What a difference a year makes.
Last year’s Kettle 100 featured a hot steamy morning followed by torrential rain and occasional tornados that reduced the finishing field to a mere 37 runners.
If last year was Ying, then this year was Yang, as temps started and stayed in the 50’s all day. The only precipitation was a little light rain during the day and the sky even cleared up enough at night to flash some peeks at the full moon. It was a perfect day (and night) for a long run resulting in 90 finishers and a respectable 67% completion rate.
The LPTR crowd had 9 runners entered in the 100 mile and several more cracking the whip as pacers.
Ron Bero ran the race solo and led the LPTR’s by capturing the Masters division with a 19:36:30 and 7th place overall (check out his action photo above!!). His performance edged fellow LPTR Kevin Grabowski who finished hot on his heels in 19:49:17, (13 minutes is “hot on ones heels” in an Ultra, isn’t it?!!? Ahhh, the spoils of the blog poster…) good enough for 8th overall and 2nd in the Masters division. (Just a note: Any credit for Kevin’s finish would have to go to fellow LPTR Joel Lammers who, as his pacer, drove him like a rented mule.)
Robert Wehner and Craig Swartwout both cracked the sub 24 hour barrier with a 22:15:26 and 22:49:45 respectively, and the most recognized LPTRunner, Brad Birkholz, logged yet another ultra finish with a 24:20:35. A possible tibial stress fracture forced Jeff Mallach out of the race late in the game. He was given credit for the 100k finish with a 100k checkpoint time of 13:55:52. (Cringing at the thought of grinding out Ice-Age trail miles on a stress fracture is appropriate here…)
The LPTR women were led by Julie Treder’s strong performance. She won the women’s open division with a 23:21:12 and was the 2nd place female and 29th finisher overall. Angela Barbera knocked 45 minutes off her PR with a 25:23:25 and grabbed a 3rd place finish in the Master’s division.
Noticeably absent from the finish times was LPTRunner Christine Crawford, who led the women’s field by over 30 minutes at the 50k checkpoint, but was fighting a losing battle with a bum hip. Sometimes you have to live to fight another day…
Check out the official results at:
www.runrace.net/findarace.php?id=09157WI1&tab=a4&results=1541
I will post links to Race Reports as I stumble on them…
http://stevequick.blogspot.com/2009/06/2009-kettle-moraine-100-in-prep.html
http://blogoftraining.blogspot.com/2009/06/kettle-moraine-2009-100-mile-report.html
It was great seeing and meeting so many of the Lapham runners (I still haven't officially met Christine or Brad). Thanks for linking to my report; you might find "bum hip" and "stress fracture" don't seem so bad after reading it.
ReplyDeleteHow do I join the Lapham Peak Trail Runners?
ReplyDeleteHey Deb! Just noticed your comment today -(7/15/09)
ReplyDeleteThere are rarely any comments so sometimes I forget to look! Just shoot me an email and I will send you the details - kevin@conradschmitt.com
We usually meet on Wed. nights at 5pm - Evergreen shelter at Lapham Peak... Everyone is Welcome!!