Lots of Racing Going On! Let's Re-Cap...

The past couple of weeks have brought on an onslaught of race results. Lets try and catch-up with some of our local runners!

The start of Bridge the Gap 5K and 10K.

Bridge the Gap 5K and 10K. The race started at Railroad Park in Medford and ran an out and back course on the Bear Creek Bike Path. 115 runners finished the five kilometer race. Justin Loftus won the race in 17:35, while Todd Ragsdale and Brian Mcguire rounded out the top three. In the women's race, Lianna Jenkins crossed the line first in 20:11. She was followed closely by Laura Raber. Sera Judkins finished third.

In the ten kilometer race, Neil Olsen set a blistering early pace and held it to finish first in 34:39. John Leuthold finished second in 35:28. The ladies race was much tighter. Kierra Huggins won in 42:44, only 12 seconds ahead of a quick closing Susan Holt. 57 runners finished the 10K distance.

The Mail Tribune's Photo Gallery has some excellent photos of the race. You can find them here.

Eugene Marathon: A little farther from home and to the north, the second running of the Eugene Marathon was taking place. The Rogue Valley's top finishers were Adam Seibert in 2:51:00 and Dorsey Dobry in 3:17:08. We'd be remiss, however, not to mention a Rogue Valley Runners Wednesday night regular, Maria Clementi, who finished in 3:43:52, her first marathon...not a bad debut. Congratulations to all our Rogue Valley finishers!

Miwok 100 Kilometer Trail Race: Not to be outdone by the marathon distance, several locals traveled south to the Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco to challenge themselves on 62 miles of trails and fire roads that weave along the coast. Rob Cain, from Ashland, finished in 10:56:54, first in the 50 and over age bracket. John Price was our second local in 11:04:15. Other Rogue Vallley favorites included Anne Crispino-Taylor, Erin Keller and Tom Pelsor.

Miwok's course profile.

This past weekend race results continued to flow in.

MacDonald Forest 50K. Neil Olsen, from Central Point, finished fourth overall in 4:16:47. Here's what he had to say about the competition and his race.

"The course was dry, and the weather was mild and perfect. But Todd wasn't very tired, Dan looked great, and I either haven't been training enough, or too much.

I didn't want them to gap me too badly, hoping to catch them if they slowed, so I went out significantly faster than usual. I covered the first 8 miles in under 7 min pace, and that was even with the first good hill climb. My GPS watch showed 5:30/mi pace for some of the down-hill sections. There were more steep uphill sections in the "maze" single-track than I remember. So I was ~8 min behind them at 16.5 miles when I left the maze and hit the gravel road up dimple hill. I ran that well, but at the aid station at the top they told me I was now 12 min behind Dan and ~5 behind Todd. I was getting hot-spots on my insteps, so I duct-taped, changed shoes, and refueled. Even including all that, my split over that mile was 7:48. I later found out Scott was 2 min behind me at that point. I tried to bomb the down-hill, but my stomach was complaining about getting 2 s-caps at once. My brother and sister were at the aid station at mile 23, which was a boost, but Scott caught me at about mile 25, 2/3 the way up the "horse trail" which is the last steep climb. I tried to stick with him for awhile, but my hamstrings were doing the thing where they hint at cramping with each step, threatening to cramp more. I caught him back on the gravel road, but shortly after the last aid station on the last gradual uphill he left me behind for good and finished almost 4 min ahead of me. After I threw-up I felt better, and I cruised in about 18 min ahead of the 5th place finisher.

Dan Olmstead finished about 3:56, which if you consider this year's course being 0.2 mi longer than last years, is about the same pace as Todd's record. With 6,700' elevation gain, I'm going to have to learn how to levitate up hills to go faster than that. Todd was about 4:01. Scott was about 4:13. I didn't ask him whether he had run hard the day before, which he has done some years. I was 4:16, which was 11 min slower than last year :-( . Now I wish I started keeping a training log sooner so I could go back and check for differences. William Emerson's masters record may have been in a year when the course was muddier or harder, but I was 7 min faster than it this year."

Neil Olsen smiles at the MacDonald Forest 50K. photo courtesy of Jasmine Nahorniak

Other locals included: Aaron Brian, from Ashland, who finished his first ultramarathon in 5:59:43. Congrats Aaron! Ben Benjamin and Jinny Brown also finished MacDonald Forest.

Tough As Nails: More locally, over on Roxy Anne Peak, 66 runners tackled either the 5K or 10 mile trail races. Lots of new course records were set. Erik Skaggs won and broke the one hour barrier in the ten mile race, the first person to ever do so. His time, 56:21. John Leuthold, Todd Ragsdale, Chris Rennaker and Jeremy Eisen provided an ample chase pack. Maggie Donovan set a new course record in winning the women's race in 1:15:51. In the 5K race Joe Griffin won and set a new 5K record in 18:19. Laura Raber won the women's race in 19:53, also a new course record.

Tough as Nails photos by Andy Atkinson can be found on the Mail Tribune Photo Gallery, by going here.

Quicksilver 50 Mile and 50 Kilometer Endurance Runs: Ashlanders, Eric Poole and Ian Torrence, traveled south of San Jose, CA for the Quicksilver, an ultramarathon race that's been around since 1984.

Looking across of some of the scenery on the Quicksilver course.

Eric Poole on his way to a strong finish at the Quicksilver 50K. photo courtesy of Chihping Fu

In the largest field ever assembled for Quicksilver, Eric placed fourth out of 96 runners in the 50 kilometer race in 4:17:31. Ian placed third out of 80 runners in the 50 mile race in 7:19:18.

Altitude profile of the Quicksilver course.