Joseph Gray, 27, Lakewood, WA, dominated the field from the start at today’s (Saturday, May 14, 2011) USA 15km Trail Championships at Riverside State Park in Spokane, WA, posting a finish time of 54:57. Marci Klimek, 23, Phoenix, OR, was the women’s champion timed in 1:05:45.
On what started out as a humid, overcast 60-degree day, the weather jockeyed between light drizzle, intermittent sunshine, and occasional gusty winds with temps climbing to 70 degrees by the 10:45 race time.
A loud cannon clap indicated the start of the race and by the top of the first major climb in the course, Gray was already putting distance on his rivals and increased his lead over the next nine-plus miles to win by nearly 90 seconds.
Starting at an elevation of just over 1600 feet, the first kilometer of the course included a slight hill at the start followed by a short switchback opening up to a major hill which quickly ascended over very rocky terrain to the high point in the course at 1852 feet.
Gray ran 1:47 to the top of the hill from the start line with the chase group five seconds back. By the time Gray rounded the corner about one kilometer into the course, he had stretched his lead to 15 seconds as he flew down a long descent which turned onto a fire road and some flatter portions of the race.
“The course was harder than I thought it would be,” Gray reflected at the finish line. (He had previewed most of the course the day before.) “It was a good course – some technical terrain, some flat sections, some hills, some mud.” Asked about the hardest part of the course Gray thought for a few seconds and said, “Starting the second lap and climbing that hill. After having run flat for a while, there’s the hill and ‘boom.’”
By the time Gray had eclipsed the summit on the second lap he had built more than a one minute lead on the field.
He second guessed himself on a few points along the course thinking he might have taken a wrong turn (the course was really well marked, but running alone in the lead it often seems that you misjudge the route), “When you think you’re going the wrong way, you tend to slow down a bit. After the first lap I looked at the clock and realized I was on a slower pace than last year’s winning time and I decided not to go for time at all, rather hang in there for the win.”
The women’s race had the top four women jockeying for position on the first climb with Gina Lucrezi, 28, Natick, MA, leading the way with Rhea Dahlberg, 39, Missoula, MT, trying to match her stride for stride and eventual winner Marci Klimek and Kristi Houk, 27, Port Orchard, WA, not far behind. After the first lap, Klimek was leading Lucrezi up the long climb by less than five seconds and extended the lead over the remainder of the course to break the tape in 1:05:45 followed by Lucrezi in 1:06:08. “I ran out of gas,” said a disappointed Lucrezi, “I just couldn’t catch her.” Houk rounded out the top three with a time of 1:10:07.
Klimek, a recent graduate of Linfield College, ran cross country in high school and college and recently won last month’s Pear Blossom 10 miler and ran a 1:18:55 for third place at the Eugene Half Marathon on May 1. She runs for Team Oiselle, a women’s apparel company.
Klimek was asked if she considered herself a trail runner and she smiled and said, “I did today!” She said it was fun to get back on terrain similar to high school cross country – hilly and challenging – as opposed to the collegiate cross country courses which often were run on tame just-slightly rolling golf courses.
Asked whether she plans to race more on the trails, or even try a mountain race Klimek said she was going to consider where she wants to take her running which may include next month’s USA Mountain Running Championships. She does have aspirations to secure an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, possibly at the Portland Marathon in October. In the interim, she did acknowledge that a berth on Team USA for the World Mountain Running Championships would be great and wondered if she has what it takes to make this year’s team.
Other runners in today’s field who have already committed to the USA Mountain Championships include Lucrezi, Gray, Mendoza, and seventh place finisher Tim Van Orden (top master finisherer at today’s race).
Mendoza and Van Orden both ran last year’s 15km trail championships as did Lucrezi and remarked that a single track section was added that wasn’t in last year’s course which brought the distance to about 9.6 miles (as opposed to the 9.3 mile course from 2010). Van Orden appreciated the single track which is his preference in a trail race, “And I like lots of hills. That is my forte. There could have been a lot more hills for me,” said Van Orden.
The race was the first in a series of sub-ultra trail championships to include the USA Half Marathon Trail Championships on June 12, the USA Mountain Running Championships on June 26, the USA 10km Trail Championships on August 27, and the USA Marathon Trail Championships on November 5. Competiitors accumulate points through the series with the top scoring man and woman recognized by USATF at its annual conference in December. Last year Lucrezi and Mendoza were the inaugural USATF Trail Series Champions.
In advance of the 15 kilometer trail race which included both the championship division and a citizen’s division, both a 5km and 10km citizens’ race were held. The 5 kilometer course included one loop with approximately 150 feet of vertical climbing, while the 10 kilometer runners ran the loop twice. More than 150 runners participated in the day’s events.
The organizing committee did an outstanding job from the pre-race publicity and promotion to the race-day course markings, runner amenities, and awards ceremony. Considering all of the positives of the event which include the ease of getting to Spokane, the active and engaged running community (Spokane hosts the Bloomsday Road Race which had some 52,000 finishers this past May 1, the Spokane River Trail Runs with 800-plus runners each April ) it begs the question, why the lower-than-anticipated turnout including fewer than 40 finishers in the championships race?
Certainly with the growth of trail running, there is an increasing population in the sport. However, when looking at the “championships category” there is a limited pool of designated “trail” USATF members. Consider also that there are so many trail running races (last year more than 1,600 in the USA alone according to the American Trail Running Association), and also trail championships (this year 10km, 15km, half marathon, marathon, 50km, 50 mile, 100km, 100 mile) not to mention the number of road races, cycling events, triathlons, mud runs, etc., which tap into the pool of potential registrants.
Potential registrants may be turned away by their perception that the championships only attract “elite” runners and therefore, they – recreational, or mid-pack runners – feel intimidated. The inclusion of the “community” race responds to this issue.
The USATF Mountain Ultra Trail Running Council welcomes comments about its championships program. Either send an email, or consider attending the USATF annual meeting in St. Louis, MO, this December to voice your thoughts during the Mountain Ultra Trail Running meetings.
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