2004
Holiday Lake 50K
The Year of Fast Women – February 14, 2004
by
David Horton
This was the 9th year that runners convened on the banks of Holiday Lake at the Holiday Lake
4-H Educational Center.
We started this race at the suggestion of the 4-H staff eight years ago.
Bryan Branch and his crew are very cordial and accommodating in
supporting this race, as well as Christine Glover and her kitchen staff who
prepared another great meal on Friday and Saturday.
The 4-H Center has heated lodging and showers available to runners, crews
and families at very inexpensive rates. With the double loop course starting and
finishing at the 4H Center, everything was very convenient.
Of the four races that we have in the
Lynchburg area, this is the flattest and easiest of them all.
Because of this, we usually have a lot of first time runners and this
year was no different. Also,
because of the time of year, it being so flat and on lots of forest service
roads, course conditions tend to be very muddy.
But, as it turned out, the conditions were pretty good, cool weather and
not too muddy. Last year was
extremely wet, muddy and frigid!
Unfortunately, this year’s race fell
on Valentines Day weekend. It
couldn’t be helped as it was the only date available at the 4-H Center.
But it also proved to be a weekend for the women to shine!
The title of this year’s race was
aptly named, “The Year of the Fast Women.”
I knew before the start of the race that the field was loaded with some
very talented ladies. Anne Riddle (Swannoa,
NC) was making her first appearance at Holiday Lake.
Riddle holds many records and has been a member of the national 100K
team. Local runner, Cat Phillips,
was competing in her second ultra. Phillips
made quite a debut in her first ultra at the December 2003 Hellgate 100K,
winning and coming in 4th overall.
Phillips was not your typical newbie as she is a professional triathlete
having completed many triathlons. Laura
Nelson (Waynesboro, VA) finished 2nd in the 2003 Holiday Lake and was
10th overall. Kim Martin
(Medina, OH) also had a very good year in 2003 and hoped to challenge for a high
finish.
The real dark horse, however, proved to
be Kristen Eddy (Reston, VA), competing in her first ultra.
Kristen is an occupational therapist who has an impressive resume in
adventure racing. In the fall of
2003, Eddy won the Beast of the East Off Road Triathlon … the overall winner!
Melissa Mast (Royersford, PA) was also making her first appearance at
Holiday Lake with a best 50K of 4:29.
In the men’s division, Clark Zealand (Kitchner,
Ontario, CN) was returning to defend his title.
Zealand had reported that the winter has been very long and hard in
Canada, and that he was not in good running shape. Aaron Swartzbard (Reston, VA) finished 4th in the 2003
Holiday Lake and 2nd in the Hellgate 100K in December of 2003.
Ultra veteran, Tom Nielson (Annandale, VA) was 5th in the 2003
Holiday Lake and hoped to move up. Local
runner, Jonathan Basham, had high hopes as well.
Basham made some strong statements before this year’s Holiday Lake, on
how hard he was going to race … could he back it up?
On Thursday night, I received a call from a runner, Rainer Koch (Schillerstr, Germany) asking if it was too late for him to register for the race, however, he would not be able to make it to the race till Saturday morning. I didn’t recognize the name and thought he might not even show, although he was pretty insistent. Little did I know how fast an ultra runner he was.
As I expected … the women’s race was
tight! Phillips went right to the
front, but several others were right on her heels.
Phillips checked into aid station 4 (12.1 miles) at 8:04 with Nelson and
Riddle 3 minutes back. Annette
Bednosky (Boone, NC), Eddy and Mast were only 7 minutes behind Phillips.
At the turnaround, Phillips had stretched her lead to 5 minutes over
Nelson and 6 minutes over Riddle. Jennifer
Flint (Berwyn, PA), Eddy and Mast were all 8 minutes behind Phillips with
Bednosky 9 minutes behind. Seven
ladies within 9 minutes … WOW!
By 22.3 miles, Phillips had a 6-minute
lead with ultra rookie, Eddy, running a close second.
Riddle and Nelson were another minute back with Mast still another minute
back. It stayed pretty much this
way until the last aid station (27.8 miles).
Riddle and Eddy checked in together, only 3 minutes behind Phillips.
One of the problems with being the
leader is never knowing if someone is catching you or not. Phillips cruised on
to finish in a new course record of 4:34:39, breaking local runner, Bethany
Hunter’s record of 4:42 set in 2002. As
she crossed the finish line we told her to look behind her. Crossing the finish
line just 7 seconds later was Eddy (4:34:46)!
