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Bradley Mongold, Martinsburg, W.Va.Men's winner - 4:50:45
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Michele Harmon, Gaithersburg, Md.Women's winner - 6:24:43
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Rande and Kari Brown, who finished less than 6 minutes apart in Saturday's Catoctin 50K Trail Run, reunite at the finish line at Gambrill State Park.
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Winters, Browns conquer Catoctin 50K challenge
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
FREDERICK, Md. – It’s almost as if he’s doing it on purpose.
Frostburg resident Steven Winters led all area runners in the 15th annual Catoctin 50K Trail Run by finishing inside the top 10 among more than 160 starters. He was ninth overall this year, 2009. In 2004, the former Bedford County, Pa., resident placed fourth. In 2005, he was fifth.
Beginning in Gambrill State Park and following the climbs and valleys of the Catoctin Blue Trail to the Manor Area of Cunningham Falls State Park near Thurmont, Winters, 38, placed ninth overall in 5 hours, 58 minutes and 53 seconds.
It was Winters’s third-best performance and third top-10 finish in five tries at the 31-mile rugged ultramarathon. In 2004, Winters finished in a personal best time of 5:25:33. A year later, he stopped the clock in 5:45:17.
Bedford County residents Rande and Kari Brown, husband and wife, both placed inside the top 25 overall. Rande Brown, 39, finished 22nd overall in 6:27:34. Less than six minutes later, Kari Brown crossed the line third in the women’s standings and in 27th place overall in 6:33:02.
“Wowee,” exclaimed Kari Brown after stopping the clock and taking a seat on a metal folding chair under the shade of trees in the High Knob area of Gambrill State Park.
She was well behind her husband during the first half of the rugged out-and-back course. Somewhere, though, Rande Brown told a running buddy, “I just feel her coming.”
It was a personal best on the course for the 35-year-old Cresaptown Elementary School teacher in five total Catoctin 50K finishes and more than 68 minutes faster than her 2008 time of 7:41:39. In 2006, Brown finished in now-second best 6:50:47.
Rande Brown, meanwhile, posted in fourth-best time in seven Catoctin 50K Trail Run finishes. He placed 16th overall in 2004 in 6:09:58 and, in 2006, posted his highest finish – 13th place – with a time of 6:21:53.
Related Article: Runners battle heat, mud in ultramarathon
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
FREDERICK, Md. – It’s almost as if he’s doing it on purpose.
Frostburg resident Steven Winters led all area runners in the 15th annual Catoctin 50K Trail Run by finishing inside the top 10 among more than 160 starters. He was ninth overall this year, 2009. In 2004, the former Bedford County, Pa., resident placed fourth. In 2005, he was fifth.
Beginning in Gambrill State Park and following the climbs and valleys of the Catoctin Blue Trail to the Manor Area of Cunningham Falls State Park near Thurmont, Winters, 38, placed ninth overall in 5 hours, 58 minutes and 53 seconds.
It was Winters’s third-best performance and third top-10 finish in five tries at the 31-mile rugged ultramarathon. In 2004, Winters finished in a personal best time of 5:25:33. A year later, he stopped the clock in 5:45:17.
Bedford County residents Rande and Kari Brown, husband and wife, both placed inside the top 25 overall. Rande Brown, 39, finished 22nd overall in 6:27:34. Less than six minutes later, Kari Brown crossed the line third in the women’s standings and in 27th place overall in 6:33:02.
“Wowee,” exclaimed Kari Brown after stopping the clock and taking a seat on a metal folding chair under the shade of trees in the High Knob area of Gambrill State Park.
She was well behind her husband during the first half of the rugged out-and-back course. Somewhere, though, Rande Brown told a running buddy, “I just feel her coming.”
It was a personal best on the course for the 35-year-old Cresaptown Elementary School teacher in five total Catoctin 50K finishes and more than 68 minutes faster than her 2008 time of 7:41:39. In 2006, Brown finished in now-second best 6:50:47.
Rande Brown, meanwhile, posted in fourth-best time in seven Catoctin 50K Trail Run finishes. He placed 16th overall in 2004 in 6:09:58 and, in 2006, posted his highest finish – 13th place – with a time of 6:21:53.
