Even more
than the last two years, the story of the sixth running of the
Bonneville Shoreline Trail marathon was the weather. Once again, in
mid-March the snow was gone from the foothills around Salt Lake City,
and the trails were dry and fast. Once again, all that
changed. This time, the weather gods were not satisfied merely to
make the run more challenging with a little snow, mud, or wind. A
series of storms over the two weeks preceding the run buried parts of
the course in up to two feet of heavy spring snow (think Sierra Cement,
not Utah Powder). The footing on the lower parts of the course
was wet and heavy in places, but still passable. However, when
one of us went out two days before the run to mark the 10.6 mile loop
that begins the course, he ran into two solid miles of largely uphill
postholing in calf- to knee-deep snow, including a steep 1000’ climb
that is one of the toughest hills on the course. This being a
friendly local run—so we have to get along with the participants the
rest of the year—we reluctantly decided to change the course.
The best
we could do on short notice was to replace the western loop with a
shortened version (8.6 miles) of the 15.7-mile second loop, run in the
reverse direction. The substitution left the course about 2 miles
short and with 1000’ less total climb (5500’ vs. 6500’). However,
each loop included about a mile of slogging through snow that ranged up
to knee deep, and deep gooey mud and ankle-deep standing water abounded
wherever the snow was gone. We figured that it would be about an
even trade between the short course and the heavy footing, and, indeed,
overall times were similar to previous years. Although the
shortened course surely was a factor in an unprecedented 14 runners
finishing in under 5 hours (the previous high was eight), so was the
record number of finishers (67 compared to a previous high of 49).
Nonetheless,
because of the conditions and the course change, the only times that
really meant much were the good times had by the runners—and there were
plenty of those. A lovely spring morning found 100 runners
milling around before the start at Morris Reservoir, and most proceeded
to splash through the mud and snow with pleasure and abandon.
Runner morale at the aid stations was never higher. Several
runners did not quite catch the instructions regarding the course
change and, as a result, cheerfully explored a variety of intriguing
variations on the intended route. Karl Meltzer ran off the front
virtually unchallenged to extend his BoSho victory string to four, and
Joan Parker led a relatively small women’s field with a strong finish
in 5:17.
We
gratefully thank those who passed up a pleasant day to be out wading on
sloppy trails in order to volunteer at the aid stations,
including John Concannon, and Tony and Anthony De Arcos.
T h e B o S h
o
BONNEVILLE SHORELINE TRAIL MARATHON
24.3 miles, trail, snowfields
2 April 2005
1 Karl
Meltzer
4:04:40
2 Ty
Draney
4:16:15
3 Derek
Blaylock
4:19:35
4 Erik
Storheim
4:27:00
5 Leland
Barker
4:27:30
6 Dave
Hunt
4:28:40
7 Sandy
White
4:32:45
8 Shane
Martin
4:33:30
9 Charles
Kanopa
4:35:30
10 Matt
Clay
4:36:13
11 Rich
McDonald
4:42:10
12 Shaun
Jacobsen
4:42:38
13 Erik
Shildroth
4:48:00
14 Jason
Berry
4:54:30
15 Reyn Gallacher
5:00:00
Brian
Hamos
5:00:00
17 Troy
Olson
5:03:30
18 Scott
Mason
5:05:20
19 Joan Parker
5:17:00
20 John
Hultquist
5:17:10
21 Bob
Adler
5:17:30
22 Mark
Fisher
5:20:35
Steve
Little
5:20:35
24 Ernie Floyd
5:26:15
Brian
Harward
5:26:15
26 Roch
Horton
5:29:30
27 Matt
Hatch
5:30:25
28 Warren
Driggs
5:37:00
29 Mark Christopherson 5:38:50
Wayne
Harrell
5:38:50
31 Jeff
Gehrke
5:39:35
32 Peter
Smith
5:39:45
33 Carter
Williams
5:44:40
34 Wynn
Shoter
5:44:45
35 Jennifer Kuhlmann
5:45:52
36 Kelly
Stevens
5:48:45
37 Olaf
Questereit
5:50:20
38 Jim
Skaggs
5:54:00
39 John
Barbhill
5:57:10
40 Lyle
Nay
