Miles and Miles of Mud and Fun at the Way Too Cool 50K
Chris Conwell and Mike French celebrate their finish
Leading up to this year’s Way Too Cool 50K, the buzz was mostly about the new “faster” course. P.R.s for everyone!
As race day approached, it became apparent another key factor for the runners would be water and mud on the course. Would the loss of 1,000 feet of climbing be offset by slipping and sliding through acres of deep and sticky mud, and countless, deep stream crossings? Well, maybe.
The historic course included several miles of two-way traffic, along narrow single-track trails, and seemed designed to provoke conflict between the fastest runners and the runners at the back of the pack. The new course eliminates all the two-way traffic and knocked out 1,000 feet of climbing.
Another benefit of the revised course is that the first several miles are mostly on wide trails and service roads, which allowed the race to easily handle the almost 700 registered runners. Parking is now the limiting factor–even with most runners seeming to comply with the Race Director’s request that people carpool.
This year’s field included many of the country’s top ultrarunners, and many first timers. The weather was fine and most runners were in short sleeves.
The start was fast from the gun and the lead pack flew down the road at around six-minutes per mile. Just before the race left the road for the trails, a man in a gorilla suit cavorted back and forth across the roadway to the cheers of the runners. (This really happened. It was too early in the race for hallucinations.)
Mark Murray of Davis looks at one of the many mud bogs during our warm-up.
The course starts with an eight-mile loop from the Cool Fire Station out on the Olmstead Loop and Lake trails. By the time the leaders returned to the Fire Station, the top-six places in the men’s race were already settled, with Mike Wolfe, of Helena, Montana, setting a blistering pace despite all the mud.
The top women, Joelle Vaught, of Boise, and Caitlin Smith, of Davis, (1st and 2nd) and Meghan Arbogast, of Corvallis, and Caren Spore, of Davis, (3rd and 4th) would be battling it out until the end–Vaught coming in 90- seconds in front of Smith, and Arbogast finishing just 11-seconds ahead of Spore. Vaught’s winning time of 4:02:29 was the fourth fastest women’s time in the history of this race.
Smith finished 2nd in 4:04:00, Arbogast was 3rd in 4:11:03, and Spore was 4th in 4:11:13.
3rd place finisher and top master Gary Gellin takes advantage of a hose to clean off some trail mud.
The men’s race ended with Mike Wolfe, of Helena, in 1st with 3:28:01; Tod Braje, of Arcata, in 2nd with 3:33:57, and Gary Gellin, of Menlo Park, 3rd in 3:35:50.
Gellin, 42, was also the first male masters finisher, and Arbogast, 49, was the first female master.
The race was blessed this year with excellent spring weather and many runners spent much of the day hanging out and visiting long after they finished.
From this runner’s perspective, the event organization seemed flawless under Race Director Julie Fingar’s steady leadership.
The minestrone soup was excellent.
It will be interesting to see how this course fairs under drier conditions and what kind of times we’ll be seeing out there in years to come.
Complete results, including splits, can be found here.
Chilling at the finish
Posing with the frog