Daily News, Mon, Sep 22

America’s foray into Skyrunning.

Who says Southern CA doesn’t have sweet mountains and trails?

Grand to Grand stage race is going on this week from the Grand Canyon to the Grand Staircase in Utah. Hear Sarah’s take on the event from last year…and yep, she’s running it again this year.

Don’t we already have a bunch of events like this?

For the first time since graduating over 20 years ago, I went to a HS XC meet last week and it was awesome. How it grows on you.

Peter Bakwin recaps this summer’s long FKT attempts.

And Brian Donnelly breaks the Wonderland Trail unsupported record. Great report!

The rise of the Facebook athlete.

Boulder marathon cancelled on two weeks notice…but other races step in to capitalize and help out.

USA 50k Trail Championships won by two first-timers. Doesn’t lend a lot of credibility to the event, does it?

Is this one reason that we as MUT runners are so tight?

A good resort from the Kerry Way Ultra.

18 Responses to "Daily News, Mon, Sep 22"

Micah Ward says:

September 22, 2014 at 9:04 am

I disagree with your comment on the 50K championship. How is there a loss of credibility just because first timers won? Women’s winner Roche beat Magdalena Boulet and broke the course record. Men’s winner Tollefson broke the course record which was set by Max King. If you are breaking one of Max’s records then I consider you a credible runner regardless of it being your first race at that distance. Roche is only 24 and Tollefson 29 so maybe we are seeing a couple of emerging stars. No lack of credibility there.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  September 22, 2014 at 9:08 am
  
  Perhaps loss of credibility was the wrong term. My point is that for something to be considered a true “championship”, I expect the best 50k trail runners to compete. Sure, there were some incredible runners (and fast times), but it all feels a bit incomplete to me.
  One thing it definitely put to rest is the argument that road runners aren’t able to compete in MUT races.
  
  Reply
ScottD says:

September 22, 2014 at 9:10 am

Normally I would agree with you on the 50k championship, but those first-timers both posted insane CR’s (3:24 and 4:00). If you take down a Max King CR, and beat Ryan Bak and David Laney in the process, I think that’s legit. 🙂

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Dave says:

September 22, 2014 at 9:34 am

Maybe it doesn’t lend a lot of credibility to your repoting. Sure, Anton and Dakota weren’t there, but doesn’t mean you have to hate. I didn’t see you dissing UROC?

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  September 22, 2014 at 10:39 am
  
  Hate? Seems a bit of an overstatement.
  Others have described it better than I. Absolutely no disrespect to the winners–again, they’re proving that sub-ultra and road runners can excel in our sport–but to call something a “championship” when the field is light feels a little empty to me. And yeah, same goes for UROC (though UROC was won by experienced MUT runners.)
  
  Reply
  1. Dan - Ultra168 says:
    
    September 22, 2014 at 3:39 pm
    
    We have the same issue in Australia. Events are billed as 50km champs and the fields do not contain what we would regard as the leading runners in Australia – one or two good athletes show up but that’s it. The reality is that the commercial races of UTWT and Sky Running and others (particularly in the US) take preference (and dollars) over ‘governing’ bodies, who have a.) been slow to respond or b.)are just not fussed…
    
    Reply
Will H says:

September 22, 2014 at 9:47 am

Another first timer took home the US 24 hour title at the North Coast 24 hour race in Cleveland. Isaiah Janzen ran 154 miles over the 0.9 mile loop course this past weekend. It was his first ultra race ever, though as a 2:30 marathoner he has some distance credentials. A while back he held the FKT for an unsupported lap of the Wonderland Trail and did so with very little preparation, certainly way less than Donnelly. See: http://www.isaiahjanzen.com/2010/09/running-wonderland-trail.html

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  September 22, 2014 at 9:54 am
  
  Wow! First ultra was 154 miles!?! What a debut!
  
  Reply
Nate Dunn says:

September 22, 2014 at 10:19 am

I have to agree with the comment above that Megan Roche can flat out fly. She was a NCAA cross country runner at Duke and this is actually the second time she beat Magda (2013 Rocky Ridge – Brazen). While her success has mostly been at the shorter distances, it is great to see her pushing the envelope up to ultras. Megan is going to be one of those people that in a few years is going to be at the top of the sport (IF medical school doesn’t get in her way).