Related Article: Runners battle heat, mud in ultramarathon
Mongold, Harmon take Catoctin 50K trail victories
Men’s winner takes aim at course record, comes up short
Photos
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
FREDERICK, Md., Aug. 1 – Before the 8 a.m. start of this morning’s Catoctin 50K Trail Run beginning at Gambrill State Park, race director Kevin Sayers offered both a warning and advice.
“You can’t run under five hours,” Sayers told the starting crowd of 162 runners – the largest group to toe the starting line in the event’s 15th version. The statement, or warning - maybe an edict - was not heeded by 31-year-old Martinsburg, W.Va., resident Bradley Mongold.
From the start – in fact, many runners conceded the race to him even before then – it was his race to lose. Mongold entered his first Catoctin 50K Trail Run with not necessarily a chip on his shoulder – he appeared far too low-key for that – but a set of legs and feet that wanted the course record.
It wasn’t to be. While he was on pace at the turnaround and, at about 18 miles had more than a 10-minute lead on the next closest runner, it was clear the race was still his – but the record wouldn’t be. Mongold finished with the fifth-best performance ever on the highly technical, rocky and hilly out-and-back course with a time of 4 hours, 50 minutes and 45 seconds. Karsten Brown, 35, of Front Royal, Va., moved up several spots in the second half of the race to finish second in 5:13:30.
Sayers told Mongold afterward that he knew Mongold would have a chance but didn’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on the ultrarunner. Besides, Sayers, a veteran ultrarunner himself, knew this particular trail run greeted first-timers often in an unusually cruel manner.
“Until you run it once, we don’t care who you are,” Sayers said as Mongold sat in a metal fold-up chair in the shade for more than half an hour after crossing the finish line in first place.
But Mongold was not to be dissuaded from going after the record.
“I don’t mind the pressure,” Mongold offered, perhaps an indication he’ll return in 2010 for a second attempt.
Travis Warren, for one, might not be back. Second in 2008 and third this year, the 35-year-old Woodstock, Md., resident jumped over the finish line with a time of 5:16:16.
“That’s the roughest trail I’ve ever been on,” Warren told Sayers. “I almost think you can run faster the first time you run this course.”
Sayers emphasized.
Yes, he said, “ignorance is bliss.”
Michele Harmon, 43, of Gaithersburg, Md., overcame a serious challenge by first-time ultrarunner Becky Orndorf, 39, of Hagerstown and a handful of others to be the first female finisher. Experience over ignorance, however, helped propped Harmon over the second, more challenging part of the course to finish in 6:24:43.
A combination of heat – the temperature reached, or at least felt like, 90-plus degrees by early Saturday afternoon – and hills caused Orndorf to fade to fifth place in 6:38:38. Kristin Biris, 39, of Knoxville, Md., took second overall in 6:30:49. Kari Brown, 35, of Bedford, Pa., moved up from the lower top 10 in the first half to finish third overall in 6:33:02.
“There were two different days,” Sayers told runners and family members waiting for their loved ones to charge up the final hill at Gambrill State Park’s High Knob area shortly after 2:30 p.m. “There was this morning (with the temperature at about 70 degrees) and now there’s now.”
Email Kevin Spradlin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.
Top 5 Men
1. Bradley Mongold, 31, Martinsburg, W.Va., 4:50:45
2. Karsten Brown, 35, Front Royal, Va., 5:13:30
3. Travis Warren, 35, Woodstock, Md., 5:16:16
4. Serge Arbona, 44, Baltimore, Md., 5:27:53
5. Matt McDonald, 39, Greencastle, Pa., 5:29:32
Top 5 Women
1. Michele Harmon, 43, Gaithersburg, Md., 6:24:43
2. Kristin Biris, 39, Knoxville, Md., 6:30:49
3. Kari Brown, 35, Bedford, Pa., 6:33:02
4. Niqui Johnson, 43, Frederick, Md., 6:37:42
5. Becky Orndorf, 39, Hagerstown, Md., 6:38:38