It was a trifecta weekend all the way around on the weekend of April 25th & 26th.
The 25th saw the running of the 37th??Annual RiverBank Run in Missoula. In one of the more unique race formats in the state, this event includes an acutal trifecta. The trifecta is made up on runnings competing in all three available races - 10K, 5K, 1-Mile (in that order); and, they were by far the most competitive races across the board of the 3 weekend events.
Michael Fisher leads Matt Winter at RiverBank Run
In the 10K, Jimmy Grant had a fine tune-up for next week's Bloomsday with a 7 second win over Matt Winter (31:47 to 31:54). Strung out behind them were Michael Fisher(32:16), Michael Wolfe (32:48), Kiefer Hahn (33:03) and Collin Ferh (33:40). Scott Gaiser scored a masters victory over 52-year old Ray Matteson - 35:57 to 36:04 (another 7 second margin) (with Scott and Ray getting 9th and 10th overall). John Herring was third master at 36:23.
On the women's side, Rye Palen took the victory over Jessica Johnson and Mary Thane (1st Masters) - 38:53, 39:01 and 39:20.
Next up was the 5K. Michael Fisher came back strong to take the win in 15:20. Matt Winter was 2nd again, this time 19 seconds back in 15:39. The top 5 were rounded out by Michael Wolfe, Kiefer Hahn and Collin Fehr (15:51, 16:00 and 16:11). The Masters results followed the 10K with Scott Gaiser in 17:17, Ray Matteson in 17:29 and John Herring in 17:34.
Vicky Lynch Pounds had an easy time in the women's race, finishing in 17:56 and just missing the overall top 10.
After the 5K and 10K, Winter had a 3 second lead over Fisher in the trifecta competition for the open runners while Gaiser led Matteson by 19 seconds in the masters race.
The mile was going to be the deciding factor in both races. On the open side, Fisher beat Matt by 7 seconds to push Matt to his third 2nd-place finish of the day. The mile win gave Fisher the overall trifecta title, 52:05 to 52:09. On the master's side, Gaiser won the mile by 6 seconds and extended his lead over Matteson to win the event, 58:19 to 58:44.
All in all, it was a super solid day of racing in The Garden City and you can see full results at http://www.ymcamissoula.org/
Now, onto The Windy City and the breezy event known as Ice Breaker. The three mile was won by Moses Leavens in 15:43. Bill Ballinger pulled out the masters win and a 7th overall finish in 17:48. The women's race was wone by Jacey Stahlberg in 19:26, with the ageless Suzie Kaluza a close behind 2nd overall/1st master in 19:43.
But, the real racing at Ice Breaker is always in the 5-Mile. Alan King of Billings wentout hard, hangin onto the back of the Kenyans. But, Alan paid a bit for his early excitement and was passed by Thomas Joidin in the oh so long finishing stretch along the park. Joidin finished 3rd in 26:12, King was at 26:25 (4th). Jim Brewer (UGF XC Coach) was 5th in 27:12. Considering the conditions, these were some solid times.
On the masters side, Kyle Strode continued his solid year with an 8th place overall and 28:13 time. Ed Detzi was 2nd master/15th overall in 29:43. Bill Brist made further strides in his racing comeback by getting 3rd master/21st overall in 30:55.
On the women's side, wonder mom Nicole Hunt was 3rd behind the two "ringers" (and in the top 15 overall) with a 29:33 finish. She was followed by Rachel Brewer in 29:40. 1st Masters woman and 7th overall was Julie Gilchrist of Ovando in 33:04.
Finishing off the day was the run portion of Peaks to Prairie in Red Lodge. Full results of each of the event legs and the overall team and solo results are at http://www.peakstoprairie.org/. The 8.8 course, although downhill, was hampered this year by snowy, windy weather.
Fulton & Michels break to the front right out of the gate at Peaks
Kurt Michels led the charge with a finish of 47:18 and was followed by Kelly Fulton in 50:11.
Of special note, Andrew Drobek finished 6th in the run portion at 51:26, then went on to solo the rest of the race (43 mile bike and 23 mile kayak) and win the solo category in 5:07:56.
Holy Crap, I'm worn out just thinking about all that racing. What a weekend.
The Muddy Buzzard
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