Phillips had no idea anyone was that close to her.
Eddy did not see Philips until a quarter mile from the finish.
This was the closest finish we have ever had!
Riddle finished 4 minutes later for 3rd place with a time of 4:38:41.
Nelson took 4th in 4:41:21, with Mast only 12 second behind
Nelson with a time of 4:41:33 for 5th place.
These top 5 women were all under the
course record! Jennifer Flint took
6th place in 4:54:23. Six women under 5 hours!
The first time I saw the lead men was
around 6 miles. The leaders were
Alex Kahl (Somerset, NJ) and Rainer Koch. I
was surprised to say the least! Checking
further back, I saw that Zealand was running with his two brothers, Mike and
Matt. I knew at that point that we
would have new winner … but who? Kahl
and Koch stayed together through 22.3 miles with Swartzbard only 2 minutes back.
Nielsen was 5 minutes back with Basham only 7 minutes behind at this
point.
By 25.1 miles, Swartzbard had taken the
lead with Koch 1 minute back and Nielsen 4 minutes back.
Kahl had faded to 5 minutes back at this time; however, he increased his
lead to 2 minutes by the last aid station (27.8 miles) with Nielsen still 4
minutes behind. Swartzbard cruised
on to victory finishing in 4:14:34, with Nielsen closing the gap to less than 2
minutes to take 2nd place in a time of 4:16:27. Koch
took 3rd place with 4:17:00, with Basham coming in 4th
with a time of 4:19:38. The four
top men finished within 5 minutes of each other.
Kahl took 5th overall in a time of 4:27:29.
The biggest shock of the day was Andrew
Ponder. Ponder is an 18-year-old
freshman at Liberty University (taking my advanced running class).
One of the requirements of the class is to complete an ultra.
He had never raced beyond 10 miles.
His plan was to take it easy the first loop and run hard the second loop
if he could. He finished the first
loop in 2:18 and blitzed the second loop in 2:11 … the fastest second loop by
anyone. Ponder’s final time of
4:28:28 placed him 6th out of 178 starters!
What an ultra debut! What
does the future hold for him?
What is the future of ultrarunning?
There was only one male in the top 10 over the age of 32 (Nielsen – age
44). There was only one woman in
the top 10 women over the age of 40 (Haghighian – age 45). There were also
three men who completed the race who had had heart surgery.
Tom Nielson took the Male Masters title
along with Hosni Haghighan (Charlottesville, VA – 5:11:45) winning the Female
Masters title. The Grand Masters
titles went to Herman Richards (Sergeantsville, NJ – 5:18:22) and Tanya Cardy
(Sagamore Hills, OH) – 5:51:43). Bill
Fornoff (Jarrettsville, MD) took the Super Masters title in a time of 6:18:22.
We also gave awards to “Fastest Fat
Boy” (200 lbs. and up) and “Best Blood.”
This year the winner of both these awards went to the same person …
local runner, Neal (Rosie-Ho) Bryant finishing in 5:45:07.
However, you will need to ask him yourself about how he came to win the
Best Blood award. But he definitely
earned it … OUCH
How old do you have to be to run an
ultra? Just ask Seth Trittipoe!
Last year, veteran ultra runner, Rebekah Trittipoe, ran with her 15 year
old son, Caleb, as he completed the Holiday Lake 50K.
This year, her 12 year old son, Seth, wanted to give ultra running a shot
(but also wanted to break his brother’s time…a little sibling rivalry????)
Seth ran great; pushing mom at times, but ultimately beat his older
brother with a time of 6:12:10. I
haven’t talked with him since, but I wonder if ultrarunning will be in
Seth’s future?
Kevin Townsend (Virginia Beach, VA)
paced his wife, Ann, to her first ultra finish (7:02:43). Josh Read (Waynesboro,
VA) paced his 15-year-old brother, John, to finish in a time of 7:11:01 as well.
The two overall winners received an
embroidered Patagonia jacket. The
top 10 males and top 5 females received a stretch expedition weight Zip-T top.
All other sub 7.5-hour finishers received a long-sleeved, lightweight
Patagonia top. These were some very
nice and useful awards!
With the first race in the Lynchburg Ultra Series behind us, we are anxiously looking forward to the second race in the L.U.S. … the Promise Land 50K on April 24. This is the “Toughest 50K you will ever love.” Hope to see you there!