Nearly 300 runners came to the campus of UCSC Saturday morning, despite skies billowing with the smoke of the Lockheed fire, to compete in the first of this year's PA USATF Grand Prix series of cross country races. Considering that this race has only attracted about 150 competitors in the past two years, it appears that either interest is increasing dramatically for participating in the Grand Prix cross country series, or that runners are attracted to smoky conditions.
The Santa Cruz Cross Country Challenge is hosted by Santa Cruz Track Club. The club and their President, Larry Berg, deserve credit for doing a great job. The course is enjoyed as a scenic tour of the backwoods of UCSC, the races went off without incident, and the post-race refreshments were much appreciated.
The weather presented itself as foggy (and smoky), but the sky cleared by race time, warming up dramatically, and making the runners appreciate the shade over the final stages of the race. While it was possible to smell hints of the smoke, it was not pervasive at the race site and did not seem to bother the runners. This was fortunate, as the smoke was prevalent in much of the region while travelling to the event.
The event is staged in two races, one for women and the second for men. Both are 4 miles on trails through Redwood forest and open meadow. It begins on Fuel Break Road, behind Crown College. The course turns onto Red Hill Road, then Chinquapin Road and follows this to a turn around at the gates to Empire Grade at Wilder Ranch. Runners turn around, following Chinquapin back past Red Hill, to loop back onto Fire Break and finish in a meadow just past the start. The roads are dirt seeded with rock in places. The terrain is hilly, with the first half mostly uphill and the second half coming back down to a final 150 meter sprint uphill to the finish.
In the women's race, Linda Somers Smith, from Arroyo Grande, won in a time of 23:02. Somers Smith won both the race, and the master's division (40-49). Heather Gibson of Piedmont was the second finisher in 23:55, winning the open division of the race. Nicole Campbell of Sunnyvale was second in the open division, and Lindsay Gardina, a former UCSC runner, now living in Santa Clara was fourth.
Christine Kennedy of Los Gatos was the top senior division (50-59) finisher, in 14th place overall, with a time of 26:28. Edie Stickle of Novato was the first super senior (60-69), and Katie Martin of San Anselmo was the first veteran (70+) runner.
In the men's race, Chris Chavez of Menlo Park beat Jonathan Charlesworth of San Francisco by a narrow margin, 20:12 to 20:18, to win the open division. Chris Schille was the first master male in 22:28, holding off Brian Pilcher of Ross (22:42) and Jeff Hongo of Campbell (22:50). Pilcher did finish as the first senior, ahead of Rudy Munoz of Fresno (23:09). Bill Dunn of Sunnyvale was the first super senior male in 26:15, while Carl Peterson of Sunnyvale was the first male veteran in 31:13.
Unofficially, the winning teams are as follows:
Women
Open: Asics Aggies RC
Masters: West Valley Joggers and Striders
Senior:Tamalpa
Super Senior: Tamalpa
Men
Open: Asics Aggies RC
Masters: Asics Aggies RC
Senior: West Valley Joggers and Striders
Super Senior: Tamalpa
Veteran: West Valley Joggers and Striders
Full results of the race can be found at http://www.pausatf.org/data/2009/XCSCRUZ2009.html.
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