between anyones, who could take my record down. It worked. Here to take us deeper into Danby Down and Dirty, is first year entrant and second place finisher, Matt Lipsey.

https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=255964&did=296017

PA

Red Barn Challenge 6h 12h 24h

The Red Barn Trail Challenge ran in Lykens, PA. Of 36 finishers in the 24h, Thomas Crayton defended his title, taking the overall win with 115 miles covered. 2^nd overall and top women’s spot, Candice Lockard, was close behind with 101 to set a new women’s 24h event record. Of 15 in the 12h, of Overall win and top woman on the day went to Becca Lindgren, also defending her 2020 victory, with 63 miles covered. Top male on the day, and 3^rd overall was Andy Jones-Wilkins with 56 miles. In the 6h, overall win and top women’s spot went to Erica Gaffney with 32 miles covered, a mile over the prior course record set in 2020. Top men’s spot was Matt Stripe 7^th overall, with 24 miles covered.

https://falconracetiming.com/racetimes/Red%20Barn%20Challenge%20Overall%202021.htm

Blues Cruise 50k

A Pagoda Pacers event, the Blues Cruise course is very runnable with regards to technicality, and, with only 3,000’ elevation gain as it winds around Reading’s Blue Marsh Lake, it’s flowing and quick. Numbers are slightly down from their high recent years, but still a solid single-distance race, seeing 256 finishers. The win went to Ian Schouten in 4:06 with top women’s spot earned by Stephanie Kershner.

I checked in with both Ian and Stephanie for clips. Ian wasn’t able to get one over this week, but mentioned that this October he’s celebrating 30 years sober. He’s done the race 4 or 5 times and mentioned liking the event as the course allows for both hard and fast running. Stephanie was able to get a clip over cueing us deeper into the Blues Cruise and her day out there.

https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=82651

Black Forest 100k

Black Forest uses a beautiful and rugged trail above the west side of Pine Creek in North Bend. If the rugged trail and distance weren’t enough, it, like Hellgate, starts at midnight. Of 40 finishers, Aaron Clineman took his first Black Forest Win in 13:17. A shout-out to second place finisher Tristan Baxendale, relatively fresh off of burly 200 and 100 mile finishes in the past couple of months. Top woman’s finish on the day was earned by Julie Pentico. Here to take us deeper into Black Forest are Aaron Clineman, and Samantha Hurlbutt.

https://falconracetiming.com/racetimes/Black%20Forest%20Ultra%20Overall%202021.htm

VA

Joe’s 11h Night Run at the Hamptons

Of 29 finishers in the 11h event run in Hampton, VA, Jason Hallenbeck accrued the most mileage for the win with 59.6. Top woman’s finish on the day, finishing in a tie for 2^nd overall, was Jillian Breitweiser with 50.8 miles

https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=86970

Thoroughbred Races 50k

Put on by Virginia Adventures in La Crosse, VA, a 10k, 30k, 50k run in Lacrosse VA, using a nice and fast looking grass / gravel rail-trail, run in out-back format. In the 30k, of 13, Juan Gonzalez took the win in 2:22 with top woman’s spot going to Ruth Hannon in 3:13, establishing a new course record in the process. In the 50k, of 10 finishers, Jack Datin took the win in 4:48 with top women’s finish earned by Anna Davenport in 6:17.

National

Broken Arrow SkyRace, a signature three-day mountain race run at Palisades Tahoe in California, runs in Sky style with direct lines, steep terrain, and a healthy amount of elevation gain and loss. Here to take us deeper into this beautiful mountain race, is, 10^th female and first women’s east coaster, Rachel Spaulding.

The Weekend Ahead

CT

Centurion 24H in Stratford, CT

MD

Rick O’Donnell Memorial 5.22m Trail Run and Ultra Challenge 8h

ME

Shawnee Peak Ultra Challenge 6h in Bridgton, ME

Big Brad Ultras 50k, 50m in Pownal, ME

NH

Midstate Massive Ultra Trail’s 30m, 50m, 100m in New Ipswich, NH

NJ

NJ Trail Series One Day in Augusta, NJ

NY

Tamarack Big Beast 8h in Colden, NY

Tesla Hertz Run’s 50k, 50m, 100k, 100m in Rocky Point, NY

PA

Fanny Pack 50k in Ohiopyle, PA

Green Monster Trail Challenge 50k in Wellsboro, PA

VA

High Bridge Ultra 50k in Pamplin, VA

VT

Devil’s Den 24h Ultra in Bradford, VT