However, I ultimately agree that lack of a truly competitive field means that simply winning this race does not make either winner the best 50K runner in the US. People’s race schedules are just too varied and it would be really hard to get all of the best runners in the same place at the same time. All you can really do if you wanted to award that title would be to look at everyone’s season as a whole and highlight who had the most impressive year.

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Austin says:

September 22, 2014 at 10:25 am

Eric, I get what you’re saying about the 50k Championship. You would think a championship race would include runners that have excelled and competed at that distance over the past year.

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Thomas says:

September 22, 2014 at 1:31 pm

Any chance you can interview the Wonderland FKT guys? I’d love to hear more about the trail and whole experience.

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Daniel says:

September 22, 2014 at 2:25 pm

My prediction – Skyrunning becomes the next muddy buddy- next year we will probably here how skyrunning is coming to the east coast with a series and you will be able to get points by running in Mississippi ! I’m going to do digging and find a skyrunninh contract , I believe RDs will pay a big chunk of money to be part of the series.

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Tim Tollefson says:

September 22, 2014 at 5:25 pm

This topic seems to be debated every year at the USA XC Championships, Marathon Championships, Track and Field Championships in non Olympic years, etc. Nice to see Ultra running is no exception!

What I’ve witnessed in the formerly stated events is that top athletes go where the money lies. You’ll routinely see top american marathoners skip the US Marathon Champs in MN so that they can collect appearance fees/prize money in Chicago, Berlin and NYC. However, when an athlete does wins the US Marathon Championships it’s something special as even “watered down” fields can be incredibly competitive, entertaining to witness, and challenging to win.

My opinion, which won’t have much weight as the “new kid on the baby-ultra block”, is that governing bodies need to raise their prize purses/bonuses, actively recruit top talent and plan their championships on none competing weekends/months as other top races if they want a field that critics might call “a true championship”.

My reasoning to run this years USATF National Trail 50k Championships was to hopefully race against some of trail runnings best athletes and throw my hat in the ring to win a National Title.

If having my name mentioned alongside Max King and narrowly besting guys that I highly respect like Ryan Bak and David Laney is considered lackluster, I can assure you that I won’t lose any sleep over it.

Personally, I felt the two USATF officials that orchestrated the entire weekend were very accommodating, pleasant and helped create an inclusive environment that I would love to continue being a part of.

Cheers!
Tim

Reply
1. James B says:
  
  September 23, 2014 at 12:31 pm
  
  Congrats, Tim! I raced bicycles professionally back in the 90’s. The only pro race I won was in Ireland. The field was tough, but most of the “big time” pros were in other parts of Europe racing that weekend. My dad (a former car racer) told me that “you can only beat the guys that show up”, after he caught me trying to downplay my win. I never forgot that.
  
  It IS unfortunate that a lot of “Championships” don’t attract some of the big players, merely because of the lack of prize money. However, no one can ever take that championship away from you. You beat everyone that was there and set a course record, and there’s not much else you can do. Life’s too short to worry about who shows up for an event. Enjoy the win!
  
  Reply
2. Mic_Med says:
  
  September 24, 2014 at 5:46 am
  
  The run was incredible, great job and you deserve the kudos. But come on now, you’re going to need a few more runs before you can pull off the trucker hat.
  
  Reply
Ryan says:

September 23, 2014 at 5:49 am

When you have a field that consists of numerous sub 2:20 marathoners, and a first time ultra guy besting Max King’s CR by a few minutes, I’d say that’s enough credibility for me.

Although, i’ll concede to your point that it didn’t have guys like, Vargo, Sage or Rob Krar, the field was still pretty stacked by super talented/elite runners.

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Gene Graham says:

September 23, 2014 at 7:00 am

Skyrunning? Do we really need yet another subcategory to divide runners into camps? We already have track, road, marathon, Ultra, Mountain, Mountain Ultra Trail (MUT), just to name a few. Oh, and don’t forget plain old vanilla Trail Running. Just stop it, already.

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Paul says:

September 29, 2014 at 9:08 pm

I agree with you on the 50k championship. I was at Flagline this year and it feels like a local race, not what a “championship” should feel like. A couple friends were at RUT a few weeks before and said it was huge. In a sport as large as running is individual races have more power and control than the “governing” bodies do. The individual races put more into the promotion and drawing runners than governing bodies do, and the individual races know that there is no need to team with the governing bodies to draw attention, press or runners to their races. There were some awesome performances at Flagline last weekend.

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