Wednesday, April 19, 2006

More Red Bridge Ramble Trail Run Photos

Here are some more photos by Dick Ross:

Monday, April 17, 2006

Red Bridge Ramble 8-Mile Trail Run, April 15th






























The 2006 version of the Red Bridge Ramble (KCMO) is now history. The weather on race day was absolutely perfect, and everyone that showed up to run were in good spirits. Forty-five runners entered, which surpassed last year's participation by 300%! We had quite a few newbie trailrunners who were "chomping at the bit" to get their feet wet (literally).

The race course is on the unpaved Blue River Parkway trail system. It crosses the Blue River 4 times and has a variety of different kinds of terrain to run on, which includes: wooded, rocky & rooty trails, open grassland, twisty single-track, and flat, fast dirt trails.

Caleb Chatfield, of Merriam Kansas ripped through the course in 54:58. Veteran trailrunner Kyle Amos followed in 2nd place at 57:02. Lightning-fast trail-newbie Susie Scheer took third overall, and first female in 1:00:45! Following them to round-out the top five were Rich McNally and Jeff Behrens. Second and third-place females were Angela Ballard and Rachel Westendorf.

A few awards were given out, including two to James Barker. He won the "lost completely beyond all possible reason" award, and the award for "most ticks." He also took a very good "competitive fall," which I witnessed, but was surpassed in that department by Jeff "Trail Rash" Behrens. (I still owe you an award, Jeff).

Note: We had a slight timing device issue, so most of the times were off by a small margin. The order of finish is very accurate, though.

Special thanks to the volunteers:
Markos Jacquez -
who helped mark the course with me (the night before the race until 10 p.m.), by actually running it.
Kyle Amos, Ben Reeves, and Caleb Chatfield - who helped un-mark the course after the race.
Dave Suptic and a helper - Registration & finish line.
Lou Joline - provided the half-way water station and starting line food.


Dick Ross took some great shots and has them on his website.
They will probably be posted also (soon) at the KC Star website.

Order of Finish
1 54:58 Caleb Chatfield M
2 57:02 Kyle Amos M
3 1:00:45 Susie Scheer F
4 Rich McNally M
5 Jeff Behrens M
6 "Good" Ben Reeves M
7 Jason Crosby M
8 Stuart Johnson M
9 Frederick Menninger M
10 Angela Ballard F
11 Eric Otte M
12 Rachel Westendorf F
13 Aubrey Appleman F
14 Charlotte Barksdale F
15 Emily Horn F
16 Kent Baker M
17 "Bad" Ben Holmes M
18 Deb Johnson F
19 Sherry Sehring F
20 Dave Rowell M
21 Mona Latimer F
22 Allison Baker F
23 Jonette Kilmar F
24 Gregg Lynn M
25 Kevin Maggard M
26 Christina Sipu F
27 Philip Wharton M
28 Kevin O'Sullivan M
29 Don Little M
30 Sophia Wharton F
31 Dave Hoefer M
32 Paula Keltner F
33 1:38:06 Lou Joline M
34 Hazel Mattews F
35 1:39:00 Susan Robinette F
36 Mary Donahue F
37 Anne Cook F
38 Bob Cook M
39 Beth Hilt F
40 Verna Troutman F
41 Jackie Defoe F
42 Gregory Mattews M
43 Steve Mattews M
44 Laura Gawecki F
45 James Barker M

Monday, April 03, 2006

More Photos of Rockin' K 2006

Here are a few more photos from the Rockin' K Trail Run on April 1, 2006. I didn't take a camera with me during the race, but you can see more of the course from previous year's photos: 2004 and 2005.














Rockin' K 2006, Short Race Report

A bunch of us Trail Nerds went out to Kanopolis State Park in the middle of Kansas to run the offered 50-miler and marathon distances. This year, I chose the marathon option, because my right knee still isn't healed from a nasty fall 3-weeks ago. It hurt right from the get-go, and continued to plague me for the entire race. I'm not too unhappy for not opting for the 50-miler. After all, I went into this race as just a training run for upcoming 100-milers, and I saved the knee to be able to keep training. (I am getting smarter with age).

This was my 6th time out at this race. We've never camped in the campground near the start/finish area before. It was a real treat to do so this year. A whole gaggle of us Trail Nerds stayed at one campsite, and a few others stayed in area hotels. We were going to stay and camp on Saturday night as well, but severe weather moved in to quench that idea. We had to get out quick, too. The storm, with "tornadic activity," 70-MPH winds, and severe thunder showers chased us all the way to Kansas City. We arrived home shortly before Midnight.

Happy trails,
Bad Ben