Monday, October 02, 2006

KC Trail Nerds EVERYWHERE!

The KC Train Nerds has grown quite a bit in the past year. So much so that it seems that hardly a race (of the off-road variety) goes by that doesn't see at least some participation by a Trail Nerd. This past weekend was no exception as some fellow nerds took home some hardware from a few different races. On Saturday, the Flatrock 50k had to succumb to the mighty will of Mr. Caleb Chatfield. Caleb not only won the race, he shattered the old course record setting the bar very high indeed for future challengers. Kyle Amos was right on his heels taking the third place overall spot and finishing that demanding course in under 5 hours! Here's a brief report from Ben Holmes...

Flatrock Synopsis:


In the 50-Kilometer race, Caleb Chatfield set a brand new course record of 4:29:21. Dave Wakefield broke his own course record to take second place. Both runners finished in under 5 hours, and additionally, Kyle Amos finished in under 5 hours by just 6 seconds, and took 3rd-place overall!
This is a really tough course with sharp rocks, loose rocks, hills, flora and other encumberances. Previous to this year, there were only seven sub-5-hour finishes in the last 10 years of the race's history. This year there were three sub-5-hour performances! All three of these runners live in N.E. Kansas, and two of them are Trail Nerds. Yup, Kansas is making a name for itself in the trailrunning world.
Lance Calvert ran a decent 50K until mile 24 or so. He made it across the finish in a decent time, though. Mark Koester took 5th place overall in the 25K. He was happy with his performance.













Pictures from the Flatrock 50k can be found here!

On Sunday, more dirt lovers took part in the last race of the Blue Hills Adventure Race Series. New Trail Nerds and first time adventure racers Courtney Porter and Brandy Miller got their first taste of a Sprint Adv race at Eisenhower State Park near Melvern, KS and pulled in 4th place in the Co-ed division.












Also representing the Trail Nerds in the AR was Bob Billings. Bob has done several of these Adventure races before and is doing a good job of breaking in newbies to the off-road racing world.












Ben Reeves and Shane Jones didn't get to race this particular race, but they didn't have to. Since they already had such a commanding lead in the championship points series, none of the teams could catch them. They're the Adventure Race Series Champs and are $800 richer for their efforts.

Also held on Sunday was the Sandrats 15k Trail run in Lawrence, KS. Many other Trail nerds took part in this old favorite. The Larence river trails are hard packed and as long as they're dry, they're very fast and this year's times reflected the good running conditions. Several Trail Nerds earned podium placements in different divisions. Results can be found here.

Overall it was a very good weekend to be a Trail Nerd. Coming up, we not only have the usual fun training runs, but we also have the next race in our Trail Nerds Trail race series, The Chris Cross trail Run out at Clinton Lake on October 14th. The weekend after that, we have The Fall Fell trail Race to be held at Kill Creek Park on October 21. So don't put up the running gear just because you're digging out your fall clothes. There's plenty more action to be had!

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