One That Flew Under The Buzzard

Forgot about this event - and apologize for not mentioning it sooner.

On July 26th, the Cheyenne Canon Mountain Race was held in Colorado Springs. The event was a selection race for the US Mountain Running Team that will compete in the world championships in Italy. The races were limited to 100 men and 100 women - with the men doing 12K and the women at 8K. With limited fields and the positions open on the US Team, both races were filled with trail studs.

And, Montana (and some with Montana connections) was duly represented.

On the mens' side, former Bozeman resident Tommy Manning was 7th overall in 50:24, just a bit over 3 minutes behind Tim Park's winning time of 47:13. In 13th was Ryan Hafer in 52:36. Ryan grew up in Colorado Springs, ran at Harvard, has family in Billings and would spend time in Billings during the summers. One of his first tail races was an XTerra event at Moonlight Basin.

Thomas Jodoin of Helena was 20th in 56:20. Great race against the big boys.

Trying to return to the team she made in 2006, Nicole Hunt of Deer Lodge also took to the high altitude trails. Megan Kimmel of CO took the win in 39:23. Although competitive, Nicole finished outside of the top 2 (which was required for team selection) and her 43:19 placed her 10th among the women.

See results at http://www.trailrunner.com/results/race_results/2009_cheyenne_canon_results.htm

All in all, I would say that the Big Sky boys and girls made their mark at this national leval event.

The Muddy Buzzard