Results of the

2009

Snow Peak 50

The 13th annual Snow Peak 50 was showing signs up to race day, That the “13” might be playing it’s hand as some little problems and big problems reared it’s head. A beaver damn had washed out the road to our most critical aid station, #8 in Little Valley. But with a jeep and a four wheeler and several trips (up to 8 round trips before and after the race) on race day over the last 1.5 miles got everything up there from the wash out and the AS location and then back . This forced us to limit the size of the drops bags to a one gallon zip lock freezer bag. Thanks to everyone’s cooperation. As it turned out it made a big difference on getting everything in to the aid station. Normally the drop bags will fill the back of a full size pickup.
Another ugly was, the city resurfaced the road that I live on the day before the race, which we found out about only 24 hours earlier. A couple of quick phone calls and they promised to do our street first so I could get the rental truck in to my house to get all the race stuff, loaded for the pre-race dinner and the race day stuff.
Then there was a problem with one of the printing screen plates for the shirts and the pre-race shirts became finishers shirts as we didn’t have those until after the packet pick up on Friday.

Then came Sat Morning. Both the early start at 4AM and the regular start at 5 AM went off without any hitches. By the time the last runner went through Hope Campground We had a record in the making with the most runners we have ever had Start. We get our official count at this Aid Station and we had 337. AS the day wore on and the temps stayed unseasonably cool and a slight overcast with even a few light showers the conditions were ripe for a record number of finishers By the time the last runner finished we had a new record of 226 cross the finish line. This was 23 more than our record from 2006 of 202.

The race itself shaped up to be good one. Scott Jaime and Dave Holt shared the the 1st 2 spots in the run for most of the day. Scott scored his first win at Squaw Peak after 4 attempts, We hadn’t seen Scott since 2006, his previous best time and finish was in 2005 when he placed 5th with a time of 9:25. His winning time was an hour and 20 minutes faster. Someone had been working hard on his time away. I asked Scott moments after he had finished how he felt about his win. Of course he was excited, but he said …I am disappointed I didn’t get under 8 hours, I wanted to be the 4th person ever to finish under 8.” Scott’s family was there to celebrate his win and I think he soon forget about the disappointment as he had nothing but smiles when he was with his family celebrating 2 minutes later veteran runner and past winner Kevin Shilling had worked his way into 2nd place and in doing so set a new masters record**. He went over and congratulated Scott and the smile’s got bigger. By the way Scott’s time was the 8th fastest on record for the SP50. (**Note: I gave Kevin the option of either receiving 2nd overall award or 1st Overall Master since he had set a new record. Kevin chose the Masters Overall. SO, in the results that is why he is not on the overall male list but on the Master Male list. Dave faded to 3rd on his first attempt her at Snow Peak. On the womens side Darcie Gorman on her first try at Squaw Peak took the womens Top spot. And from what I understand this is becoming a habit for. Her time was the 10th fastest womens time ever and is now in an elete group of 11 women to ever go under 10 hours on this course. Bronwyn Morrissey from CO finished 2nd only 19 minutes behind also on her 1st try here. Now that these women know the course and also Dave that will add to the challenge and make things more interesting for next year.

We also had a surprise of sorts, for many of the runners out on the course, as Karl Meltzer was our Aid Station captain at Sheep Canyon AS#7. He along with Scott Mason and others were there to help and cheer on the runners. I had many runners tell me after the race what a big boost is was for them to see Karl out there, yelling and cheering them on and serving them. Thanks, Karl and crew!!!

Then we had a couple of family finishes that are well worth mentioning. We had the Sieverts’ Family siblings John, Tony, Stan and their sister Vicky Anderl. This would have tied the record for the most from one family but the Manscill’s went one better this year when Father Craig, along with son’s Caleb, Dalan and Colby also talked their daughter and sister Jami Manscill Jackson into running the 50 miles. That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment for both families. My congrats to all of you and to all of the runners.

And last but not least my heart felt thanks to all of the volunteers and radio operators who are the lifeline of this event and it would not happen without them. Thanks everyone. JB