Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Lithia Loop Trail Marathon


Ashland, Oregon, November 1, 2010 – Entries have begun to pour in for the 3rd annual Lithia Loop Trail Marathon. For the second straight year this race doubles as the USATF Trail Marathon Championship with 6,000 dollars in prize money to be awarded to the top 5 open male and female competitors as well as the top 3 male and female masters finishers.  

The race is run on a mixture of trail and dirt road with 2 miles of pavement that sends as well as welcomes runners through beautiful Lithia Park located in downtown Ashland, Oregon.   There are 6 fully stocked aid stations along a course that climbs over 4,000ft and descends as much to the finish.  

Previous champions Max King (pictured above) and Jeff Caba are returning from Bend, Oregon to take a shot at the prize money.  King is coming off a 2:15:34 showing at the Baltimore Marathon and looks to take down another USATF Trail Championship banner to add to his string of victories in 2010.  

Returning contestants include John Tribbia from Boulder, Colorado, Yassine Diboun and Andrew Schupp from Portland, Oregon as well as 100k National Champion Timothy Olson from Ashland, Oregon.  

Greg McMillan returns as Masters Champion from 2009 but will be running from the start to elude Tim Van Orden and Dave Dunham from New England.   Richard Bolt from Portland leads a group of Oregonians ready to keep the medals in house.  

Fresh off her 6:28:44 at the USATF 50 Mile Championship at the Tussey Mountainback 50, Devon Crosby-Helms returns to gain the top spot that eluded her here last year as does Katie Caba from Bend, runner up in 2008.  

What: Lithia Loop Trail Marathon

Where: Ashland, Oregon

Who: 200 entries as of 11/1/10

When: November 6th, 2010 8 am 

Ok, there's your press release for 2010.  I'm ecstatic when I say we have over 200 entrants so far and the course is on par for another fast finish.  It will be fast you know, and then you'll all be sad that it's over and you have to wait until next year.    

So that you don't feel too bad, Russ and Renee Rickert will be catering once again at the finish, their beautiful burritos and soup.   A big thank you to Montrail for leading the sponsoring this year as well as Chozu and the Peerless. Please patronize these sponsors as they help make all of this possible.   
I ran/walked the course today under sunny skies and 60-70 degree temps. It looks as though a mild front will be moving through Friday into Saturday with a small chance of precipitation but you all know that it does not rain on Lithia Loop Saturday.    

Registration/Packet Pick-Up is at  RVR on Friday, can't wait to see all of you!   
 

4 comments:

AJW said...

Watch out for Brad Mitchell from Hailey, Idaho

Melissa Schweisguth said...

Thanks RVR organizers and volunteers for putting on this great event . It's a gorgeous, fun course with awesome aid stations and volunteers, and better post race food (yummy and good for recovery) and community than any other marathon I've run. Anyone who's on the fence, sign up! Best trail marathon out there.

Hank Dart said...

Nice call, AJW. Brad 4th OA, and 1st Masters.

Joe said...

It was completely worth the long trip from NH. I couldn't have had a better time and hope to come and run those fantastic trails sometime soon.