5:57:30
41 Brian
Caplan
5:57:40
42 Danny
Howe
6:02:30
43 Ferret
Diroll
6:04:30
44 Jim
Deering
6:04:31
45 Brett
Brailsford
6:10:20
46 Greg
Norrander
6:10:30
47 David
Nielsen
6:12:00
48 Eve Davies
6:13:30
49 Brett
Gallagher
6:14:40
50 Bob
Henderson
6:15:00
51 Kirk
Dyches
6:16:30
51 Trisha Dyches
6:16:30
53 Bert
Ley
6:19:05
54 David
Blaylock
6:23:45
55 George Barnhill
6:26:05
56 Andrew Wittwer
6:36:00
57 Brent
Rutledge
6:44:00
Carl
Brailsford
6:44:00
59 Grizz
Randall
6:44:03
60 Brent
Palmer
7:01:36
61 John Parley Lewis 7:11:00
62 Elizabeth LaMora
7:18:00
63 Martha Pierce
7:21:00
64 Paula Eldredge
7:29:55
65 Karen Helfrich
7:31:00
66 Ed
Hemphill
7:47:00
67 Russell
Ray
7:55:00
........100 Starters
******************************
The BoShy
Other participants (“HCI” refers to the aid
station above the Hunstman Cancer Institute):
1st loop Finish by an
unconventional route
Joan McDonald
1:41:00
Josh
Bloom
1:41:00
Kevin
Shilling
1:41:00
Brian
Kamm
1:42:00 Out at HCI
Mary Ann Rawlings
1:45:00 5:00:00 Tomahawk Drive on Return
Marilee Anderson
1:45:00 5:00:00 Tomahawk Drive on Return
Marc Green
1:46:00
Evan
Sullivan
1:57:00
Birgitta Johnson
1:59:00 4:00:00 Out & back, BST to Dry Ck.
Cortney Scaiffe
1:59:00 4:00:00 Out & back, BST to Dry Ck.
Roger
Adams
2:00:00 Out at first HCI
Rich
Baxter
2:00:00 Out at second HCI
Charlie
Vincent
2:00:00 Out at second HCI
Cheryl Pfeil
2:00:00
Rick
Clayton
2:05:00
Jill Bohney
2:05:00 Out at first HCI
Tracy Clayton
2:05:00
Ulrich
Brunhart
2:06:00 Out at first HCI
Lise Brunhart
2:06:00 Out at first HCI
Lee
Moss
2:08:00
Janet Walker
2:26:00
Dennis
Ferguson
2:26:00
Debbie Stone
2:26:00
Cody
Zumwalt
2:26:00
Jason
Merrill
2:26:00
Alan
Wall
2:27:00
Larry
Whipple
2:28:00
Gorilla Irv
3:43:00
Margaret Moore
3:54:00
Jodi Martin
3:54:00
Cynthia Daniels
5 Miles
Jeri Pugh
5 Miles
************************************
Gorilla Irv comments:
Tradition now dictates that come early
April a multitude of trail runners will gather for the Bonneville
Shoreline Trail
Marathon and face some interesting challenges. Unusually good
weather greeted the participants. It was very balmy and
nice. Unfortunately, trail
conditions refused to co-operate. On the other hand, mountain
bikers were in short supply. That
was a plus. And no wonder bikers stayed away: muck, mud,
slop, and goo was the predominant trail challenge to look forward
to. If the
conditions of the trails were like this every year, Dan
and John (the B Brothers) might consider renaming the run: The
Bonneville "Muckline" Trail
Marathon. The "BM" for short. Sometimes the mud was so
deep, the runners hesitated,
not knowing which side of the puddle of goo to step into. The
upper trail on Black
Mountain was pretty good, all snow of course, and often a couple of
feet deep but packed down for the most part. As
would be expected of a bunch of zany trail runners, the prevailing
feeling of the runners about the
run was, "This is great!" They just accepted the inevitable and
got down to the buisness of
running and slip-sliding away into another great adventure. Since
I was late starting the first loop, I got to see Karl
running up Black Mountain as I
was struggling to waddle and wade my way down the creek (normally just
a trickle). He was
really cruising and splashed by me like a freight train. Ty was 5
minutes back and Derek 10 minutes behind. Once I hit the Dry Creek
trail, I headed west back to Morris Meadow. At least two runners
were
either lost or unable to get the courage to climb Black Mountain
because they also took the lower trail most of the way back to Morris
Meadow. I have no idea who they were. I pitied them because
that meant they did that lower trail three times and really, once was
plenty. I was very happy to leave the muck and slime behind
me. Another great year for the B Brothers and their wonderful
creation. Nice seeing you trail bums again!